Tow #25: Visual Text: Don't Drink and Drive Advertisement

Drinking and driving has been a huge issue in America for many years. Due to the amount of car accidents that driving while on the influence of alcohol can cause, many car companies and other organizations have created advertisements to help discourage drunk driving among the American population. These advertisements typically have a strong appeal to pathos and a demonstration of the consequence of drunk driving. This advertisement above is no exception. The picture above uses a statistic paired with shocking imagery to show that drinking and driving is an unacceptable behavior because of the damage it brings to the quality of life of people. The statistic that this advertisement uses is that every forty-eight seconds, another person if affected by a drunk driver and becomes handicapped. That is a lot of people to become handicapped and it shows that it is unacceptable to have so many people be handicapped.  With this irrefutable evidence, this advertisement not only appeals to pathos, but also logos. Someone looking at this advertisement logically will know that drunk driving must stop because it happens to often. In addition to statistics, the advertisement also uses a imagery to show Americans that drinking and driving is wrong. The image that this advertisement uses is a handicapped parking spot. By itself the image is not very shocking, but paired with the words that a drunk driver "makes another person eligible to park here" creates shock value. The image of the handicapped parking spot makes the viewer see will happen to someone if they are hit by a car caused by a drunk driver. By combining an appeal to logos and pathos through statistics that pair well with the image, this advertisement successfully achieves its purpose of making people aware of the consequences of drunk driving.  

IRB Introduction #4: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

For my fourth independent reading book, I chose to read In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. I am reading this book mostly because I have enjoyed crime shows for many years, but I have never read a crime book. I also chose to read a book about a murder because it could go nicely with another book a read this year called Stiff. That book taught me a lot about what happens to people after they die, so any lingo about the deceased victims should be more common knowledge. I hope to gain from this book a better understanding as to how and why people are capable of being driven to commit such violent acts. Because the book the true, I'm hoping that the story will be much more chilling than other books I have read.

Tow #24: IRB "Me Talk Pretty One Day" By David Sedaris (Part 2)

Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris, is a collection of twenty-seven creative nonfiction essays by an author known for his satirical and sarcastic tone. These essays are divided into two parts, One and Deux. One was mostly about Sedaris's life growing up in North Carolina and being forced to deal wtih a speech inpediment as well as other issues that separated him from other children. However, Deux switches into the story of how Sedaris moved to France and the struggles of learning French. The fact that the second part is called Deux, the French word for two, it indicates the shift structurally and creates an interesting effect. Sedaris's overall purpose in Deux is to tell the story of his struggles of learning French, which he achieves by using examples of the some of the unpleasant social situations he ended up in due to a lack of experience with the language as well as references to the title of his book. When he first started learning French, most of Sedaris's sentences were jumbled and made little sense. Sedaris demonstrates this by translating what he said in a humorous way. For example, he would say things like "see you again yesterday" (163) or other statements that made people shake their heads until he was able to "talk pretty one day". By including the exact translation of the wording he used, Sedaris shows the audience exactly what native speakers thought of his speech. This demonstrates the struggle that Sedaris had to go through to learn French. When he uses this to satirize himself, it is entertaining to the audience because it is humorous. Sedaris also alludes to the title of his book a lot throughout this section of the book. In fact, one of the essays is called "Me Talk Pretty One Day." An example of this title inclusion in this essay is after Sedaris tried to comfort a classmate that was feeling depressed about his struggles with French. Sedaris said, "much more work and someday you talk pretty" (171). The inclusion of part of the title of the book and essay create an interesting effect that makes the story more entertaining. It also shows Sedaris's overall purpose more clearly because it is the title of the book. Overall, this book is enjoyable because of the humor through the use of personal anecdotes and allusions to his own title that helps drive the story.