In 2014 David Dunning wrote the article “We Are All Just Confident Idiots” to explain how society and humanity as a whole has now mistaking ignorance for intelligence or expertise. Dunning starts out by incorporating Jimmy Kimmel’s TV segment “Lie Witness News” as an example to grab the readers’ attention. He then explains why this connects to the increasing level of false intelligence happening in society as he continuous to include more quotes from Kimmel’s show to further analysis the reasoning behind why people would rather make up an uneducated guess of an answer rather than admitting that they have no idea about a subject. Dunning then incorporates a more scholastic examples as he analyzes the results seen in an experiments where questions were asked more about scientific and governmental knowledge. He the uses multiple quotes from reliable sources such as American aphorist, William Feather and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, to add further ethos to his article and thoroughly support his idea. Dunning then returns to discussing his take on human ignorance and the problems it presents in our society. Dunning later refers specifically, even going as far as to summarizing, shortening it to an acceptable amount that would bore the reader or take away from Dunning’s article’s point as a whole. After that Dunning makes a quick reference back to the Jimmy Kimmel segment from the beginning, before diving into his thought that ignorant isn’t someone blatantly not knowing any information but having their mind filled with misleading or wrong information as a foundation for their thought process. Next Dunning breaks down and analyzes his own argument and the many reasons for the rampant ignorance of society, while also interspersing more and more quotes and examples from reliable sources to constantly support every new idea he introduces in his article. Lastly Dunning finishes his article with one final reference to Jimmy Kimmel’s show bringing his article full circle.

In Hayley Krischer’s Hairpin article “Hysteria and Teenage Girls” she brings into focus the reason as to why adolescent females are prone to great moments of hysterics, especially in the presence of prominently good looking male music icons. Krischer then creates timeline of the theories as to why teenage girls act the way they do. While also explaining how the image of music’s teen heart throbs change over time with society. Coming to the conclusion that the real reason teenage girls react in the way they do towards their favorite boyband or popstar is because it gives them a voice and letting them communicate to everyone around them how much the music has impacted us. Krischner opens up her article with a conversational tone as she descriptively recalls the story of friend’s teenage niece’s meltdown and the chaos that followed, allowing the reader feel as if they were sitting beside her in the Smash Burger and pulling them in to the article. Krischer then begs the question of why girls act this way in order to smoothly segue the reader into the rest of her article, in which offers multiple answers to the question in a more informative tone through chronologically listing society’s take on female hysteria. However, Krischer is still able to keep her audience’s attention due to the outrageously strange but true examples  and the logic behind them. Krischer also uses song lyrics by past male music legends such as Elvis and Frank Sinatra and comparing them to today’s male artist to contrast how music for teenage girls has changed while connect to both the older generation and younger generation. She then switches back over to a more personal as a way to portray her message that the music you listen to in your teen years prompting the reader to reevaluate the music they listen to or may have listened to in those years.

 

 

 

 

In McSweeney’s Essays “Internet-Age Writing Syllabus” and “College Writing Assignments with Real-World Application” he satirizes our culture’s new innate need to publicly post short and literary vacant blurbs about our lives by creating a hypothetical syllabus and list of assignments to go along with it. Each one of his essays though, thoroughly exemplifies what happens when this new cultural movement becomes a scholastic reality. However, McSweeney portrays this idea with a witty yet serious tone, which just makes his essay even humorous, yet ironically even more depressing at the same time because not only do we see the absurdity in it but also realizes how it truly represents our society. One ideal McSweeney stated that I thought would actually be an innovative way research/writing classes should be run is the system of attendance where students are not required to spend class time physically sitting in a classroom or lecture hall but being logged on to website where students can share ideas with and critique their writing, but also allowing their professor the ability to see when and how long the student spent on the assignments all from the comfort of their couch. Another idea McSweeney had that should be incorporated into writing classes curriculum is the idea of teaching students how to write a post, blog or other short form writing piece in way that effectively deliver the point they want to get across in this age of social media and shrinking attention spans. McSweeney’s essay also has less far-fetched assignments that could be implemented into a research/writing course as well.  One in particular is the assignment where the student, who has a B.A. in Literature, writes a cover letter to a bank manager deserves to be hired over someone with a degree relevant to the job, such as business or finance. An assignment like this could be beneficial in advancing a student’s persuasive writing, while also preparing them for the harsh reality that there might not be an available job in the field they are qualified for and may have to take one in the field they aren’t qualified for.