Waldor 1 Casey Waldor ENG 1101 Ms.

Fuentes October 14, 2013 Government Shutdown The buzz of today, and of the entirety of October so far, is circulating around the United States Government. If you have not yet heard about the hoopla, then either you have been in a coma or sleeping for the month. The government has officially shutdown and because of this, the United States population has been just a tad confused, to say the least. Some people are concerned for their lives while others could not be bothered with what they consider to be nonsense. However, people relentlessly feel the need to chime in about the current state of the government in one way or another whether it is mocking, informative, or opinionated. Of the three articles that were discussed in class, there were two that were polar extremes and then one article that was neither harsh nor comical. By polar extremes, I mean the audience felt lighthearted in one article compared to the feelings that were strong and direct in the other. In 47 Fun Things You MUST Do During The Government Shutdown by Funny Or Die, the writer simply listed random events that an individual could partake in to live up the shutdown. This article, although relating directly to the current state of the government, suggested no such feelings related to the negativity surrounding it. This article is purposefully sarcastic in order to show that the government shutdown should not be too great of a worry throughout the population. On the contrary, in the article This Is What They Want by Charles Pierce, strong feelings

Waldor 2 are shown because of the direct criticism of the Republican Party. Pierce, an obvious democrat, emphasizes how the Republicans are running a campaign of public vandalism (line 1), which makes the reader either back the Democratic Party more or begin to doubt the Republican Party. Basically, both of these articles were written to make the audience feel strongly in a particular way relating to the current state of the government. Then there is the article with no opinionated purpose. Shutdown Showdown Day 2; Obamacare Exchanges Open for Business Glitches and All by Clint Henderson is an article that simply informs the audience of the current standing of the government. The article states that on October 2, 2013, there [was] no progress in ending the government shutdown. Furthermore, is states how already about 800,000 workers have been furloughed. Henderson is just doing his job and is reporting the facts relating to the government, and from his reports, the audience can assume that the government shutdown is not showing signs of ending. Henderson (Shutdown Showdown) and Pierce (This is What They Want) seem to have some sort of expertise in writing about the current events if the United States and therefore are credible authors in the minds of the audience. Yet, Funny or Die (47 Fun Things) is obviously not a credible source because they have no apparent relationship with the government or any political party, it is just a comical website. So, why would Funny Or Die write an article relating to the government? Perhaps they just wanted to connect to the general population of the United Statesthe average teenager or young adult with no depth of understanding of every detail that is happening in regards to the Shutdown, yet when reading the article, none of that matters. The audience just reads

Waldor 3 and enjoys what has been written; however, what I found interesting is that that article subtly criticizes the government as it mocks the seriousness of the situation. The most effective article, in terms of actuality, is the Shutdown Showdown article because it is real, straight-to-the-point facts. The most effective in terms of inducing emotion is This is What They Want because it attacks one political party while indirectly neglecting any fault that was put on the other party. However, the most effective article, in my opinion, is 47 Fun Things because it relates most to the audience that read it. As an 18 year-old, I am not following the government situation every second, minute, hour, or even day. I just gather what I hear in conversation between people, on the television, in the paper, etc., and from there I conclude the general state of the situation. Like how I feel, Funny Or Die feels as if the government shutdown should not be the be-all and end-all situation that it is being made to be. Rather, the population should let the people in charge do what they do, while we sit back and do what we do in our everyday life.

Works Cited

Waldor 4 Funny or Die. "47 Fun Things You MUST Do During The Government Shutdown." Web log post. Funny or Die. Funny or Die, 1 Oct. 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. Henderson, Clint. "Shutdown Showdown Day 2; Obamacare Exchanges Open for Business Glitches and All." Web log post. Happening Now. N.p., 2 Oct. 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. Pierce, Charles P. "This Is What They Want." Web log post. Esquire. Hearst Communications, Inc., 2 Oct. 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2013.