http://www.ibtimes.com/victoria-soto-connecticut-shooting-victim-praised-facebook-being-hero-sandy-hook-941668
The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. It's a tragedy that has shocked the world. However, while everyone is talking about the shooter and why he would commit such an evil act, some people are able to see a sliver of light in a dark time. The author of the article "Victoria Soto, Conneticut Shooting Victim, Praised on Facebook for Being a Hero at Sandy Hook", Maria Vultaggio, uses diction, detail, and tone to share a story about a hero: Victoria Soto.
Honorific diciton is used to describe Soto. Words like, "praise", "bravery", "heroism", and "dedication" are some of the things that embodied Soto. Because she protected the lives of many students, she is being commended by the nation for her act of bravery. Vultaggio uses these words so that readers immediately learn who Soto is and what she stood for.
Detail is used to explain what heroism that Soto displayed in a frightening time. For example, "'She hid her first graders in the cabinets and closets after hearing the gunfire,'" described exactly how Soto quickly reacted to the shooting. These details are also used to create an unthinkable image, where readers are more likely to sympathize, remember, pray, and commend for Soto and all of the other victims in this tragedy. Another detail, "'You have a teacher who cared more about her students than herself," shows Soto's selflessness and caring nature. Details like these can bring hope to family's who lost a child and to the nation who is grieving along with those in Connecticut.
The tone that is used in this article is similar to the tone after other shootings, like the Aurora movie theatre shooting. Vultaggio uses a confused and sad tone that is probably also being used around the country. No one really knows why the shooter would do this. People are wondering if he was psychologically sick. Others are wondering what can be done to prevent this in the future. Not surpringly, many people's tones about this tragedy are sorrowful and depressing. In this article, words like "apparently true" and "believed" are used to create a confused tone. Other words like "devastation", "condolences", and "memorial service" are used to create a sad tone.
Although this is a time of great mouring and greiving, it is a little uplifting to know that there is still courage and love in the world. As Vultaggio described Soto's bravery, the nation can only commend Soto for the devotion that she displayed.
Hi Julie!
ReplyDeleteOver all very good, and I really liked that you put it in essay format!
Just a few small things:
1. For Diction, just make sure you touch on the connotation vs. denotation meanings of some of there words, not just the general tone of them.
2. For Tone, make sure you give some examples of how the author creates the tone, not just summarizing what it is. Or in other words, put some evidence behind the claim!
Good Job!
Erin Donahue
Good job overall, Julie. One of the things I noticed was that some of your examples weren't actually the author's words. Mainly in your diction and detail paragraph, the examples you used were actually the author quoting someone else, which could work for details (why did she include the quote?), but not so much for diction, because they weren't her word choices. The other thing I have to say is that we're supposed to use 3 of the DIDLS options, and tone isn't included in that. Try to keep it to just those 5 things, and explain how they set the tone, instead of using tone as one of your paragraphs.
ReplyDeleteJulie,
ReplyDeleteI really liked that you picked this article to write about, you did a very good job with it. Describing the tone of the article as depressing is obviously right on. Also words like bravery and courage are perfect to describe Soto and what she did and stood for. I think you did a great job overall.