First Checkpoint For Satire Project 3.18.2017

In class, we were assigned to work on a satire project on the topic of couch potatoes. During this week, my group and I worked on the script.We first made an outline to plan out our ideas. In our satirical piece, horation will be used. We decided to start our presentation as a news station broadcasting and then make it into a talk show. In addition, we have decided to use inversion, incongruity, and parody for our satirical piece. The topic of couch potatoes will be announced as a worldwide disease. Then, we will have a talk show discussing if the issue of couch potatoes is really a big deal. As of now, our group has wrote half of the script, and we plan to finish it by Monday.

The Word Police 3.4.2017

          Michiko Kakutani's article "The Word Police" is about the use of politically correct language. Political correctness is using neutral words that include all humankind. The world does not just consist of one type race and one gender, but it includes all kinds of people. According to Kakutani, the political correctness "police" are advocating for a reform in the English language, so it wouldn't be sexist or racist. The most common example used as an argument is gender-oriented words. For example, the waiter or waitress both indicate a gender. The P.C. police argue that instead of this gender based word, we should use waitron or waitperson to avoid addressing gender. Throughout the entire article, Kakutani uses the viewpoint of those who want a reform in the language to explain how words that are not neutral put a label on a person. However, Kakutani himself does not really agree with the movement and somewhat undermines it with his verbal irony.