TOW #15

This weeks TOW is chose is an essay of Martin Luther King Jr.'s death and its effect. Due to his assassination, the civil rights movement was left at a sudden stop and many others were unsure of what was to happen next. The essay then explains the type of man he was, and how he fought for rights in a way with sermons and religion, the author then says that religion will no longer play a role in the fight for black rights. The author of this essay, Elizabeth Hardwick, was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and educated at the University of Kentucky and Columbia University showing that her work is reliable because of her high level of education. Hardwick's work is also notable because she is a recipient of a Gold Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The context of this essay was written in a gloomy tone, and when the environment of Memphis was described as place broken in pieces that were left to be picked up after King's death. Hardwick's purpose of writing about the death of King was to reflect his life and to introduce what may become of the battle for civil rights. The  intended audience for this piece of writing is for civil rights activists at the time, and for people who were interested in King's life's work. To achieve their purpose, the author uses hypophora several times throughout the essay asking questions such as, "Was this a victory or a defeat?" and "What did they mean beyond a wish for the genuine act, a consoling communion with the garbagy streets?" She asks questions that her audience would like to see defined, then goes in to detail answering them. I believe that the author is well able to achieve her purpose because throughout the essay she acknowledges what was next for the battle of civil rights and also states that after King's death religion would most likely not interfere with the fight for African american rights. Hardwick leaves the reader with hope saying, "perhaps what was celebrated in Atlanta was an end, not a beginning—the waning of the slow, sweet dream of Salvation, through Christ, for the Negro masses"

TOW #14

Have you ever noticed a change in weight with every generation throughout these past years? If you view the picture I displayed below, you'll really start to question this world. The TOW I chose this week is a visual text by an anonymous illustrator. If you analyze this visual text closely, you'll notice that the overall message of this photo is that our society is paying more attention to new technology than people, themselves or that the people are worrying more about technology than themselves. As you can see, on the first image, the time period is 1980, and the man sitting on the computer is very thin but the computer is very large, almost bigger than himself. On the right image, the time period is around todays time or 2013 and the same man is on a computer, relatively smaller, and he is completely overweight and struggling to even sit on the desk without his fat rolling all over the place. It sends the message that we worry more about our technology than our own being. This all leads to superficiality and materialism. The audience for this text is towards the upcoming generation or just simply to everyone. We all need to realize that this is a current issue that is going on today and we need to make action. We should care more about our own health than worrying about technology. The occasion of this visual text would we today at this time being. I would say that an important rhetoric device that the illustrator uses is hyperbole to exaggerate the fat in the person and maybe the comparison in sizes with the person and the computer, but I feel like that could actually happen. The authors purpose of making this visual text is to try and change others perspectives to show what's wrong with the image and change. I think the author did a well job because when I viewed the image, I could identify it's purpose immediately. 

TOW #13

 An article in The New York Times concerning obesity is called "The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food" by Michael Moss. This article is about how the big brand food companies that most people would consider "junk" such as Nestle, Kraft, Nabisco, General Mills, Coca-Cola and ect. are concerned with the amount of obesity that has been going on lately so they have decided to figure out what actually leads people of eating so much. These companies also felt guilty with the amount of people that are eating their products and it is the main reason why they're getting so heavy or overweight. The author of this article is named Michael Moss and he is an investigative reporter for The New York Times. He won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting in 2010 and he was an extra professor at the Columbia School of Journalism. The audience that this text was composed for are elder people since they are normally the ones who read The New York Times. The occasion of this article is during a meeting with all these brands deciding what they can do to help the obesity rates decrease in america. An important rhetorical device that the author uses to try to achieve his purpose in this article is logos since he states many statistics about obesity and how its increased over time. The author's purpose in writing this text was very vague to me because I didn't know what he was trying to come across. He wrote so much about the companies statistics and history of them but he didn't write about what they would really do to help end obesity. He also wrote in the beginning of the article that these brands were curious as to what leads people to eat so much so there we're many topics of this article that I couldn't find the purpose in it.