Health Insurance Marketplace

This article discusses the decision that states across the union must make about the new healthcare reform on Friday.  By that time, each state must decide whether or not they will assume responsibility for healthcare exchanges.  No matter the decision, citizens will not be affected immediately.  As time goes on, however, the article states that consumers will likely benefit from states running the healthcare marketplace.  This article was written a week before the decisions are due, making many of its opinions predictions about the week ahead.  This article was found on CNN and was written by a political and business expert.

As the Affordable Care Act is not well-understood by many Americans, it was evident that the article targeted the individuals that were going to be affected by this decision.  It was designed to fully explain the effects of the consumer of the Act to these people.  First, the article explained a brief portion of the decision by the states and of the act and then immediately related it to how that portion of the Act will affect the public.  In order to accomplish his purpose, the author used ethos by announcing the positions and experience of his references and of the writers of the quotations he used.  This had the effect of making the reader buy into the opinions of the speakers in the article.  Also, the article uses parallelism to delve deeper into the connections and into the information.  For example, the author states that only five states have already decided to assume responsibility for the exchanges.  Then using the same format, the article discusses the republican states' views and the democratic states' views.  Overall, the article was very effective because it was able to simplify a complex topic so that an everyday person could understand it and apply it to their personal circumstances.

Link to Article

Hugo Chavez

This article discussed the cancer battle that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was going through and the political controversy that surrounded it.  Chavez is returning to Cuba for another round of cancer treatment, and while he is gone, there is much debate over whether or not Vice President Nicolas Maduro should take over Chavez's job.  The argument debated the health status of Chavez (details were not released) and whether or not he was able to competently continue his presidency.  This article was from CNN and discussed both sides of Venezuelan politics thoroughly.  When this article was written, Chavez was just leaving for Cuba to have his surgery.

This article was written to a general audience located in the United States.  It did not target a specific party, gender, or race, as the article did not try to take a stance on the topic at hand.  Its purpose was only to inform the general public of the situation in Venezuela.  Being a controversial country and a common target for democracies, it is interesting that the author of the article did not try to skew the views of the readers against Venezuela.  In fact, the author tried to parallel the Venezuelan political system with that of the United States by showing the party politics that take place and referring to Venezuela as a republic.  In addition, to diversify the diction of the article, the author used a synecdoche to refer to the countries.  Cuba was referred to as Havana, and Venezuela was referred to as Caracas, both the capital cities of those countries.  Pathos was also used, as the reporter described fellow politicians and normal citizens crying and praying for Chavez's health.  Staying neutral greatly benefited the effectiveness of this article because it allowed the reader to not worry about bias in the article.  It was very effective in informing the reader about the situation, without persuading them to view it in a certain way.

Link to Article

Freakonomics

Freakonomics, a non-fiction novel by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, examines and analyzes everyday life and its hidden features.  The authors have a combined knowledge of economics and writing and they use their insight to show how economic principles apply to modern society.  The basis of the book is that society is full of people with hidden agendas, and they use their resources to accomplish their goals.  They argue that incentives drive people's lives, that conventional beliefs are commonly wrong, and that drastic effects are usually caused by small changes.  The rest for the book shows how these theories hold true real examples.  The book was published in 2003, and therefore doesn't have the most recent data available, but it recent enough to still be very relatable today.

As the authors use examples from around the world, the book is written toward an international audience, and while the book is primarily designed to entertain, it also informs its audience on the society they live in.  This is done mainly through using primary statistics and data collections in order to qualify examples.  In doing so, the authors let the readers try to sort through the evidence and draw conclusions on their own before they explain it.  This keeps the readers involved and interested in the book as they are reading.  For example, when describing ways teachers have cheated on standardized test scores, the book shows data from a computer of student scores in two different classrooms and the reader is told to find the pattern.  Also, they use juxtaposition and humor in order to improve their effectiveness.  For example, a chapter compares real estate agents to the Klu Klux Klan.  Obviously, the authors are not saying that they are equivalent, they just delve into the features of the two groups in order to draw conclusions on their overall motives.  The book is very effective and entertaining because it utilizes many different tones and devices as described.