Writing is a way to express and communicate ideas with a purpose. 

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I thought this article was informative, giving the reader value. There is a clear purpose that the writer, Derek Magill, is trying to get across. He is giving advice to all people looking to apply to a job. He creates this article based upon two things, a value proposition and a resume. He clearly defines a value proposition and provides perfect evidence that is relevant to 2017. The author writes with passion and uses power words that give me energy when I read. At some parts he is short and to the point. Other times he is long and descriptive. He gives bullet points and bolds the most important things to read. His writing is engaging, especially since it is in a blog format. It is not long and I believe he does that for a reason. He wants to make a claim that is sharp and to the point so that the reader can act and engage. 

Luis Vargas

Image:http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/12/21/article-2527330-1A3B057500000578-607_634x363.jpg 

 

Analysis: The first thing that came to mind when I began searching for a short piece of writing to analyze was the infamous Justine Sacco tweet. For those who are unfamiliar, roughly three years ago, 30-year-old Justine Sacco, senior director of corporate communications at IAC, sent out a tweet that she would never live down. While on a trip to Cape Town, South Africa, Sacco tweeted “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” This tweet sparked an unforeseeable amount of backlash and accusations of racism and white privilege. As a healthy, white male living in the United States, I personally perceived this piece of writing to be one of light-hearted humor. I do concede, however, that it was done in extremely poor taste. As a result of the poor taste, many people took great offense to the tweet. The language that is being used is particular to twitter rather than to a specific technique or message. Brief sentences that are right to the point make up the usual syntax found on social media sites. All in all, I think it is safe to say that Justine Sacco has a terrible taste in humor and in this instance, it cost her a job. 

The article that I chose, "Today's graduates lack basic decorum", by Mark Bauerlein, summarizes why todays college graduates are not up to the standards their employers want them to be. Bauerlein opens up the article with a story about a student in one of his classes who showed up 25 minutes late to a test. When the time ended Bauerlein collected the papers, the student who came in late looked at him and asked if he could have another 20 minutes because he was late. Bauerlein responded with shaking his head and said, "Can't do that." This story exemplifies what Bauerlein goes on to talk about in the rest of the article. He proceeds to say kids today lack employability skills, they feel they have a sense of entitlement, and their lack of focus is blamed on multitasking. Bauerlein then goes on to blame teachers, parents and professors for the kids lack of employability skills. High school teachers are blamed for inflating grades, and for letting students text and be on their phones in the classroom, and "College professors, too, have no direct incentive to raise the bar, given the influence of student ratings of there performance and pressure from administrators and parents." The type of reddrick that is being used in this article is degrading. Bauerlein is using words like "crushing deficiency," "blamed," "lack," "inflation," and "unfocused" to depict his viewpoints. The length of this article is very suitable for what the author conveying. He gets all of his view points across and the article is not too long that the reader overwhelmed. 

In this article, the author uses a mix of humor and fact to appeal to the reader. Firstly, the title alone is enough to catch someone’s attention, and have them want to read the article. The article itself starts with a bit of humor, saying that “there are two kinds of people in the world: Those who eat bugs knowingly and those who eat bugs unknowingly.” But it then goes into a more factual part, presenting the evidence as to the actual science behind what is happening. He uses a mixture of the two things to get your attention, then retain it. Despite being a more scientific based article, the author does not use many larger words, and keeps the reading to a pretty low level. It is also a relatively short article, which is slightly unusual for a science post, but it is being used more to tell readers about this interesting, and slightly disgusting, fact. It is less about explaining the science behind it, and more about the fact that it can happen.

Matthew LaCorte

This piece of writing really stood out to me. It is only a short one sentence piece of writing, but it is large and deep in the meaning. With just a mere 18 words, the writer makes you think about more than just the words written. The language used is not complex or complicated; it is simple and beautiful. I believe that it doesn't matter how long the piece is; sometimes the shortest works hold the most significance. This one in particular post can really make you picture this person they are speaking of, and many people can probably relate to it. It really hits home and makes you stop and think.

Mackenzie Reaume

I found a piece of the original speech given by Franklin D. Roosevelt after the attack on Pearl Harbor. I find this very interesting because not only is it a major part of American history, but this particular picture shows the changes that the speech went through to reach its final form. This speech conveyed anger, vengeance and strength to its audience. Americans were quickly assured that they would have their revenge and that they should not be fearful. Roosevelt used strong and direct language such as “infamy” and “deliberate” and kept the speech short. He did this to make his purpose very clear and convey his straight-to-the-point attitude about his subject. 

-Dalton Broadway