Author: jasonmaselli
Research and Audience
Reflection
Jason Maselli 11/17/19
For the horror genre specifically short scary stories on reddit it helps also include your own experience to the story, It would give you more to write about and its possible others might have felt the same. Now this would all be up to you but I found it easier to write about things that actually had scary events occur in the story this way there is more to analyze meaning more to write about. The tone can be a big help as in most of the stories it is key to bringing the fear to the reader. It’s also better to choose a story that you like this way it’s a little more enjoyable to read over and over, and will overall make it easier. Each source shares same place of origin, Reddit. More specifically the subreddit r/nosleep. This is a place on a website where the common man and struggling writers to anyone in between share scary stories. The stories are regulated so the ones that stay up should be of quality. Most of them close with a twist that adds a shock factor like the story “Has anyone heard of a company called amped rides” the story itself may have been slightly scary and kinda left it on the border when they leave but the addition of the right handed comment really sent it over the edge allowing a true feeling of fear. Most of the stories start off after the main event of fear happened, with these opening comes the twist closing so these kinda of go hand in hand but are not always linked its just rather common when one or the other is present. These stories usually go for emotional fear as it is easier to target like losing a child, seeing dead family members and your wife trying to kill you. These things are just easier to turn into horror stories rather then a scary story of giving a presentation or heights. These stories usually don’t try to persuade anything so no one thought maybe they are aimed at people who like scary stories but still no persuasion. I learned how to analyze short scary stories on reddit. I would like to learn how to do this better.
I learned that it is still hard to write though it is less harder when the topic is something I am interested about. I also found it interesting that I procrastinate on writing assignments more than any another assignments. I think one of my greatest strengths are imagining I’m a great writer. Now this can be very beneficial as it raises the bar and that means I would have to raise my writing skills to meet that bar and that sounds like a great motivator. The part I would most like to grow on is to take less time to write a decent essay. Like I have previously explained I do not like writing mostly because of the time it takes to write them. Sometimes it takes an hour or two to right just a couple of sentences. I would probably need to write more and learn how to actually write instead of procrastinate.
Annotated Bibliography
Rhetorical Analysis
Jason Maselli 10/27/19
For my rhetorical analysis I chose to do short scary stories on reddit. The title of this story is called “Snowman Family” written by GorillaOfUndeath.
The story is about a divorced man. It takes place after a long and heavy snowfall. It was near midnight when the man, Chris decided to shovel peoples driveways to get ahead of the competition and to help aid in the creation of snowmen. His first stop was his ex-wifes house, after he is done Chris goes back to his own house to then make a Snowwoman. After he is done with this he comments on how is daughter would love it when she sees it. Chris then goes to Randy’s house who is the person his ex-wife cheated with. When Randy answered the door he is visibly mad due to how late it is and after some type of exchange Chris stabs him with a syringe filled with a paralyzing toxin. Chris left him on the floor while he went to shovel his driveway, once done he comes back to get Randy who is still laying on the floor then drags him to the backyard where the Snowwoman was. During the process Chris comments on a problem he didn’t have when making the snowwomen making it clear he did the same thing with his ex-wife. After he is done he goes back to Randy’s house again and finds a photo of Randy smiling next to his then pregnant wife. After he is completely done with the snowman he goes to get his daughter. His daughter says the Snowcouple should have a child, Chris agrees and stabs her with another syringe saying he sees a resemblance to Randy. The story ends with him saying he needs to go shovel and once he’s done we’ll will make the kid snowman.
I found it very clear that the author was using pathos to get the feel of horror to the reader. The writer used very common mishap in life even started off with a descriptive description of the setting to make the reader get more involved. Learning the person the reader is seeing these events though is divorced makes them feel a bad for him even more so by saying he’d shovel there driveways as a type of therapy and peace offering having the audience believe that Chris is doing the right thing. The addition that he’s building snowmen for his daughter makes it seem sweet. The fact that this fact is mentioned after he finishes the snowwomen makes the reader feel like he is just the average divorced man who is trying to make their kid happy. The writer adds a little line about the lipstick Chris puts on the snowwomen it says that it ends up being a smeared mess adding to a little homemade feel but then compares it to a split lip in winter foreshadowing the horror behind the kind gesture. In the altercation with Randy the writer make sure the audience notes where Chris’ hand is(his pocket) with an even less friendlier tone at this point the reader knows something is about to happen.
The writer makes Chris strike Randy when he is about to mention why she cheated on him possibly to make the reader not totally shocked but still a fear factor is growing. When it is time for Randy to be brought to the other creation it is noted that no one is even aware of whats happening while he is dragging Randy by his feet it build more fear since this is completely possible. Chris uses a metal pole to make then snowmen stay straight by making the people inside lean on the pole it is here where it is said that this part of making the snowwomen was easier making the reader a little shocked. Snow is then packed over the person and during this process the writer makes Randy’s despair clearer even saying at one point this would be easier then if Chris was to let Randy go since frostbite has no doubt set in. Once finished and he finds the picture of Randy with his pregnant ex-wife it is dismissed making the reader think he still loves his daughter this is further proved by how he treats his daughter with love as any father would. When he agrees to the making of the kid snowman the reader would think they’d be building it together but this is quickly dismayed and she is stabbed immediately this would shock the reader and make the reader feel worse when it is said that Chris would leaver her there for a bit in the cold morning weather.
Works cited
This story is no longer on the reddit it self so I will post the link to the video of the narration- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt8na6Nec8E
Blank Period
Jason Maselli 9/16/19
These blank periods that continuously occur make me have negative feelings about writing because I know these blank periods will happen. Knowing the periods of nothing will occur makes me not want to write which only increase the possibility and duration of a blank period, and when they get longer it also increases the chance of my mind wandering so not only do I have to think of what I have to write, I also have to maintain my focus as well. These periods of time are really unpleasant since it is really just me sitting there staring at the screen or paper thinking of what I should write down and during this process I am only thinking of how to write the section I’m thinking about which is about three sentences or less. This is a problem since I don’t really think of what I’m writing about at length as in how to develop it further on in the paper. This makes the problem worse since I could be halfway through writing something and I cant build off of it in any way which means I would have to either start over or find something else that would tie into what I just wrote. This one thing that is very present when I write makes me not want to write since it’s hard to write something when you know it could take hours to just start writing something so it wouldn’t even matter if I do it earlier because thinking of what to write is still an issue. Now I’m not saying I dislike writing just for this reason because that’s not really the best reason not to like something. It just makes it harder to like writing or at least not be unhappy about it. I am aware writing is a process and that process is basically the same for what ever is being written and thinking of what to write is the first and hardest step no matter how many times you’ve wrote an essay. I remember I had to write this career essay during senior year of high school and it was basically give three reasons why you want to do this, evidence to support those reasons and a counter argument along with introduction and conclusion paragraphs. The typical essay set up right and the teacher had us do it in steps to make it easier which basically gave us a frame to fit everything or something close to that and honestly I think it took longer for me to do that then this. We still had to gather evidence, stats write sentences. All we had were the ideas we had to support but we still had to choose what we wanted to put down so it fits well in our essay and how to put it in and there was another blank period longer then what I had for this. It doesn’t matter if I start early or have a frame set they will still happen and continue to happen.
Personal Experience
Jason Maselli 9/12/19
I won’t lie I usually write things like this at the last minute which is what I’m currently doing and almost each time theres just a period of blankness on what to write. Usually there is a set topic to write now there is for this one too but its different since it has to do with personal experience. During this period of blankness I remember all the other times this occurred and thought to myself this would be a good thing to write about. This happens all the time before I begin writing something. I just sit there and stare at the blank page and do something else its essentially just a period of confusion because I’m constantly asking myself what should I write followed by regret of why I didn’t do this earlier. With every minute that passes by I continue to think to myself I could be doing something else right now which only furthers the what should I write anxiety because I want to write something that will make it quicker to finish so I can do something else. In some even more honesty I spend more time in blank periods then I do on actually writing something because I want a good grade and usually last last minute work isn’t the best of quality so I try to write something that doesn’t look like I wrote it last minute or at least will get me a passing grade. Just making the blank period even worse until after about two hours of nothing I decide to write whatever comes to my mind and just hope it all works out.
