Ms. Lucas and Her Bellowing Writing Style
In Rachel Lucas’s blog, located at http://www.rachellucas.com, Ms. Lucas expresses a very unique set of arguments. As she says herself in her post entitled Dear Georgia Tech Students, she belongs to “the Rachel Party.” Further exploration of her archives certainly reinforces this statement. In her post entitled You’ll get my blog when you take it out of my cold, dead hands she clearly states “I’m not a conservative.” And yet only a few posts above is one entitled Reason #4,973 – Why I dislike Democrats. She is all over the political spectrum. But she is very clear about her feelings towards any issue she discusses. Every reader may not agree with every stance she takes, but there is a respectability in the way she takes it. In a time where many public speakers tiptoe around the issues, not wanting to loose support for taking a particular stance, Ms. Lucas builds her credibility through her forwardness. In an aggressive, brutally honest voice she expresses her opinions at the top of her lungs. She certainly partakes in a fair amount of mud-slinging. Some of her most popular names for those individuals she deems unworthy are “asshats” as seen in her post Damn the Media, Part II and in her post Reason #1,483,549 to fear public schools and “assclowns” as seen in her post I have severe intractable nausea. But through all the bashing and name calling, she gets her point across. She has created a very effective technique of drawing readers in using humor and crude language, and then driving her points home in her bellowing writing style. Through her mix of news articles and a group of facts that are all intertwined in her self-entitled “rants”, she presents herself as a fairly knowledgeable source of information. She nearly always links to the sources of the articles or facts that she uses. And if she does not know very much about an issue, she states that. In her post Reason #4,973 - why I dislike Democrats, she states, “I don’t pretend [to] know all the laws and regulations and rules about [the issue at hand]. . .” She then proceeds to link her readers to another individual’s blog that she claims, “. . .knows a heck of a lot more about [the issue at hand] than I do.” This tactic encourages her readers to believe that what she states as fact is, indeed, fact. It does this because the readers grow to trust that when Ms. Lucas does not know something, she will tell them. Through her firm stance and her reliable information, Ms. Lucas presents a very likable and very informed persona.



- posted by Derek @ 10:46 AM

 
First, A Little Bit About Me
Hey everyone, my name is Derek Constantine. I am currently an Undecided Engineering major at Georgia Tech. I am thinking about going into either Aerospace Engineering or Bio Med Engineering. I’ll just have to wait and see if I can even get into the Bio Med program. I was born in Georgia, and have lived here all my life. I started Paideia in the first grade, and just graduated from there last spring. During Jr. High and the first two years of High School I played Ultimate Frisbee for the Paideia team, but I had to give it up my junior year due to time conflicts. I’ve had three jobs during the course of my high school career. I ran my own lawn care company, which I currently still operate. I worked for three years at a breakfast place near my house called the Bagel Palace. I worked behind the counter, in the kitchen, and was made the manager towards the end of my bagel career. I even waited tables for a few very long afternoons when servers didn’t show up. I also passed out flyers for Kyoto Joes for about three months. I am currently rooming with a friend of mine from high school, which has its positives and negatives. It’s nice because we get along well, but it hasn’t forced me to go out and meet as many new people as I should. I’m looking forward to my Tech experience, which I’m hoping will last five years with co-oping. But it may well be more, we’ll just have to see.



- posted by Derek @ 8:46 PM