Last-Minute Scramble as Vote Nears in Iowa

This article discusses the up-coming election in Iowa for the Republican candidate to go against current president Barack Obama for the slot as new president in November of 2012. Recent polls show that Mitt Romney is expected to win the caucus in Iowa. However, the other major Republican candidates discussed in this article (Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, and Michele Bachmann) are still staying strong with their large support group and are confident in their win over Iowa. The author of this article is Michael D. Shear for the New York Times magazine. Throughout the debates, Shear has been writing articles about each candidate and how they are progressing or digressing as time moves forward. The context of this piece is causal, because it is based on the election which occurs every 4 years. The purpose of this piece is to inform the public of the crucial election that will be occurring on Tuesday, January 2nd, 2012. Shear wrote this article to show a well-rounded, unbiased view of each candidate by providing successes and flaws of each. The audience of this piece is mostly Republicans, as well as any other citizens of America who are not for the views of Barack Obama and support one of the candidates. The rhetorical elements used in this piece are logos through the accurate quotes that were stated by the candidates, diction through the specific word choice used to describe the election, and ethos by establishing the credibility of the candidates through the description of their endorsements and speeches. The author did accomplish his purpose because he gave last minute background knowledge about each major candidate.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/michael_d_shear/index.html?inline=nyt-per

Secret Deodorant Advertisement

This advertisement is for Secret Deodorant products; specifically the "Cherry Mischief scent." The Secret brand is an antiperspirant for women sold in Canada, Mexico, and of course, the United States. It was the first deodorant established for women in 1956 by Procter and Gamble, and is still being produced today. The context of this piece is temporal because at any given time, deodorant will be useful and is an important product for the hygiene of women. The purpose of this piece is to sell the Secret Deodorant to women through appealing pictures and eye-catching contrasts. In addition, the diction in the "Cherry Mischief" scent title appeals to women because it provides a sort of deceit to others that the nice smell could be the "natural scent" of a woman. The audience of this piece is women because Secret brand is an antiperspirant strictly for women (Procter and Gamble make Gillete and Old Spice for men, as well). The black background and pink and red colors are a perfect blend to the "Cherry" scent that is being created through these images. Also, the placement of the woman in the center shows the importance of smelling good that the deodorant provides. The author accomplishes this purpose through the rhetorical elements listed as well as the creative title of the deodorant that appeals to women as well. Also, the imagery of the mystical, pretty woman convinces women that they will either look/smell like her if they buy it.

You Say You Want a Devolution?

This article discusses how a technologically advancing society, the United States, still falls back on the past  with certain cultural aspects. For example, if a person scrutinizes the 20 year span of 1992-2012, there are no significant differences with fashion nor music- bigger stars just happened to fill in the spots that the 90's singers once had but are now not socially accepted due to their "older age." Many instances like this are discusses in the article which comes to the conclusion that America has not changed over the past 20 years, and this obscure indifference makes society wonder when the next change will be. This article was published by The Vanity Fair Magazine- a pop culture, and international magazine with issues in four European countries as well as in the United States. The writer of the article, Kurt Andersen, is a very well-known author of cultural books such as the New York Times bestseller HeyDay. The context of this piece is causal because the halt to changes in social culture has brought forth the purpose for writing this article and pointing out the indifferences between the 90's and today. This article was written to convince the audience, women interested in fashion and pop culture, that fashion, music, and other cultural aspects are very similar to the 90's and the pattern of evolution has been thrown off because there has not been a dramatic indifference since the 1800s where culture has not differed from its neighboring generation. The pattern of development of this piece is exemplification because each paragraph consists of an explanation of an opinion made by the author that supports his claim that American culture has not changed since the 90s. The author appeals to pathos as well because he sets up a personal scene for the audience to relate to and create connections between the writer and reader to lure the audience into believing his claim is correct. Also, the use of logos establishes the author's credibility because it proves he has a wide knowledge of the concept and he can be trusted. Kurt Andersen accomplished his purpose through the numerous examples to help the reader form their opinion of whether or not they want to accept or reject the claim.

http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2012/01/prisoners-of-style-201201

IRB #2- Post 1

(Introduction-Chapter 2)
The novel Blink is written by Malcolm Gladwell, a bestselling author of four novels- The Tipping Point (2000), Blink (2005), Outliers (2008), and What the Dog Saw (2009). Gladwell's main subjects of interest when writing his novels are all based around sociology, psychology, and social psychology. Having been writing for The New Yorker for 15 years, Gladwell has much experience in the field of journalism as well. Finally, along with his major success, Gladwell was awarded two significant honors so far in his young career. In 2005 he received the mention of the 100 Most Influential People by Time Magazine. Following this, in 2007, The American Sociological Association presented Gladwell with the first award for Excellence in the Reporting of Social Issues.

In the first section of Blink (Introduction-Chapter 2), Gladwell starts off with the concept of cognition and how our brain works to understand certain situations quickly. After describing an experiment of a card game involving a stress detector, subjects had to digest new and somewhat incomprehensible information in a small amount of time. There are two strategies that we do in order to understand certain situations. The unconscious strategy is slow and we use the information we know and what we learned to develop an answer. The second strategy is much faster because it is done unconsciously. Our brain reaches an answer right away through messages that are sent unconsciously. The part of the brain that does this is called the adaptive unconscious. In addition, Gladwell discusses the power of knowing in the first two seconds something that will change your decisions for the better or worse through just a minute source of experiences.

The context of this novel is spacial because the concept of rapid cognition of which the novel is based around is a social origin that is understood through history of experiments done on the brain and how the brain works. The purpose of this novel is to propose information that offers a better understanding of the reasons why we are able to jump to conclusions in just the "blink of an eye." The audience for whom this book was written for is for adolescents and above who are interested in psychology and how the brain processes information unconsciously to send a message throughout the body which can lead to different conclusions. The author does indeed accomplish his purpose because of the informative experiments and scenarios he describes to help the audience understand what rapid cognition is and how it is very interesting in the world of decision making and why thinks occur due to this concept. A few rhetorical elements used in this section are logos because of the logical information proposed about the brain, pathos through the humorous tone to engage the reader into the novel, and a sophistication of diction to establish credibility through Gladwell's understanding of cognition.