These two essays work really well in getting the point across about the class and the assignments. The humor works really well especially in the first essay. Both pieces seem to be “self aware” in that they know times are changing and kids are spending less time reading and writing and spending more times on their phones. The humor keeps the readers or students more entertained when hearing and learning about the course. The humor has a relate able feeling to the students because it uses things that students use a lot today like Twitter.
The first essay does this well with the line “Students will acquire the tools needed to make their tweets glimmer with a complete lack of forethought, their Facebook updates ring with self-importance, and their blog entries shimmer with literary pithiness.” because instead of saying how Twitter and Facebook are ruining print media the writer understand that Twitter and Facebook do exist and will be continued to be used every day by millions of people, and it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. To elaborate, the syllabus goes into more detail talking about how the class is going to work, again by not “attacking” Facebook and Twitter, but by talking about the importance of reading and writing and to not forget that Facebook, Twitter, etc, all come from that.
The second essay uses “relate able” humor very well too talking about how writing assignments are going to be things that you might actually need to write about in the near future.
These two essays work really well because they don’t disregard or talk down about new technology and advancements, but make it important to note that reading and writing is important and everyone should learn at least the basics of how to do so.
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