Article from: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/low_concept/2013/09/school_jargon_for_parents_i_can_t_understand_what_my_child_s_teacher_is.html
In Dahlia Lithwick's article Confession: I Have no Idea What My Child's School is Even Talking About, she discusses her fear of not knowing what is going on her fifth graders school system. School systems have changed a lot over the years, and unfortunately, not all parents are caught up with the new ways. Through her use of diction, syntax, and language she explains her fear of being a "failing parent."
Lithwick's word choice helps create an edge to her argument and emphasizes her point that parents are failing to keep up with their children's education. She gets to the point when mentions her son's open house, "if last night's open house at my son's middle school was any indication of the inexorable decline of the American parent, we are truly doomed." Rather than just saying decline, her use of "inexorable" adds a more dramatic effect. Lithwick goes on to describe her concern and describes her "lost-ness." Her use of this word shows that she felt very unfamiliar and uncomfortable at her son's school. "Lost-ness" doesn't seem to be a word that is often used in a more formal writing, however in this article it does a good job of portraying Lithwick's confusion. Lithwick chooses words that clearly show her sense of frustration and disappointment in herself due to the fact she thinks she is a "failing parent."
Lithwick also uses syntax to help show her fear. Several times Lithwick uses shorter sentences: ""Un-levelling." We do that now. And "fitnessgram testing?" Possibly the new un-leveling" and "A pen." These fragmented sentences add a more sarcastic tone and show her irritation in a forceful manner. Lithwick also uses conjunctions at the beginning of sentences sometimes to help make connections of ideas clear. For example, "As a parent you'd strive to show your child's teachers that they were inheriting your charming young scion and listen attentively to their plans for the year. But at this year's back to school night for my fifth-grader, I think it's fair to say that I failed on every single testable metric." Lithwick's use of "but" connects the idea of what she expected to happen at the open house, and what really happened. Lithwick's use of syntax played a large role in showing her frustration and irritation with the new ways of her son's school system.
Lastly, Lithwick's language helps generates feelings that would've otherwise been absent. For example, she discusses how she was unprepared for the open house and then goes on to say "all of these minor failings were soon swallowed up by a completely and total inability to show mastery of either curriculum or academic goals." Obviously she does not mean they were literally "swallowed up" but instead she means they were outweighed the other issues. Her use of figurative language helps demonstrate her hopelessness that may not have been as obvious before.
Lithwick uses rhetoric to help explain the problems modern day parents face with their child's education. Lithwick thinks this is a fixable problem but it will take some time. She uses diction, syntax, and language to emphasize her points and get her concern across to the readers.
Sarena, this was a great analysis! Diction is always an important part, and I like that you had mentioned that first. Certain words, I think, can really impact the way that one thinks. A use of elevated diction can affect the reader, which you had mentioned in talking about “inexorable”. It also seems that the author adds other words like “lost-ness” which is an interesting word choice, but like you had said, it does make it seem like the author is confused. With syntax, I think that shorter sentences can speed up the piece, and that may affect how the reader ends up reading the piece. Although I also see that these add this forcefulness to the writing. When talking about frustration, syntax can definitely help the author. You also mention figurative language, which I believe can lead to imagery that helps her point. Like “swallowed up” makes me picture someone getting swallowed up, which adds emphasis to the argument. You used a lot of specifics for the piece and it gave me a much better idea of what the author is trying to convey. Where you moved by this article? This topic seems like a sensitive subject so I am wondering if this affected you.
ReplyDeleteWow! I'm so impressed by this analysis -- I think it's amazing! I agree with everything you say in the way it effects the overall meaning of the article. "Inexorable" certainly isn't a word I hear too often, so I think you hit the nail on the head saying that it added a dramatic tone. Also, you pointed out the author's informal writing which you said adds to her coming off as a "frustrated parent." I completely agree with that statement. I especially like that you referred to her as a parent because that's her main focus in the article and with the informal language/sentences it shows how she's not trying to be an uptight journalist in this article, but rather her first and foremost concern is being a parent and understanding her child's schooling. Your quick summary of the article in the introduction paragraph seems so effortless, but you did a really great job of getting the message of the article across in a limited time. The only thing I could think to say that hints a negative connotation would be that your use of quotation marks is a tad confusing. I don't know if it's the font or just the blog or whatever, but your quotes are coming out as end quotes no matter if they're at the front or end of your quotation which makes it a little hard to follow where the beginning or end of a quotation really is. Other than that, this analysis was wonderful -- excellent work!
ReplyDeleteI see now that it is just the font on the blog or something because I, too, typed front quotations and they came out as end quotations!
DeleteThis is a rather impressive analysis. The examples that you provided were sufficient with helping me understand how the author is speaking as a frustrated parent. When I read the article, seeing the word “lostness” was rather strange, and your analysis helped me understand why the author used such a peculiar word.
ReplyDeleteAs far as syntax goes, it seems as if the short sentence or sentence fragment style of writing is very common. Since I don’t read a lot, the fragmented sentences made me somewhat frustrated like the author as I tried to read the article. Anyways, you explained the syntax portion very well.
Also, I agree with how that “swallowed up” personification reflects the author’s frustration, but I think you may need more text evidence showing how language reflects tone.
Overall, I thought this was a well-written analysis of the article.