TOW #27 – “Elevator Etiquette” by Greg Tannen

             Ever noticed how awkward it is to ride an elevator? It is as though another world exists within it that requires only the minimal amount of interaction in order to seem oddly normal to people. Greg Tannen, a writer from The New Yorker, happens to notice as well, and he is not afraid of mocking our horribly awkward elevator process as a result.

                The article itself is satirical, and from the get-go the whole piece has a tone of light-hearted mockery that makes you want to almost laugh at yourself when you realize you are guilty of these things as well. His article is built off of many instructions, and each one seems more ridiculous than the last whether it is by telling you to only stare ahead, only ask people certain questions and otherwise remain silent, or not to attempt to make conversation lest people see you as a “psychopath”. It is almost second nature for us to follow these instructions normally, but reading them—all of them—in the blunt way he presents it makes the whole thing seem more than silly. After all, for a society that tends to push for socializing with others in public rather than looking at a phone, the elevator tends to be the last place to take advantage of that sentiment. Sometimes they get broken, and people might start conversation, but for most readers, anyone should be able to know what this sort of experience is like, and they can relate to it with ease.

                The article itself was fairly humorous, and its straight-forward nature, much like our gazes in the elevator, gets Tannen’s point across while offering us a chance to laugh at our own weird social practices. 

TOW #26 – “Cycling to work can cut cancer and heart disease, says study” by James Gallagher

          It is honestly no real surprise that, with technology advancing as quickly as it is, there becomes a rapidly growing concern over health due to all the effortless and convenient options presented to us. Rather than having to walk, many people logically have cars to get themselves to work, however James Gallagher also reminds us of the option of biking. Aimed mainly toward working adults, he offers the solution to our generation’s decline in activity simply with the choice of riding a bike to work instead of driving or taking the bus, and he argues that the former method is far better than the latter through this idea of lessening the chances of common yet life-threatening conditions people can more easily be affected by without it.

            The article contains a visual, a video in which multiple people who have been biking to work for years, in which every single person presented seems to share the same idea: that, compared to taking public transportation such as the bus, biking is much easier, faster, cheaper, and healthier for them. While the rest of the article delves into the statistics confirming the health benefits, their agreement helps solidify the argument for the reader as something that may be an option for them, too. Gallagher also makes sure to address the main counterargument that may come up in response to his solution. The idea of not having enough willpower to follow through with a training regimen is common for many people who want to try being healthier for themselves, and so he soothes the worry with the simple logic that, if cycling is built strictly into your schedule rather than fit in as you dreaded hour of exercise, willpower is not needed.

            The statistics combined with the agreement from well-based opinions, leads to a solid argument for Gallagher, and though we do not have an excellent system set yet for biker on the road like in places such as Japan, where the amount of bikers is significantly higher, the idea of making this sort of transition seems much easier.

IRB Intro #4 – Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman

     For Chuck Klosterman, pop culture is more than something that is trending today and gone tomorrow. In his book, Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, Klosterman takes the reader through his perspective of pop culture, the impact of it, and really the meaning of it all beyond what is initially seen on the surface as mere entertainment. The outlined topics seem almost nonsensical given their largely humorous or lacking seriousness in the context for the current era, but it only makes me more curious to see what someone has to say about seemingly mundane aspect of our lives such as internet culture. The book is supposedly one that will leave the reader thinking, and so I am eager to see what Klosterman has to say about our world today.

TOW #25 – “Black and Blue” by The Salvation Army

                At a time where there was much controversy over the color of the dress, The Salvation Army takes advantage of its popularity in order to raise awareness among an older audience able to understand as well as comprehend the issue at hand here and hopefully combat abuse toward women.

While the joke usually lies in the dress’s color itself, The Salvation Army uses the colors in their own small parody of the entire thing that sends a surprisingly powerful message. Considering how light-hearted—although some people grew very adamant over what they saw—the argument was over the dress, no one would usually expect to see it used for a serious concept such as abuse. It makes the impact of the shock more intense as well when we factor in the fact that the dress was actually proven to be sold in black and blue despite many people claiming it to be white and gold, so while our attention may initially be drawn to the dress under the assumption of that’s what the text refers to, it is actually the bruises the viewer begins to notice afterward instead.

The smaller text beneath it implies an underlying problem as well: that many women who are victims of abuse choose to be in that sort of relationship. The dress’s color being perceived as white and gold was considered an illusion, and so The Salvation Army parallels this with their own agenda by referring to a myth in which women choose to stay in an abuse relationship as an illusion as well. The delivery is intentionally blunt and direct, and the result is an overall sense of surprise for the viewer followed by what may be considered a small wake up call. The text at the bottom serves as a call to action after the viewer has most likely taken in the other aspects of the picture. It attempts to help people realize they can make the first step in changing this sort of situation whether they personally know someone dealing with it, or they are in one themselves.

Overall, the play on words in order to deliver a deeper message so directly appears well done, especially with the way The Salvation Army used a widespread idea to its advantage.

TOW #24 – "The Tao of Pooh" by Benjamin Hoff (IRB)

As a continuation from where he last left off, Benjamin Hoff further teaches the basics of Taoism while simultaneous beginning to introduce new ideas. Still using Winnie-the-Pooh characters to represent different ways of living, Hoff can show a general audience why Wu Wei is probably the best way.

Bisy Backson becomes the next symbol of how we can go through our everyday lives. This way is more common and familiar, something Americans are known for promoting as ‘Hard Work’ due to Puritan ideals in the past, but when Hoff compares it to the Taoist way of living, our way seems so much more stressful and undesirable. The Backsons are always searching for a reward, something that would be success in our case, and they usually believe they just have to fight extra hard to overcome the obstacles hiding it from them. They think of progress, like we usually do, “in terms of fighting and overcoming” rather than yielding to the flow of consequences. They force events to work in their favor, but the actions of working, working, working, for a reward that is just “around the next corner, above the next step” and “down the road, on the other side of the world, past the moon, [and] beyond the stars” begins to wear you out. In comparison, Wu Wei allows things to happen as they may without expending so much energy, and things tend to simply work out in your favor when you follow your intuition with a sensitivity to the consequences rather than running circles in your own mind when you overthink every little decision.

Hoff also uses some humor, through small jokes, that may leave the reader smiling a little to themselves out of amusement. Hoff places himself in the story as a physically present narrator, almost as though he were a grandparent telling the reader a bed time story, and he interacts with the different characters between his examples. Usually, these interactions are just as informative as the analogies, but sometimes there are little comments thrown in, such as Pooh casually teasing him about a poor riddle, and it helps make the book even more enjoyable.

TOW #23 – “’Paging Dr. Fraud’: The Fake Publishers That Are Ruining Science” by Alan Burdick

           If fake news was considered an issue, then this idea of fake science, something that has been occurring for much longer than this sudden surge of protest against false information, should also be getting some attention. Senior editor for The New Yorker, brings the science community’s attention to the harmful presence of fake journals. Credibility is an essential aspect in a scientist, so having their paper published in a journal is a way for them to get a boost in credibility. While many of these journals were authentic and contained good intentions in the beginning of this online process, many more dubious sources began to arise merely for the sake of profit. There is a bit of a humorous approach to the topic as Burdick describes the various ways science students have tackled these fake journals, including methods such as crafting fake people or letting autocorrect have its way, however this also addresses a more serious issue for the science community as a whole.

The issue, while commonplace as almost every science major experiences it, is actually hurting science itself especially at this time where factual proof is being openly disregarded by government officials, and more fake science is being used to back it up. These fake journals are contributing to the downfall of science since, as the amount of disinformation grows, the difference between right and wrong becomes harder and harder to define for even scientists themselves. Alan Burdick aims to raise awareness to this era of crisis for science as well as hopefully renew the science community’s sense of skepticism when it comes to considering sources of information.

The article’s use of various anecdotes exemplifies the true nature of these profit-focused journals while also providing reason to not follow something without truly looking into it. The journals, while they themselves are not actually fake, have so little standards for papers that anyone could publish one as long as they paid the author fee, gaining false credibility in their work simply by having that journal’s title to back their work up with. Burdick describes the crafting of the fictional person, Anna Olga Szust, and her “dismally inadequate” papers as the initial way to fish out and identify these fake journals. The students in charge of her persona submitted various questionable papers that no journal should hop on the opportunity to accept, however 48 journals responded to her with invites to become an editor. Burdick does not announce Szust’s identity as a fake at first, allowing his audience to become increasingly skeptical of her success until her identity was confirmed to be false.

Further examples consist of students typing the first few words of a sentence before allowing autocorrect to carry the sentence, or they even just send a repeated phrase in the format of a paper which would both still easily be accepted by these untrustworthy journals. Burdick’s argument was built much on these examples which evoked amusement in the reader, and that amusement allowed the reader to consider the very real presence of these harmful sources while also avoiding any intimidation by them. The solution seems hard to construct for dealing with these troublesome journals, but if these students can have fun with it while simultaneously blacklisting the bad sources, then other students in the science community may also feel an unstated push to join the rather laidback fight as well. Burdick’s approach does well to address issues as well as raise awareness about them, and his methods of doing so may just spark more action in taking down the credibility of these questionable publishers.

TOW #22 -- How Living on Mars Could Challenge Colonists by Karl Tate (Text)

          Having designed for various clients, including The Associated Press and LAPTOP magazine, Karl Tate designs an infographic to go with this article explaining why living on Mars is practically impossible. It aims to help inform those unware of the conditions on Mars as well as turn down any simplified idea of us being able to colonize it, and perhaps its most common use is for young children looking for a simple answer on whether humanity can live on this other planet or not.

            Tate’s use of a visual to paraphrase and visibly show his argument helps organize the information he bombards the reader with afterward. It catches our attention, and, usually, it seems like it takes less effort to read a picture than it is to read the actual text, so many people looking for convenience get what can essentially be considered a helpful summary without needing to read the rest. The article itself is full of statistics and facts, proving his point through the mere truth of the subject. For example, he simply states, “The air on Mars, such as it is, is about 1 percent the density of air on Earth. Martian air is composed of more than 95 percent carbon dioxide. Since Mars lacks a substantial magnetic field like the Earth's, the Red Planet cannot deflect harmful radiation that comes from space.” For anyone with a basic understanding of the facts he offers, it is easy enough for the reader to come to the logical conclusion in which humans cannot inhabit Mars without some kind sort of aid to sustain us. Tate also, with each given reason, makes a comparison between Mars and Earth, and whether he is showing it or stating it, the comparisons really work in putting into perspective just how much more difficult it would be to live on the red planet. Each of these factors work together to provide a rather justified argument on why humans are unable to live unaided on Mars.

TOW #21 – FedEx Ad (Visual Text)

As online shopping grows more popular among Americans, there is perhaps some competition over how these items are being sent. American Delivery Corporation FedEx uses implications of being fast and reliable in order to attract more possible customers to use their service for shipping items of all kinds through the mail.

The simple FedEx box extends its promise through this apparent option for express delivery, and the passing of the object from the sender to the recipient straight through the box serves to show it off. The delivery is implied to be extremely quick, so people will not have to wait weeks just for something to come in the mail. It appeals to a general desire for things to be quick and convenient, so more people will ideally begin to prefer FedEx’s delivery service since it offers just that.

However, while the deliver may be quick, many people may expect valuable objects to be handled carelessly in the mail, and usually customers are very wary of checking their products to make sure they were not damaged. Should the product be damaged, the customer’s trust in the delivery service handling it will typically fall almost instantly, and they will also probably feel burdened with the task of needing to exchange their product. Using this, FedEx attempts to appeal more to the audience by displaying a seemingly expensive vase as the object being shipped from one location to the other. Going into the box, the vase appears to be in perfect condition, and the person receiving the vase seems to be accepting it in that same perfect condition. This implies reliability and careful handling of products, so customers may feel as though they can rely on FedEx to safely deliver their merchandise. Combined with convenient speed, FedEx manages to largely establish itself as what may be the ideal delivery service already despite there being no words to go along with the picture. The addition of text to solidify these implications, however, could have made this argument stronger by asserting their reliability and convenience. The image relied almost too much on how the viewer interprets the benefits being offered, and to blatantly state them could have possibly furthered FedEx’s persuasion of Americans to utilize their service.

TOW #20 – The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

        While all the others fret, hesitate, or calculate, Pooh just is how he is. This “way of the Pooh” guide is how Benjamin Hoff, winner of an American Book Award, teaches the general audience—who may also be Winnie-the-Pooh fans—the basics of Taoism. To many, the concept seems simple until you try to think about it, and so Hoff goes about showing his audience the way of Taoism without attempting to explain every detail of it, for that would just be confusing, of course.

“When you work with Wu Wei [‘Taoism in action’], you put the round peg in the round hole and the square peg in the square hole. No stress, no struggle. Egotistical Desire tries to force the round peg into the square hole and the square peg into the round hole. Cleverness tries to devise craftier ways of making pegs fit where they don’t belong. Knowledge tries to figure out why round pegs fit round holes, but not square holes. Wu Wei doesn’t try. It doesn’t think about it. It just does it. And when it does, it doesn’t appear to do much of anything. But Things Get Done.

       Through analogies such as these, using both this simple peg-hole scenario as well as various scenarios with Pooh, Hoff show how Taoism is neither something that can simply be explained nor something that should be explained because, as Hoff mentioned, it would only jumble the idea and make it more confusing than it has to be when we attempt to completely wrap our minds around it. He is able to define the way of Taoism without directly stating it, and the point is to simply get the gist of it, so others can apply it to their lives as well. Pooh represents a symbol for Taoism, a physical entity for readers to visualize more clearly while simultaneously providing many examples, and with this Benjamin Hoff can effectively convey what Taoism is as well as argue how Pooh is indeed Taoist.

TOW #19 – “Why Fast Food Isn’t Cheaper Than Healthy Food” by Tim Harlan

Founder of DrGourmet.com, Tim Harlan, shares with general family audience, perhaps those in lower social classes, that the choice to eat healthy is not necessarily more expensive than fast food. Through various examples, he proves just how much better eating healthy can be despite getting less calories, and he debunks the pre-existing myth for his audience who most likely believes fast food to be a quicker and cheaper option.

With many comparisons of varying meals and options that people may buy or prefer, Harlan attacks the argument for fast food through the prices first. He uses an imaginary family of four, the average family size in America, and first offers the fast food option. For example, he states that, for the usual meal a family might order at McDonald’s, he would rack up the price to about $14.00. “For that money,” he states, “you get almost nothing of nutritive value, but bland white bread, greasy burgers and fries with a sugary soda.” He then compares the amount of healthier food choices that could be bought with that same amount of money, and he asserts the idea that it will actually produce more food for the family than the fast food choice, with leftovers to save for later. His comparisons also go after the difference in nutrients provided to sustain the body, with the fast food choices severely lacking in their contents aside from “refined carbohydrates”. By tackling both of these ideas, he proves to his audience the benefits of eating healthy rather than buying junk food under the pretense of it being cheaper.

Harlan also debunks the rebuttal of there simply being no time to cook. Cooking a chicken, through adding up all the estimated preparation times, would take altogether 15 minutes to cook. Harlan does not miss the opportunity to compare this to the fast food option with the statement: “You might stand in line that long at a fast food joint”. By addressing these common counterpoints and comparing the reality of it to the healthier food choices, Harlan successfully establishes and conveys this idea of healthy eating actually being much more beneficial than fast food. The only remaining problem would be whether the audience, the busy American families, actually follow through with the push to transition. 

TOW #18 – “Animals are not Clowns” by Acção Animal and LPDA (Visual)

             On the topic of animal rights, two Portuguese organizations, Acção Animal and Liga Portuguesa dos Direitos do Animal (LPDA), combined to form a campaign against the use of animals in circuses. Their campaign goes after the abuse animals face as well as the depression they deal with as a result of being trained to do all sorts of tricks for the amusement of the public with no true freedom to simply live as an animal should.

            The first and most noticeable argument against circus animals is the subject itself. The tiger is controlled by puppet strings in a spot light, and the animal obviously does not seem happy, but it gets after this idea of circuses using animals how they see fit and restricting their freedom. The sight would most importantly evoke pity in the viewer and only enforces the argument to end the use of animals in the circus. Coupled with blue background giving the entire image a somber look, the audience will feel inclined to follow the much smaller text at the bottom of the ad: “support animal free circuses”.

            The tiger may be the most noticeable, but the words crossing its belly also stick out as an effective tool to emotionally persuade the audience into essentially boycotting the use of animals in a circus. “The show musn’t go on” is a twist on a well-known and often used phrase which usually conveyed the idea of never giving up. Now, with the tiger simply left as a puppet for the circus, the two organizations are attempting to fight for the opposite; the end of the show and animal rights.

IRB Intro #3 – The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

“While Eeyore frets… and Piglet hesitates… and Rabbit calculates… and Owl pontificates… Pooh just is.” – Benjamin Hoff

            Benjamin Hoff’s philosophy-based book is essentially an introduction to Taoism for Westerners through the use of the popular fictional character Winnie-the-Pooh. From the back of the book alone, the origin of the quote, I can already infer the general idea of Taoism as one in which a person simply goes with the flow and allows themselves to simply exist without so much stress. As I read this, I hope to learn more about the Eastern belief system as well find an opportunity to apply it to my life as well since the lifestyle already seems more preferable compared to the constant worrying the others clearly do without it.

TOW #17 – “Against Headphones” by Virginia Heffernan

With worry for our generation, completely reasonable given one in five teenagers suffer from slight hearing loss today, Virginia Heffernan addresses the widely popular use of headphones and why we should use them in moderation. Heffernan goes back into the origin of headphones as well as their intended use to block out commotion for controlled auditory experiences before connecting them to today’s society in order to argue against them. While the author speaks to their own, older generation who may be more concerned over their child blasting loud music than the actual child might be, the argument does not fail to at least speak somewhat to teens who may be looking in on the subject from the ‘outside’.

Heffernan begins the article by grabbing the audience’s attention with a simple statistic: “One in five teenagers in America can’t hear rustles or whispers, according to a study published in August in The Journal of the American Medical Association”. This could seem urgent not only to a fretting parent or other adult figure, but as teens ourselves we could also become worried due to the possibility of being part of that 20% in danger of acquiring hearing loss without realizing it. This prompts both direct and indirect audiences to read through the rest of the article either for an explanation on how or for a simple solution that could be attempted to reduce the auditory damages.

Perhaps knowing the complete removal of earbuds from our daily lives would be an unreasonable call to action, Heffernan’s conclusion is not one of completely banning earbuds, but it is simply one that seeks more of a compromise despite the overall negative connotation the article gives to earbuds through this connection with hearing loss and antisocial behavior. This compromise, on the grounds of “protecting [our] brains” while not completely shooting down the idea of “escapism” when listening to music, makes the argument seem a bit more reasonable for the younger audience looking in as the topic of discussion.

TOW #16 – The Color of Water by James McBride (IRB)

James McBride continues his endeavor to reveal the proof in which love triumphs all divisions formed as a result of societal prejudice in America. He finds that, especially through religion, love can overcome all of these boundaries if one allows it. As a person with a mixed family, he mainly reaches out to other similar families in order to spread this message.

His mother, Ruth McBride knew her first future husband long before she came to marry him. They spent a long fourteen years together, those years being the happiest Mrs. McBride had ever been as they symbolized her beginning before Dennis passed away due to cancer. The grief that followed was harsh, almost as harsh as the grief following her mother’s death, but she was able to remarry again to Andrew McBride. Her second husband, like the first, also died of cancer, but the two left a large impact on her life, mostly from Dennis. His family, for example, bypassed this issue of race in the form of unconditional love, and although her pale skin initially shocked them, she was still accepted as one of their own nonetheless. This pure form of kindness embedded itself into her being, and she carried it on with her as she raised all twelve children.

This second half of the book is where James McBride’s sense of identity really starts to come together as something more than just the color of his skin, and in a final section of the book, one that was added in commemoration of its ten-year anniversary, he addresses his point head on. He compares the strength of love to the impossible, stating, “The plain truth is that you’d have an easier time standing in the middle of the Mississippi and requesting that it flow backward than to expect people of different races and backgrounds to stop loving each other[…]” (McBride 292-293). His use of the words “plain truth” acts to solidify his argument as undeniable: that the bonds formed through love cannot simply be weakened because of race, religion, or identity, and the line did not fail to stick out for me. The placement of it, after the entire story, after even the Epilogue, only seems more convincing for the reader after being given first and second-hand evidence of the argument holding true to its claims. Despite all the struggles James McBride’s family went through, his mother still held them all together on her own through sheer willpower and love, and she refused to allow apparently simple issues such as race deter her by much. By sharing their life story, despite it being one among many others similar, McBride was able to prove himself that love was fully capable of transcending all differences.

TOW #15 – “How MLK can get you out of your ‘Trump Slump’” by John Blake

             starts with identification. Blake targets his audience with an opening consisting of a question in order to pull in those he aims to reassure with his article. By asking if his audience is currently enduring one or more of the three distinct issues provided, he narrows down and essentially announces who the writing is for before even going into the article itself. He determines that target audience to being going through a ‘Trump Slump’, an essentially despondent and long-lasting phase caused as a result of the election, and his work is attempting to become a means to get the audience out of it through the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr.

Blake breaks down his article into three parts: MLK’s true objective, his resilience, and his action. He reminds his audience that Trump is neither our future nor is he the worst event to occur in history. He reminds his audience that Trump supporters should not all be dubbed as racists, and to disassociate from them would be dishonoring the spirit of King. He reminds his audience that MLK never gave in to the disasters, and there were quite a lot of them, and so we should not give in either.

His use of the word “dishonoring” is what initially sticks out to me in the introduction. As a person of color and someone who is indeed going through what was labelled to be a ‘Trump Slump’, disconnecting myself from any and all people who happen to support Trump at all, I was almost surprised to receive that sort of response to my behavior. This is how it most likely was for others in my similar state of mind, and it prompts the reader to keep reading to figure out what we are doing wrong with what seemed to be the logical course of action.

Blake builds his credibility through his comparisons to historical events, exposing the parts that occurred behind the scenes of the victories of MLK, the parts that included the defeats and disasters of the Civil Rights Movement as well as MLK’s true personality as one for African Americans as well as poor white workers. He takes the extent of just how terrible Trump’s presidency should seem to us and puts it into perspective using the past, reminding us of how people have gotten through tough times before through sheer willpower, and his argument is only backed up by outside support. Rev. William Barber, a leader of Moral Mondays which is a movement inspired by Martin Luther King Jr., also agreed with Blake’s reassuring argument. "It's not worse than slavery, Jim Crow. It's not the first time that America has elected a racist president in terms of policy. Trump's election is as American as apple pie," Barber had said in response to hearing Trump’s election to be the worst thing in history. The logical reasoning and expert testimony overall helped to convince and thus calm some of my nerves over Trump’s soon-to-be presidency.

TOW #14 – “News is Bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier” by Rolf Dobelli (Written Text)

          First published in an essay, The Art of Thinking Clearly: Better Thinking, Better Decisions, TheGuardian uploaded an excerpt of the nonfiction by Rolf Dobelli, a Swiss author and businessman. The article explains that the obsession over news is unhealthy and unnecessary, so those who find themselves addicted to reading the news every day should cut their ties with the habit. It has become apparent that, as the internet only grows more widespread and popular among the masses, Dobelli notices a group who cannot seem to stop browsing through all the flashy headlines. He recognizes the negative outcomes of this detrimental behavior, and identifies each one while explaining why this should directly attribute to changing his audience’s mind about reading up on the news so often.

          The structure is simple and straight to the point. Dobelli makes his argument seem so as well with the way he bolds each reason as a header and compacts the effect into what can only be a single short paragraph in order to argue why consistently reading the news is unhealthy. He includes himself in the audience, implying that this pertains to everyone as well as the author with his use of “we”, “us”, and “our”, and it makes his argument more believable when he attempts to bring the target audience into it at the conclusion of each reason. The method attempts to eliminate the barrier between the argument and the reader, letting the audience know that what he says does not count them as a special exception.

          His use of examples and personal experience is what drives his arguments, and in many of these reasons he gives some sort of anecdote to emphasize his claim for less news consumption as well as put the various ideas in perspective. Although each of these anecdotes are effective in immediately making a point for his target audience, the lack of expert testimony throughout the excerpt does not boost his credibility much as someone who wants to seem like he knows what he is talking about. He does, however, personally claim to have experienced what his audience may be currently experiencing, and with that given connection, the expert testimony may not be needed so much for persuading their minds.