Speaker: Kathleen Parker is a straight-forward and concise columnist who states her opinion and viewpoints clearly so that the audience can immediately know her stance on the topic. In this column, she talks about how Collegeboard decided to change the format of the SAT and what her thoughts are about this action. Although she still uses her sarcastic and casual voice and tone, she takes this topic seriously and states her opinion in a formal way.
Occasion: Because more students have been taking the ACT than the SAT, Collegeboard has been losing money and decided to make the college entrance exams "easier" so that more students will take the exam again and have more "satisfying" scores. However, Parker does not completely agree that making the test "easier" will make a drastic difference.
Audience: The main target audience includes high school students living in the U.S and other high school students living in different countries who plan on attending university in the U.S. This column mainly targets these students because they are the ones who actually have to take the college entrance admission test in order to apply and get accepted into the colleges they desire.
Purpose: Parker believes that although Collegeboard is changing the format of the SAT to make it "easier", this may not make huge impacts on the students' achievement and scores because a student's education environment serves as a confounding factor that may affect the way they do on the tests. She wants to let the students know that just because the tests are made easier will not be completely beneficial, such as preparing them for college.
Subject: The topic is educational because it is discussing college admission standardized tests, mainly the SAT.
Tone: The tone is calm (in a casual way) and slightly sarcastic because she is explaining what Collegeboard is going to do about the SAT and her personal viewpoints on whether this will impact students greatly and be extremely beneficial.
Overall, Kathleen Parker succeeds as a writer because not only is her writing straightforward and concise, but she successfully discusses "bland" and "complex" topics that most teenagers and young adults find boring in an interesting and easily grabs the audience's attention in her introductions. Depending on the issue, the audience can tell what her emotions are towards the topic. In the column dealing with Chris Christie, her emotion was frustration and mocking because she obviously does not like him as a person or a politician (doesn't like him in general). But because she has sympathy towards some issues, such as the drug and drinking column, her sarcastic and casual tone is still there but she shows more sympathy and concern towards the issue with more seriousness compared to her other columns such as the Chris Christie column. Rather than making the audience feel guilty, she gives them a feeling that makes them think over the issue again and see whether they still believe in their original claim or believe her claim. In terms of evidence, she often brings herself in in her columns because she wrote books in the past that relates to the topic or has past experiences with her children while being a mom that relates to the column. The main patterns that are noticeable from her columns include her sarcasm and casual voice/tone and concise and straightforwardness in her writing. Her syntax includes m-dashes and her personal comments that follow afterward. She does not focus on only a certain topic but her main focuses tend to be current popular issues in the country, such as the recent issue on Collegeboard changing the SAT format and the latest movie "Noah". It seems that Parker is a constant critic because for every column she states her own personal viewpoint and opinion about the topic, which usually end up disagreeing. She is also a realist because she claims that although something may seem good, it may not happen in reality, such as the SAT column. However, although she is a critic and realist, her writing is persuasively written with a strong voice that has the power to catch the audience's attention and thoughts that can eventually make them agree with her claims.
Occasion: Because more students have been taking the ACT than the SAT, Collegeboard has been losing money and decided to make the college entrance exams "easier" so that more students will take the exam again and have more "satisfying" scores. However, Parker does not completely agree that making the test "easier" will make a drastic difference.
Audience: The main target audience includes high school students living in the U.S and other high school students living in different countries who plan on attending university in the U.S. This column mainly targets these students because they are the ones who actually have to take the college entrance admission test in order to apply and get accepted into the colleges they desire.
Purpose: Parker believes that although Collegeboard is changing the format of the SAT to make it "easier", this may not make huge impacts on the students' achievement and scores because a student's education environment serves as a confounding factor that may affect the way they do on the tests. She wants to let the students know that just because the tests are made easier will not be completely beneficial, such as preparing them for college.
Subject: The topic is educational because it is discussing college admission standardized tests, mainly the SAT.
Tone: The tone is calm (in a casual way) and slightly sarcastic because she is explaining what Collegeboard is going to do about the SAT and her personal viewpoints on whether this will impact students greatly and be extremely beneficial.
Overall, Kathleen Parker succeeds as a writer because not only is her writing straightforward and concise, but she successfully discusses "bland" and "complex" topics that most teenagers and young adults find boring in an interesting and easily grabs the audience's attention in her introductions. Depending on the issue, the audience can tell what her emotions are towards the topic. In the column dealing with Chris Christie, her emotion was frustration and mocking because she obviously does not like him as a person or a politician (doesn't like him in general). But because she has sympathy towards some issues, such as the drug and drinking column, her sarcastic and casual tone is still there but she shows more sympathy and concern towards the issue with more seriousness compared to her other columns such as the Chris Christie column. Rather than making the audience feel guilty, she gives them a feeling that makes them think over the issue again and see whether they still believe in their original claim or believe her claim. In terms of evidence, she often brings herself in in her columns because she wrote books in the past that relates to the topic or has past experiences with her children while being a mom that relates to the column. The main patterns that are noticeable from her columns include her sarcasm and casual voice/tone and concise and straightforwardness in her writing. Her syntax includes m-dashes and her personal comments that follow afterward. She does not focus on only a certain topic but her main focuses tend to be current popular issues in the country, such as the recent issue on Collegeboard changing the SAT format and the latest movie "Noah". It seems that Parker is a constant critic because for every column she states her own personal viewpoint and opinion about the topic, which usually end up disagreeing. She is also a realist because she claims that although something may seem good, it may not happen in reality, such as the SAT column. However, although she is a critic and realist, her writing is persuasively written with a strong voice that has the power to catch the audience's attention and thoughts that can eventually make them agree with her claims.