Everyone’s an Author

links from your book Welcome to the Tumblr page for Everyone’s an Author. Our goals are to challenge your thinking, stimulate your creativity, and offer you a platform for launching yourself into authordom. We’ll be posting new items weekly for you to analyze, reflect on, and respond to. You’ll find posts here in diverse media that extend the themes of the text, and each one has a few stimulating questions to get you started on commenting and responding. Click the “Links From Your Book” button above to find websites, videos, and other online examples cited in your textbook.

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Are Your Memories Always Real?

We are just beginning to study the effects of AI on our lives and our brains, including how our memories process deepfake videos and images. If you could realistically insert yourself into a video (as AI software Sora did) and watch it enough times, could that experience become embedded in your mind as though it were your own lived experience? In "Memory Maker," Tim Requarth addresses this question and investigates humans' vulnerability to AI technologies while blending argument with narrative, analysis, and reporting.

QUESTIONS

As you read, make a note of each time Requarth references an expert source. How does Requarth use reliable sources to support his own stance?

“The Memory Maker” offers a robust blend of genres: it argues a position, offers a narrative, analyzes a current effect of AI technology, and reports information. Using your textbook and prior knowledge, where do you see characteristics (or conventions) of each genre in this article?

Write a brief rhetorical analysis of this article (approximately 350 words) that evaluates whether Requarth’s argument is effective, using one or more of the rhetorical appeals (emotional, ethical, and logical) as the support for your stance. In writing your response, refer to the chapter “Analyzing and Constructing Arguments” in your textbook.

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An Ad with an Unintended Message

Sometimes what we think we are communicating isn’t quite what the audience hears or sees. When there’s a disconnect between what we say and what we mean, our rhetoric becomes ineffective. In this video from The Today Show, “Bruised Apple: Tech giant apologizes over new iPad ad,” the narrator reports on an ad from Apple titled “Crush,” which shows the latest iPad Pro smashing traditional tools of creative design. The video offers both commentary on the ad and a preview of the ad itself.

QUESTIONS

News sources, like The Today Show, often present themselves as objective; however, this report seems to take an argumentative stance. What argument does the video make, and which parts of the news segment support that argument? Do you view such stance-taking any differently since The Today Show is a talk show about the news—a slightly different genre than a traditional news report? If so, how? If not, why?

Brian Cheung of NBC offers an explanation of Apple’s intention in creating the ad that sparks a broader, short conversation about Apple’s ethos. How do the commentators describe Apple’s ethos of trustworthiness and credibility?

Apple released this ad in 2024, a few years after generative AI platforms became publicly available and widely used. What role does this context play in the ad's effectiveness? If you didn't have this context, would it change your perception of the ad?

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Are Your Professors Doling Out Too Many A’s?

It feels rewarding to earn an A in a class, but what if you learned that nearly everyone was earning one? Ivy League schools have recently come under fire for grade inflation; too many students at these universities are getting A’s. In this Yale Daily News article, student reporter Jaeha Jang details the issue at hand: At Yale, nearly 79 percent of all grades recorded in the 2022-23 school year were A’s, while Harvard has attempted to curb grade inflation by capping the number of A grades in each class. Jang reports on both sides of the discussion, offering a picture of the benefits and the complications of ending grade inflation.

QUESTIONS

The “Reporting Information” chapter in Everyone’s an Author explains that reports should generally have an objective rather than argumentative stance. Is Jang an objective writer? What particular moves does she make to demonstrate her objectivity? Are there any places where she slips out of objectivity and reveals her own stance? Point to specific passages in the article to support your responses.

There are five characteristic features of a report: a topic carefully focused for a specific audience; definitions of key terms; trustworthy information; effective organization; and a confident, informative tone. Choose one of these features and describe how it appears in Jang's article. How does Jang’s use of the feature support her purpose?

Switch genres and write a short, 300-word argumentative essay that takes a stance on grade inflation. Use the “Arguing a Position” chapter in your textbook if you need guidance on writing argumentatively.

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The PR-fect Relationship

Taylor Swift has been in the news a lot lately—and she’s stayed relevant throughout her decades-long career by regularly appearing in top trending news stories. In the It’s Been a Minute podcast episode “Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce need your attention,” host Brittany Luse and public relations expert Molly McPherson analyze Swift’s latest relationship through the lens of PR strategies. However, Swift isn’t the only public figure to use PR tactics to her advantage; many other celebrities and politicians perform in their public relationships. Luse and McPherson contend that this strategic mindset extends even to us as regular, everyday people.

QUESTIONS

At the beginning of the podcast episode, Luse and McPherson claim that Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift are in a PR relationship. How do they define PR relationships? What kinds of evidence do they include throughout the rest of the episode to support their claim about Swift and Kelce?

Identify the primary intended audience for this episode. Use evidence from the episode to support your reasoning. Does the podcast format effectively communicate Luse and McPherson’s ideas for this audience? Why or why not? How would using a different medium, like an opinion essay, affect the audience’s understanding of Luse and McPherson’s ideas?

Toward the end of the episode, Luse and McPherson discuss how the average person also uses PR tactics and strategies to influence the way others perceive them in their everyday lives. Write an essay examining one of your own social media posts, focusing on the considerations you made in choosing the images and text, as well as your intended tone, audience, and purpose.

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Do Social Media Algorithms Control Us?

Chances are you’ve been influenced by social media algorithms at some point: you talk with your friends about a movie and suddenly ads for that movie appear in your feed; you search for a specific recipe and then creators advertising brands for similar ingredients appear every other post; or you watch some reviews for a product you’re thinking about purchasing and BAM! now reviews for related products start appearing too. In each of these scenarios, social media algorithms push content designed to make you want to buy something new. In her article “As Long as Social Media Is Around Can We Really Break Free of Overconsumption?” Anmol Irfan explores how social media shapes consumer habits and analyzes the wider impacts of overconsumption on society and the environment.

QUESTIONS

What is Irfan’s main argument about social media and overconsumption? What sort of audience do you think she’s writing for? What do you think is her main purpose in writing this report?

Consider the various types of support Irfan uses throughout her report. Which form of evidence in this article is most convincing to you as a reader? Why? Where do you think Irfan could use more support? What kind(s) of additional evidence might she consider?

Irfan’s article describes how social media algorithms influence our consumption habits, and she hints that these habits can lead to some serious consequences. Identify one of the consequences mentioned in the article—or come up with one of your own—and write an essay proposing various strategies for avoiding these problems created by social media algorithms.

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The Ritual of Being a Sports Fan

Have you ever felt completely engrossed in watching your favorite team play—your energy is so high and your focus so intense that it’s as if you’re actually part of the team? It turns out that feeling might be at least partially real. In a recent episode of the Short Wave podcast, University of Connecticut cognitive anthropologist (and soccer fan) Dr. Dimitris Xygalatas shares his research explaining how sports rituals and the emotional alignment of the fan experience reveal the deeply human tendency to care.

QUESTIONS

What is the central question that prompted Dr. Xygalatas’s analysis of sports rituals and the fan experience? What types of evidence does he provide to support his analysis? Which type of evidence do you find most persuasive?

Consider the insights that Dr. Xygalatas has gained from his research of sports fans. What does he conclude? What insight does the podcast host, Regina Barber, hope listeners will gain from hearing about Dr. Xygalatas’s research? Are these insights the same or different?

Dr. Xygalatas discusses the concept of collective effervescence, or the shared feeling of emotional alignment that can occur in large group situations such as sports events, religious rituals, or concerts. Write an essay identifying an experience of collective effervescence you have had in an environment outside of the sports arena. Describe what that experience was like and analyze how it relates to the concepts of ritual and oneness that Dr. Xygalatas explores in this podcast episode.

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Fighting More Than Just Demons

Even if you haven’t seen this movie, chances are you’ve heard bits of the soundtrack after it topped the music charts. We’re talking about Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters. The movie follows an all-female Korean pop group as they work to save the world from demons through the power of music. After analyzing how the film celebrates music, Korean culture, and self-empowerment, YouTuber Marina McBain argues that the real celebration is about its depictions of its female characters.

QUESTIONS

1. What is Marina McBain’s central argument in this video? How well does she blend clips and examples of the film with outside evidence to support her argument?

2. McBain begins her video stating that KPop Demon Hunters “just schooled Hollywood on how to write women by letting them burp.” How effective is this statement as an opening hook? How does this hook appeal to her audience (or not)?

3. While McBain focuses specifically on the ways that female characters are typically portrayed in Hollywood, this is certainly not the only group of people affected by the stereotypical ways they are depicted in film. Write an essay identifying a particular group of people that is often stereotyped—athletes, cheerleaders, nerds, etc.—and the effects their depictions in recent tv shows and movies have on those groups of people in real life. Choose a specific show or movie to analyze. Describe the depictions, explain the message those depictions convey about your chosen group of people, then analyze how these depictions create real effects on viewers.

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Your Digital Productivity Pal

How often do you use your phone? Are you reading this from your phone now? Smartphones and the apps that we use on them (hello, doomscrolling on TikTok!) often take up more of our attention than we realize, and they can distract us from getting important things done! But what if an app on that same distracting smartphone actually made you more productive? This article from The Verge reviews the app Focus Friend, created by Hank Green, and explores how the author’s experience with the app helped them make discoveries about their own habits.

QUESTIONS

1. Consider how Zachary Brown, the author of the piece, establishes his credibility. How does his use of personal narrative impact his trustworthiness as a reviewer? What makes you as a reader more (or less) likely to trust his review?

2. Who do you think Brown’s ideal reader is? How does Brown demonstrate that he is aware of what his audience needs to know? Identify two specific examples of this and explain why you find these two instances so effective.

3. While smartphones often get a bad rap, there are apps and other tools on these devices that can be used for positive ends, like the Focus Friend app. Identify a mobile app that you or someone close to you has used for positive results (such as an app focused on social media, fitness, learning, etc.). Once you’ve identified that app, create an infographic or flyer that uses a mixture of text and images to inform others about the benefits of this app. Ask yourself these questions to help you build your infographic: Who should use this app? What does this app do? What makes it so appealing? How might you use strategies like personal narrative, images, or statistics to persuade your audience to try the app?

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ChatGPT: A Personal Therapist?

AI seems to be everywhere! Also everywhere: debates about the role of LLMs (large language models) like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Google Gemini in so many areas of our lives, including mental health. As mental health care becomes more expensive or sometimes inaccessible, AI continues to be easy and free to use, creating a growing trend of students using AI tools for emotional support. This 2025 article from Arizona State University explores one expert’s observations and research surrounding the use of AI tools in place of human therapy to treat mental health.

QUESTIONS

1. What is Professor Matthew Meier’s stance on the use of AI tools to treat mental health concerns? What type(s) of evidence does Meier include to back up his stance? Which piece of evidence do you find most impactful? Why?

2. There are two complex topics covered in this news article: mental health and AI tools. How does the Q&A style of the article make these complex topics easier for readers to understand? How does this rhetorical decision show the writer has kept her readers’ needs in mind?

3. Have you used AI tools for help in your personal life (travel, scheduling, budgeting, etc.)? As Meier notes in his interview responses, AI tools can be incredibly useful, but it is important to know their limitations. Write an essay that describes one way AI tools might be used in someone’s personal life. Describe how the tools might be used and what types of information a user could find especially useful from the tool’s output. Then, like Meier, examine and note the specific concerns a user should consider when using the tool for that particular purpose.

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What’s New? A Dictionary!

We often think of dictionaries as formal and stagnant tomes, but that’s not the case. In fact, there’s a brand new dictionary on the way. In this June 2023 CNN article “Large-scale study will culminate in the Oxford Dictionary of African American English,” writer Meron Moges-Gerbi announces this major new publication, coming in 2025. The dictionary aims to honor the tradition of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and contain entries suggested by both scholars and the public.

QUESTIONS

1. The very existence of this project lends legitimacy to a wider variety of dialects and self-expressions in a culture that’s historically prioritized “standard” English for all. How might the new dictionary change how we learn to write and communicate or what counts as “good writing”? Do you think this project will lead to a mainstream embrace of other American dialects?  What would that look like?

2. The editors of the new dictionary say that many of the terms included are ones used across cultures (“shout-out,” “lit” and “woke,” for example) but are rooted in African American history and vernacular. According to the article, why is the historical context of language important? The article doesn’t include any naysayers—those who might question the value of celebrating ways of speaking beyond “standard “English. Does this omission weaken the article? What questions might a naysayer raise about this project?

3. The editors plan to include words ranging from those first recorded during the Middle Passage to terms commonly used on social media today. In a related article from March 2023, “Assembling the Oxford Dictionary of African American English, New Yorker writer Alex Carp provides more insight into how the Oxford Dictionary of African American English is being created. Carp highlights debates about the origins of certain words (such as “grill: n., a removable or permanent dental overlay worn as a fashion statement and typically made of silver, gold, platinum, or another metal” and how they settled spellings (such as “do-rag,” or is it “durag”? “dew-rag”?). Write an essay proposing a term you think should be included in this new dictionary. Why is the word you chose important? What’s its origin and how it is used today? Why should this entry be included over others?

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Putting AI to Work

Be honest, have you used AI for schoolwork? How about to do your job? There’s lots of attention on how artificial intelligence is affecting education for the worse, but AI isn’t limited to the classroom. And at work, most people say its effects aren’t all bad or all good. In her November 2023 NPR radio report “Workers are seeing how AI could change our jobs,” Andrea Hsu speaks to people from a few industries about how AI is changing their work—the positives, the negatives, and the in-between.

QUESTIONS

1. Hsu interviews workers in the arts and communication fields, and she includes comments on both the positives and negatives of AI. On the surface, this appears to be an unbiased report, but does Hsu have a stance? What conclusions does her report draw about the potential impacts of AI on workers in creative fields overall?

2. What kind of evidence does Hsu use to report on how AI is affecting work? How do you think the medium—a brief radio segment—impacted the kind of evidence included? Do you find the interviewees convincing? Why or why not?

3. Hsu assumes that her audience has some experience with AI in their daily lives. What experiences have you had lately? Now think about your future career and the kind of work you hope to do. Do some research on how AI tools are impacting the jobs you might pursue. Are you in favor of AI tools playing a role in your industry or not? Take a stance and give your reasons with supporting evidence to back them up.

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Cafeteria Art

School cafeterias are more than just places we eat. They reflect—and even shape—the social, cultural, and economic lives of students. In a November 2023 article for WBUR Radio Boston, Jacob Garcia wrote about Lunch Box Moments, an art exhibit made up of colorful lunchboxes painted with words and phrases. According to Garcia, “A "lunchbox moment" is a familiar occurrence for many kids of different ethnicities. The experience happens when a traditional meal elicits a reaction, positive or negative, from onlookers.” The artist, Amie Bantz, collects stories of such moments from people in the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community and displays their words “in an effort to reduce hate and increase love,” according to a gallery label. Read the description of the exhibit and look at some of the images of the artwork.

QUESTIONS

1. “Protect Mom’s Feelings.” “Refused to Try.” “What Are You Eating?” The words spray-painted on the lunchboxes express experiences in a kind of shorthand, using just a few words to tell a bigger story. Looks closely at a few images of the exhibit and choose two or three lunchbox examples to analyze. What does the message on the lunchbox convey? What experiences and emotions does it capture?

2. “You are what you eat” is a cliché about how food reflects identity. Do you think Bantz would agree or disagree that people “are what they eat”? Why or why not? Use evidence from Bantz’s work to support your response.

3. Did you bring lunch from home to school every day? Did you buy lunch, or was free lunch provided? Did anyone comment on what you ate or how you ate it? Write an essay in which you narrate some significant lunch box moments from your own life. How did these moments make you feel? How did the experiences impact your sense of identity and belonging? Were your lunch box moments limited to your past school days or do they happen in adulthood, too?

Image: Mel Taing/Pao Arts Center

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TEXT IF YOU'RE OK

Have you sent a text to make sure someone’s okay? Maybe to see that your friend made it home after a party or check on a loved one who’s under the weather. Check-in texts hold a lot more weight when life hangs in the balance, like the messages that made up the front page of The Daily Tar Heel on August 30, 2023, the day after an active shooter froze the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill campus in lockdown for over two hours and killed one person. The texts, displayed together, make a powerful statement about gun violence, safety, and campus life in America today.

QUESTIONS

1. The front page doesn’t include any background information. Why do you think the editorial staff decided to fill the cover with messages alone? What argument do you think the editorial staff that created this front page is trying to convey? Does the decision to leave out any contextual information strengthen or weaken the main message?

2. Most of the text is black type, but some is red. Why do you think only a few words are set in red? What else do you notice about how the page was designed? How does the design guide readers to make sense of the words?

3. These personal messages focus our attention on the many people impacted by the incident, not just the perpetrator and the victim. Many newspapers lead with the facts: what happened and who was directly involved. Does this front page make you think any differently about gun violence than a “just the facts” report would? Why or why not? Write an essay where you reflect on what kind of media coverage you think is most important when violence happens.

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PINK POWER!

What does the color pink mean to you? Do you embrace it? loathe it? feel like it’s definitely not for you? Thanks to the 2023 Barbie movie, pink is everywhere lately, and everyone seems to have strong feelings about the color. Karena Phan analyzes pink—and its impact on culture through time—in her July 2023 HuffPost article, “The Cultural Phenomenon Behind Pink, The Color That Sells.”

QUESTIONS

1. What prompted Phan to analyze the impact of the color pink on US culture? What question is she trying to answer? And what conclusions does she come to by the end of the article?

2. Phan cites evidence from multiple sources. What kinds of source materials does Phan use? Which piece of evidence did you find most interesting and effective for examining the cultural importance of pink? Why?

3. Phan analyzes the ways that pink has been associated with certain social groups over time. It was a color for the rich in 18th century France yet an exclusively feminine hue in the last century on US soil. Write an essay that analyzes your personal experience with the color pink and how it relates to your identity. Is it a color you wear? Why or why not? What groups does your relationship with pink signal that you belong to? Have your feelings about the color pink changed over time? How and why?

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Take off your headphones

A personal phone call happening at the table next to you in the coffee shop gets loud. The sounds of the construction project next door fill your apartment. What do most of us do? We grab our favorite noise-cancelling headphones. When sounds irritate us, we often depend on devices to regain control. How wonderful! Or is it? In this June 2023 essay, Wired writer Lauren Larson shares her own dependence on noise-cancelling devices and argues why it might be time to let the sound back in.

QUESTIONS

1. Larson reflects on her experience with sound sensitivity and how she uses devices to tune noise out. What conclusions does she come to about the way noise-cancelling devices are commonly used? What kinds of evidence does she use to support her main argument? Are you persuaded? Why or why not?

2. Larson describes her personal experience to help the audience understand how and why we turn to noise-cancelling devices. Why do you think she included so much of her own  experience? Does her narrative give the argument more credibility or less in your view? Think about the people who read Wired, how do you think the author’s personal experiences resonated (or not) with her intended audience?

3. Noise-cancelling devices help us feel more in control of what we hear. Larson explores how too much control might be harmful to us, and based on what she learned from experts, proposes a more balanced approach to living with sounds. In what ways do you experience sound sensitivity? When noises become intrusive, what do you do? Do you plan to do anything differently now, after reading Larson’s report? Explain your reasoning.

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The high cost of health

Have you noticed the rising prices of seemingly everything lately? Recent inflation has our attention on the cost of everyday products like food, gas, and other essentials, but what about healthcare? Healthcare costs in the United States are a perpetual hot topic for discussion and debate, as many Americans with access struggle to pay for coverage, while others avoid essential medical care outside of emergencies due to a lack of insurance. Aubrey Hirsch presents one viewpoint and solution to this problem in her July 2023 multimodal essay, “The Price of Being Alive,” published in The Audacity, a Substack newsletter.

QUESTIONS

1. What is Hirsch’s main argument about healthcare costs in the United States? What type(s) of evidence does Hirsch include to back up her stance? Which piece of evidence do you find most impactful? Why?

2. As a multimodal essay, Hirsch’s argument relies on illustrations to convey information—statistics, arguments, examples, and more. Would this piece be stronger or weaker if it were text only? Why?

3. Have you had any experiences navigating medical costs or bills? Has someone you know? Hirsch argues for one solution to this problem, but there are others. Write an essay that advocates for another solution to rising healthcare costs. What solutions have others argued for? After examining these other viewpoints, what action do you feel should be taken? Why?

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“I loved every single class I took the whole time I was in school,” said no student ever. Some required classes can be particularly groan-producing, right? And yet, sometimes a course that sounds terrible at first ends up being a life-altering experience (or at least something very useful and interesting). University of Georgia student Dani McAlister talks about one such class in this September 2021 essay written for the student newspaper, The Red and Black.

QUESTIONS

1. What reasons does McAlister offer in support of her argument that a sociology class should be a graduation prerequisite course for every student in every major? Summarize the reasons. Do you agree with McAlister about requiring a sociology class? Why or why not?

2. McAlister makes a couple of concessions about prerequisites in general; what are they? Do her concessions weaken or damage her argument? Strengthen it? Do they damage her credibility as an author? Strengthen it? Explain the reasoning behind your responses.

3. Is there a class that you have taken, will take, or just wish existed, that you think is important enough that every student should be required to pass it? Should this class be taken in the first term? first year? final term? any time before graduation? Write an essay that describes this class and your reasons for thinking that it is so vitally important. In what ways will the class benefit individual students? How, if at all, will it benefit the local or national community? Include any other details that you think are relevant.