Excellent posts again! It's like you're reading awesome stuff and finding awesome stuff and then posting awesome stuff. Love it.
This week as we begin cause and effect styled essays, see if your writer employs this method. Since many of you are following columnists, this technique shouldn't be too tricky to spot. Any overt examples? Subtle ones?
Maybe your writer doesn't use cause and effect, and that's ok, so instead look for how your writer employs examples to maker her claim and/or prove his argument.
Keep up the great work!
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"Last week the Kochs were shoved unwillingly into the spotlight by the most comprehensive journalistic portrait of them yet, written by Jane Mayer of The New Yorker. Her article caused a stir among those in Manhattan’s liberal elite who didn’t know that David Koch, widely celebrated for his cultural philanthropy, is not merely another rich conservative Republican but the founder of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, which, as Mayer writes with some understatement, 'has worked closely with the Tea Party since the movement’s inception.'" --- Frank Rich, "The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party
Here, the author is definitely employing cause and effect. The cause here is the article in the New Yorker about the Koch brothers, and the effect is the publicity and attention that the Koch brothers are grudgingly receiving. The author uses this cause and effect to concisely and powerfully illustrate his point: that billionaires are financing the Tea Party Movement.
"One of the things that can happen in the news business is that some portion of a story becomes so vile, so offensive, it is virtually impossible to effectively recount or describe. Reporters keep their distance. Editors lunge for the delete button." - Bob Herbert, "What is Paladino About?"
In this article, right off the bat, Herbert uses cause and effect when describing media explosions from one piece of a story. Here, the cause is that this one aspect of a story is "so vile, so offensive" to society. Th effect is that the media wants to stay away from it and do what they can to not associate with that undesired drama. Herbert probably uses cause and effect here to lay out a general background for this story about an inappropriate email scandal from New York gubernatorial candidate, Carl Paladino.
"He missed the 2008 competition because of knee surgery, and guess what happened? The U.S. won"
This quote is from an article discussing how badly Tiger Woods needs to win the upcoming Ryder Cup. They are explaining how he needs this victory to repair his reputation. the quote comes after Gene W. is talking about what has happened in the past Ryder Cups when Tiger was, and was not on the team. In this quote, the cause is missing the Cup because of the surgery, and the effect is the the US won without him
"Freshman Tyler Clementi walked onto the George Washington Bridge the night of Sept. 22 and jumped over the edge. A few days earlier, authorities say, his roommate, Dharun Ravi, and a friend, Molly Wei, had placed a webcam in the dorm room Clementi and Ravi shared, filmed Clementi in an intimate encounter with another man and posted it online for all to see."
-Kathleen Parker
-“With Tyler Clementi's death, let's try friending decency”
Kathleen Parker does not use the cause-and-effect style essay often in her columns, and this is a rather blatant example of cause-and-effect: since Clementi’s roommate cruelly invaded Clementi’s privacy (the cause), Clementi decided to take his life (effect). After stating the cause-and-effect relationship between the two events, Parker spends the rest of her article connecting this situation to technology, social media, and the importance of privacy. The original cause-and-effect allowed her to set the foundation for the rest of her column.
"It felt like a breezy August evening in Modesto, and that wind was blowing out. From the moment they stepped on the field, the Giants' hitters could sense it, feel it, smell it."- Bruce Jenkins, "Feast follows famine at Wrigley"
In the first paragraph of this article Bruce Jenkins operates cause and effect. The cause is, "it felt like a breezy August evening in Modesto, and that wind was blowing out." This in turn produces the effect of, "from the moment they stepped on the field, the Giant's hitters could sense it, feel it, smell it." Although one may not think at first that a breezy evening in August would allow the Giants to have 19 hits, that is why this effect is so interesting. For many other teams, this cause would have produced an effect of the team having few hits, but for the Giants it produced a memorable night. Therefore, Jenkins employs cause and effect to surprise the reader and fabricate the setting of the baseball game.
"The smarter tactic is to build excitement rather than sow discord. For example, Obama has made a concerted effort recently to reach out to young people, and that appears to be paying off. According to a Gallup poll released on Friday, the Democratic advantage in the Congressional races among young voters jumped 10 percentage points from last month" --Charles M. Blow, "What's Dumb, Really?"
Blow's latest article is about the hypocrisy of Democrats accusing their Tea Party opponents of illiteracy when many members of their own party didn't even know Biden was president--and more importantly, how the Dems must excite that base in a non-presidential election year. This excerpt shows how Obama took that problem and solved it by educating and paying attention to a particular bloc of voters. As Blow states, simply building "excitement" and connecting with people (the cause) will win the Democrats many more votes (the effect) than will accusing political enemies of petty errors.
"Chinese companies and government-supported funds have shown that they will go to the ends of the earth to acquire the resources needed to stoke their country’s industrial growth. Now China is angling to be first to exploit a source of minerals that has tempted and frustrated dreamers for almost 150 years: the floor of the deep sea."
China is using up its resources and has a exponentially growing population and economy and needs to needs to find ways to acquire resources to support their industrial growth. This has caused China to look to the floor of the deep sea for these resources. This may cause huge damage to the very important and fragile ecosystems at the bottom of the ocean.
Thomas Friedman “Aren’t we Clever?” September 18, 2010
Presented Effect: China is heavily invested in becoming a part of the green movement while many politicians in the US try to minimize the effects of the issue.
Presented Cause: Pollution in china gives people an incentive to help the environment. Leaders in China are engineers and scientists, so they do not waste time questioning the existence of Climate Change. Also, by becoming more energy efficient per G.D.P., China saves money, takes lead in the next biggest global industry and gets credit for trying to help the environment.
"My most recent public safety effort happened in mid-December... In front of me was a young man on a motor scooter, doing about 35 miles per hour. Suddenly he slowed, causing me to do like-wise. With his speed now erratically dancing around 20 mph, I swung left to pass. A cursory glance revealed that the scooter rider had slowed so he could concentrate on the task at hand: texting." - Steve Mirsky, from "Scientific American" in his essay "Scooting toward Oblivion"
Mirsky actually uses the word "causing" in his description, which is a clear indication of how this is an example of cause and effect analysis. Here, the cause is the inattentiveness of the scooterist, and the effect is the accident that Mirsky himself was almost involved in. Throughout this essay, Mirsky draws this example out a little more - at one point he even describes how he pulled up next to the motor scooterist and asked him to sign his organ donor card - and then dives into some real data and statistics about distracted driving. He uses this example not only as a way to demonstrate cause and effect in his own life, but to highlight a common occurrence in which a similar cause is creating a similar, and sometimes worse, effect. Clearly, Mirsky's intent in using cause and effect analysis is to prove his point that texting (or calling, or listening to music, or doing your hair and makeup, etc.) while driving is very distracting and extremely dangerous, not only to yourself, but to other members of society as well.
Sarah Palin will believe global warming is a hoax until she’s doing aerial hunting of wolves underwater.
Maureen Dowd, "Slouching Toward Washington"
Here, Maureen Dowd uses an interesting kind of cause and effect. It is both speculation, and in reverse order (with the cause second). Though this is a different kind of cause and effect than what we have seen in the essays we read for homework, this is a technique that Dowd uses often because it is perfect for both being overly dramatic and sarcastic. instead of using cause and effect to illustrate what has caused something else, she is using hypothetical effect and its necessary cause to (sarcastically) build upon her point that many republicans are ignoring the proof of global climate change
"Prison was doing me in. Although I'd taken the job as a librarian in a Boston prison largely for health insurance, I hadn't actually needed medical care until I did."
Avi Steinberg talks about how his job as the library keeper at a prison completely changed his lifestyle. In this essay he talks about his work seems to be following his everywhere, even though he works at a prison. When he is mugged by someone at the prison as he is walking around one night, he is actually saved by the fact that the man recognizes him. It is in this story that Avi uses the cause and effect to illustrate what this job has meant to his life.
"For all the talk these days of porous borders and external threats to the United States, the core of our sense of security and identity as a nation has always come from within. What's surprising, perhaps, is that it derives less from our vaunted democracy or our freedoms than it does from that rather nebulous notion we call the American dream."
In the article the author claims that the cause for not believing in the American dream is because of all of the inequalities that come by being in the U.S. Even though some people dont believe that undocumented immigrants are Americans, they still believe in living in the American dream of having a better future and an education for their children. Becaure there have been so many injustices for new immigrants many people believe that the dream if gone. During the European Immigration everyone hoped for a better future for themselves and there families. Now the new immigrants are discriminated against and are forced to leave a nation they thought would help them live a better future.
The global refrain about genocide is “Never Again,” but we may be watching how that slips into “One More Time.”
The place is southern Sudan, and the timetable is the next few months. The South, which holds more than 75 percent of Sudan’s oil, is scheduled to hold a referendum on Jan. 9 on seceding from the rest of Sudan. Here’s how one more time might unfold:
Nicholas Kristof
Mr. Kristof says in the beginning the article that genocide is a thing of the past, but it reality one is stirring up in Sudan. The Southern province wants to break off and become its own country. Kristof then provides a supposed timeline of what will happen between December 10 to February 15. The tensions will start to grow, the presiden of Sudan will seize all wells and finally an all out war. Although the events will not occur in this timely order, the writer's knowledge of how genocides came to be were similar to that of this schedule.
Oops, I thought that we didn't need to do anything over the no homework weekend. Here's my post.
"But by hiring those G.O.P. candidates, while at the same time making million-dollar contributions to the Republican Governors Association and the rabidly anti-Obama United States Chamber of Commerce...Fox News has gone from merely supporting Republican candidates to anointing them...the Ministry of Propaganda has, in effect, seized control of the Politburo"--Paul Krugman, "Fear and Favor"
Krugman is analyzing the cause and effect relationship between the changing dynamics between Fox News and the Republican party. The "cause" of the current relationship is that Fox News effectively acted as a propaganda arm of the Republican party and made the Republicans dependent on favorable Fox coverage in order to reach their audience. The effect of this is that Fox has become so powerful that Republicans cannot confront Fox news for fear of Fox withdrawing their support for the candidate, resulting in the candidate's losing the election. Fox News, in effect can now hire or fire candidates at will by either supporting or opposing them. This has led to Republicans literally being on the payroll of Fox so that they now must tailor their policy to fit Fox's best interests, as opposed to Fox changing it's position to fit the Republican's platform.
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