I chose the "Dear Students: Don't Let College Unplug Your Future" mostly because this guy is a super funny writer. This was just hilarious to read and I'm all about fun reading. I suppose entertainment wasn't really a goal of this assignment, so I shall move on to more important things like critical reading questions. yippee!
1) The author's intent is to get college students to take a closer look at their education. The education he is describing is less about academics and more about everything a person knows, creates and experiences. The authors wants students to use the internet to its full potential for their own advantage. He wants them to use the academic system in a way that will benefit them and not the way academia wants the students to use it. He is trying to convey the idea that success is not about a college degree, but what you can create and how you channel your passion into new cool stuff.
2) This guy uses humor and a lot of it. It's fantastic. Questions as well as metaphors are also big in this article. He likes to emphasize with caps. Irony and exaggeration play a role here too. The tone of voice he takes is super good for his audience. Reading it is like having a conversation with him. I'm not really sure what tool you would call this, but he uses angle brackets < > throughout his article like he's writing some html. It totally adds to what he is saying. He also effectively uses slang and sentences fragments.
3) So if I'm the audience for this article, he totally nailed it on the head. I didn't really agree of some of the things he was saying, but it made me think. Having people think was one of his objectives so he scores! I'm thinking this article is very effective. Some of his ideas are a little uncomfortable to deal with up front (like college could be ruining your future), but he was able to present them in a way that spoke to his audience.
Good job. It was a funny article! I also like how you point out that some of his ideas make people uncomfortable, because that is definitely true, especially if a main chunk of his audience is college students. I definitely don't like hearing that college is messing up my future, but that might even be part of his intent, saying something so controversial is sure to make us think.
ReplyDeleteNice work:) I think this article is a really good example of some nonconventional writing that is still effective. He wasn't afraid to write what he was feeling and he did present some good ideas. I also agree with Megan regarding the fact that it's a controversial article. Reading it made me pay more attention to his ideas and think harder about what he was trying to say.
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