The Last Straw
For this assignment, you will explore how authors can create authority/ethos within a variety of writing environments.
Compare the decisions made by the authors that accommodate the expectations of their respective audiences.
From the list of writings included below, select the one which you will be comparing and contrasting with Alice Wong’s “The Last Straw.”
Explain how the language and other textual signifiers of authority used by each rhetor indicate the authors’ ability to respond to audience expectations showcasing their ethos/credibility.
Structure your writing by discussing the first essay completely, then moving on to discussing the second one, and concluding with a REFLECTION, answering the question: How and why do authors make adjustments for different discourse communities, different audiences?
Choose one of the following texts to compare and contrast with the “The Last Straw,” the essay they analyzed for M2 and Peer Reviewed for M3:
Maya Rupert, “I, Wonder: Imagining a Black Wonder Woman”
Ben Greenman, “The online Curiosity Killer”
Clayton Pangelinan,” #socialnetworking: Why It’s Really So Popular”
Ian Bogost, “Brands Are Not Our Friends”
Isiah Holmes, “The Heroin and Opioid Crisis Is Real”
Manuel Muñoz, “Leave Your Name at the Border”
Melanie Tannenbaum, “The Problem When Sexism Just Sounds So Darn Friendly”
Miya Tokumitsu, “In the Name of Love”
Maryanne Wolf, “Skim Reading Is the New Normal”
Michael Pollan, “Altered State: Why “Natural” Doesn’t Mean Anything”
Stephen King, “Why We Crave Horror Movies”
Daniel J. Solove, “Why Privacy Matters Even If You Have ‘Nothing to Hide’”
Christine Rosen, “The Myth of Multitasking”
Anna Maria Barry-Jester, “Patterns of Death in the South Still Show the Outlines of Slavery”
Nicholas Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”
Sendhil Mullainathan, “The Mental Strain of Making Do with Less”
Sherry Turkle, “The Flight from Conversation”
