Analysis on Crossfire

I have never really been big into politics, and I rarely ever watch the news. When Ms. Worthington said we were going to be watching a clip from Crossfire, I didn't know what to expect. This argument between the two hosts and Jon Stewart got very intense- quick. Jon tries to start it off peacefully by asking, "Why do we have to fight?" The two men do not care about what he has to say really and just laugh it off. The man in the bow-tie even rudely interrupts multiple times as Jon is speaking. I love the way Stewart handles the whole situation though. He keeps his calm. He acts like what the other two men say do not bother him at all. He was very good at keeping his composure. When the two men make snide remarks, he just shoots back with a witty response which keeps the audience laughing. It is obvious that the audience is siding with him. Stewart was good about keeping the talk about the topic and not making personal jokes and commentary, but the one time he made a comment off-topic would probably have been the time he made the joke about the other man's bow-tie. Over all, Jon does a fantastic job by staying so composed and not so jittery and obnoxious as the other two men. He charms the crowd with his wits, and the other two men feel defeated at the end, hence rushing into a commercial. It's great how Jon was able to get his point across without having to once raise his voice or make demeaning comments. He just stated what he thought was true and the audience supported him.

Writing techniques

In high school, my writing skills were just average. Although this is not a very good work ethic, I am very good under pressure. Most of the time, I would wait to start a paper until just a couple of days before. The pressure helps motivate me to finish what I have to get done by the deadline. Before I start writing a paper, I brainstorm in my mind what I'm going to write about. I start by thinking of what the topic and main point are going to be. Once I have these points in mind, I will start to think of examples that could help the reader understand more of what I am trying to say. I will usually draw out a little outline of all the important points I would like to emphasize in the paper. When I begin to write my intro paragraph, I start by beginning with a very broad statement. I will then slowly go into more depth about the topic and begin to get more specific. I usually begin by writing a rough hand copy by hand first. This helps me be able to change a lot of things before I go and actually type up my final draft. I work best in an environment where there is at least a little bit of music. Without music it is a lot more difficult for me to be able to come up with ideas and topics to talk about in my papers. It also helps keep me awake! My strongest point about writing papers is the grammar. Growing up, grammar has just always come easy to me. The hardest thing for me about papers would be vocabulary. I have an average vocabulary, but my hopes are that one day my vocabulary and speaking would improve and I would sound much more educated. Once I am finished writing a paper, I will sit there and read it two more times. First time I go through and check to see if I have covered all the points and topics mentioned before. The second time I go through the essay to check for grammar and spelling mistakes. I will usually let at least one more person read it after me so they can catch anything if I missed it. These are my strategies and techniques I used while I was going through English in high school.