In this criticism filled article, author Zach Kram uses everyday diction to build trust with his audience. In the very first sentence of the article, Kram says "Mets closer Juery Familia blew a save on Wednesday, allowing four runs while recording just one out in an eventual 6-5 loss to the Giants" (Line 1), which immediately makes Kram seem like a harsh, but knowledgeable critic, thus presenting himself as a more trustworthy individual. Kram also uses informal language such as "Probably" (Line 19) and "Whiffs" (Line 10) to make his argument more understandable and impactful to his audience. Making connections and bringing in history, Kram passionately critiques the Mets.
Kram skillfully uses a mediocre syntax to show that he has the ability to make sentences overly complicated, but makes the smart decision to ease up on the complicated structure. Having a mix between a simplistic and sophisticated syntax is very beneficial for Kram because he makes his article flow better by connecting words and phrases that would normally be separated with a simplistic syntax, but still makes the article easy to read. With the implementation of a mediocre syntax, Kram can draw in almost all types of readers, which is a huge benefit for his sake. Kram creates a very sarcastic tone by the variety of words and phrases he uses throughout the passage. The title, "Jeurys Familia Is Hurt, Because He's a Met", is an early indication of the sarcastic tone, because he makes fun of the Mets for having a tendency to have their players get injured. Later in the passage, Kram says "When the Mets' early-season narrative hasn't centered on a Harvey pajama investigation, it's flowed from injury to debilitating injury" (Lines 15-16), to further poke fun at the Mets. Although Kram may seem like he is openly insulting the Mets, he is making fun of them light heartedly, which makes the article more enjoyable to read for his audience. Kram's purpose for writing this article was to inform the baseball-loving community about the tragic, but oh so common, circumstance of the New York Mets. Aside from letting the community know about Familia, Kram did research about the fate of Familia, analyzing his injury, as well as his pitching statistics, which made this article very purposeful and important. Kram also appealed to logos multiple times throughout his article, referencing statistics multiple times within each paragraph, one example being "In five appearances in May spanning 61 pitches, he had induced just one swinging strike- from the slumping Dansby Swanson on May-..." (Lines 15-16). The appeals to logos make Kram's argument stronger and harder to argue with, since it is VERY hard to argue with straight facts. Not only does Kram use statistics to support his argument, he also used quotes from coaches and fellow baseball players to build his argument even more.
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In her article Blue Skies and Balloons: Miley Cyrus Cleans Up on "Malibu, Lindsay Zoladz uses flowery diction in order to boast her intellect while still informing her audience about Miley's recently released single. Zoladz uses advanced words such as "precocious" (Line 2) and complicated phrases such as "artistic metamorphosis" (Line 7) idiotically because she scares away any potential readers with this college level language. Zoladz viciously attacks Miley's music, saying "He's [Billy Rae Cyrus] given us several months of advance warning..." (Line 7) when talking about the lead-up to this album, showing her hatred towards it.
Another skill that Zoladz overbearingly uses is her complicated syntax. Throughout the entire piece, Zoladz uses all forms of punctuation you can think of. Commas, em dashes, quotation marks, parentheses, and finally dashes. The average reader for this sort of article would be fans of Miley Cyrus, which according to Business Insider are teenagers (with the exception of a few Disney loving adults here and there). Most teenagers, when they see this article, would think that they are reading a passage from a textbook and immediately click to another article, if not close the site completely. Zoladz uses a contemptuous tone throughout the article, and while it is very negative towards Miley Cyrus, it can be quite humorous at times. In Lines 15-17, Zoladz makes multiple stabs at Miley, saying "...with only two different hair colors and nary a speck of glitter in sight", and when Cyrus announced that "I haven't smoked weed in three weeks!", Zoladz commented, "Willie Nelson, somewhere, raised an eyebrow". Zoladz openly insults Miley, and this openness makes the article seem like one big "roast" session on Miley, which is super entertaining. The purpose for this article is to inform the public about Miley Cyrus's forthcoming album, which Zoladz is very critical about. Her overall goal from this article is to persuade her readers to despise Cyrus, and to share how skeptical she is of Miley's "new self". Her position is not THAT unheard of. The nation was shocked when Miley was on tour and was dressed as a topless unicorn wearing a strap-on, and to many people, that was the end of Miley Cyrus. She seemed crazy. To further strengthen her argument, Zoladz appeals to pathos, and takes the position of a concerned parent. In paragraph 5, Zoladz writes "[Malibu] (Miley's new song) definitely won't offend any of the people who shielded their children's eyes during Miley's last tour...". Anybody who has children, or even cares about a young children, will read this statement and immediately feel like Miley is a threat to their children, and deem her not appropriate for said children. Although Zoladz "Anti-Miley" argument is very strong, the mere nostalgia that many of her fans have of her makes the argument not as jarring. They know that Miley has done some pretty wild things in her past, but they are still (and will always) wait for their "Hannah Montana" Miley Cyrus to come back, and nothing can really change that. Wyatt Russell was Born to Be a Movie Star, written by Sam Schube, follows the transition of Wyatt Russell from former National Hockey League goalie to movie star. Schube uses romantic diction to present Russell as a caring and relatable person. Phrases such as "...became the proud owner of a garden" (line 1) and "has a languorous surfer's drawl" (line 10) make Russell seem like "one of the guys", and paint him as just another person, just like one of us.
Schube also uses very simplistic syntax, keeping the sentences short, and keeps the use of commas and em dashes to a minimum. Although this makes the article choppy at times, the simple syntax allows for a wider audience to read and understand the article, and not have readers exit out of the article because it was too complicated and meddlesome to read. This simple syntax also makes this article seem shorter, since it can be read a lot faster than a shorter article with sophisticated syntax. The tone of the piece is very conversational. Schube uses phrases like "He sounds a lot like the stoners and layabouts" (Lines 10-11) and "He'll futz with this one" to build trust between the reader and the audience, and make the article enjoyable to read. His conversational tone make Schube seem like a friend of Russell, and makes the article more entertaining to read. The purpose of this article is to give Russell's transition from a retired National Hockey League player to an international film star some attention, and learn how that transition happened. He hopes to inform the reader of Russell's situation, convince the reader that this is an amazing opportunity for Russell, and even give his upcoming (as well as older) movies the spotlight and encourage the reader to watch them. Schube appeals to pathos many times throughout the article to butter Russell up and make him look sensitive and caring. Phrases such as "The no. 1 thing on my mind right now, [is] my garden dying" (Line 14), and also used adjectives such as "Love" (Line 73) to show that Russell is a very caring and emotional person who just wants the best for his garden. Although Schube had a very strong argument, it could have been strengthened by including reviews for Russell's past movies, and ideally some quotes from his coworkers talking about how gifted of an actor he is. All-in-all though, Schube had a solid article, and influenced me to go watch some of Russell's movies. |
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May 2017
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