To be presented as valedictorian, to have the opportunity to speak at graduation, to walk across the stage knowing you’ve worked extremely hard over the past 4 years - that is an honor. The title valedictorian began as an innocent award to reward the top student in each class; however, students have turned it into an enormous competition. These competitions have resulted in lawsuits, sour attitudes, and negativity towards one another. In “Best In Class,” Margaret Talbot clearly displays her message that the honor of valedictorian rewards those who work hard, but the award, over time, has become corrupt, thus, needing modification through her strong use of the appeals and her informative persona. Margaret Talbot uses each of the appeals to …show more content…
She creates a strong informative persona. She does so through her equitable and knowledgeable voice. Throughout the entirety of the essay, Talbot never directly states her own opinions, just facts and others’ opinions. Student Kimberly Belcher was interviewed by the author, and she believes that “it was unfair of Denny to use… a loophole to take a class that was too easy for him,” but in her eyes, what made it worse is he did “it secretly” (224). Through the opinion of Belcher, Talbot was able to enforce her opinion toward was Denny did. She includes the corruptness nature of the students trying to achieve valedictorian status, and states the unfairness within it without directly stating her opinion. By staying unbiased but informative, the author is easily able to state her opinion indirectly. Brent Bailey, a former student at Plano West Senior High School, shares his story of fighting for valedictorian, but in the long run no one really truly cared about it after high school. In fact, his “‘roommate had no idea [he] was valedictorian. It doesn’t come up, and [Bailey] doesn’t think about it’” (227). This informs the audience that corrupting the valedictorian honor doesn’t help one. It just creates problems that will soon be forgotten. This relays Talbot’s opinion on the matter by showing the audience the unnecessary actions put forth toward the honorary name. She uses all of these students’ quotes to show the reader that the system has been corrupted so much that need to modify it before it becomes a far more dangerous game. Furthermore, Talbot states her opinions indirectly by quoting other students to remain unbiased to create an informative
For example, at the beginning of chapter four, she presents the outline of her argument: as paraphrased from pages 84 and 85, she states she will be comparing Christian Right candidates to non-Christian right candidates, discussing whether or not they were upfront with the issues they cared about, and examining where they got their money from and whether or not they campaigned in churches. Her pause to explain what each topic discusses creates an argument of logical flow. Her descriptions of how she measures things also aid in the chapter’s layout and the reader’s understanding. On page 85, before beginning her investigation of stealth campaigns, she outlines exactly what it would mean to have a stealth campaign and what data she would need to find to prove the possibility of such campaign. This important tool allows the reader to approach the rest of the chapter with knowledge as to what exactly they were looking for, and aids in the movement of the
Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson, is about a normal fourteen year old girl named Matilda Cook, who was working at the family’s coffee shop, living life in search of her identity. Matilda went through life always working and being lectured by her mother about right from wrong, what’s lady like and what’s not. She had a normal life, her family wasn’t the riches but she had everything she needed, until the an illness called yellow fever came to Philadelphia. When the fever hit people were leaving to other places with their family, but the rest who were too poor to pay for a wagon, or who already had the fever stayed in Philadelphia. One of the people who had caught the yellow fever was Mattie’s mother.
Imagine walking down an empty, gloomy street deserted of people, engulfed with death, tingling with the sorrow for lost loved ones, and blanketed with the feeling of uneasiness and fear. Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson describes this world that the protagonist, Matilda Cook, a fourteen-year-old, lives in during the 1793 Yellow Fever epidemic in Philadelphia. The book outlines her life and how her personality and feelings dramatically change during the few months of the fever. Towards the beginning of the book, she is lazy and does not enjoy working, but in a few months when the fever turns her life upside-down, she has to mature and work extremely hard to survive.
After few hours reading, “The Sanctuary of School” was written by Lynda Barry, grew up in an interracial neighborhood in Seattle, Washington State. Then, I think this article was interesting to read. I love the way how she told us her past experience by using her own voice to lead us step by step get into her story, then she also shares us about her feeling and how it impacted to her future life. Plus, at the end, she argues that the government should not be cutting the school programs and art related activities. Those programs definitely do help the students and the parents as well.
Being honored for the award led the school to be even more diverse. They engaged themselves so much in racial and ethnic unity which led to intentional diversity because of that the honor for the award was no longer considered, Scheller was told during an interview with Michael Scales and David Turk, the president and provost of the college. (Michael Scales & David Turk para. 1). Intentional diversity
Dexter Morgan, who is portrayed by Michael C. Hall, was only a child when his mother was found murdered by a chainsaw. Harry Morgan, an officer on the case, found his brother and him days later sitting in a pool of her blood. During the day Morgan spends his time as a blood splatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department. As a blood splatter analyst, he spends most of his time working cases for the homicide division, since that is the department that investigates most murders. Ironically, during the day he works in a laboratory; however, during the night he is a serial killer.
A story that is repeated time and time again with the only part that changes is the when and where. The abuse of a child by their parent while countless people watch from the background, not caring or too worried about themselves to not do anything. The Whipping is a poem written by Robert Hayden that tells a story with only one metaphor that is narrated by a background character that isn’t affected by the dark, violent mood most likely because he is aware of the situation between the child and their
Speech for NJHS Induction Ceremony Good evening students, faculty, and family members! Thank you, Mrs. Reece and Principal King, for inviting me to this year’s National Junior Honor Society induction ceremony. Students, tonight we honor your achievements in the areas of Scholarship, Citizenship, Responsibility, Community Service, Character, and Leadership as we recognize and celebrate the choices, and at times the sacrifices, you have made. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "The reward of a thing well done is to have done it."
Today I am deeply humbled to be recognized as a potential member of the National Honor Society. To me this means I have exemplified everything you look for in a student who goes above and beyond, not just in academics but in athletics, the community and at home as well. I have not taken this selection for granted, as I believe would be a great asset to the National Honor Society. I am hardworking, honest, reliable and quite charismatic too. I hold all the qualities required by the distinguished NHS like leadership, service, character and scholarship.
Nobody at Devon has ever been surer of graduating than you are... You want to be head of the class, valedictorian, so you can make a speech on Graduation Day... You never waste your time. That’s why I have to do it for you.. What if I was.
The idea of ‘you dont know someone's point of view until you step into their shoes’ well Atwood exceeds that and explains that throughout her speech. The opening sentence to my written piece is a line out of Atwood’s ‘Spotty Handed Villainesses’. When I read the line, it stood out to me and really grabbed my attention, that's why I used it, as I thought if it grabbed my attention it would grab the attention of the audience reading my writing
The conflict of the story “The Fighter”, written by Walter Dean Myers, is that Billy Giles is having trouble with some things such as money issues. Billy Giles does not have a lot of money so he has to fight and box to get paid. His wife Johnnie Mae does not want him fighting so he has to keep the pride to stay in the fight without his wife finding out. In the beginning of the story the text states, “Billy Giles told his wife that he was going to the gym to work out. If he told her the truth, that he was going to fight again, he knew she would have cried” (27).
In this society, students are constantly struggling with stress. The students in this generation have more anxiety, and higher stress levels than previous generations. Alexandra Robbins, the author of “The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids,” developed student’s stress as the theme throughout the book to put emphasis on how the rigor levels of schools increased causing students to overachieve. Yet while overachieving school goals, it led to student’s stress trying to juggle school and life at the same time while trying to get into a prestigious university. Julie, the school’s superstar who does it all, undergoes under the same stress everyone has.
In this essay, "Why Literature Matters", author Dana Gioia sets up an argument about literature. Which she uses various ways to persuade her audience be in favor of her proposal; by showing statistic evidence, facts, and historical evidence, as well as some ironies, diction, and the appeals to reader's emotion. First of all, Gioia begins with strong appeals to reader's logos by clearly laying out the statistic source. For example, "According to the 2002 survey of Public Participation in the Arts, the reading population of the Americans is declining. " In turn, is an attempt to point out the thesis statement and make the readers to think out about this topic wile reading through her essay.
In the article "Narratives of Uncertainty: The Affective Force of Child-Trafficking Rumors in Postdisaster Aceh, Indonesia", Annemarie Samuels, discusses the rumors that have emerged in Aceh, Indonesia after the terrible Indian Ocean tsunami. Such rumors include those of child-trafficking as well as claims people have made of witnessing "trucks full of children driving to the North Sumatran city of Medan" (Samuels 2015:230). She starts off the article by introducing the different points and arguments she wants to touch on, these include points such as how the rumors affected the parents by leaving them with a great deal of uncertainty pertaining to their missing children, how it was that the rumors gained such a power that it allowed them to