Overachievers+Precis

Melville, Brad APLAC Henson 5th 9/8/11 Rhetorical Précis

Alexandra Robbins, //New York Times// Bestselling Author, in her book “The Overachievers: The Secret Life of Driven Kids” rebukes that kids in high school are overworked and overstressed. Robbins proves this by going into detail of 8 high schoolers at Walt Whitman High School, a Maryland High School who struggle with their grades, college applications, extracurricular activities, or SAT scores. Her purpose is to show how it’s normal to be over stressed and overworked by allowing them to connect to the kids in the book, in order to allow students to become less stressed and do better in school by relating to the students mentioned in the book. She tells the students stories in a third person narrative to make the book more appealing to young readers, allowing them to relate the problems of the students to their own.

Steve Rushin, journalist and writer for //Sports Illustrated,// in his magazine article //Give the Kids a Break,// establishes the fact that young kids today need recess in their daily lives so they can remain exercised and fit, in addition to many other health reasons. To do so, Rushin gives many facts and statistics that have to do with recess, then by giving reasons why schools are considering getting rid of recess, and finally, he talks of the dangers of not having a recess at all. Rushin's main purpose of the article is to convince people to keep recess at schools for the sake of the kids. Throughout the article, he uses many metaphors and a fun-loving tone, causing a playful mood, mainly directed towards adults, so that they can see the different ways that recess affects their children and students.

William Golding, a world famous author, in his essay //Thinking as a H obby, //explains that there are many different methods of thinking in our society. Golding, in order to convey his statement, tells anecdotes from his youth and different experiences he had in his education, dealing with people who thought in different ways. His purpose in this endeavor is to explain how we all need to become better thinkers, and to exercise our minds. more often than we do, and that we need to grade from "Grade One Thinkers." His intended audience for this essay is to reach out to any other Grade One Thinkers, and that they can understand the nature of the human mind and how it reacts and thinks.

//New York Times// writer Steven Johnson, in his book //Everything Bad Is Good For You,// retorts that our popular culture has become more and more challenging and intellectual over the course of the past few decades. He does this by explaining how things such as television and film help us learn to follow multiple threads better than they did years ago, and that things such as video games are teaching us to prioritize and learn in a funner, more exciting way. The motives behind Johnson's writing is most likely to prove the common theory that our popular culture is bad for our learning process false, and to make people stop worrying about the false dangers of spending too much time with it. His intended audience is most likely adults who are responsible over children, so that they can learn that our popular culture isn't what it was when they were their age, but instead, a complex, challenging system.

Phillis Wheatley, a slave from the 18th century, in her letter to George Washington in 1775, included a poem entitled //To His Excellency, General Washington,// which she exclaims her appreciation for George Washington. In her poem, she often boasts of Washington's great success as a leader, in addition to how he is much loved by all the colonists. Her main purpose of the poem is to give Washington the confidence he needs to defeat the British and win his countries freedom. Her main audience is George Washington, in addition to all Americans who come across it, that they may be able to place their faith in their general George Washington.

In Frontline's, a company that makes documentaries funded by PBS, documentary, //Growing Up Online,// emphasizes that our Internet is slowly destroying our society. They support this by showing many examples of lives that have been ruined by the Internet, such as suicides that have occured due to cyberbullying, and girls who have put themselves in danger of having an eating disorder. Their purpose is to bring the viewers to the conclusion that the Internet can be a lot more dangerous than we had first expected. To do so, they use sad stories with sad music to cause the viewer to feel sad and emotionally influenced for the audience of parents who's children could possibly be influenced by the Internet.

In Danish director Michael Madsen's documentary, //Into Eternity,// he informs the audience of the dangers of Nuclear Waste to the present and future of mankind. To do so, he informs them of Onkalo, a large underground storage facility in Finland, that will be able to store nuclear waste for 100,000 years. Their purpose is to inform those of the future of Onkalo, and the dangers of nuclear waste. To do so, they use an intelligent tone to help the viewers of the future to feel more secure by seeing that their in good hands.

Patrick Henry, a famous politician in the Revolutionary Era, in his famous speech entitled //"Speech to the Virginia Convention,"// he states the many faults with British Parliament, proving that our country needs its freedom. He supports this claim by asking the audience many rhetorical questions, that they answer in their head, in addition to referencing allusions to mythology and the Bible. His purpose is to express the need for Independence in his country to all those listening to his speech, that they may all agree with him. Throughout his speech, Henry speaks with a very surprised tone, surprised at how the British Parliament is responsible for all of the problems in our country.

Thomas Paine, famous revolutionary author, in his work //Common Sense,// argues that our society is separate from our government, and that the first is produced by our wants, and the other is by our wickedness. To do so, he uses common logic to prove this to the reader, and uses many interesting points in addition. His purpose is for the reader to realize that the government needs to change, and that we need our own form of government. To do so, Paine uses an accusatory tone to help blame the government for our problems for the colonists to become enlightened of this horror.

Thomas Jefferson, the famous politician, in his work of the //Declaration of Independence//, describes all the many faults of the King and Parliament. He makes a list of the many things the King has done, and blames him for many of the problems in our country at the time. His purpose is to show the King everything that he has done wrong, in order to show the King that he should decide to grant America it's freedom. Throughout this, Jefferson uses a very intellectual tone, to show the King that he is an intelligent man, and that he may better agree with him.

Robbins, Alexandra. //The overachievers: the secret lives of driven kids//. New York: Hyperion, 2006. Print. Rushin, Steve. "Give the Kids a Break." __Sports Illustrated__ 4 12 2006: 1. Golding, William, "Thinking As A Hobby." The Norton Reader, Shorter Eleventh Edition. Ed. Linda H. Peterson and John C. Brereton. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2004. 124-130 Johnson, Steven. //Everything bad is good for you: how today's popular culture is actually making us smarter//. New York: Riverhead Books, 2005. Print. Wheatley, Phillis. __To his Excellency, George Washington__. 1775. //Frontline: Growing Up Online//. Dir. Rachel Dretzin. Perf. Greg Abbot, Parry Aftab, Danah Boyd. PBS, 2008. Film. //Into Eternity ( Entos tis aioniotitas ) ( Onkalo - säteilevä hauta ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - United Kingdom ]//. Dir. Michael Madsen. Perf. Carl Reinhold, Mikael Jensen. Dogwoof, 2010. Film. Henry, Patrick. //Speech to the Virginia Convention,// Virginia Congress, 1775. Paine, Thomas. //Common Sense//. 1776. Jefferson, Thomas and John Hancock. //Declaration of Independence.// 1776.