Outside Reading #3:Editorial (December 29th, 2010)

He found bag of cash, but did the unexpected.

Written by Marc Lacey

Published on December 11th, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/us/12backpack.html

This story is about a guy named Dave Tally, an honest homeless guy, returned the bag of cash that he had founded back to its owner. Then the whole town praises him for it and it completely transformed his life. It seems to me that Lacey's purpose of writing this essay is to show the appreciation of Dave Tally. He creates a voice and narrative persona by using a variety of literary terms.

For example, Lacey clearly praises him as a hero by using positive diction. He describes him as a “homeless hero” instead of using “a guy who did good deeds”, in which seems to be less sympathy to Tally’s action.  He also uses the word “selflessness” and “inspiration” to describe Tally’s actions.  This seems to be the strength of this piece, using strong dictions to persuade people to like Tally. However, the weakness of this reading is a lack of vocabulary words. It only contains simple words.

In addition, he uses syntax. He uses punctuations after punctuations such as “Food. Shelter. Repairs to his bicycle”, using period as segmented patterns, thus creating a positive tone. Also, he uses active voice such as using “gave the backpack” instead of “backpack was given by him”, showing more clarity. In addition, he separates the quotation in order to create a small tension so that audience can guess what the rest of quotation is. For instance, he quotes Mr.Belanger, a guy who lost money; Belanger states Lacey’s action as “humbling,” Then Lacey creates a little break by adding fact rather than Belanger’s quotation”. Lacey also seems to use active voice rather than passive voice, thus making this reading more clear.

These elements that the author had used made me appropriate this homeless hero named Dave Tally. It made me believe that his action was one hundred percent selfish and that he deserves a round of applause for his selfish action. I do hope that he will become a successful man some day. Lacey convinced me to believe that Tally is really a hero. Strong diction choice such as “homeless hero” and “selfness” made me feel sympathy towards Tally. I laud Lacey for using various techniques to support his position on this editorial reading. It shows his position very clearly.

The speaker in this reading would be appropriate for an AP essay since it is formal and uses various syntax and diction to supplement the tone.