In “Why Literature Matters”, the Dana Gioia emphasizes the importance of literature. Using logos and pathos, he justifies his claim on how the waning interest in literature is affecting America’s society in many negative ways. In the sixth paragraph, he uses logos to appeal to the working class by referring to a poll in 2001 taken by the National Association of Manufacturers. The poll was taken on their members about the skill deficiencies among their workers.
Review of Vershawn Young Discussion After reading “Vershawn Ashanti Young: Should Writers Use They Own English?” against Rebecca Wheeler’s “Code-Switch to Teach Standard English (Young 111. Wheeler 108)”. Each paper expresses a different opinion regarding the teaching of English in the classrooms. Each author writes with different agendas, different tones, and different purposes. Each acts upon their beliefs as they perceive them, and as a result are poles apart.
Starting the age of 5, we come to school everyday to learn something and expand our horizons. We start with the basics, such as the ABC’s and our 123’s, until we work our way up to a more in depth discussion of each subject, such as English II. This semester, I have learned topics in the field of English II,such as grasping the underlying meaning a book presents, the 12 archetypes, even the subject of debate. The semester began with the discussion of “The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd.
Stepping outside, a person in the United States can instantly see how prevalent a role technology has in our lives. From the smart phones that connect people globally trough a few touches on the screen, to the airplanes roaring across the sky, the astounding capabilities and convenience that technology offers is unmatched. In “Why literature matters”, an article from the New York Times Corporation by Dana Gioia, Gioia explores how living in the high-tech 21st century has unfortunately deteriorated the percentage of Americans who read literature. Gioia is able to sway his audience to devote more time to the simple task of reading works of intellectual value through fearful diction and compelling consequences associated with being illiterate. Through his article, Gioia implements fearful diction to express his concern that America’s future is in the hands of those who are less informed and comprehending of situations; economic and social.
In the passage “Why Literature Matters” by Dana Gioia he supports his assertion, which is “the interest young Americans showed in the arts -- and especially literature -- actually diminished.” he uses statistics, direct quotes, and facts to back up her main assertion. The author is writing this piece to make the audience realize how greatly literature is diminishing and trying to scare us into being intrigued into the arts which will hopefully change our world for the better. One of the great ways Dana supports his opinion was by using exact quotes from a survey that was taken. That survey stated “ a population study designed and commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts, arts participation by Americans has declined for eight of
Have you ever failed a test because you didn’t read something? I did. In 7th grade a test that I had to read a book for. I kept telling myself “since it’s open book I don’t have to read nothing. I’ll just look for the answers when the test comes.”
Knowledge is Power Dana Gioia makes a compelling case in his essay "Why Literature Matters," that society would suffer as a result of the reduction in reading in America. Former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts Dana Gioia argues that literature has the power to educate, inform, and inspire, and that the loss of emotion and intellect could have severe consequences for society as a whole. In this essay, I will analyze how Gioia builds his argument through the use of rhetorical devices, statistics, and personal anecdotes Gioia starts his essay by emphasizing the significance of literature in human history. He observes that "literacy is a form of human expression" and that it has been critical to the advancement of civilization.
As the digital age comes upon us, more and more Americans become dissatisfied with the state of literacy in this generation. Because the Internet paves the way for shorter and shorter interactions, namely articles versus novels and six-second viral videos versus films, many people that grew up in the age of the Internet have a preference for this condensed form of entertainment. Dana Gioia of The New York Times asserts in his essay “Why Literature Matters” that the decline of reading in America is destined to have a negative impact on society as a whole. Gioia opens his essay with a bittersweet account of which trend is occurring in the twenty-first century America arts scene. He notes that as college attendance rates blossom, the interest
Flashback to my junior year. I sat quietly in my AP Lang class as my teacher, Mrs. Fisher, announced that the reading competition between the language arts classes called for the book count for September. She stood at the board, marker in hand, staring out expectantly at her large class. Hands shot up across the classroom, and my own nervous hand rose up to join them. Mrs. Fisher happily chalked up the small fortune of books that our class had read.
In this article “ Why literature matters” by Dana Gioia explains that American art has changed. It points out the fact that literary knowledge is declining. Some of the changes that were pointed out is that most people no longer read. His main purpose is to encourage people to begin to read again and that will help them improve their intellectual level. In the article Gioia expresses reasoning and includes evidence of the importance of reading.
She believes the syllabus provided to students do not include any challenging books, and her belief toward high school teachers becoming too lazy to examine thoroughly if the book the education system provides them with represent any true and significant value is a recurring concern of hers’- therefore ineffective to students. All in all, Prose used ethos, pathos, logos and the usage of specific words to help her argument. She successfully persuades her point of view and makes it clear that if schools want their curriculum to improve, they must change their way of teaching and push their students to view literature in a new
To have a decent understanding of how the human condition relates to literature, a person must have an understanding of what the human condition is. Medically, human condition relates to the state a human is in; however, on a larger scale, the meaning of human condition relates to the meaning of being alive and having the ability to feel emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, etc. Throughout history, society has a way of altering the meaning of different pieces of literature, which overall result in the meaning of the human condition changing. There are many famous novels, plays, and other forms of writing that test, analyze, and question the human condition: The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare; The Case for a Tragic
There has been reading since the alphabet was first created thousands of years ago, but just recently, reading has taken on a new purpose. Reading in the modern day is a way to escape from a realty, good or bad, that people live in. People all over the world are suffering in their day to day life but now reading book especially fiction book allows them to escape. This helps people get over many problems such as depression, anxiety, and suicidal thought. Many people have written about this such as Tim Gillespie.
Contemporary literary prizes are institutions that celebrate literary achievements, shape authors’ positions with respect to the market and the canon, form the worldwide readership. They frequently cause controversies, be it the list of nominees, the names of jury members, or, eventually, the winning authors or books. Among all literary prizes, the Nobel Prize in Literature is, probably, the most famous and controversial, because, “unlike the Booker or the Goncourt, [it] explicitly highlights and rewards the author rather than an individual literary work” (Braun 321). Since the Nobel Committee decided to award authors not only for the last year’s works, but for their writings in a wider period, the figure of the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, became “the guarantor of literature as it is mediated to an international public” (Braun 324). Literary prizes are important parts of literary systems, which can be defined as structures that describe the mode of interaction between authors, readers and markets.
Reflection By studying American Romanticism, we are able to learn that American literature allows its readers to understand transcendentalist views which led to individuals in American society to realize that everyone perceives the world differently. In American literature, individuals are able to understand the values of transcendentalism in which it illustrates the importance of nature, self reliance, and individuality through essays such as “Walden” by Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essays “Nature” and “Self-Reliance”. In Henry David Thoreau’s essay “Walden” he says “ life never the bone where it is sweetest.” This quote suggests the importance of individuality due to the fact that we do not need to change to make others satisfied because we are only truly happy when we are able to accept ourselves. The best part in this unit was to look at an image and listen to the different
