Amber+Meyer

"The Noun Game" by debaron@illinois.edu

The main problem in this story is culture clashes and the differing perspectives that cultures have of the meaning of certain words. It starts off in a classroom playing the grammar game ( a game where each student picks a word and categorizes it as a person, place or thing). A student named Ganesh, who is from South Asia, has the word “horse”. In light of his religion, he places his card in the person bucket and receives a poor grade because in the teacher’s mind a horse is obviously a thing. The writer is sympathetic to Ganesh because in his mind he is correct and the writer can see that he feels badly. The author also points out that the teacher never told Ganesh why his answer was incorrect, showing that she, the writer, can relate to why Ganesh would be so confused (pathos) and its logical that because of his culture he could easily be confused (logos). As the blog continues, the writer tells a personal story that is similar to Ganesh’s and there is a sense of ethos. The writer is relying most on pathos. She **// (Dennis is a man) //**effectively persuades the audience, that being parents of young students, that Ganesh has suffered a great injustice by being treated poorly for a simple mistake. Her use of a personal story also makes you feel that she is relating to Ganesh and has almost a motherly feeling toward him. The blog, which targets parents, most likely also draws in English students of all types. This makes the blog relevant to people. The weakness of the argument is that the incident that occurred is not a large one. **// I'm afraid you're missing the point of this article. The incident he mentions may be uncommon, but the larger problem IS common: limiting language and putting words in boxes (or buckets in this case) limits the ways we think about and use language--as in his example of the word "east". //**The problems between the teacher and child could easily be resolved and then there would be no need for this article. The strength of the article is that it clearly gets the point across that culture effects the English classroom. The blog includes pictures, which makes it a little more entertaining. Overall its pretty plain and gives of the vibe that a serious topic is about to be discussed, which is fitting. One of the pictures is of an elephant with a mans body, it reflects Ganesh’s culture and helps to better picture him and his influences. Other pictures include a map, cartoons, and a graphic of a children’s book. The images persuade the reader to consider Ganesh’s background (logic) and the children’s book puts into perspective that Ganesh is younger and shouldn’t be faulted for being confused (emotions), also a map makes the reader question whether the teacher was right in the way she handled the situation (ethics).


 * // Amber - A relatively good summary (although you missed the author's point). Your analysis is a little skimpy, but you did follow instructions and respond to the article and the appeals well. Overall a very decent first college "paper". CHECK PLUS ~Prof. Wendt //**