The easiest strategy I could find to discuss in this essay is diction, the authors choice of words. This is an essay about homosexuality and the "return" to heterosexuality. The author states how homosexual men and women who didn't start that way, but somehow ended up that way (like a straight man out of the blue realizing that he's gay) are not changed because of their sexuality, but simply are the same people who decided to change their sexuality. In a society where homosexuality is frowned upon, there are many movements and organizations, like churches that strive to bring people back to heterosexuality. But why? Why is it so hard to accept the fact that a human being can just be attracted to another human being? The authors diction helps the audience understand and embrace these questions because she uses correct terminology side by side with slang terminology. Using words like "gay" and "bi" interchangably with words like "homosexuality" and "heterosexuality" lets the reader really relate to this topic. Doing this, she makes young adults the target audience. Struggling with sexuality is most common in young adults who are generaly trying to find themselves, period. There is the common joke that always starts off, "Well, there was this one time in college..." So here, the target audience are young, SINGLE adults.
Other strategies used are tone and ethics. The author uses a sarcastic tone periodically throughout the essay, making fun of "conversion movements" and their choice of name for themselves (Exodus International). And the author strongly points out ethics throughout the paper because homosexuality is constantly dubbed as "unethical." But unethical for who? For christians? Isn't the term "Christian" just another label?
These are the topics I will mainly focus on in my paper
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I find it amazing that you could actually read this article and generalize the meaning in a clearer way for me to understand. :-) I read this article myself and found it hard to decipher. However, I understand it more clearly now. Good job.
ReplyDeleteDana,
ReplyDeleteYou write, "authors diction helps the audience understand and embrace these questions because she uses correct terminology side by side with slang terminology. Using words like "gay" and "bi" interchangably with words like "homosexuality" and "heterosexuality" lets the reader really relate to this topic. Doing this, she makes young adults the target audience." This is well-put. The only question I have here is why the use of "correct" and "slang" terminology together make the reader relate. Why do we need both. . . or rather, what do we get from both?
Tone is definitely a very influential strategy, and I think you can definitely incorporate an appeal to ethics as well (i.e., is it ethical to try to monitor, control, or change someone else's identity to fit your beliefs, politics, and assumptions?)