Journal Five

The profile of Frank Sinatra by Gay Talese was intriguing. Everyone knows the name and everyone has probably heard at least a song or two by him. Drunk people sing along to his song “New York, New York” after Yankees’ baseball games. People make love listening to his music. He is one of those singers who transcends time and will always be a classic. This profile takes such a large public figure head and shows the real man behind the music. It appeals to the readers because who doesn’t like reading about celebrities? Talese never really got the chance to sit down and do a true interview with Sinatra but he utilized people close to him and observations to write a thrilling piece that captivates audiences of all ages. Talese uses ethos and pathos beautifully in the personal views of people surrounding Sinatra. His friends told stories of Sinatra’s love and affection for his family that truly transformed the public celebrity into a real, relatable human being.

The interview with Gay Talese is interesting. He talks of doing profiles and makes it seem like a full time job merely gathering material. He says he takes about a year or two for him to feel comfortable writing a profile of someone. To write a profile (according to Talese) you need (sincere) curiosity and patience. You also need to have a point. He says he wanted to write about people not in the news and discover them. He wanted to use real people, real names, and real facts to make nonfiction writing important and well known. He was proud of his ability to “write literature in a daily newspaper.” The interview was fascinating and I would love to read more profiles by him.

Journal Four

This piece was very interesting. It showed how students act on weekends and the crazy antics they get into. It was funny to listen to what drunk people do, including trying to climb into a cop car or streaking. It also showed very intriguing outside opinions (neighborhood residents) as well as insider opinions (police officers, excerpts from Graham Spanier’s speeches) that did a great job of emphasizing the intensity of some drunken escapades. The piece even did a great job of talking about a student Joe Dado who died due to alcohol. What touched me a lot with this story is one of my floor-mates knew him. He once told me the story about him and hearing it on this piece was a shock. It was very effective to use a real-life story to emphasize the point of excessive drinking. But this kind of behavior is not specific to just Penn State; it happens at probably 95% of colleges in America.

However, what really bothered me was the assumption that all students are like this. Now, I do agree that a lot of students drink to excess. Some of my teammates are like that; I’ve been out with them a few times and drank to excess those few times. I’ll admit to that. But on most other weekends, my friends and I will catch the free movie at the HUB, watch movies in the dorm, play video games, and do homework. Not every student goes out every night of every weekend and gets completely annihilated and pee in public, get into fights, or punch cop cars. In fact, a majority of students don’t do that. Most of them are in their dorms doing various, non-alcohol related things.

That one statistic also dwarfs the ones that really matter; those regarding the great education. Penn State is a highly prestigious intellectual school. In fact, according to an article published in The Wall Street Journal, Penn State in the number one place recruiters look to fill job positions. Our business school (Smeal College of Business) is in the top 10 largest business schools in the country, the US World and News Report ranked our College of Engineering 17^th in the nation and our College of Education 22^nd. This piece is talking about life on the number one party school’s campus but they failed to mention anything about our campus that is true fact: we are Penn State. We get a phenomenal education. And Graham Spanier said it very well: it’s an online survey done by students. We will win it. We will win almost any student-based survey because of our numbers and school spirit. It is not a completely accurate survey. But the surveys and reports about our education are fact. THAT is life on the campus of the #1 party school in the country for 2009.

Now on a more objective note, the piece was very relevant to the audience because it was easy to listen to and the pathos, logos, and ethos were very noticeable and common. The piece talked about the amount of excessive drinking that Penn State students partake in as well as the dangers it poses. The piece does a decent job of using facts and details to emphasize the point as well as interviewing people. The interviews of local residents, police officers, drunk and sober students, and President Graham Spanier help to show the struggle of Penn State faculty to combat drinking excessively. Overall, the piece is well done and very effective, if not a tad ignorant of other aspects of life at Penn State.