Romney Editorial Close Read

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/22/underdogged/?ref=opinion

Jill Lepore, author of the editorial from the New York Times strongly feels that Mitt Romney misrepresents himself frequently as an "underdog."  She uses the elements of rhetoric detail, syntax, and diction to communicate her opinion.

One of the key pieces of rhetoric in the piece is Lepore's use of detail.  She has a systematic inclusion of evidence that describe the different uses of the word "underdog" in history.  This is done to strengthen her argument because then the reader sees how the definition has always been different from who Romney is.  Some examples of this are the opening topic sentences of each paragraph like "In the 1940s, social scientists used the word “underdog” as shorthand for “socially and economically underprivileged Americans” (Lepore para. 6 ln. 1) and "IN 1963, Howard Schuman at Harvard and John Harding at Cornell published an article called “Sympathetic Identification with the Underdog” (Lepore para 7. ln. 1). In all of the evidence, an underdog is more or less defined as usually little, weaker, and fighting person.  Lepore wants to make it clear that in no point in history has Romney been an underdog because he is rich and powerful.  

Lepore also uses syntax within her editorial to emphasize points.  She frequently uses brevity and conciseness to make her opinion clear and to make it sound more objective than opinionated.  This technique is highlighted in paragraph 15 in the first and last lines.  She says, "Mitt Romney is no Downtrodden Man...This is not a man who loves underdogs" (Lepore para. 15 ln. 1-6).  Lepore also weaves quoted words from historical texts in her sentences to add weight and authority as well.  In this sentence, she references a Harvard study: "They defined an underdog as an “ethnic minority facing discrimination.”" (Lepore para. 7 ln. 2-3).  Because the words were lifted straight from a scholarly source as denoted by the quotation marks, her opinion appears to be supported by a reputable source.  

A final use of rhetoric within the editorial is Lepore's use of diction.  In the final paragraphs she uses loaded words with negative connotations to summarize her point.  In the last line, "Mr. Romney’s branding himself an underdog to earn voter sympathy might not be the weirdest feature of his topsy-turvy campaign" (Lepore para. 17 ln. 1) she uses the word "branding" because typically things are branded artificially or wrongly.  The word specifically carries negative connotations.  She also uses the word "topsy-turvy" in referring to his campaign itself, which has the negative connotation of being unstable or haphazard.  Lepore utilizes diction to further enforce the tone of her editorial which itself communicates a negative opinion.  

Blog Prompt 1

2006, Form B. In many works of literature, a physical journey - the literal movement from one place to another - plays a central role. Choose a novel, play, or epic poem in which a physical journey is an important element and discuss how the journey adds to the meaning of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

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            Among all plays and literature, Homer's Odyssey is widely regarded as one of the most influential works of all time.  The epic has influenced thousands of years of literature with a central journey as the main aspect of the plot.  Throughout the entire poem, Odysseus travels literally to hell and back in order to return to his home of Ithaca.  His journey makes up the entire plot so it is a critically important element of the poem.  During his journey, he overcomes several trials and tribulations which test his physical and mental strength.  One example is the group of sirens which tempt Odysseus to drown himself.  His ship’s crew must use every resource to stop him from doing so.  Another example a shipwreck which kills every one of his crewmates and friends, leaving only him alive to fend for himself.

           These unfortunate events are important to the journey and therefore the poem because they help Odysseus grow as a person and leave him much wiser when he returns home.  He uses his intelligence to form a plan which would save his wife from suitors and restore order to his kingdom to conclude the poem.  The journey is also important because it helps the poem communicate the some main themes through the different events that occur along the way.  One specific theme that repeats itself through the story is obedience to the gods – disobedience is what led to the death of all his crew mates (as one example).  Another motif is temptation, as seen through his encounter with the sirens and stay with Calypso. 

         Because the journey itself enables Homer to develop/nurture Odysseus as a character and communicate different motifs, many layers of depth are added to the piece.  This journey of growth is what inspired many works in the future to have a similar journey to the one found in the Odyssey.  

   

            

Response to Course Materials #1

The first week of school was not particularly heavy in learning in lit.  The bulk of it was going over our summer homework.  I think that making the PowerPoint over Foster's book will be useful in the near future because now we have a firm understanding of the different symbols authors use and it will be easier to be aware of them while reading.  Not only did it reinforce the ideas, but we actually had to think about examples in popular culture which is practice for looking for them.  Another thing we went over in class was forum posting which was important because we're going to do a lot of those and we need to do them correctly.  It is necessary to provide insight in your posts and responses and not just summarize what you read/say "I agree."  The last thing we did during the week was take a lit terms test which I got totally wrecked by.  I studied for a long time to make sure I understood the definitions but my skills in identifying them were still pretty weak apparently. I took solace in the fact everyone did pretty bad. However, it's easy to see how you would need to be able to identify the terms in context.  This is AP Lit which is all about picking part text and connecting them to explain the big picture.  All in all, I think everything we did was to help prepare us for the work to come.

Analysis of David Sedaris's Me Talk Pretty One Day

      David Sedaris wrote the essay fairly well by following most of the rules found in Michael Harvey's book, The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing.  The key point of Harvey's book is to avoid "pompous" writing by being concise and clear.  Sedaris does exactly this in his essay by avoiding incredibly complex language and keeping his ideas clear.

      Throughout the essay, Sedaris utilizes the different ways discussed in The Nuts and Bolts to have good flow.  Immediately, he demonstrates control over pronouns to keep the essay reading well.  In this part, he describes the steamstress with proper use of pronouns so you can focus more on what is happening. 

The seamstress did not understand what was being said but knew that this was an occasion for shame. Her rabbity mouth huffed for breath, and she stared down at her lap as though the appropriate comeback were stitched somewhere alongside the zipper of her slacks. (Sedaris 12)

Although this seems like a simple enough skill to have, Harvey makes it a point that it is important to use pronouns so that instead of focusing on the subject over and over again you can pay more attention to what is being described. (Harvey 26)  As Sedaris does this, your attention isn't drawn away from the streamstress's "rabbity mouth" and frantic search for a retort.  

      Another technique that Sedaris employs is his use of introductory phrases to keep the essay flowing smoothly.  In chapter 3, section 4 of Harvey's book, he mentions the use of linking phrases and conjunctions at the beginning of sentences to keep a paragraph cohesive.  In Me Talk Pretty One Day, Sedaris uses this technique in the entire essay.  The use of this skill can be seen in sentences like "When called upon, I delivered an effortless list of things" (Sedaris 13) and "While the optimist struggled to defend herself, I scrambled to think of an answer." (Sedaris 12) This keeps the essay flowing while varying sentence structure making it interesting. 

     The most important part of Sedaris's essay that makes it well written is it's conciseness and clarity.  The tone is casual, like you are his friend and he is recounting his experiences over a drink.  He does not use incredibly complicated wording so the reader is with him for the whole essay.  Harvey mentions this time and time again throughout his book and emphasizes avoiding "pompous" writing.  Although I am positive that Sedaris has an extensive vocabulary, being a professional writer, he does not clutter his writing by inserting the biggest words he knows.  

     Despite being well-written, Sedaris does employ some use of the passive voice which Harvey advises against.  This can be seen in sentences like, "Vacations were recounted, and questions were raised concerning mutual friends with names like Kang and Vlatnya." (Sedaris 11)  However, this use of the passive voice is very minor in the essay and would only be a problem if it dominated the writing. 

     Overall, David Sedaris's Me Talk Pretty One Day applies the skills described in The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing to create a well constructed essay.  The essay is easy to read through conciseness and clarity yet is still interesting and flows well.  The proper use of pronouns and linking phrases keeps this flow.  It is obvious that Sedaris is a professional writer because he avoids the mistakes Harvey describes that many novice writers make.

Poetry Goals

I thought it was pretty hard to narrow down five things I need to work on because I think I'm pretty bad at everything right now overall.

1.  Stay more focused during reading
2.  Try to pay more attention to details
3.  Learn more poetry terms
4.  Understand figurative language better
5.  Understand the extended metaphors better

I chose the first goal because that is a major weakness for me while reading.  Often times I get distracted or bored and skip around the text.  This can lead to me missing certain elements or not have a good understanding of the whole text.  The next goal, to pay attention to details, was chosen because I skim over details that prove to be important later on.  Learning more poetry terms is a fairly straightforward goal because that is just a matter of memorization that I haven't ever done up until this point.  Understanding figurative language and extended metaphors I think will come by achieving the first goal because if I have a better understanding of the text I will be able to pick up on the language/metaphors more easily.

Diagnostic Test Reflection

I will open my first blog post by saying that I did not enjoy taking the diagnostic test.  This is a personal blog after all, so I might as well be honest.  That being said, I did not experience much surprise while taking the test.  I did perform better than I anticipated, however.  33/50 is not good but I wanted to take AP Lit in order to get better at reading and writing. Hopefully by the end of the year I will score better!  I scored better on the analysis of the informative text which I accredit to my strength in reading non-fiction texts.  The poetry parts of the test killed me, but I was expecting that because I haven't done much with poetry in my past English classes.  I think in general reading comprehension has been tougher for me because I don't read that much but I want to get better at it.