Blog 1-Learning Outcome 1

In Garrison Keillor’s travel narrative Take in the State Fair he uses a lot of sensory detail just like you would in any other travel narrative. The audience could simply be anyone but the purpose is to make the reader feel like they are there experiencing everything that the author is. Structure and content are affected by the audience and purpose greatly in this travel narrative. Keillor structures it in a way so that the audience can picture every little detail in their head. He also uses the word “you” a lot. This technique is actually forcing the reader to feel, see and smell everything that the author does. Here is a quote that shows how well Keillor uses this technique: “You disembark. You look like a man who could not contain his excitement. For cover, you hide in the crowd. You walk close behind people. You join the throng at the hot-corn stand and comfort yourself with a salty ear of buttered corn.” Also, Keillor does a fantastic job of using sensory detail. “You pass up the Slingshot for the double Ferris wheel. An excellent clothes dryer, lifting you up above the honky-tonk, a nice breeze in your pants, in a series of parabolas, and at the apex you look out across the gaudy uproar and the blinking lights, and then you zoom down for a close-up of a passing gang of farm boys in green letter jackets and then back up in the air. You tell your child that this Ferris wheel is the ride that, going back to childhood, you always saved for last, and so riding it fills you with nostalgia. She pats your hand.” This is a great quote that shows sensory detail. He describes the Ferris wheel ride so well that you can picture in your head just what he is seeing.

Blog 2-Learning Outcome 1

http://www.indystar.com/article/20111205/OPINION08/112050308/Zero-tolerance-bullying

The article of text I have chosen to analyze is an editorial from The Indianapolis Star titled “Zero tolerance for bullying”. The audience of this text would be concerned parents and/or any adults who read The Indianapolis Star and the purpose of the article is to make people aware of serious bullying and persuade them to help make a change. These two factors affect the structure and content greatly. The author writes in a sophisticated way where had the audience been children or teens, he probably would have kept it very elementary. “Let's keep it simple when it comes to the bullying of students at school. It's wrong. It's dangerous. And it must be confronted aggressively.” This opening sentence immediately grabs your attention and gives you information on the topic. This is a good technique to use because the average person would most likely skip over text that starts out boring. “A federal lawsuit filed by the mother of a young victim has focused fresh attention on............but didn't take sufficient steps to stop it.” This paragraph (paragraph 5) of the article gives you a real incident that has happened in the community. This is a good technique that the author uses to help persuade you. It shows just how bad bullying can be and affects the audience in such a way that it could make them want to help.

Blog 3

There is a light breeze coming from the east, the sun is beginning to set as people run around the jet black and bright white stripped track; but me, I’m in the middle of all the commotion holding a twelve foot, red and yellow, fiberglass pole and instead of my track being black, it is a dual, eroded looking red; I like to think of it more as my own personal runway. I stand fifty-three feet away from a metal box and a huge forest green foam pit; my heart is pounding so extremely hard and fast that I can hear it in my ears but feel it in my stomach; just before I feel like i am about to throw up I hear my coach yell “Go!” and without even hesitating, I take a giant step with my right foot then another giant step with my left. I get faster and faster as I sprint down the runway. As I get closer to the metal box I lower the pole and once it hits the back of the box, I jump off of my left foot and go flying through the air. I can feel the pole bend and instantly I’m flinging my feet, along with the rest of my body, up ten feet into the air. I get to the peak of my jump and it’s almost as if time stops and I can see everything and everyone. All of the spectators look like ants roaming around. And now, as I make it over the crossbar, I’m falling on my back and I can see the now orange, purple, blue and pink sky. As I hit the foam pit the feeling of relief comes over me and I lay there for just a few more seconds taking in the moment.

 

I feel that I have best mastered the technique of sensory detail. The paragraph that I have provided above shows a lot of this technique in a very good way. The purpose of sensory detail is to make the reader/audience feel like they are there with the writer or that they are experiencing it themselves. To do this you must use a great amount of very specific details. I have done so in this paragraph by saying “There is a light breeze coming from the east, the sun is beginning to set as people run around the jet black and bright white stripped track” when I could have just said “I’m at a track meet and it’s a very lovely evening” but that would not give the reader an actual sense of what I am really feeling and seeing. By describing the track and the runway it lets the audience see where I really am. Also this sentence shows the audience what I am doing and helps them picture it in their mind: “I take a giant step with my right foot then another giant step with my left. I get faster and faster as I sprint down the runway. As I get closer to the metal box I lower the pole and once it hits the back of the box, I jump off of my left foot and go flying through the air” and by saying that “my heart is pounding so extremely hard and fast that I can hear it in my ears but feel it in my stomach” lets the reader know just how nervous I am.