Things that make Mary Comfy in a Classroom
- An easy ebb and flow of conversation
- No judgment
- Assignments so I do NOT have to talk to people and can just do my work
- Being left alone
- Mutual respect among peers
- A healthy interest in peers as a person
- Having personal space maintained
- *insert bro voice* Real talk
- Clear instructions and expectations from instructor
- Approachable Professor
Things that make Mary UNcomfy in a Classroom
- Standing in front of a room of people to speak
- Unblinking eye contact
- Intense staring
- No laughter after a joke is cracked; like WHY
- Awkward silence in the wake of an obvious question
- UNNECESSARY NOISE – “BRO WHY YOU GOTTA DROP THAT HYDROFLASK LIKE 20 TIMES“
- Instigating “hot button” topic debates for no reason
- Raised voices (I will peak your volume back)
- Temperature issues
- Professors that intentionally make you feel unintelligent
Questions/Notes on Rhetorical Analysis
- Joel Stein is the author, and I believe he has a deeply sarcastic, satirical voice to his writing. I wouldn’t call him instigative, but he is most definitely thought provoking; whether that invokes a good opinion or a bad opinion is entirely up to the audience.
- Class Notes: Comedic writer; he says what his opinion is, very harshly but not necessarily offensively. Very in-your-face opinion and writing style; ironic voice behind his writing. The audience tends to take Stein’s work far too seriously, they do not see his humor behind it, they simply see offensive words on a page. The speaker in this piece is not Stein the writer, it should not be taken at face value. Mocking people; hence the mocking tone within the piece. “Punching up”=mocking the wealthy; specifically the wealthy who can make others wealthy simply by hitting a ball with a stick across a field. AKA welcome to rhetorical writing.
- The opposing sides are treated dismissively and as if the author’s opinion is the only one that matters regarding this matter listed in the text. I can not even tell you what the opposing side is, because he does not even give it a second thought or a mention hardly in his article.
- Class Notes: Doesn’t treat opposing views fairly, they’re view isn’t being treated fairly; he wants to demonstrate. Most would say this writing style has “no tact,” however Stein is simply addressing what is already out in the open; he is just doing it with the gloves off. He is going off the idea that “sports” are an embodiment of American Values.
- Class Notes: what is going on in the world during this time? There is a war in Afghanistan and Iraq and George W. Bush is president. We are sending troops, supplies, money to the middle east and we are crushing the middle east as a war. In a very sideways way, he is stating his opinion about the wars; “class”, “might”, “military intervention is a great way to be”, etc. Yankees=America. “We crush dictators for looking at us funny”, “We have corporations so big we don’t even know what they do”, =all metaphors for America.
- Class Notes: The audience is the average person; it first appeared in TIME magazine.
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