TOW Rewrite: Finding Musical "Diamonds" in the Slums of Paradise City

Food, running water, and a toilet to go to the bathroom in. These are all things we consider basic necessities and often take for granted. What would life be like without them? The unfortunate reality is that more than 11 million Brazilians live in favelas (slums), and many of them do not have access to such “amenities.” Joao Carlos Martins is trying to change that through music. He recently founded a program at the Paraisopolis Cultural Center that offers intensive weekly music classes. While it offers a new hobby for many, it also opens the doors to a wide array of new job opportunities with considerably higher wages. This is exactly what children of such indigence will need to survive.

As a Brazilian Correspondent for CNN, Shasta Darlington portrays this incredible story with efficacious arrangement. She begins with a very anecdotal and specific approach by detailing the life of Yanca Leite, a teenager who has been influenced by the musical program. By doing this, Darlington easily connects and draws her audience in. She then takes a more general approach by iterating facts of Brazilian poverty from numerous credible sources. This appeals to the audience’s sense of ethos, and it makes the widespread impact that the planned expansion of the program will have intelligible. Concluding with the following quote from Leite creates a full circle ending: "I play with all my heart," she says, breaking down in tears. "If it weren't for music, I'd be a drug addict or a prostitute or out robbing. Because that's the reality here." This creates a very resonating and impactful appeal to pathos. The wealth of important information and factoids presented in the article are not nearly as powerful until the audience is able to individualize their implications.

Darlington uses parallelism to compare the up-and-coming music program in Brazil with a successful predecessor in Africa. She describes the Kliptown Youth Program, which provides support services to youth in the slums of Kliptown, South Africa. This strengthens her argument for the effectiveness of Martins’ program. Logically, if a similar program has proven beneficial to its community, then the Brazilian slums will feel similar positive outcomes. Subtle irony is also displayed when the depressing town is referred to by its nickname of "Paradise City." 

Shasta Darlington created this piece to inform her readers about the humanitarian efforts going on in Paraisopolis, Brazil. In order to do this most effectively, she engaged her readers throughout. This was achieved through her outstanding arrangement, powerful anecdotes, and logical parallelism.

"Zero Dark Thirty" trailer

Over eleven years ago, a terrorist attack took the lives of over two-thousand American lives. From that day forward, the executives of our nation have dedicated countless hours and resources to finding the man responsible: Osama Bin Laden. After years of searching, he was found in Pakistan on May 2, 2011. "Zero Dark Thirty" is a movie that depicts the grueling search process, and the events that finally led to the murder of Bin Laden. The events are factual, and have come from various sources that were involved in the events.

A very convincing trailer for the movie was created, in which numerous scenes are intensely depicted.  Tension seems to rise with each second the trailer plays. From the beginning, it is nearly impossible to take your eyes off the screen. The creator makes great use of music, with a slow piano beat that continues to increase in frequency along with loud background noise. This adds to the sense of suspense as well as the action of the events that are depicted.

There are numerous dialogues that occur throughout the trailer. Between the various mini-scenes and interactions between characters, a black screen pops up with titles and choppy phrases such as “Witness the Greatest Manhunt”, followed by “In History”. This creates a great sense of drama to the trailer, and keeps the audience guessing what will happen next. It also creates

The trailer intends to draw people so that by the end of the two-and-a-half minutes, the onlooker is excited to watch more. Americans are fascinated with the events that occurred before and during the operation, and this trailer is primarily geared towards them. It is very effective in entertaining its audience, however it does not reveal too many vital details of the movie. It ends right before the troops enter Bin Laden’s hideout, leaving the viewer in awe and needing to see more. 

"Teach men to treat women with respect"-- An article dealing with societal issues of women's rights

Contemporary society seems to have a very warped view of women’s rights. This has become evident on multiple incidents concerning sexual violence towards women. On one recent occasion, a teen in Steubenville, Ohio, posted a video of a sexual assault on a female classmate that took place during a party. Bystanders sat and watched as the horrific and demeaning event took place. When asked to come forwards, only two witnesses were willing to testify. While the people responsible are to be tried for their crimes, many feel that a more efficacious impact can be made through government. However, congress recently decided not to reauthorize The Violence Against Women Act. This document works to stop such issues by providing, among other important allocations, bystander intervention and prevention programs on high school and college campuses. Katie Hanna and Monika Johnson Hostler, both venerable representatives of women’s rights organizations, wrote this advocating and thought-provoking piece to display why this issue must be revisited in congress. The longer we wait to address the issue as a society, the more lives will be affected by senseless and heinous sexual violence. The piece uses pathos very well when describing the lives of females that are affected by sexually related crimes. Logos is also used in the rhetorical question, “As for survivors, how can they seek justice and healing if they have little support and resources available?” It is through the perspective of women and a commiserating persona towards society that makes the article a very opinionated yet convincing piece.