Speeches

A+!

Loman and Miller

A+!

Loman and Tucker

A+!

Cora Tucker

I think that Cora Tucker is successful. While she may not have as many material possessions as others, she certainly has achieved many of her goals for equality in a difficult community, and is still working toward them today. The common American dream seems not to apply to her; she is satisfied with making a difference in the world, no matter how small or large. This concept of hard work toward one’s own goals is similar to the American dream of individual opportunity, but it is different in that it requires one to designate one’s own goals and beliefs. I think that if your main goals are created by and for someone else, success can never be achieved. If Cora Tucker just wanted to appease others’ views of success, she would never have fought so strongly for her beliefs. If she spent her whole life as a sharecropper, trying to become wealthy, which in my opinion would be an unrealistic goal, she would never have succeeded, and she would not have had such an impact on her community.

Emerson

A+!

Reading Amer'ca

In the excerpt from Horatio Alger's Ragged Dick, the implicit argument was that diligence and consistent hard work will make one successful and free from the poverty trap of overworking for not enough pay. It is basically saying that by having good ethics and morals, one can achieve the American dream. It completely ignores the opportunity aspect, which we talked about when discussing Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed. I think that while it does present a good message, it fails to present the whole story. I think it would be interesting to read something that is similar to both Ehrenreich's and Alger's stories; i.e., it would present an example of one who was greatly rewarded for his or her work, while also showing that this scenario is not typical. Kind of like those ads for weight loss programs that say "results not typical" in the fine print. A+!

Rhetorical ∆

Exigence - the writer is trying to sell a car through advertising
Purpose - to convince the reader that the car is worthy of their hard-earned money
Audience - someone looking for a new car
Organization:

• Style - not attempting to be conspicuous; the "writer" wants it to "blend in with the scenery" (pun intended)
  
• Diction - the word that strikes me the most is 'environment'; this not only implies that the Saturn VUE is very adaptable, but it is also healthy for our environment
  
• Syntax - simplistic sentences
  
• Figurative language - the word environment (as previously described); the way the vehicle is positioned amongst the animals in the cutout section with the number labeling could also be considered figurative