10. ‘Affordable Care’ or a Rip-Off?

The article written by Elisabeth Rosenthal addresses the issue of healthcare prices in The United States. The biggest problem it gives people is that it's too expensive. There are current attempts to make healthcare affordable for more people, but there is some speculation as to wether that will come to be, or if healthcare will continue to be unaffordable. The article goes back and forth between the two hypotheses, showing arguments for both of them, yet it seems to lean more towards the possibility that it won't be so affordable for everyone. The conclusion is ambiguous; the reader is given the stats, and they are left to decide if they can afford it or not.

The article is simple and of appropriate length. The article is saturated with quotes and statistics, which give validity to the article's claims. However, the quotes are very long, not leaving much room for the author to express herself with her own words. The conclusion was rather abrupt, with a direct question to the reader as the last sentence. This would have worked fine, if the author didn't use it immediately after a personal example; it was a little awkward.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/sunday-review/affordable-care-or-a-rip-off.html?hp

10. The father of history

Tom Holland has created an adaptation of Homer, Virgil and Thucydides for the radio and has translated Herodotus, or so called “the Father of History”.  His favorite book is “Histories” written by Herodotus during 440BC around the most exiting century for ancient Greece. A century when Athens and Sparta were the most powerful and were war was a constant aspect of life. This book has “something valuable to say to enlightened people…who believe that it is both desirable and possible to learn from history.” Herodotus was not just a historian but an anthropologist, travel-writer, geographer, and sometime a fiction writer, he “observed, he listened and he remembered what he was told.” In the book there are some reoccurring themes and lessons, such as, “Man’s fortune is unstable, warnings are heeded too late, one evil deed leads to another, hubris is succeeded by nemesis.”

                The author starts off by exalting Tom Holland and implying the importance of historical classic books or works. After that he goes into deeper depth about the book “Histories” and its Author. In the concluding paragraph he states that the English government should include a deeper study of these works because of there importance to history. The style of writing used by this author is clear and full of information. His message is understood, though only in the concluding paragraph. Overall the Author clearly conveys his point and uses a decent language to do so.    


http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21586518-new-version-most-entertaining-historians-translating-herodotus               

10. All the Older Single Ladies in Poverty

Garance Franke-Ruta, senior editor at The Atlantic, writes about the statistical increase of poverty among single women over age 65 from 2011 to 2012. This phenomenon was unexpected since the percentage of poor elderly women was stable for over a decade and it suddenly increased in one year. The reasons are unsure, but a possible explanation is that reductions in Social Security Administration funding might have directly affected those dependent on it. Franke-Ruta says that as Baby Boomers age, overall poverty rates among the elderly will increase. Also, because the overall poverty rate among elderly woman actually decreased in the past decade, the increase of extreme poverty rate in the past year was shocking.

Franke-Ruta does an excellent job in her writing, but surprisingly commits some mistakes that are not expected from a senior editor of a news website. The author uses humor at the start by saying that “community colleges may need to start teaching courses for women on "How to Be Old," because America's ladies are not doing a great job of figuring it out.” She uses the humor effectively as an attention getter for her essay. Also, Franke-Ruta does add some credibility to her ideas by including actual census statistics. She does remember to cite the National Women's Law Center, especially the senior policy analyst, Katherine Gallagher Robbins, for all the information she utilizes in her writing. To conclude her essay, the author adds "Will this be a trend or a blip?" The reflective and rhetorical nature of this question by Katherine Gallagher Robbins is a great way to end Franke-Ruta’s essay. Along the essay however, Franke-Ruta seems to have made some obvious grammatical mistakes. Some might have been done on purpose due to a specific writing style, but others are confusing to the reader and don’t seem to have any intended use. It is not certain if the author did those accidentally.

 http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/09/all-the-older-single-ladies-in-poverty/280036/

10. 6 surprising uses for your old smartphone

Kim Komando released an article just on how old smart phones can be used instead of beng sold or thrown away. By saying that our smart phones are techinically portable computers, he starts to explain/list or categorize the possible gadgets smartphones can turn into. The first one was "A media streaming gadget and player", the second one was "A portable game unit", and there were also GPS, kitcehn recipe holder, alarm clock and much more. He numbers them and under each mini topic (that is numbered) he explains how the phones can be used this way. He explains it for all the types of softwares: iPhone, Android, and Windowns phone.

Komando starts out his article with a very attention getting hook. He says that if anyone of the readers don't know about the new release of two iPhones that they are living under a rock. I think this was Komando's intention to emphasize how big the issue was of Apple releasing the two devices. He asked lots of literal questions throughout the paper, and before listing or categorizing the 6 ways to reuse the old smartphone, he gave very detailed and specific directions of what people had to do with their phone first before reusing them. He gave directions for all three softwares. Also he started a lot of sentences with "if"s because he was aware that all his readers would be using different software phones so it was to make sure that what he was doing was applicable to the old smartphones of the readers. Finally he concludes his article with a very convincing statement. It pins the persuasion of the readers and makes his point more definite, but also in a humorous way.

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/09/28/6-surprising-uses-for-your-old-smartphone/?intcmp=obnetwork

10. Children and Guns: The Hidden Toll

The article written by Michael Luo and Mike McIntire present the readers various incidents and examples relating to firearm accidents during young age. Luo and McIntire try to provide the readers enough information regarding the classifications made after the accidents. Many events presented by the authors show that accidents happened because children were able to find firearms in different places inside a friend’s house or even their own. The consequence, obviously, lead to the death of someone close at the time the child handled the gun, or even the death of the very own child holding the gun. Still, the authors raise two main points throughout their article. They are: the negligence of parents and adults who leave weapons unsecured in their homes; and the people who classify the deaths later, who many times declare accidents a homicide.

Luo and McIntire use a decent choice of vocabulary, which opens their essay to a bigger audience. They provide more than enough information and examples of various cases were people got killed because of a child was handling a gun. One of the points they raise – which is the negligence of parents regarding leaving guns unsecured in their homes – is supported by many examples, such as the case of a young child, Lucas Heagren, who shot himself back in 2011 because of his parents lack of care. The authors present a picture of the boy holding a rifle with his father outside their home, leading the conclusion that this action would influence the child to handle the firearm again. The other main topic raised by the authors is the lack of proper judgment of such cases. Luo and McIntire provide examples followed with pictures of documents that show how children were unfairly accused of homicide. The essay has a formal tone and provides informations of various incidents that make the readers formulate their own decision rather bearing arms should be legal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/us/children-and-guns-the-hidden-toll.html?hp

10.President Obama calls for release of pastor imprisoned in Iran

An article announces the release of an American pastor,named Saeed, out of Iraq due to the help of  President Obama. In summer of 2012, Saeed had been jailed simply for his Christian faith. For the first time, President Obama spoke of the wrong imprisonment of U.S.citizen. In Iraq's side, President Rouhani was reluctant to release Pastor Saeed but did eventually hoping for the future business with America. Saeed's wife, Naghmeh,  said that this movement to free imprisoned Christians in other countries is definitely an answer to the prayers of many. This movement has been spread all over the world, revealing the glory of God in many nations.   

The article is clearly written for the readers to understand. The author adds many background information of Pastor Saeed to engage the audience to look deeper into the life of Pastor Saeed and to provide details of what God has done in his live. The author includes direct quotes of the family who are anticipating to see their dad and husband. The author provides links to how the reader can really get involved with the situation which are beneficial to engage the readers deeper into the article. 



http://www.christiantoday.com/article/president.obama.calls.for.release.of.pastor.imprisoned.in.iran/34167.htm

10. The New Old-School Birth Control

There are many more birth control options available nowadays, especially compared with before. Those methods include the pill, synthetic hormones, condoms, and intrauterine devices. Even though women are offered all these different ways to prevent pregnancy, many of reverted to the old-school method of pulling out. They prefer this more natural way but it is not the only natural method, another method is finding out their fertility cycle. Research shows that this method is almost a 100% effective whereas the pull-out method is only around 80% effective. The downside of using this method is that women have to learn how to find out when they are fertile and the process is a bit delicate. There is also the problem of lack of resources to offer women.
Katie Gilbert writes this essay as a woman to another woman. Even though she does not use a personal voice or pronouns, it is clear to female readers that this article is targeted to them. She uses solid evidence and facts to support her claim that women should use more natural methods of preventing pregnancy and not man-made methods. She presents her points in a clear and concise manner and addresses the weaknesses in her argument. She wrote a well-rounded essay with good vocabulary and structure. However, her word choice is complicated and a few words could be unfamiliar to certain readers. Even though her essay was very interesting and well-written, it was a bit dry in certain areas because of how she wrote fact after fact coupled with many different organization names. Overall, she wrote a very strong essay and was able to clearly send her message to her audience.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/09/the-new-old-school-birth-control/279995/

10. This Sociological Theory Explains Why Wall Street Is Rigged for Crisis

In this article Bill Davidow, author of several books pertaining to contemporary social problems, discusses the inevitable accidents that come along from within the complex system of the financial market. He begins the article by giving an example of a shortcoming within the American security system which nearly led to an extreme nuclear response over, what in reality, was a harmless bear trying to get over a fence at a military base. Charles Perrow refers to these kinds of accidents as "normal accidents", which according to Davidow, "are 'normal' not because they happen often, but because they are almost certain to occur in any tightly connected complex system." Davidow then connects this idea between the national security system and the American financial system, where aggressive traders have taken the role of the bear. These traders have signaled the alarm at the base, setting off a variety of potential disasters through the combination of what Davidow calls "human blunders and network failures." He continues by exemplifying these shortcomings and the consequences the breakdown of this system has, yet he does not fail to mention that the market does recover. Not only do these failures in the system affect the world financial state, but the safety mechanisms put in place to protect society from these faults tend to fling them further towards rock bottom. Davidow again looks at sociologist Perrow to assess the human role of error in the scenarios he portrays. He continues by showing how the roels of people and their motivations directly affect the market. He also proposes a solution to this problem, which cannot be by simply eliminated conceptually, but can only occur limiting transaction volumes. He clearly states that there is no way of escaping this financial mess and that the only way to endure through it, is to establish a new financial system.
Bill Davidow uses clear language in his article which helps the reader understand the issue at hand. His language and sentence structure is fluid, complemented by the transitions throughout his essay which help the reader connect the ideas with the thesis. The abundant use of examples is effective in backing up the author's point, yet it becomes overwhelming as the ideas are thrown at the reader in a consecutive fashion. The purpose of his essay was, for the most part, to persuade the reader that America has to change its financial system drastically before it can become hazard free. His serious and to the point tone further emphasizes his thesis. His reference to historical facts and to a well attributed sociologist further add to the credibility of the article. The image used in the article supports Davidow's article by emphasizing the threat the current financial system is and consequentially, the reality of the hazards society faces. Davidow writes proficiently and gives enough background information to allow the reader to understand his essay. His essay leaves the audience hanging, suggesting some possible change but leaving them with a great chasm that society must fill up to solve the problem at hand. Davidow argues his point well and gives a clear argument which does a good job at persuading the audience. He provides an extremely biased case against the current financial system, providing little, if any, information on the positive aspects of the financial system. Rather, he portrays it in a way which is supportive of his argument, deliberately casting a shadow over the positive contributions this system has. He also neglects to show the audience that the system has shown to recover and sustain itself in contemporary times, which generates a negative response in the reader.  
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/09/this-sociological-theory-explains-why-wall-street-is-rigged-for-crisis/280077/

10. This Year's SAT Scores Are Out, and They're Grim

This article by Julia Ryan posted in The Atlantic talks regarding to the scores on the SAT, and its below average scores for the year of 2013. The article initially starts talking about the 1.66 million high school students that took the test in 2013 and only 43 percent of them are above the "academically prepared for college-level work" category. The scores above 1550 are considered in that category and it is approximated that a student with such a score will have at least a B- average throughout the freshman year. Ryan based off the second part of her article on a sentence "Although the SAT takers in the class of 2013 were the most diverse group of test takers ever, the report showed that minority students’ scores have only slightly improved in the past year." After this sentence her article takes another track, it starts talking about the statistics of different races and their average scores. The scored were based on 3 different areas, if the students took The Core Curriculum, AP and Honor Courses, and Reported an A average GPA.
The article is overall very informative, it is full of statistics and contains two graphs, showing a lot of credibility. The author does a great job explaining the statistics instead of just putting it out there to us. Although the author writes with proficiency it started off well but ended off track. The initial idea of talking about the SAT scores decrease throughout the years turned into the difference of scores between races. The articles conclusion contains a graph, it lacked a final statement or a idea, connecting the thesis to the whole essay, wrapping up the ideas.

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/09/this-years-sat-scores-are-out-and-theyre-grim/279999/

10. Seniors Behind the Wheel

        Larry Copeland refers to the struggle of adult children to warn their senior parents about their issues behind the wheel. The article presents a survey stating that 17% of car accidents are caused by senior citizens, and they only make up 13% of the American population. Another survey claims that 55% of adult children are worried about the impending danger of driving at an old age, but only 23% have actually discussed this issue with their parents. There are other statistics mentioning that the elders' kids do not say anything to them about giving up driving because they are just afraid they will get hurt or will not listen to them. Copeland then gives advice to the reader about how to approach this problem and how to talk to their parents about it. Finally, the author includes testimonies of actual people who have been looking for the right time to tell their parents about driving.
      Copeland's purpose for writing this article was to persuade the readers to talk with their parents about the dangers of driving at an old age. This is evident when the author gives advice to the reader about how to know when their parent is too old to drive and how to approach the subject without hurting them. The target audience are the adult children that have senior parents. Many adult children can relate with this issue, according to the article's surveys. The tone of this article seems to be serious and "worried" because of the formal language and format. The article also includes bonus elements such as a picture showing an aged hand opening a car door and story highlights. These are helpful to get a glance of what the story is about; it is like a synopsis of a book. This story also uses many reliable statistics and surveys to persuade the reader. Due to these extra features and to the defined purpose, audience, tone, and content, I would say that the selection is effective.

 http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/29/older-drivers-highway-safety/2875765/

10. Free MoJo: A Football Fable

   This article, written by Ian Crouch, talks about Morgan Jones, a senior at Valley High School, who is the top ranked high school quarter back in America. It talks about how he was the most wanted coming college freshmen quarterback in the nation and how colleges with amazing football programs, such as Noterdame,  Alabama, and Southern California, all wanted him on their teams. MoJo, how he became known as, always planned to go to College, and was extremely excited with so many options to choose from. One day, he scheduled a meeting with all the college he had been scouted by, all his family and all his friends. He surprised everyone by saying that he had decided not to go to college and try to change the NFL  (National Football League) rules and play for NFL without attending college for at least three years.
   This article has many rhetorical devices. The most evident one is Anacoluthon. In various occasions, Crouch, begins the sentence with a grammatical structure and finishes it with a different one. An example of that is, "Imagine that the top-rated high-school quarterback in the country—let’s call him Morgan Jones—calls a press conference during his senior year at Valley High School. " and "(...)he’s a handsome African-American kid—six-two, one-ninety—and appears to be a once-in-a-generation talent." . Crouch also uses Allusion to other NFL football players, such as Manning and Marino. The author's main point in writing this article is to explain how MoJo might change the rules of a huge institution such as the NFL, and I believe he brings the point across very well. Crouch makes this article a entertaining and easy to read article, engaging the reader into the subject.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2013/09/free-mojo-a-football-fable.html#entry-more

10. We Are Terrifyingly Close to the Climate's 'Point of No Return

Holthaus wrote about the human impact on the environment and its consequences if the government does not act immediately. He mentioned that the temperature of the earth rose up to 2.5°C since the start of the 20^th century. Recently, IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ensured that representatives from 195 member countries agreed on a document that emphasized the impact of the environment nowadays, the prevision of what will happen in the future and how to avoid these impacts. Holthaus also mentioned that the drastic change of climate caused warming of more than 10°C in certain regions, extreme rainfall and droughts, the Arctic melting in the summer and the increase of pH in the oceans. The agreement of IPCC highlighted the high temperature of the entire globe’s surface, the elevated rate of sea level, the increase in the concentration of CO2, methane, and N20, the extreme precipitation events, the ice-free Arctic Ocean and lastly, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. IPCC also encouraged the use of “geoengineering technologies” which are technologies used to neutralize the impact on the environment. The agreement signed forced the countries to act immediately and reduce the human impact on the earth.

             Holthaus used good language to inform the readers about the new agreement signed between many countries in order to reduce the overall human impact on earth. He used bullet points to emphasize the main points of the document so that it is easier for the readers to understand and locate them throughout the essay. He also described the comparison of the global climate change in the 21^st century in order to give the readers an idea of seriousness of this particular subject. He used specific examples and statistics to support his article to increase its credibility, for example, he mentioned that the world emitted 531 gigaton of carbon from 1870 to 2011. He also wrote brief background information about OPCC so that the readers can have an idea of the purpose of this organization and it also increases the overall credibility of the article. However, he should have described more about the plans that IPCC has in order to reduce the environmental impact.  He only mentioned briefly about the “geoengineering technologies” which left the readers curious about the new technologies. Overall, he was able to achieve his goal by using simple vocabularies and sentence structures so that it is suitable for all types of readers. 

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/09/we-are-terrifyingly-close-to-the-climates-point-of-no-return/280076/

9. Watching Mental Illness Take a Family Member

Elizabeth Clare West shares a story of her own sister who has been going through delusions and paranoia which are types of mental illnesses. After years of inactivity on Facebook, she suddenly re-emerged and started posting posts of her location, things like where she was at, what kind of people were after her, how safe she is at the time ad such. She believes the "feds" are trying to get her, and that the assassins are attempting her life daily. Only Mr. President Obama was on her side. All these things that sound nonsense to us is the reality and truth to West's sister. Numberous times West have contacted psychiatrists and doctors to help her sister's mental problem but all she got was either no response, of sometimes a brieft statement saying "She has yet to give me permission to speak with anyone. The rules of Federal law protects the right to remain untreated, unless and until a person becomes a threat to him- or herself, or to another person. West, who also believed of this right does not know what to do but just watch the illness take over her sister.

West opened her introduction by giving an example of Amanda Bynes who was physically hurt by her leg getting caught on fire accidently. The family of Bynes would not have to worry of Bynes getting medical treatment because she herself is aware and knows that she kneed treatment. On the other hand, families who have a mentally ill member becomes helpless and worries more because mentally disordered people are usually unaware of their condition, so they would refuse seeing the doctor. This is the case West is going through. Her sister is going through serious delusion and paranoia, and the sister is posting things on Facebook for everyone to see that she has a problem with her brain. Many people are contacting West for the concern of her sister, but there's nothing West can do since the sister does not want to see the doctor. 
The first time I read through the article, I didn't get the purpose of this article being written. I get that West has a mentally ill sister and that herself is frustrated about her incapability to do anything about it (because of the Federal Law). But she does not have anything against this rule. She has no opinions of the law that's keeping her sister from getting treated. Throughout the whole paper, West only talks about her sister. Mostly they are episodes of things happened ever since her sister's illness. What kind of fights they had together, how her sister suddenly disappeared, her divorce, not listening to her family, all these personal episodes or examples of her sister is written throughout the whole article. I couldn't find any argument nor opinion. It was almost just pure narration. Well the title is "Watching Mental Illness Take a Family Member" so I assumed there would be narrations of "watching"  what the illness was doing to her sister. But I also expected some thought or views on the thing that was just letting her "watch" the illness take over, and keeping her from "doing" anything about it. The narration was told in a very interesting way though; it kept me focused and interested. There were many times where she had to go back and forth in the story but her good use of transitions kept things clear. Also her word choice and use of language was just at the right level for readers to understand easily. 

9. Degree in Caretaking

Moms have recently been extremely picky and strict on how will tack care of their kids. It just happens that the perfect people for this roll are the graduated college students how are jobless. Many have a degree in law and economics, though fine arts are the most wonted type. With this, a questions rise up such as “Are these caretakers overqualified? Or rather, for all their training, do they possess the right qualifications?” The answer is that the care takers are only qualified if they know what to expect with the different ages and know haw to deal with it. Meaning not freeking out if a two ear old puts food in their hear.

The author is mildly confusing though she does have a good argument and information. The opening paragraph was interesting and caught my attention, though the concluding paragraph went completely out of topic. She does convey her message and has a good development of her argument. In all, her work was acceptable but good be better understood if conclusion was modified. 

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/09/13/educated_white_women_are_increasingly_interested_in_becoming_nannies_and.html

9. How to Fast in Comfort

James Hamblin, The Atlantic's Health editor, writes about advices given to Jewish people about preparing oneself for fasting day, Yom Kippur. The author mentions that The Jewish Times does not recommend overeating at the night before so the body doesn’t need more water and energy to break down the excess food, but recommends complex carbohydrates that retain energy and water. Hamblin suggests that one should tackle fasting as if it were a marathon, using the same kind of tips. He then points out NPR’s suggestion of having kreplach, the equivalent of a Jewish wonton, to sustain. Hamblin finally ends with a comment about fasting being bad for the body, but possibly good for the soul. His own suggestion is that one should fast, but also not go beyond the body’s limits by being aware of one’s own health.

The author does an effective job in this essay. He uses an informal tone with the audience, which does a good job of creating a connection with the reader. The writing is easy to understand because it has the appearance of a conversation. This is evidenced by the usage of pronouns like “you” and “I”. Hamblin also cites his sources from where he gets different advices, which is important for the effectiveness of his reliability. He does an excellent job in doing this, except for the advice that was given by Derek Thompson. This one is not so reliable, because he is mentioned to be simply one of Hamblin’s colleagues, not an important newspaper or national radio organization, such as The Jewish Times and NPR. What is just as significant is the usage of background information concerning the fasting day and Jewish culture. This is very useful so other readers who are not familiar with the culture can understand what is being discussed. 

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/09/how-to-fast-in-comfort/279667/

9. A van Gogh's Trip From the Attic to the Museum

The article written by Nina Siegal informs the reader about the recent discover of another painting by Van Gogh. The author talks about the discovery of the painting and its story, saying that it was with a family for a long time, until they decided to take it to the Van Gogh Museum. According to the owners, the first time they took the painting to the museum, the specialists said that they believed the painting wasn’t authentic. Though the owners persevered and decided to take it to evaluation one more time the following year. That time, the specialists decided to take the painting so they could study it better. Since 1992, the painting was evaluated by specialists and after much research, they declared the piece authentic. According to them, the piece was painted in the same canvas Van Gogh used to paint. The paint used is the same type used at the time, which was discovered with the number that accompanied the painting. Siegal states that the piece is worth more than ten million dollars if auctioned today.

The article is informative and has a formal tone; therefore the author does not present any opinion of its own. Siegal provides enough background information for the reader by writing about the painting’s origin and the owners it had. She also presents the process in which the painting was evaluated and the exact dates of each event. The author also provides the information of other works of Van Gogh, so 

that a comparison between paintings may be done.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/10/arts/design/new-van-gogh-painting-discovered-in-amsterdam.html?_r=2&

9. PUTIN’S “MODERN LOVE”

This is a response by Vladimir Putin to Jill Abramson, Executive Editor of the New York Times. Putin starts off his letter talking about modern love, and makes an analogy with polar bears, and how they need to be sedated before you hug them.Than he connects to how he was vulnerable, and an easy target, and her loved one was far, and indeed he was still lonely. Puttin makes another analogy to how Siberia is just like modern love, far from anywhere besides its own territory, and very cold. Puttin starts talking about the first time he saw her, and it was on television. His houseboy Dimitri said she was "twerking", and the dance ignited his ambition to have this woman. He mentions his struggle in trying to reach her through social media, just like Facebook, Vine, Instagram, and others, and even says he sent her a Vine video "kickboxing a tranquilized shark". Then he mentions how he could not stop thinking about that woman, even though everyone kept talking about Syria, and he "excused himself from the G20." He later discovers she has a boyfriend called Liam, through the TMZ and decided to shoot him down with tranquilizers, just like polar bears. He concludes with the sentence "When all is said and done, love means shooting at something and making it fall down."

This is a letter so it provides a very casual tone, expressing characteristics such as of a normal conversation.  The letter is humorous and provides a bigger meaning than the story of modern love, there is a whole analogy going on since Vladimir Putin is the president of Russia regarding his actions towards Syria, and the real author of the piece, Andy Borowitz, does an outstanding job with it. The way Bowowitz writes the story has flow, and it seems credible by the way he wrote it even by being made up. He easily accomplishes his purpose to give a humorous side to all the problems in relation Russia along with the Middle East. He finalizes the essay concluding it with a critique in which love in the modern days is seen as shooting something and making it fall down, which is polemic and sadly true, it portrays reality.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/09/putin-oped-modern-love-column-new-york-times.html

9. How A Relationship DIes on Facebook

The article written by Betsy Morais begins by talking about two men, Walter Woodman and Patrick Cederberg, who decided to terminate their Facebook accounts. They realized how destructive it was in so many different aspects of life, and went so far as to make a seventeen-minute long short film that illustrates this situation. The idea is to show how websites like Facebook become addictive stalking devices, how the internet is "both entrancing and poisonous". “People are so isolated when they’re at a computer,” Woodman adds. “There are all these things that are becoming the norm, like scrolling through someone’s pictures, or creeping. But no one has taken off the veil, to be like, ‘What does this mean? Why are we doing that?’ ” The article paints a scary portrait of what this generation has become thanks to the Internet.

The article is informative, though a tad unclear. There are many facts presented, but the overall picture is somewhat dim. The article doesn't seem to be written for all audiences; teens who fall into the facebook-addicted category that the article describes might not fully understand it. The author has a good vocabulary, though, and the topic is interesting and relevant. The title catches the eye of anyone scrolling through the New Yorker website.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/09/how-a-relationship-dies-on-facebook.html