Football Red and Baseball Green

The activities the writer had to engage in were definitely watching both football and baseball games. He had to really watch the games intensely to be able to make specific comparisons on them both. In this paper, the writer is comparing football and baseball to our society now. He states that baseball is a sport where everything is in harmony, a routine, and overall a world of tranquility and uninterrupted contentment, where the little things count. He compares this to the earlier years, a world of “ yesterday.” Now he says the more popular sport is football. Football he describes as heroic. Players in this game seem invincible; where as baseball they seem like ordinary humans. Football is all about modern technology, where there is large interaction and complexity. It is all about complexion, and your biggest competitor is time on the clock. The writer compares this to our generation now. “ It is a cluster of people living under tension, with a potential for disaster or triumph.” Football makes us feel like something can be released and connected in all this chaos. In short, “ It yokes heroic action and technology together with violence;” a symbol of today’s world. The world should be more like it was in the past.

            In this article football is definitely being put into relation with baseball. He does this by constantly going back and forth with comparisons of each sport. An example of this is when he said, “ In football players are associated wither their teams, the better the team the better the player.”  Then he goes on to say that, “ In baseball the more flawless teams are less popular.” He is constantly doing this throughout his paper. In his arrangement not only is he comparing routine, space, and time, but he is also comparing it with yesterday and today. He started off with talking about baseball and then further went on to comparing it with today’s society, football.

            I think the writer is trying to change the way we live in society now. He wants us to live how we did in the past. A very simply, non-violent, routine lifestyle just like baseball is. It is a symbolism of not only the past, but also how we should think about the world today. But instead, today’s world is all about complexity, violence, and perfection. The strategy he uses to really emphasize this problem is his word choice. He uses words like uninterrupted, tranquil, peaceful when describing baseball, and words like heroic, violence, and flawlessness when describing baseball. By using words like these, he really draws his audience in. It really gets his point across that he is trying to make. We should live more like we did in the past, simpler, and less violent. 

Reflection #1: Literacy Narrative

I really liked this project! My paper was on texting and driving and my audience was aimed towards high school students. My goal was to really emphasize the fact that no one should be texting and driving, especially high school students who just got their license. I decided to start off my paper with a personal story of mine about me texting and driving and the consequences of it. I then browsed for statistics and read true stories of accidents that occurred that I could potentially put in my paper. I struggled relating my topic to a bigger picture in the world, but once I met up with my teacher she gave me good advice. She said I should state that texting should be illegal for everyone in ALL states. When revising my paper, I sent my project to some family members so they could check over my grammar and punctuation. During this project I learned to write a little bit of my paper everyday so I don’t feel overwhelmed when the rough draft comes. I also realized that I should have most, if not all, of my paper done when the rough draft is due. This way my teacher can look over it and correct me on all of my mistakes. I could improve next project by going to my teacher’s office hours more and getting her advice. This way she can guide me and let me know what she wants to see in my paper. Writing in college is definitely different then it was for me in high school. In high school, they guided me the whole way through the paper and had strict criteria’s that I had to follow. Here, I am free to write whatever I want and however I want. It is taking me a little getting used to, but I know my writing will improve dramatically because of it. 

The Screenwriter's Tale

            Jennifer’s purpose with this essay is to explain how bitter, and disrespected she feels toward scholars. Jennifer’s literacy and what she loves to do is read and write. She loves writing screenplays, and reading about medieval times. A scholar looks down upon this. To a scholar reading and writing are completely unrelated. “You can be a writer and a scholar, as long as being a writer has no influence on you being a scholar.” Scholars are all about doing things the old fashion way. Like, reading and critiquing other people’s work and using big words that know one knows what they are.  Jennifer hates doing this. Jennifer’s goal is to incorporate her kind of writing in to a scholar’s world. And that is the larger theme; She wants to be respected as a writer and a scholar.“ I write novels, I write screenplays, and you cant stop me; a scholar wouldn’t act like this, but I’m going to do it anyway.”