TOW #17: Best in Class by Margaret Talbot

Best in Class by Margaret Talbot

Margaret Talbot writes her essay about the idea of a valedictorian at different schools and the effect it has. Talbot relies heavily on student examples and anecdotes to appeal to logos of her audience. She provides countless examples of examples of different students to discuss the different attempts at a solution and effects of the valedictorian alterations. Illustrating all of the solutions she shows which ones worked best and which did not work well through the different perspectives. Overall, we can come to the conclusion that none of the solutions really work. The conflict between valedictorians is huge. School boards tried to make multiple valedictorians, change requirements, and nothing is working.

Talbot also uses strong diction to demonstrate the severity of the valedictorian competition. In paragraph 9, she describes the competitors actions as “clawing and scratching.” This helps her discuss the effects the competition has on the various students in the school. She also says terms and phrases like “peril” “traumatic” “sad to abolish” and “faintly ridiculous” to describe the severity further.

Furthering her argument, she writes of a comparison one made to the valedictorian problem. They believe that a valedictorian is nothing more than an MVP in sports. There are many sports awards, titles, and recognitions that are not abolished ike the valedictorian title. It was seen as unfair. This appeal to logos helps Talbot explain to her audience the different perspectives different people have on the subject and allow her audience to determine their own opinion towards the matter. The different points of view presented allow for ethos for Talbot as well because it shows rubido, which shows she can argue against any rebuttal a person may put forth.

TOW #16: Live Your Legacy Now by Barbara Greenspan Shaiman

Live Your Legacy Now by Barbara Greenspan Shaiman is a book that was written to to strive to inspire people to make meaning in their life. To do so, she adds anecdotes of different people that followed through with her step by step system. Using multiple anecdotes she is able to prove to her audience that many people have used her system and ‘lived their legacy.’ Inspiring her audience with different people’s stories, she shows people that everyone in different situations and conditions can be inspired to moving forward and make a change.

She includes quotes by different people regarding her idea for making a change. Alluding to different people she helps prove her purpose by using famous people to show her audience that many people would agree with her idea of living your legacy and everyone deserves a chance to do so. She also provides guiding questions to help the reader in their process of figuring out how to indeed ‘live their legacy.’ She provides pages of questions to help her audience discover how they can live their legacy and move forward with their passion and succeed in something that is meaning and powerful to them. The questions also allow her audience to branch out into other means of ‘living’ by guiding them to move forward in other locations and other people.

Shaiman also provides graphs to illustrate her ideas, steps, and meanings behind all of her ideas, motives, and descriptions. Giving her audience a visual, she is able to connect to the more visual-spatial audience members to ‘show’ them how the effects of her ideas and show how they follow a logical order.

Ultimately, Shaiman inspires her audience through anecdotes, graphs/visuals, and quotes to show her audience how making a change and moving forward is not impossible and her book describes how they can do so in 10 simple steps.

TOW #15: Car Radio: Twenty One Pilots

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92XVwY54h5k

In the beginning of the music video, it starts with the singer in a corner in a black and white screen. He is sitting rubbing his head looking as if he is losing his mind. The song discusses how “somebody stole his car radio and now he just sits in silence.” As a result, he begins to lose his mind. He can’t focus on anything but his microphone and he just rubs his head. His actions showcase the result of silence and how it can drive someone made- like a schizophrenic.

The songs words are more spoken than sung. He emphasizes the result of the silence to his mind by saying all of the words blankly as he stares into the distance. The words slide off his tongue as if he has internal pain he physically can’t express. The words are said sharply to emphasize not only the result of the silence but to inflict a powerful message to the audience to try and alter their emotions. While “singing” he shows the audience pain. Hurting.

After the consistent monochromatic, lonely setting the scene changes to a crowd of people and the scene changes to a colorful area and the music gets louder and more intense. The change symbolizes what is going on in his mind that he cannot express. He is hurt and his mind is going crazy.

The craziness is shown further by him shaving his own head while looking as if he is scream singing. He continues to scream onstage with a mask on because this is not the person everyone else sees. So when he acts like this, he hides himself behind a mask. When he takes off the mask he is going crazy but cannot express it.

TOW #14: Demi Lovato Music Video: Warrior

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74aOxH4R5Ow

Demi Lovato is a singer/songwriter who spent years being bullied. It led to depression which eventually led to suicidal thoughts. She struggled with self harm, eating disorders and other personal struggles. Now, Lovato spends her time performing and inspiring those who feel as she felt years ago: insecure and helpless. She wrote her hit “Warrior” as a means to let go and accept what she went through growing up (so she told Billboard magazine).

The video is consistently monochromatic throughout the entirety of the song. It’s black and white scenes indicate the seriousness of the topic and the song in the artist’s eyes. It makes a statement. She also continually repeats the same sections of the video over and over again. The repetition showcases her earlier life of how she was trapped in a routine of hurting and pain. At different points in the video it shows her on stage and how she overcame all of the struggles she went through. But, at certain points of the video she also shows her in the same clothes and look she had onstage in a populous place and no one recognized her. No one even looked up at her. She may have overcome all of the things she faced but it still hurt her inside and out and she showed that in her song and video.

At the end of the video, it ended on the repeated scene where she threw off her clothes she wore on stage. Ending on this scene, she shows her vulnerability and lets her audience see she is allowing herself to be vulnerable with this song and was able to let go of her pain like she was able to let go of the clothes she was wearing. She also shows in this scene that though she has moved forward and achieved her dream, she hasn’t forgotten who she is and she knows the fame doesn’t make her who she is.