Try not to repeat yourself from previous PA's. Imagine that you are writing an essay on the cartoon. The paragraph is just one of several.
In addition, try to work in some informal language. Don't be afraid to use texting abbreviations, but don't overdo it. The idea here is to achieve a moment or two of the informality in Chapter 9 of TSIS, but remember that you are still doing academic writing. You're looking for the prof to chuckle a bit and (maybe) forget that s/he is reading a big stack of essays at 3 AM.
Try to limit yourself to a single element of the cartoon and a single point of refutation, but develop each point completely. DOWNSHIFT.
"Git this thang" posted by Sunday at 5 PM, and try to look over other students' paragraphs before class on Monday.
In her cartoon, “The IM’s of Romeo and Juliet,” Roz Chast subtly illustrates her belief that teens in America live extremely disorganized lives. She does so by painting the picture of two rooms, both of which are cluttered with an extraordinary amount of miscellaneous materials on the floor. In the illustration of the two rooms, one can see old plates, a stereo, boxes of food, soda cans and unkempt books. While Chast may believe that all teens, or many of them, are disordered and without structure in their lives, I wholeheartedly disagree. I believe that many teens, but not all, have a great deal of structure and organization in their lives. For example, when it comes to room cleanliness, I believe that I maintain a very organized and uncluttered lifestyle. My room is nothing like that of Romeo or Juliet’s and I am sure this is true for many teens in America. My organization skills are the result of a very structured upbringing where my parents stressed the benefits of a clean room and an organized life. That being said, I believe that more teens in America are like that than Chast lets on in her cartoon. While Chast may try her best to push her point that teens are messy, cluttered and disheveled, I believe that she does not know what she is talking about because she is not a teen in America and she probably has not interacted with many different teens in her life, so she is most likely ignorant on the issue.
ReplyDeleteIn her cartoon, Roz Chast pokes at our generation as having bad grammar. She displays this in the illustrated conversation between Romeo and Juliet with responses such as Romeo’s,“scooI sucked 2day” and Juliet’s, “Cordoza called home, sez im failing Spanish btw both my rents hate u.” I think Chast is mistaken because she overlooks the fact that people text and I/M chat differently than how they write. If someone is talking to a friend, they do not have to worry about how proper or correct their messages are. They just type what is quick and convenient. Nobody sits down and evaluates each other’s text messages, so it is unnecessary to use perfect grammar. I highly doubt it ever crosses a college students mind to write “sez” instead of “says” in a homework assignment.
ReplyDeleteIn the cartoon “The I.M.s of Romeo and Juliet”, Roz Chast emphasizes the disorganization of modern teenagers. The disorganization is displayed in the rooms of both characters. Each room is covered in junk. The floor can barely been seen because of the food and electronics left on the ground. Although it is obvious that both these rooms are extremely messy, not all teenagers lack cleanliness. For example, I keep my room very clean. I would never leave food rotting on the floor, as well as numerous electronics. Teens may be messy at times, but most do care about the appearance of their surroundings.
ReplyDeleteChast seems to say that the isolation that has come along with the dependence on technology is bad for the teenagers of today, which I disagree with. I do believe that Chast makes to much of how isolated teenagers really are. While Romeo and Juliet are surrounded by their electronics they are carrying on a conversation seemingly isolated from each other, but they are still talking to each other. There is still human interaction. The conversation is just happening at a faster pace. Just because we do not communicate in the same ways as people have done so in the past, does not make the conversations any less important or impersonal. In a society where everything happens so fast, it is impractical to write out full letters and is easier to send a quick text or e-mail. If I had a choice to either text or call someone to make a plan, I would usually choose text. Not because it is less personal but because it is easier and faster.
ReplyDeleteRoz Chast makes the outrageous claim that teenagers are downright filthy hoarders. I strongly disagree with this statement because even though teenagers sometimes leave a few items of clothing on their floor, I have never met one who is downright unsanitary like Romeo and Juliet. Both of their floors are covered in a mixture of old food, clothing, papers, and electronics. Another ridiculous aspect of this cartoon is that amongst the mess and filth six pop cans are neatly stacked on top of each other in Romeo’s room; a teenager as messy as Romeo would not take the time to stack their trash.
ReplyDeleteRoz Chast tries to picture a passionless version of Romeo and Juliet by showing music in a negative manner. She portrays players strewn across the ground next to puddles of soda, failed tests, and junk food as if causes bad things. As a result, one would assume that music contributes to this portrayal of the failed relationship and laziness. However, people can be more productive with music. Specifically, I always listen to music while doing homework and even some teachers put music on for everyone. It’s not like Juliet is rocking out to death metal if she can still somewhat hear what is happening around her because she IMs, “my dad is coming.” At first sight one might say this overabundance of music makes them seem detached, and their love is winding away. But consequently, this mutual passion for music reveals they are right for each other and it isn’t some dead end love. Her purpose of using music to show this bad picture doesn't work.
ReplyDeleteRoz Chast is mistaken thinking that all teens are messy because she overlooks the reality of an average teen’s lifestyle compared to her own stereotypical vision of mess and disorganization in teens lives. Chast demonstrates the chaos of Romeo and Juliet’s rooms through the old rotting food, carelessly thrown books, and strewn pieces of paper everywhere with a barely visible floor beneath the jumble of junk. However, Chast could not be further from the truth of how most teenage bedrooms actually look. With limited space to put my possessions I always try to tidy up my dorm room and even my bedroom at home. Because I want to be able to find papers that I put down earlier, I always make sure to put them in the proper class folder, this strategy even applies to virtual folders on my computer. I do not see the point in being disorganized because it will only hurt you in the end. For instance, when you want to find something later only to discover it has been lost in the abyss of garbage on the floor. And as for the real filth of having putrid days old food on the ground, I personally do not know anyone like that. And quite honestly I find that disgusting so I always take care to clean up after myself, in my room or in the dining hall because left over food lying around is gross and no one wants to see it or worse, smell it. And another reason for keeping rooms clean is often people hangout in your room. Therefore, if you do not want friends to see a pigsty in your room you should clean up ASAP or never make a huge mess in the first place. So in order to entertain friends in your room you need to be clean so they have a place to sit and hangout with you in an environment that will be much more enjoyable than the terribly messy one pictured in the cartoon.
ReplyDeleteThe illustrator makes it clear that he believes that teens nowadays are rather dependent on electronics. I disagree with this accusation very much. Looking at Juliet sitting in her bed, she has her headphones in, chatting on her computer, with a remote and phone sitting at her side. When it comes to my electronics, I always have my phone with me, not because I am dependent on it, but because I am no longer living at home and close in distance to my family, so if something happens at home they need an easy way to get ahold of me. The phone works both ways too. If I were to need something from my parents, all I have to do is pull out my phone and give them a call. My computer, I couldn't live without because that's where I get all of my school work done. As for my music, I wouldn't be able to live without it. There would be a lot of unhappy days if I didn't have music to calm me down. Teenagers use a lot of electronics, but as time goes on and as we use them more, the older generations, aka our parents and grandparents, are beginning to use them as well. For example, my mom now has an iPhone and spends about as much time on it as I do. Also, my grandpa has a Facebook, and I believe he is on his more often than I am on mine. Electronics are everywhere you go, but not just with teens, and it's not to be assumed that we are dependent on them.
ReplyDeleteThis cartoon by Roz Chast seems to suggest a lack of passion in today’s teenagers. For instance, neither of the teenagers write “I love you” or even “love u” in their goodbyes. In fact, in the cartoonist’s view, these two teenager’s only have enough passion in their fingers to mindlessly tap two letters, “x” and “o”. However, this generation does have passion, although it may be expressed in a different, less wordy, way. In fact, removing these extra words is necessary. Instead of saying, “Oh darn, I don’t have time to write an elaborate, long love letter, so I won’t write anything”, these teenagers do what they can by having a quick chat. This chat has to be quick because the modern world is busy and their parents don’t approve of their relationship. Having the parents disapprove makes this an “I love you no matter what anyone else thinks” passion packed relationship.
ReplyDeleteRoz highlights how today’s teenagers use an excess of slang and brevity in their I.M’s between each other. In short, she is trying to state we have bad grammar. For example Juliet says, “cardoza called home, sez im failig Spanish btw both my rents hate U.” It makes me wonder who are the teenagers she has been hanging out with to reach such a distorted resolve. Teenagers use instant messaging as a quick and efficient way of conversation which does not reflect on their use of grammar. In fact, in reality using bad grammar on the internet results in one being ridiculed for it. Go on any major website and see for yourself! For example, people interacting on a social networking site such as Facebook are very conscious of grammar and spelling. This is also because your writing is exposed to a lot of people. Better writing on the internet makes you look more important. Your style of grammar is your identity on the internet and its strength determines how seriously you are taken.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, Chast shows that teen’s lives can be chaotic in other ways. There seems to be a large concern from older generations about the use of horrible grammar in shorthand messaging. Jst bcuz we use shrt msgs doesnt mean we lazy. Chast’s attempt to show this by giving different examples of “text lingo.” However, teens would never use this type of language in a formal environment. the is that this is ruining a generation is absurd. Perhaps Chast must change with the times.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that Chast does not seem to be clear on about today's teenagers is their understanding of cleanliness and basic hygiene. The characters in the cartoon are practically living in their own filth. While many teenagers today, including myself, do not keep their living spaces as tidy as they probably should, I do not know many people that leave old food and drinks laying around on the floor. This is probably because I do not know many people who enjoy the company of cockroaches. The characters also have spilt liquid near power cords, a very obvious electrical hazard. Possibly the most amusing part of the cartoon is that, among all this mess, Juliet lays on a made bed and Romeo sits next to a fairly organized bulletin board and bookcase.
ReplyDeleteChast’s text sp3@k of Romeo and Juliet points out how our generation today writes in ways our third grade teachers taught us not to. Just because teens send the occasional “nothin, u” text, does not mean we all have poor grammar. Contrary to popular belief, a minority of us know the difference between “your” and “you’re.” There is nothing wrong with using “ur” in a quick message to a friend; I do it when I am lazy, which is a different subject, but I still know the difference between a possessive adjective and a contraction. There is a time and place for acceptable bad grammar, and that exception is when u are talking with frans.
ReplyDeleteRoz Chast tries to paste this image of disorganization, and sloppiness to the youth of today. This is true, but only in the case of our physical belongings, but that’s just because that’s not what’s important to the Romeo and Juliet of today. But if you look at Juliet’s command center complete with laptop, home phone, and cell phone, she’s perfectly positioned to be on top of any social disaster that may come her way. They may appear to have sloppiness in their language, but what I see is efficiency. What appears to the older generations as a lack of ability to clean is really just a lack of desire. If you look at the room of Romeo it’s a pig sty, there’s no denying that, but I’m sure if you look at his desktop, and Facebook page it’s as sleek, and clean as his mother’s kitchen counter tops.
ReplyDelete