Monday, September 28, 2009

Booth Chapters 10-11

Using the most recent essay we've read, "Revolution is US," analyze parts of the essay based on 1. Chapter 10: How well does the writer acknowledge and then respond to his audience? Can you point to places in the text where he does so? How does it work or not work for the essay?
2. Chapter 11: Does the writer have a warrant in this essay? More than one? Pick out a warrant and analyze it based on this Booth chapter. If he doesn't have any warrants, discuss how or why that hurts or works well for the essay.

15 comments:

  1. I think the author acknowledges his audience as an educated person with an interest in international relations or global society, but I also think he wrote this essay for a general audience. He wrote it in a way that would make it interesting to people who may not have a background understanding of these things, but they still might find it enjoyable and get his message out of it. I think his analogy of the gas-station and the 5 different societies worked really well, it certainly got my attention from the start. His use of the story of the U.S. ambassador in Jerusalem opening the first McDonalds I think would open any readers’ eyes to why the world may resent the United States. One warrant that I believe the author uses in the essay is “…Americanization-globalization can breed a deep sense of envy and resentment toward the United States—envy because American seems so much better at riding this tiger and resentment because Americanization—globalization so often feels like the United States whipping everyone else to speed up… march to America’s cultural tunes into the Fast World.” I think that this helps the reader understand the relevance of the Big-Mac story; it’s not just because the rest of the world doesn’t like the United States because they think we are stupid or rude, it’s that they don’t like how or may be jealous of the way the United States pushes their culture, government, etc. onto other countries because the U.S. always thinks we come up with the best and right way to do things.
    -Katie Clark

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  2. This author did an excellent capturing my attention from the beginning of his essay with his gas station theory. Honestly, after reading his gas station theory I felt like I had a better understanding about globalization already. After reading the remainder of the essay, I believe the author is trying to educate people who are not familiar with globalization, like myself. Before reading this essay I was unsure about what “globalization” entailed; however, this author uses several examples and language that make it easier for the reader to connect and relate to. The author clearly describes the difference of “Americanization” and “globalization” and how other countries perceive the United States. The United States tries to Americanize other countries, pushing our beliefs and culture onto them. Therefore, causing many countries to be offended by the U.S. Overall, I felt this essay was well written and I enjoyed reading the essay because it enlightened my perception of how other countries view the United States.
    -Blanche Lambert

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  3. I feel like the author is trying to address the U.S. as his audience. He is trying to let us know why other countries either envy us or resent us. I liked how the author used the five gas stations analogy, and I have to say it does sound pretty familiar with the American gas station. In the essay I feel the author's warrant is "American-globalization" and why people envy us or hate us. Thomas Friedman makes it clear that people envy us because we are good at what we do and have the freedom to do what we want. However, he goes onto mention that other countries resent us because they feel like we are trying to get them on our level or as he said "whipping everyone else to speed up." They hate us because we pushing our ways onto them or "Americanizing" them. The McDonald's ambassador was a great example of this. I found this essay very interesting because I knew others resented us, but I was never quite sure why. This essay focuses on me, an American, as the audience and lets me know in great detail why others either envy us or resent us.

    -Nicholas Roger

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  4. I think the author did a great job by tailoring his essay to a general audience. The essay is easy to read an he provides clear examples that many individuals can relate to. Like Stephen and Katie stated, the gas station theory was the most relatable example. It grabbed my attenetion as well right from the start and made me want to read more. It was very easy to read and understand from that point out. Like my classmates, I wasn't sure what to expect when preparing myself to read about "globalization." I have taken classes that relate and address the subject, but they have been geared towards fashion. In a lot of ways I understood better because of these classes. His essay was a more generalized explanation where he clearly defines "Americanization" and "globalization". These are terms I already knew, but to the ordinary reader he clearly defines them in language that would be easy to understand for the everyday citizen. Like Katie said, his examples make the reader see that the United States has always believed that our way is the "right" way. This "right" way thinking made it clear to the reader that the US pushes it's beliefs on other countries and how those countries perceive America for these actions.

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  5. If you go by Booth's guidelines, I don't think the author did particularly well with regard to acknowledging and responding to his audience. He didn't seem to preemptively address his readers' criticisms, probably because most his paper was sweeping generalization, oversimplified analogy, and unverifiable anecdote, not ever presenting his own opinion clearly throughout the entire essay. He did not present any alternatives to his argument either, likely because he barely presented his own argument in the first place. Indeed, his essay reads more like a one-sided newspaper opinion column rant than like a well-thought out argument with evidence, reasoning, and acknowledgment and refutation of opposing viewpoints. Instead of trying appeal to his readers' intellect or desire for knowledge, he tries to entertain them with simplified illustrations, exaggerated imagery, sweeping generalizations, and little stories and quotations. As for his use of warrants, I don't think he presented any reasoning too complex or poignant to require explanation. Since all of his reasoning could basically by summed up as “here's a quote/anecdote and some misleadingly vivid imagery, therefore my claim is true”, and because the distinction between claim and reasoning is so blurred in his writing, I don't think his lack of use of warrants hurt his writing more than it already was.

    – Brandon Ross

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  6. I think the writer’s targeted audience is people who live in the United States who are somewhat up to date on current events around the world. He does do a good job of letting us know what the essay is about and what he wants us to take away after reading it. The two paragraphs after the gas station story addresses his argument and got me debating in my head if there is indeed “globalization” or “Americanization” going on in the world today. He did a good job of holding my attention, I couldn’t put it down after I finished reading the gas station story just because not only was it a topic I have never thought too much about before this, but also because it relates so much to the problems going on in the world that are on the news almost every show. He states, “…through the process of globalization everyone is being forced toward America’s gas station.” He provides this claim and goes on to explain whether Americanization or globalization is really happening, and whether it is helping or hurting America. He uses good examples of how McDonalds and different American computer operating systems are now seen all over the world, but the “haters” actually resent us for it because this “globalization” has America written all over it.
    Erin King

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  7. I think the author definitely acknowledges his audience, which I think is the general American public, and responds well to them. After using the great analogies for five different world economies by comparing them to different gas stations, he makes a good response. He first states that although there are many different ways world economies function, everyone is being pushed towards the American “gas station,” or economy. He responds to this by stating; BUT not everyone likes the way the American economy function, because it does not represent the culture and ideals of their country. I think this is very effective for his essay, because it illustrates to American citizens how our “Americanization” of the world is not always welcomed or good for certain cultures. Also, I think that the response just mentioned, is a good example of a warrant used by the author. The author’s statements about how America is so involved in trying to push their economy, technologies, and culture on the rest of the world is his way of stating that “Americanization” is not the same as “Globalization,” which makes his response a very good example of why the claim is relevant and effective.

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  8. In ‘Revolution in US’ Friedman identifies his audience as the general American public. He responds to his audience by giving the example of the five different gas stations, which helps to grab the reader’s attention and introduce his argument in a way that is more relatable to the audience. The author then goes into detail summarizing the idea of Americanization and Globalization. He describes how globalization has affected other countries’ view and dislike for American ways and culture. This is strongly supported by Americanization, or the pushing of our technologies, etc. onto the world. He uses the examples of McDonalds, Microsoft, and IBM as providing ways in which this effect is happening in society. Friedman makes it very clear that although this greaty affects the relationship of the US, there is a clear distinction between globalization and Americanization.

    -Shawn Mitchel

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  9. 1. I think the writer does a very good job acknowledging his audience. I agree with Katie. I feel like he does this by using the gas station analogy, and also the tone he uses really throughout the essay definitely helps the audience relate to his point. I think it works for the essay, because it helps the audience get out of their typical mind set and see his point of view.

    2. I think the writer does have a warrant in this essay. According to Booth, the warrant connects the reason to the claim. And it is also supposed to help show readers the relevance. I think the author's claim is that we are trying to "Americanize" the world, because we think our culture is the best. He does use the gas station analogy, which I think really helps show the relevance, in an almost sarcastic way. This warrant definitely works for the essay.

    Rebecca Griggs

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  10. 1. I think this essay was directed to a general audience that is decently learned in American history. I say this because he uses terms like the Golden Straitjacket and the Electronic Herd very thoroughly. I still think he makes the article somewhat accessible to an average reader by mentioning concrete examples of things that Americanization pushes onto other countries (that an average person would recognize) like McDonald's, Windows 98, and the internet. He also references some disagreers of his argument by limiting the scope of the argument in the statement: "While I am sure there are still more lovers of America than haters out there this [essay] is about the haters."

    2. There are warrants used in thsi essay. One such warrant is explaining the efficiency of the American gas station (when comparing the average gas station in different regions of the world). That statement was at first a little confusing to me. However, the warrant after stated was due to the fact that the customer was King, there were minimal workers to take care of, and that, ultimately, the only purpose of the gas station is to provide gas at the cheapest price (I still don't completely agree with this warrant, but it makes the premise of his preceding claim clearer).

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  11. Chapter 10: The writer constantly acknowledges the audience with statements, counter-statements and explanations to accompany. I feel as if the essay is a continuous assessment of opposing views, and the reasoning and explanations that back each view. The author almost immediately suggests other points of view in the evaluation of the 'other gas stations.' This, along with the idea of international interaction, provides ample opportunity to pit opposing views against the initial claim that the world is forced to use America's gas station.

    Chapter 11: There are several warrants throughout the essay but the one I'd like to narrow in on is: "In most societies people cannot distinguish anymore among American power, American exports, American cultural assaults, American cultural exports and plain vanilla globalization." This warrant is a statement of observation from what people outside America see in American influence. It validates the claim that globalization wears Mickey Mouse ears and eats Big Macs. It works well for the essay in tone and theme to match the intensity of the statements being made while staying on task.

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  12. I think essay is written towards the general public as an audience. With his five gas stations theory the author does a very good job to get his point across to people who are both well and not well educated. He then uses his simple analogy to bring up the big picture of how globalization has affected the way other countries view our own country negatively as a whole because we tend to push cultural and technological ideas onto them. He uses several warrants in the essay which all support the fact that other countries look down upon ours. One that stands out to me is the example used of the classic American portrait where we come in and force these non traditional ways on people in other countries, forcing them to move into a new technological era. I feel that this example may seem extreme, but is truly how other countries may feel about us, and that is why I believe it is a very important warrant in this essay used to get Friedmans point across.
    -Kevin Plath

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  13. In this article, I feel that the target audience is the general public of america with an emphasis towards a younger crowd. He does a great job relating to the audience by breaking down the situation into something everyone can understand with the gas station comparisons and does a great job to help people visualize the americanization with the big mac story. Also, the story about the ambassador at the opening of the mcdonalds puts globalization in a whole new light. With chapter 11, the warrant in the essay would be when he talks about the efficiency and lack of face to face service but lower price and most economically profitable, and this is important to the essay because he show the difference in other countries and gives a resonable answer to his claim that america is trying to americanize the rest of the country by taking over their cultures and societies
    -Erik Ross

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  14. I believe the author wrote this essay for an young, educated audience of people perhaps still obtaining their education and building their opinions of all major issues in the world. It could also be directed towards anyone with an interest in the subject of Americanization or Cultural Diffusion. However, the author does go into some details that would interest and simplify the point to the layman reader. The five gas stations theory does a good job of this. I believe the complexity of the text helps keep the educated reader interested. When talking about Americanization, he uses examples of McDonald's, IBM, and Microsoft to warrant this claim going into the story of the American diplomat opening up McDonald's' all over the world. I believe he also infers that Americanization is a voluntary, conscious process as opposed to an inevitable occurrence of cultural diffusion. This greatly helps the credibility of the claims.

    Christian Ornelas

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  15. The author does in fact reach out and acknowledge the audience throughout the essay. Like Kevin mentioned, his key audience seems to be a general audience of people. It seems like he expects his audience to be up to date with what is going on, but at the same time he lays everything out with pretty detailed examples like his 5 gas station theory at the beginning of his essay. Although I feel like he acknowledges his audience, I don't feel like he responded to his audience or any kind of criticism they would have presented to him. His essay just flows as his opinion without any alternatives or counterexample. Booth states for every claim there is atleast 3 counterexamples that can be given and I feel like none were given. The author continuously uses warrants in the essay. The warrant that caught my eye first was " The customer is king, the gas station has no social function..." It's a controversial warrant, but it is good for the essay and it helps to establish and understand his claims.

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