Roger Cohen, the Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times, is very interested in politics. Not only is he involved and opinionated in domestic affairs, but also foreign politics. He proves this time and time again when he publishes columns for the Times twice a week, almost all of which are about current political events. His twitter account is very similar. He actively tweets frequently and the subject of these tweets are also politics. However, his tone on twitter is very similar. He mainly tweets the articles that he writes for the Times. He will occasionally retweet a tweet about a political current event, but most of these are very formal as well.

Facebook seems to be used primarily by my family members as opposed to my friends and therefore has a somewhat older audience. Facebook seems to be very opinionated; however, also seems somewhat censored due to the older audience. Instagram is not censored as much due to the fact that it is visually based. It has a younger audience than Facebook. Twitter has no censorship whatsoever and has an audience of all ages. Twitter has a more of a comic tone.

In this op-ed, a journalist writes about how comments on his social media about the passing of his family dog were more kind-hearted and sympathetic then the comments she received about an article she had written about Syrian refugees fleeing genocide. The purpose is to inform the audience that the general public seems to care more about a family dog than millions of human lives. The author provides several quotations of responses about the care and well-wished for his dog and the negative and heartless comments about leaving the refugees to fend for themselves. The evidence provided pertains mostly to the pathos area of the triangle. The author remains relatively informal throughout the entirety of the article. The tone suggests that she is attempting to relate to the reader in order to persuade him. The author uses rhetorical questions asked in order to emphasize his point. There are photos of the Syrian refugees and the family dog attached. The limitations involved with this piece is that the only evidence involved are quotations from the people who responded to his article, and that is a very limited group of individuals. The most effective rhetorical strategies used is the pathos. The author plays on the audience’s emotions in order to get his point across. He especially uses the general public’s guilt.

          In Sherman Alexie’s “Search Engine” and “What Ever Happened to Frank Snake’s Church”, he emphasizes the importance of a quest. In a quest, the protagonist has a destination, challenges, and a goal. While the stated goal may be something trivial such as playing a sport or meeting an author, the underlying, true goal is one that has to do with the self-knowledge of the quester.

          In “Search Engine”, Alexie depicts a young, smart Indian woman named Corliss. Corliss has always been fascinated with poetry despite her disapproving family. This, combined with her above average intelligence and ambition, plays into her quest for identity due to the fact that it causes Corliss to feel as though she does not belong where she was born. This is evident when Corliss looks at her father “and saw a stranger” after she questioned his lack of ambition (Alexie 16). Corliss then finds the most similar person to her she has ever encountered. Another Spokane Indian who left the tribe and not only read poetry, but published a book of it. She then begins her quest (or “vision quest” as she called it) to find this author Atwater.

         In “What Ever Happened to Frank Snake’s Church”, Alexie writes of a man who’s life at one point had been all about basketball. Frank, the quester in this piece, had had a great amount of potential to be an extremely good basketball player. However, his mother died while he was still playing, and in order to honor her, he retired from the sport he loved. Then, once he had reached the age of 39, his father also passes away. He then decides to honor his father’s memory by once again lacing up his old basketball shoes. His quest to play again has many obstacles, such as age or injuries. But on this quest Frank also finds himself when playing with a friend who calls him “just an old fart dying of terminal nostalgia”. Frank begins to break down into tears and respond “Don’t look inside me and then pretend you didn’t look inside me” (Alexie 228).

In Lawyer’s League by Sherman Alexie, the protagonist, a half African American and half Native American, seems to be only hurt by his ethnic background. His genetics are nearly flawless, except for the fact that his skin color seems to get in the way of his romantic life and political career. In Eric Liu’s Notes from a Native Speaker, he emphasizes assimilation and the various meanings behind it.

The different viewpoints of the two men is interesting for many reasons. The man in Lawyer’s League felt a strong attraction to a woman who was white, but refrained because of how society would negatively view the couple. The man in Notes from a Native Speaker was not affected by this because he sees himself as already assimilated to western culture and goes as far as to say he sees himself as essentially white.

The different points of view of the two men are particularly interesting. The man in Lawyer’s League knows his true blend of ethnicities and embraces it fully. The Chinese American from Notes from a Native Speaker doesn’t see himself as any different from a white person at all. This may be due to the fact that the man from Lawyer’s League wants to pursue a career in politics and needs to be very careful of how other’s view him.

In “Shitty First Drafts” and “Perfectionism”, both written by Anne Lamott in bird by bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, she emphasizes the importance of persistence when it comes to writing. Nobody will have a perfect written piece on the first try. Not even the best authors. A perfectionist will see this and have a very difficult time accepting it. It seems the author tries to convey that the key to writing comes not in the writing itself, but in the revising over and over again.

“Shitty First Drafts” seems to have been written with more of an intent to give advice on how to successfully write. It focuses on persistence when it comes to writing and constantly mentions how even the great writers are only great because of their will power to keep going. “Perfectionism” on the other hand seems to have the intent of helping the writer let go of his or her OCD tendencies and just let the writing flow.

“Perfectionism” seems to be more focused on the mental approach to writing, while “Shitty First Drafts” seems to focus more on the actual writing process. “Perfectionism” is all about how to clear your mind and not allow the perfectionist you to prevent you from writing poorly and revising.