TOW Post #13- Article: "A Formula for Happiness"

            Happiness is defined as a mental or emotional state of well-being characterized by positive or   pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. Many people go through their lives looking and searching everywhere for happiness; it's one of the most need things in life. When one finds happiness it is the greatest feeling to feel besides love. Happiness can be defined in many different ways depending on the person, and what happiness means to them. But has one ever thought that the resources and or what sparks happiness. One might think that there is no right answer because it it depends on the person, like I said before, but there has been discovery of reasons.

            Opinion writer Arthur C. Brooks of the New York Times Newspaper, discusses the resources of happiness. In his article, "A Formula for Happiness" he mentions that scientist have finally "caught the butterfly" of this situation; scientist have found the three resources of happiness through research: genes, events, and value. Author Brooks argues that this statement and or break through discovery is true. Although Brooks does not directly state that these findings are true, but they are certainly implied. In order to support Brooks's argument that the scientists' findings are correct he incorporates stories and metaphors. In the article Brooks he begins off with making a comparison between the scientists' discovery to someone trying to catch a butterfly. "It has been said that “happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” Social scientists have caught the butterfly." By using this butterfly comparison, he demonstrates a positive a feeling about the scientists' discovery, thus supporting his argument that he supports the scientists' findings.

            Not only does Brooks use a metaphor to support his argument he uses a story as well. He mentions a story about twin who were separated at birth and were raised by different parents, both grew up to be very happy. Although the twins were raised by different parents they both grew up to find happiness because of genes and or a "genetic carbon copy." By using this story, he was able to convey a supporting feel concluding that his argument is that he supports the scientists' findings. By using these two strategy the audience is able to clearly understand Brooks's argument.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/15/opinion/sunday/a-formula-for-happiness.html?_r=0

TOW Post #12- IRB: Me Talk Pretty One Day Part 1

            The most important and memorable moments of our lives take place between our late childhood and teenage years. It is usually the time where search to find out who we are and who we want to become; we take risks and do things that we don't want to, but that we have to hoping it has good better outcome than the situation. This is a main focus on then first part of the book Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. The book is split up into two parts, "Part One" and "Part Deux"meaning there could be two different purposes or one that applies to both parts, but there is a sole purpose for part one. Sedaris uses detailed personal anecdotes and situational humor to encourage his readers to do or try something when they are afraid to do so.
            As mentioned before Sedaris wrote the first part of the book ("Part One") about his late childhood and early teenager years. The reader finds out within the first few pages that Sedaris has a lisp and cannot pronounce S's. He starts off the book with an anecdote about the time he first started speech therapy. He recalls that he had no idea what was going on when his teacher said that he had to leave the classroom with the unfamiliar woman that was standing in the doorway. He then goes on to tell that the lady ended up being his speech therapist. Taking a look at this anecdote, Sedaris being a quiet an shy boy at the time must have been scared when he was asked to leave the room with a stranger, but it demonstrated that he went with the flow and left the classroom even when he was afraid to do so.
             Besides using anecdotes Sedaris also uses situational humor in order to achieve his purpose. For example he adds a humorous aspect to the anecdote mentioned above by recalling that he tried to speak without having to pronounce and "s" sounding words. It was funny because he said ridiculous phrases just in order to avoid his speech impediment. There were many other situational humor incorporated by Sedaris similar to this one. This shows that although he was timid and scared of his speech flaw he still continued to talk and found his way around his fear and also embarrassment. By using these two strategies Sedaris was able to achieve his purpose, for the first half at least.

TOW Post #11- Article: "The Real Humanities Crisis"

            Humanities is a term that not many people discuss or think about. The general definition that most people would refer to would be simple the human race. But in most cases humanities is discussed in the terms of  learning or literature concerned with human culture, esp. literature, history, art, music, and philosophy. Today the most top secure jobs are in the realm of business and medicine/science and the humanities realm in jobs are decreasing. In the article "The Real Humanities Crisis" author Gary Gutting, and opinion writing for the New York Times newspaper wrote about how humanities jobs are losing importance and losing peoples interests. Gutting makes a this statement a claim of fact and supports this up with statistics and a claim of policies in the end. These two rhetorical strategies together help the Gutting achieve his overall purpose which was to call attention to this "humanities crisis"
            Gutting first supports his claim in the beginning by state some basic statistics about humanities jobs vs business jobs. He make a clear point that more people are reaching for jobs in the business and medical area because that is where the better pay is. Although people who work in the humanities real of occupations get more satisfaction out of what the are doing, they are not getting good satisfactory economically because of the lower pay compared to business jobs, Gutting states that "Humanities majors on average start earning $31,000 per year and move to an average of $50,000 in their middle years. (The figures for writers and performing artists are much lower.) By contrast, business majors start with salaries 26 percent higher than humanities majors and move to salaries 51 percent higher" Stating this fact supports his claim of fact helping him achieve his overall purpose.
            Relating to his use of facts, he ends his article with claims of policies to announce solutions to these down grading facts. For example he states that humanities jobs should get paid more so more people can feel economically safe and doing what they love. By ending with claims of policy, Gutting wraps up his claim of fact, supporting his overall purpose.


Source:http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/30/the-real-humanities-crisis/?ref=opinion&_r=0