English Gods Among Us
Commentary
The audience I am aiming at is people with an interest with
movies and that industry as well as young adults (20’s/30’s) as the topic of
the article spans back 10/20 years to current times. I open my Gods Among Us
article with a direct challenge to the reader in order to immediately engage
them with the article and to urge them to continue reading. With the reader at
this point captured by the article, I start to lay out my reasons for Tarantino
being classed as a ‘God’ in the industry, which will hopefully evoke one of two
responses from the reader, those being that they either;
- Agree
and continue reading because they agree.
- Disagree
and continue reading to hear my side of the debate to counter with theirs.
I continue with my argument by using repetition to force my
point that this director has made many great films consecutively by saying ‘hit
after hit after hit’, followed by pop-cultures references as evidence of this
when I reference ‘Reservoir Dogs’ (which I in turn follow with the bold
statement that it is heralded as ‘The Greatest Independent Movie of all Time’)
and later in the article reference that the next title is the equally famous
‘Pulp Fiction’. Following the Reservoir Dogs reference I use a comparison of
another famous director (Steven Spielberg) combined with pop-culture reference
with ‘Jaws’. The intent of this is that it hopefully puts my argument into
perspective to the reader. I close of the opening paragraph with a declarative
statement to illicit more debate from the readers who disagree with me.
In the following paragraph I use the metaphor ‘Pulp Fiction
… regarded as Tarantino’s masterpiece’. I use this metaphor as ‘masterpiece’
generally makes you think of art and all the connotations that art brings with
it. I couple this more pop-culture references by mentioning actors ‘Samuel L
Jackson, John Travolta and Bruce Willis’ who are all accomplished actors and
show they type of talent Tarantino attracts. Using both of these techniques
aides my case during this section of the article.
Next paragraph, I acknowledge the opposing opinion to avoid
a disconnect from the readers whose opinions on the subject disagree with those
in the article, which keeps them engaged with the article, as the articles objective is to persuade/argue my
point. I also use jargon appropriate to the movie industry, when I use the term
‘Cinematography’ which refers to the way Tarantino films his scenes. This adds
to the credibility and legitimacy to the argument I am making as it displays
knowledge and understanding of the subject.
I begin to reach the conclusion of my article I give a brief
overview of Tarantino’s career so far as further evidence of my case which
contains small amounts of my own personal opinion to add personal feel to the
article so the reader can visualise the other side of the debate. I then
conclude the article by conceding ground to the opposing argument which lets
the reader know that this argument put forward considers other opinions and is
for open debate and not bias, one sided argument, meaning they are more
receptive of the argument which helps achieve the purpose of the article which
is to persuade the reader of my opinion.
An excellent range of well-made points. The filmic references are not strictly 'pop culture' as they are from the field you are writing in. Just call them references or say 'I referenced'. I really liked the section on the metaphor "masterpiece" where you examined the connotations and showed how they supported your argument in a subtle way... and then how you went on to show how another technique complemented this. That kind of paragraph is A-grade, although you needed to be slightly more explicit about how the art connotations suited the GAP - I understood it but you need to spell it out a little more clearly to prove your cleverness! Make sure you give each point the support it needs before you link on to the next point, as many of the other points are not fully convincing.
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