Natural disasters often unexpectedly call people to action bring them together. Hurricane Harvey was one of the hardest hitting natural disasters that has hit Texas in recent years, specifically for Houston. Choosing an article that hits close to home here in Fort Worth makes the word ‘community’ mean so much more. That why I chose an article on how such few people made such a big impact and sense of community during this rough time for Houston.
The author, Erica Benedicto, talks about the incredible impact McCall and Casey McPherson made on the rescues of people during the flooding. She states, “As soon as she and her husband, Casey, heard about the devastation, they took action. Casey got his truck, gathered friends and drove his boat to Houston, while McCall cared for her two girls at home and created a framework that would end up saving thousands of lives.” McCall ended up creating an interactive map that would link to Facebook that connected rescue crews to those who needed immediate rescuing. Incredibly, “as soon as the information was available, people from around the world came to the rescue from as far as Australia.” Just the fact that this small project sparked into something world-wide is unbelievable. This article highlights the success and the community that these two people brought together. Benedicto wants to get the message across that there are people who can make a large impact that will help out for the greater good. It is also saying that to make such a difference, you do not need an army. All it takes is an idea and some hope, passion, and dedication. Benedicto continues her argument when bringing up another example how one person made such an impact. Vanessa Sommer of Lake Forrest Subdivision in Spring, Texas used her house as a command center for her neighbors. They talked to each family to figure out their needs. Through these examples, Benedicto supports her argument through pathos, but also Logos. She states that, “Since 2009, an estimated one person every second has been displaced by a natural disaster, with an average of 22.5 million people displaced by climate-or weather-related events since 2008.” She captures the audience through the logos and pathos and also by talking about the big picture(the place) and connecting it with the personal examples (the people). With the overall argument being made about this community is that small people can make a big difference and bring together people to make a community, the purpose is to spread goodness in this world and applaud these people for their amazing work. The author concludes with highlighting these people and promoting other to participate and help those in need. More people of this world need to be willing to help others and give to their communities. This article was written just to spread the word just a little bit more to try to get as much relief and help towards the hurricane hit as possible. Thankfully, this community of helpers exists to simply help others and provide relief. There are wonderful things that are happening in this world and Benedicto wants to spread the positivity and encourage others to make this impact because it goes a long way.
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Wikipedia is a powerful and useful platform where just about anyone can access any kind of information on just about anything. Topics range from the sciences to the arts to famous people over the years. Needless to say, you can find whatever you are looking for on Wikipedia. However, with that being said, you never know if what you are reading on Wikipedia is true. Anyone is able to access the information and edit it in any way they would like, whether that is adding something completely incorrect and random in or correcting a fact that was wrong before.
I chose a Wikipedia page on something I knew a little something about already, the New York City Ballet. I was a ballet dancer for thirteen years and have made many trips up to New York City to see this world renowned company dance three beautiful pieces. I have visited where the School of American Ballet is as well as auditioned for their summer dance program when I was younger. I still have a passion and desire to go back up to New York to see them dance more. Reading through the article and the various different sections, the author(s) really hit mostly the history of the company and how it came to be. The opening sentence states, “New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein.” This implies that the Wikipedia page is already starting at the right place. What I mean by this is that usually with organizations or things that have a history, a Wikipedia page will start out with stating the basic history and facts that need to be known about the topic. Here, the author(s) gave information that this is a ballet company, when it was started, and who it was started by. This automatically sends a signal to the reader that this seems to be a credible source because of the uniform opening sentence. Ethos is also established at the very bottom of the article with the amount of sources used that are online as well as books that are correctly cited. The audience of the article is anyone who reads this page. The author(s) make the sections easily readable and easy to understand. By using language that is known by most people and not making the statements confusing, the general population will be able to read this article and take something away from it. The purpose of this article is to inform the public about the New York City Ballet, which it does well through sections such as history, programming, and dancers. The article provides many different hyperlinks to various ballets and famous people if the reader does not know what a certain term is, which also helps establish credibility as a real Wikipedia article. Overall the tone of the article is straight forward, providing no opinion or bias. This establishes even more ethos. As for pathos, there should not be much in Wikipedia articles because this would get the reader and this usually deals with photos or words that pull at your heart strings, which the New York City Ballet should not. Logos comes up in the article quite a bit. The entire article appeals to reason because it all makes sense when you read it. It mentions Peter Martins many times and every time it does, it always refers to him as the “Chief Ballet Master.” This consistency proves that he must, in fact, be the Chief Ballet Master, therefore Logos is apparent. This article presents many credible sources and stays consistent throughout the text, which proves it a stable and credible Wikipedia article. |
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