Use this post to discuss "Florida's Fire Ants Headed for Trouble" by Dave Barry. Those who come first can answer questions 1 or 2 under "Thinking Critically" on page 415. Otherwise, discuss the essay in terms of strengths and weaknesses. What does Barry do well? What questions does he raise? What techniques does he use that you could implement in your own writing?
I found these two humorous sentences to be very effective in making fun of oneself as the author had done. "This was my own stupid idea: I sat on the lawn" and especially in parenthesis '("Then this MORON puts his HAND down! Yes! On the LAWN! Ha Ha! Must be from Pennsylvania")'. Describing himself in a comical way makes the audience relate to the author mildly than just blatantly write about fire ants and how they can be such evil little creatures. He made a point by appealing to the readers sense of pain using his supposed "stupidity". Making fun of himself made the essay humorous without making the readers choose sides (i.e the fire ant's rights vs the people). I felt that the author made a quiet impression to the readers that maybe by reducing the population of fire ants people who lack common sense (the author making himself as an example) might avoid similar fire ant situation and the author made that subtle thesis across by using humour.
ReplyDelete-Ma. Cristina Martinez
Sorry forgot to name the number I answered its number 1 in Thinking Critically page 415
ReplyDeleteThis essay was by far my favorite. It caught my attention instantly and did a great job of keeping. I actually felt as id he was telling me the story directly and not in an essay. He does a great a venting out his feelings for the ants. It did such a good job a showing and not telling that I actually looked up the female phorid fly an I actaully smiled at the thought of someone being stung by the ant and then watching this and saying "that's what you get." I didn't fing any flaws in the essay but I will be taking the descriptive nature of the essay with me.
ReplyDeleteI think Dave Barry does a good job by drawing the reader in and keeping him in. He does this by being humorous, like making fun of himself. He also uses vivid similes, for example "..shows female flies zipping around fire ants like tiny fighter planes, giving the ants FITS."
ReplyDeleteStephen Kwak
The same techniques that I would use are similes. I would also use personification.
ReplyDelete"Then this MORON puts his HAND down! YES! On the lawn! HA ha! Must be from Pennsylvania!"
Stephen Kwak
This essay did grab the reader's attention. The author uses statistics to describe the lawns in Pennsylvania, which helps the reader's understanding. There are many other relevant examples in this essay such as quotes and web address, which shows phorid flies in action.
ReplyDeleteFlorida’s fire ants headed for trouble
ReplyDeleteCritical thinking
2) deserved punishment
Enat
this essay did a good job of painting a picture. i like the way he mentioned a video and then described it. made me want to watch it, to bad i couldn't get it to work. i also liked the way it had some sense of humor to it. at least i think it does. over all i think it was very good.
ReplyDelete-rey recinos
Dave Berry’s essay is a very humorous one, and in my opinion uses humor very effectively. As a piece of scientific writing it is definitely, thinking outside the box. His use of figurative language made the biggest impression on me, making me sneer as I read. Personifying the fire ant that bit him as “Arnie” makes you think of the fire ant as a sentient being that has feelings and had more of a reason like vengeance, to bite Berry than just for instinctual reasons. Irony is used a lot through his essay as well, once instance is in the second sentence “This was my own stupid fault: I sat on my lawn.” This, I thought was funny because it hints that as his lawn, he shouldn’t even have to worry about some fire ant biting him, yet one did and he learned to regret his choice. I Also think that his hyperbole was effective too as a way to keep the reader interested or amused, and would be something that I would incorporate into my own essay. Even though it was a scientific essay it was fun to read, and it didn’t have a lot of jargon to confuse you and make you look back at the “Preparing to Read” page. Although, Berry’s essay did have one weakness in my opinion, was the fact that his purpose didn’t come until later after a few paragraphs where he then started to write about the ‘controlling of fire ants’.
ReplyDelete- Dylan Reese
I think that Dave Berry did a great job of including personal examples in a situation to help draw readers into the story, and then from there he was able to make his argument for the killing of the fire ants and we can see right from the beginning why he feels that way. The use of humor in the article really does keep you interested because you almost want to see just what he is going to say next. The technique of using quotes from people or from yourself is something I could use more in my writing to help create more emotion and feeling for the reader based on what is being said.
ReplyDeleteGreatest part of this essay was by far the humor. It caught my attention right away and I actually wanted to keep reading and know what happend. Barry used a lot of figurative language, I especially like the way he personified the ant. I'd say it was a really good essay, and i'd like to try to take some of Barry's humorous writing style and use it in my own essays.
ReplyDeleteHerbert Gallegos
This particular tale is quite amusing. The author writes openly about his experience, with simplicity and clarity. He makes great use of literary devices. For instance, he uses irony, as he writes sarcastically. I find that it fairly amuses the reader. At times he exaggerated. Additionally, I would say the author easily captures the reader and throughout the story he keeps him/her captivated to have his intention and message sent across.
ReplyDeleteI apologize, I forgot to sign my comment, which happens to be located directly above.
ReplyDeleteAhmed A.