Eating for Health, Not Weight
By DEAN ORNISH
This article focuses on the wright epidemic that our nation is currently going through. Over half of our population is either overweight or obese and has brought up an important concern to out for.
Details:
Food is an outlet that many people resort to. Healthy alternatives were given in order to show that meals can taste good without having the unhealthy side affects. Ornish gave the reader examples of different, healthy options like "black bean vegetarian chili and whole wheat penne pasta with roasted vegetables". It's always easy to just say that unhealthy food is bad for your body but the impact it can have on the body only makes sense to people when there is an example. The details of how food has the potential to change your health for the worse is shown in the example of common health problems that people live through such as diabetes.
Syntax:
This article is an influential piece that has potential to change the reader's outlook on food. Influential writing pieces tend to have longer sentences so it doesn't come off as a harsh tone. Longer sentences flow better and make it easier to read. Short sentences usually make for a choppy piece and comes off too strong. Ornish accomplished a happy medium. He incorporated common problem that many Americans think with out coming off as "you're doing the wrong" thing type of voice. He engages the reader by giving advice and keep a warm attitude through his writing.
Diction:
This influential article, like others, does not contains hidden messages through the word choice. However diction in this piece plays a major role since a message was being put out. The thing that caught my attention was the repetition of the word "disease". Over the years, disease has a negative connotation which catches the reader's eyes. By using the word disease, I feel like it makes people consider what they are doing to their body and think about if they are on the wrong path.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/opinion/sunday/the-optimal-diet.html?ref=opinion&_r=0moc.semityn.www
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/opinion/sunday/the-optimal-diet.html?ref=opinion&_r=0moc.semityn.www
I like your analysis of "disease"! Finding out what I'm eating can give me diseases, instead of just make me vaguely "unhealthy", would definitely influence me to change my ways more. I also like how you described the use of syntax to produce a certain tone to the piece. However, I do think you need more details to support that idea. I would have liked to see more quotes and specific evidence throughout your post to show the message the author was trying to send through his article.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your overview of the article that you gave at the beginning, that was very helpful because I didn't read the article. I also liked your paragraph about syntax because you gave an example and reached a little deeper, noting that Ornish accomplishes a "happy medium". The first sentences of the first paragraph are a little confusing and more examples of details would be good too. Lastly, the first sentence in the paragraph about diction is a little confusing. Is the author being too harsh by using words that have obvious connotations? Why do you think he does that?
ReplyDeleteAn interesting article deserves an interesting analysis. I like how you pointed out the usage of diction, syntax and detail in the article, but I feel that the example you used from the article to support the paragraph about details was a little weak-- I think it was a good idea, but should be elaborated more upon. I like how you described the use of syntax, especially in creating the attitude of the article. The usage of different types of sentences can really create a feeling the audience gets and is usually not analyzed as being a contributor to attitude. And the noticing of the meaning of the use of "disease" was a cool finding-- good analyzing! Good work of analysis.
ReplyDelete