TOW #6 - Children Don't Always Live

In Children Don’t Always Live by Jayson Greene, the author tells about the heart wrenching story of his daughter’s death and how it changed the way he parented his new son.  The author of this article is Jayson Greene, the father of Greta Greene, who tragically died in 2015.  His credibility on this topic is immediately established because he is telling his own story.  Greene’s audience in his article is towards parents who have lost a child or who haven’t.  This is evident because he addresses parenting when it’s new and after losing his daughter.  He says, “becoming a parent is already a terrifying process” (Greene 7) and “When I am on the playground years from now, watching my son take a fall from the monkey bars, I might not panic. But some part of me will remember: A heartbeat can stop” (Greene 13).  He relates to parents who have just had children and are realizing how tough it is, and he is also mentioning the fears that parents who lost children face every day.  Greene wrote this article after his second child was born, and after Greta, his first child, died.  Greene effectively uses anecdotes to show how life can change in the blink of an eye and also how precious it is.  Greene recounts the time his first daughter was born and how he “leaned into the crook of my wife’s neck while she pushed,” (Greene 18).  And when she was born and she had to be examined by doctors he realized “All I am is a spectator: her body is not mine to protect, not mine to save” (Greene 19).  By telling these stories, he is showing how he cannot control whether or not his child dies.  He cannot trust that they will live past 2 or 3, he just has to watch while life happens.  In addition, by including the part about being with his wife while she delivered, he is emphasizing how important life is, and that it should be cherished with the people you love.

TOW #5 - When Women Feel That Hand Begin To Creep

Ruth Marcus’ article on The Washington Post titled, “When Women Feel That Hand Begin to Creep,” is about the inappropriate advances made by men in business and the present event relating to Donald Trump.  Marcus recalls her own incident involving sexual assault and connects it to today’s comment that Trump has made and the allegations made against him.  We know that Marcus is a credible author due to the fact she has had an encounter with sexual assault and the fact that she has been working with The Post since 1984.  In addition, she is an alumnus of Yale College and Harvard Law School.  Marcus’ audience is young women and also women any age.  This is evident when she mentions her “daughters, now college students themselves” (Marcus 5), she wants to reach out to young women in order to tell them that they need to stand up for themselves in serious situations, and not be afraid to speak up.  This however, can also be applicable to women any age.  Her article is published at around the same time women have made allegations against Donald Trump claiming sexual harassment.  Marcus uses anecdotes and appeals to her reader’s emotions in order to tell them that women should speak up for themselves and blame men for sexual harassment and not the victims.  Marcus starts her article with her encounter with “an editor from whom [she] wanted a summer job” (Marcus 1).  When he began “creep, farther and farther, down the neckline of [her] dress” (Marcus 1) she couldn’t speak up due to the fact she needed a job.  In addition, blamed the incident on alcohol rather than his own decisions.  She includes this anecdote in order to set an example of how things should not be handled.  She is trying to show how women should never blame themselves or alcohol, they should blame the perpetrator.  In addition to anecdotes, Marcus also includes how she felt afterwards.  She says it “feels more humiliating than it did back then” (Marcus 5) and she mentions that she wanted to prove a point to her daughters.  This makes the readers feel sympathy for her and make other mothers that may be reading want to also teach this to their daughters.  No mother wants to have their daughters afraid to speak up for themselves or blame themselves for harassment.  With the use of anecdotes and appeals to emotion, Marcus shows that women should speak up for themselves and not blame themselves for things they cannot control.  

TOW #4 - IRB - Do No Harm By Henry Marsh

In Henry Marsh’s book Do No Harm, Marsh tells of the highlights and downfalls of his profession as a neurosurgeon. Henry Marsh is a well-known brain surgeon in Britain.  He has worked with other neurosurgeons internationally and has gained credibility through his successful work.  Marsh’s audience is mainly upcoming or current neurosurgeons.  He includes complex vocabulary that other neurosurgeons would understand like “trigeminal nerve” (Marsh 99) and “intraparenchymal bleeding” (Marsh 123).  Most of these words are used without defining, which means Marsh assumes his audience understands.  Although the general audience is medical professionals, from another point of view, this book can be directed to the general public.  With the rise of technology in medicine and new advancements every day, Marsh tells people who may not be educated in medicine how doctors can make mistakes and not everything is perfect.  Marsh uses anecdotes and descriptive language to show his audience how valuable life is and how dangerous and unpredictable surgery can be.  One story that Marsh tells is about the unpredictability of some surgeries: the brain sometimes “suddenly swells and arterial blood shoots upwards, turning the operative site into a rapidly rising whirlpool of angry, swirling red blood, through which you struggle desperately to get down the aneurysm” (Marsh 28).  It is impossible to predict how a brain surgery can go and Marsh describes the panic that sets in when realizes someone’s life can go from perfect to a disaster in a second.  Readers get a grasp of how delicate their lives are.  In addition to anecdotes, Marsh uses detailed descriptions to show how “elegant, delicate, dangerous” (Marsh 14) surgery can be.  One example of this is when he described the work of another surgeon; “he caught the aneurysm, trapped it, and obliterated it with a glittering, spring-loaded titanium clip, saving the patient’s life” (Marsh 14).  Descriptions like this make surgery sound very artful and delicate, many readers feel emotions like gratitude for surgeons who performs these tasks every day.  Marsh’s use of anecdotes and descriptions are very effective in showing his audience that life is valuable and unpredictable.