A select few individuals in society are abnormally intelligent, making them to be frequently outcasted and rarely recognized for their true importance to the world. In an article from The New York Times entitled, “America Needs its Nerds”, by Leonid Fridman, the author delves deep into the ideas of the constant cruelty displayed towards nerds and geeks. Throughout the article, Fridman utilizes rhetorical questions, colloquialisms and even anecdotes in order to directly respond to the fact that nerds and geeks should be celebrated for their contributions to the advancements in the world instead of criticized for not fitting into society’s expectations. To begin with, the author uses rhetorical questions, which appeals to pathos, to support …show more content…
Freedman states, “someone dedicated to pursuit of knowledge is compared to a freak biting the head off a live chicken”(Fridman 9-10). Through the use of the word “freak”, Fridman explains to the readers that in society today, individuals tend to shun those who are in seek of knowledge, ridiculing them, disrespecting them and failing to idolize them in the same manner that Americans do with athletic stars. He stresses the importance of acknowledging this problem in society through the use of such rhetorical devices, as it creates a more informal tone, making the text seem more authentic, relatable and understandable towards the reader. It results in the reader questioning the reason as to why society’s system of values allows this type of negativity towards a specific group of people, causing them to, little by little, stop it from continuing. As a result, these individuals will be able to feel more needed in society, as they start to realize their place in society is also valued. Not only are these intellectual people called freaks but also other names as well as Fridman wrote, “society that has only derogatory terms like nerd and geek for the intellectually curious and academically serious”(Fridman 2-4). Throughout the text, the author uses these negative associated terms, “nerds” and “geeks”, to prove to the readers how easily incorporated these terms are in our society already, as these words are normally used to insult, criticize or hurt others. These words are habitually abused in society to the point where people just shrug the negative connotations of these words off. In addition, Fridman’s use of these words throughout the text is ironic to his argument; although he wants these individuals to stop being ashamed of themselves, the use of these terms carry a negative meaning behind them, making his argument ironic as it is like an indirect,
Bauerlein’s piece does in fact “open the issue to some sober skepticism.” Bauerlein informs his intended audience of the invasion of seemingly purposeless technology into the everyday lives of teenagers and its consequence: loss of intelligence. However, the author lacks credibility and attempts to convince the audience by using emotionally loaded language and making generalizations without any facts to prove said statements. These tactics devalue any ideas the author originally meant to portray and cheapens this persuasive piece.
The tone during the whole plot of in Brave New World changes when advancing throughout the plot, but it often contains a dark and satiric aspect. Since the novel was originally planned to be written as a satire, the tone is ironic and sarcastic. Huxley's sarcastic tone is most noticeable in the conversations between characters. For instance, when the director was educating the students about the past history, he states that "most facts about the past do sound incredible (Huxley 45)." Through the exaggeration of words in the statement of the director, Huxley's sarcastic tone obviously is portrayed. As a result of this, the satirical tone puts the mood to be carefree.
The article “The Coddling Of The American Mind”, written by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, was written about how teachers are afraid of what they are allowed to say during in class because of the emotional effect on the students. While writing the article the authors have many examples of logos, ethos, and pathos. The logos of the article appeals to logic by presenting facts and statistics. The writers provide definitions of words such as microaggression and trigger warning. While explaining the definitions they go on to give real world examples to further the understanding of the words. Also statistics of the amount of mental health issues are provided to enhance the logos. Secondly to make the article more appealing is adding an emotional
In chapter two of Be Our Guest, the system of guestology is addressed and dissected in more detail, with examples of success when correctly done. The book tells us how Disney would aim to please the audience, regardless of the rejection they received from distributors.
Author and Harvard graduate, Leonid Fridman, in an excerpt of his article, America Needs Its Nerds, points out America’s anti-intellectualism. Fridman’s purpose is to inform the reader of the contempt held for the intellectually curious and call for a change in the country’s attitude. He adopts a condemning tone to make the reader aware of the issue and encourage them to change their mindset.
When we discuss the topic of diversity, half of the class and Jena McGregor will agree that America does not cherish diversity. In Patel's story he supports that America does cherish diversity. Based on the debate, I believe the opposite of the class and Jena McGregor, and I agree with Patel by making the claim that America does cherish diversity.
Co-author of “They Say/I Say” handbook, Gerald Graff, analyzes in his essay “Hidden Intellectualism” that “street smarts” can be used for more efficient learning and can be a valuable tool to train students to “get hooked on reading and writing” (Graff 204). Graff’s purpose is to portray to his audience that knowing more about cars, TV, fashion, and etc. than “academic work” is not the detriment to the learning process that colleges and schools can see it to be (198). This knowledge can be an important teaching assistant and can facilitate the grasping of new concepts and help to prepare students to expand their interests and write with better quality in the future. Graff clarifies his reasoning by indicating, “Give me the student anytime who writes a sharply argued, sociologically acute analysis of an issue in Source over the student who writes a life-less explication of Hamlet or Socrates’ Apology” (205). Graff adopts a jovial tone to lure in his readers and describe how this overlooked intelligence can spark a passion in students to become interested in formal and academic topics. He uses ethos, pathos, and logos to establish his credibility, appeal emotionally to his readers, and appeal to logic by makes claims, providing evidence, and backing his statements up with reasoning.
In “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff pens an impressive argument wrought from personal experience, wisdom and heart. In his essay, Graff argues that street smarts have intellectual potential. A simple gem of wisdom, yet one that remains hidden beneath a sea of academic tradition. However, Graff navigates the reader through this ponderous sea with near perfection.
In “Anti-Intellectualism: Why We Hate the Smart Kids’ Grant Penrod goes over how intellectuals are cast aside and even belittled for their academic achievements, where athletes are given high praise and put on pedestals. He gives examples of this by stating how a football team in Arizona won a championship, and were congratulated and praised, while the three academic teams, who also won championships were barely recognized. Penrod’s use of real-life examples is especially persuasive because it helps emphasize the point he is trying to make in his essay.
For generations, only certain people have achieved success - they are known as geniuses or outliers; however, they did not obtain it on high IQs and innate talents alone. In the book Outliers, author Malcolm Gladwell, #1 bestselling author of The Tipping Point and Blink, reveals the transparent secret of success behind every genius that made it big. Intertwined with that, Gladwell builds a convincing implication that the story behind the success of all geniuses is that they were born at the right place, at the right time and took advantage of it. To convey the importance of the outlier’s fortunate circumstances to his readers, he expresses a respective, colloquial tone when examining their lives.
American culture has evolved, and Society tends to ostracize people for their intelligence, and our culture has been giving these intellectuals derogatory names like nerd and geek. Leonid Fridman believes that these anti- intellectual values that pervade our society must be fought and should stop for the sake of America. The author supports this position in the passage “America Needs It’s Nerds” through the use of rhetoric by giving definitions of terms such as geek, offering comparisons through juxtaposition, adding a tone shift, and posing rhetorical questions to the reader.
The authors of “Coddling of the American Mind,” Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, use ethos, logos, and pathos convey their negative stance regarding trigger warnings and the effect they on education. Lukianoff and Haidt’s use of rhetorical appeal throughout the article adds to the author’s credibility and the strength of the argument against increasing the use of trigger warnings in school material. The authors, Lukianoff and Haidt, rely heavily upon the use of logos, such as relations between conflicts surrounding trigger warnings and other historical conflicts impacting student ethics. Examples of the use of these logical appeals are the relation between the Columbine Massacre and the younger generations ideology. The author goes on to mention other societal turning points such
In “Hidden Intellectualism”, author and professor Gerald Graff describes his idea of what book smarts and streets smarts actually are. He details how new ideas can help to teach and build our educational system into something great and that perhaps street smarts students could be the factor that traditional education is missing that could make it great.
“Hidden Intellectualism” written by Gerald Graff, is a compelling essay that presents the contradicting sides of “book smarts” and “street smarts” and how these terms tied in to Graff’s life growing up. Graff felt like the school was at fault that the children with more “street smarts” were marked with the reputation of being inadequate in the classroom. Instead of promoting the knowledge of dating, cars, or social cues, the educational system deemed them unnecessary. Gerald Graff thought that “street smarts” could help people with academics. In his essay, Graff confessed that despite his success as an “intellect” now, he was the exact opposite until college. Where he grew up in Chicago, Illinois, intelligence was looked down upon around peers
...est high school students in America” (Gladwell 82). It was shocking to learn that all the Nobel Prize in Medicine winners did not all come from the most prestigious schools. Also, in the third chapter I notices some aspects that were highly relatable to me. My life relates to subjects included in chapter three because I am a student. It is interesting and helpful to learn that one does not need the highest IQ to succeed in today’s world. This is how I relate to chapter three. The third chapter in Outlier by Malcolm Gladwell had striking information that stated that IQs do not always determine who will be successful, and I can relate to the information in the chapter because I am student who has thought about my IQ before.