In “What Corporate America Can’t Build: A Sentence,” Sam Dillon uses historical illusions, fragmented syntax and imagery in order to argue the need for writing literacy in corporate America to businesspersons and executives Dillon is writing to an academic audience familiar with the process of historical research though her simplified language and use of first-person experience make the essay accessible to a broader audience that might include undergraduate students and the educated general reader. The author is reflecting on the process of how historical knowledge is formed and wants the audience to think about what might seem to be a straightforward process in a new way. By drawing on different field expert perspectives, he employs various
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In order to adequately perturb teaching professionals and alarm businesspersons all in one token, Dillon notes that “millions of inscrutable e-mail messages are clogging corporate computers”(416). This reference creates an image of insurmountable emails in the audience’s mind that builds Dillon’s overall credibility as to the “chaotically written” messages he wants his targeted audience to push for increased writing literacy. Dillon goes as far as to state his testimonies credentials such as, “a free lance writer in Rocklin, California,” in order to appeal to the writing instructors by giving them someone they can relate to and quotes “even CEO’s need writing help…many of these guys write in inflated language that desperately need a laxative” (417). The use of referencing executives in this sentence in particular alludes to “making light” of a widely accepted, unexpressed but understood notion of not questioning your boss. Dillon uses this to stress that email illiteracy extends beyond entry level and into managerial staff that the audience would typically assume are well-versed and trained in basic grammar. By including the mistakes of top business executives in corporate America, Dillon draws his targeted audience in to read more because what they may have thought they have always done was correct, and in result invoke a reaction of surprise and applicability. Dillon notes that an entire educational industry has developed to offer remedial writing instruction to adults,” to strengthen his argument by specifically illustrating how large a problem literacy really
In order to adequately perturb teaching professionals and alarm businesspersons all in one token, Dillon notes that “millions of inscrutable e-mail messages are clogging corporate computers”(416). This reference creates an image of insurmountable emails in the audience’s mind that builds Dillon’s overall credibility as to the “chaotically written” messages he wants his targeted audience to push for increased writing literacy. Dillon goes as far as to state his testimonies credentials such as, “a free lance writer in Rocklin, California,” in order to appeal to the writing instructors by giving them someone they can relate to and quotes “even CEO’s need writing help…many of these guys write in inflated language that desperately need a laxative” (417). The use of referencing executives in this sentence in particular alludes to “making light” of a widely accepted, unexpressed but understood notion of not questioning your boss. Dillon uses this to stress that email illiteracy extends beyond entry level and into managerial staff that the audience would typically assume are well-versed and trained in basic grammar. By including the mistakes of top business executives in corporate America, Dillon draws his targeted audience in to read more because what they may have thought they have always done was correct, and in result invoke a reaction of surprise and applicability. Dillon notes that an entire educational industry has developed to offer remedial writing instruction to adults,” to strengthen his argument by specifically illustrating how large a problem literacy really