TOW #15- Cartoon Contest (Visual)

Each year, the New York Times does a cartoon contest where anyone can participate in.  Kids, teachers, students, and more are allowed to submit their drawings.  The cartoon above was drawn by  14 year old, Elise Mccomb.  Although Mccomb may just be a freshman in high school, her understanding of modern day politics and the issues that The United States face with immigration is an issue that needs to be addressed. By using guilt and harsh diction, Mccomb won the contest and produced a meaningful cartoon. 

The guilt that the 14 year old student used was in her drawling itself. She using Dora, a lovable fictional character to make the reader feel guilty that Trump is yelling at her. The reader is then hooked into cartoon once they feel emotion. Her appeal to pathos here is then further exemplified with the guilty diction she uses. She writes "where should we go next?" In an innocent manner to appeal to pathos even more. 

Mccomb then uses harsh diction coming out of Trumps mouth  to make the reader feel bad for Dora. The use of red outline of the speech bubble also makes his words seem more violent as well. 

Through her appeal to pathos throughout this cartoon, this 14 year old student successfuly creates a winning cartoon with meaning behind it. 

TOW #14- Secret Promoter (non-fiction)

A$AP Yams, one of the leading contributors to the success of many rap artists due to his powerful promotional skills and connections he made throughout his life, died last year of "acute mixed-drug intoxication."  In the December issue of the New York Times magazine, "The Lives They Lived" is a section that they do annually to honor those who passed away in the given year.  A$AP Yams, also known as Steven Rodriguez was among those honored in the 2015 "The Lives They Lived" issue.  Amos Barshad, author of the article and writer for the New York Times, honors Rodriguez's life so gracefully by using captivating diction and having a positive outlook on Yams life.
Barshad's use of captivating diction allows the reader to process the words in aw, as they give a special touch to Yams life.  Barshad describes Yams as "an ideal Internet user: a cultural polyglot who found beauty in its expansiveness."  The sentence has a rhythmic feel that the reader is automatically attracted to which draws their attention in.  Barshad captivates the audience to want to read about Yams, and then moves onto his life once the reader is paying attention.
Barshad speaks only once about Yams actual death; he focuses on the positives in his life and the features that made Rodriguez the man he was.  His overall positive outlook that he provides on Yams gives the reader a different viewpoint than of the drug-addict Harlem raised rapper that others knew him as.
By using captivating diction and focusing his article on only the positives in Yams life, Amos Barshad and the New York Times Magazine successfully honor a cultural icon that died too young.  Barshard also teaches a further lesson to his readers; looking at the bright side and appreciating the positives in life is much more uplifting than focusing on the down side.

TOW #13- Kitchen Confidential (2nd IRB)

As Kitchen Confidential moves along, Bourdain continues to provide an in depth look into the restaurant world.  In the second half of this book, more specific stories are told about his own career as a chef, along with examples of what being a chef is like.  For instance, in the chapter "Level of Discourse," Bourdain touches on the various slang terms that are used in the restaurant world, along with how it impacts the workers on a mental level.  He explains that although a waiter may yell at you in very profane language, that it is nothing personal.  And in another instance, in the chapter "Sous-Chef," he describes his experience when he was working at a Jazz club restaurant that sat over two-hundred people.  From the figurative language that places you in his shoes, to the sarcastic toned rhetorical questions, Bourdain gives his audience the viewpoint of a chefs world.
As Bourdain was describing a restaurant in Manhattan that he cooked at, his use of very descriptive language allows the reader to know exactly what the restaurant was like, giving them first hand insight.  He writes, "The main dining room sat about two hundred, with private banquettes and booths along the walls, a dance floor and a stage from which a twelve-piece orchestra played forties swing music" (Bourdain 206).  The reader now has a much better vision of the restaurant, which is exactly what Bourdain wanted to provide.
Additionally,  Bourdain uses a sarcastic tone when asking rhetorical questions to engage the reader.  When addressing the slang and dialect that goes along with the restaurant industry, he says "Insensitive to gender preference, and the gorgeous mosaic of an ethnically diverse work force? (Bourdain 221).  His sarcastic tone adds to his purpose of trying to get across the point of how chefs and workers talk to each other, which adds even more to the rhetorical question stated.
From figurative language that paints a picture in the readers head, to the sarcastic tone used when stating rhetorical questions, Bourdain successfully provides an in-depth look of the restaurant world.

TOW #11- Muslims in America

It seems as though every time we turn on the news there is a another terror attack that has happened in the world.  It also seems that behind each of these attacks, the news focuses on the religion of the attackers, rather than their inhumane minds that prompted their actions.  Muslims in America have never been more on edge after the recent Paris, San Bernardino, and other Middle Eastern terror attacks.  Writer for the New York Times, Laurie Goodstein writes a piece on how American Muslims condemn extremists, and they are not the ones to be blamed.  Goodstein is the Time's main religion reporter and has wrote everything to little columns to front page articles on the Pope's visit to the States.  In this piece, Goodstein spreads awareness of the discrimination that American Muslims face by using quotes and current events.  

To establish her cause first, she quotes Nabihah Maqbool, a Muslim who is also a Law student at University of Chicago.  "It all becomes collapsed into these senseless acts of violence being committed by people who are part of my group" (Maqbool).  She uses this quote to not only to establish that her cause is credible and real, but to show how it personally effects one.  It places the reader of the Times in a new position which allows them to think differently.  It implies the rhetorical question as well; "What if a Christian committed an attack and the News portrayed all Christians as horrible people?"  Once she has the audience intrigued, Goodstein moves along and lists off current events to further her point that discrimination is happening to these innocent Muslims.

Goodstein names current evens that have happened to show that Muslims in America are constantly getting battered by ignorant Americans.  "Muslims have report a spate of violence and intimidation against them: women wearing head scarves accosted ; Muslim children bullied; bullet shot at a mosque in Meriden, Conn,; feces thrown at a mosque in Pflugerville, Tex" (Goodstein).  These events appeal to pathos, in that they give something the reader can emotionally react to.  If a church in Philadelphia was shot at in an act of prejudice, then the nation would surely mourn about it (as they should), but yet only few know about the constant acts of ethnocentrism that occur in our country.

By using quotes and current events, Goodstein is able to spread awareness of the discrimination of Muslims in America.  It is important to know that just because they claim to worship Islam, terrorists that practice these extremist views are not the same as the innocent American Muslims that hate ISIS just as much as white Christians do.

TOW #10- Visual (Debt)

College students today and those that have graduated college face enormous amounts of debt that restrict them from focusing solely on education.  Even some of the brightest students coming out of high school cannot afford to go on to college because of how expensive it is.  In a world where education is of the highest regard, debt is making students suffer and strangles them, which is portrayed in the image above.  Award winning cartoonist for The Columbus Dispatch, Nate Beeler, utilises frightening connotations and modern day slang to portray the strangling effect of debt on students today.  Snaking its way around post graduate students is debt, which wants to pry its fangs into their wallets.
By using the snake to resemble debt, Beeler creates a frightening connotation of the word debt.  The intimidating snake brings everything but joy to the word "debt" which is written along the body of the reptile.  By using this negative connotation, the readers of The Columbus Dispatch think of the four lettered word as something that wants to bite them, giving an impactful message to go along with the visual.  Now that the mood of the drawing is established, Beeler uses the word "selfie" to draw in readers of all kinds.
The modern day slang brings a friendly approach to capturing the audience, as "selfie" is not exactly a sophisticated word that draws away readers who cannot understand it.  This friendly vibe that selfie creates balances the terrifying snake which Beeler does so effectively.
The use of frightening connotations and modern day slang attracts readers to see the portrayal of what debt is doing to college graduates.  It chokes them out of everything they learned, and, limits their abilities to actually do what they learned in college (hence the snake dragging down his left arm so he cannot use it).  Nate Beeler successfully shows the true shame behind universities and the debt they drown students in.

TOW #9- Wild Ones (2)

The importance of animal conservation and climate change cannot be understated.  As a result of the human races rapid industrialization, the earth is changing and heading down a road of pollution and extinction.  The truth is, there is no one to blame besides ourselves, but there is also nothing we can do to change the past.  Jon Mooallem, author of "Wild Ones" writes in his book about the many different animals that are becoming extinct, and the different methods humans have done and will continue to do in the future to preserve animals.  From using parallelism to appealing to ethos through facts, Mooallem gives an indepth look in the second half of his book of climate change.

In one chapter of "Wild Ones," Mooallem touches on military bases actually providing shelter and relief to animals on the verge of extinction.  He draws parallels between the Department of Defence and the Department of the Interior.  "As strange as it sounds, military bases are actually proving to be strongholds of biodiversity.  Land owned by the Department of Defence now has more endangered species on it per acre than land owned by the Department of Interior, the arm of the government that is actually responsible for setting up refuges to conserve those species" (162 Mooallem).  Comparing the two departments and showing how the different departments impact climate change give the reader a new perspective on who is actually contributing to the cause and who is taking away from it.

Along with parallelism, Jon furthers his appeal to ethos through using facts and stats throughout the entire book.  In the Birds chapter, he is writing on the rebound of whooping cranes and states, "The handful of birds that were left in the 1940s have rebounded into a population of about 265 today" (201 Mooallem).  His numbers here appeal to the mind and give a statistical viewpoint that makes understanding climate change easier.

The world is changing faster than ever, and it is up to the human race to make sure that it does not change for the worst.  Jon Mooallem uses parallelism and facts throughout his book to educate his audience and to make them aware of the climate change the earth is facing.  The importance of climate change and preservation of animals cannot be stressed enough, and Mooallem provides a neat outlook of these current day issues.

TOW #8- Kitchen Confidential (IRB)

From Parts Unknown, being a CNN correspondent, or one of the most well respected chefs to walk into a kitchen, Anthony Bourdain does it all.  He has become the face of cooking and the role model of so many young chefs and restaurateurs.  Bourdain has expanded his horizons beyond the kitchen as well; his show Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown narrates his adventures throughout the world as he tastes and explores new cultures.  Kitchen Confidential features all of Bourdain's restaurant advice, as well as his personal stories of how he became the man he is today.  He uses sarcasm and real quotes from other chefs to provide a full and realistic outlook of the adventures of the restaurant world.

In Anthony's book, he provides sarcasm to give the reader a sense of what working and owning restaurants is like.  As he was telling a story about two restaurant owners that had no idea what they were doing, he wrote "they'd chosen the restaurant business as a way to lose their money more quickly and assuredly" (122). He sarcastically jokes about how hard it is to make money and become successful in his line of work.  This gives his readers who may never have stepped foot in a kitchen a different perspective.  Along with sarcasm, he quotes former chefs he has worked with to show his audience the type of lingo and style that is so prominent in the restaurant world.  "'So...what the f*** are you doing calling me in the middle of a f****** lunch rush' I scream into the phone, smashing it abruptly into the cradle" (192).  This type of jarring diction associated with the restaurant world that he incorporates into his book allows the audience to gain a better understanding of the constant chaos that takes place in restaurants.  His purpose of providing an outlook of the restaurant world is achieved through his use of sarcasm and quotes, as they paint a picture easily understandable for his readers.