AOW 02/27: Oscars Preview

This week's article comes from Alan Duke of CNN News reporting on this weekend's Academy Awards. The article discusses the long list of films who were nominated for a variety of categories from acting to directing to editing. The article is very credible with accurate information and it also comes from one of the leading news corporations in the world. The author's purpose was to list the various films that were nominated and discuss a short summary of the films and tell who or why they were nominated. This article was written at the beginning of the awards show so Duke also wrote about the opening performance and monologue performed by Billy Crystal. The author uses the Aristotle Triangle very well by combining the elements of the subject, the Academy Awards, and by describing the films (context) to his audience. This is effective because many people may not have seen all of the nominated films and would like some basic background so they know who won or understand the jokes from Crystal. Duke uses a fair amount of anaphora to simple describe who is nominated for what. For example he says "Gary Oldman for 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.'" This helps illustrate his purpose by simply and directly saying who starred in what role and what film they were nominated for. Duke does an excellent job of synthesizing information from previous award shows such as The Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Gild Awards. He uses the information effectively to show how some roles and films are viewed as "better" than others because of previous accolades. This information also appeals to logos, pathos, and ethos because people remember the shows and see the logic in who won and the fact they are major shows. Duke accomplishes his purpose by effectively summarizing the evening.