Right now I'm reading two chapters (only one more after this) devoted to examples of epidemics and how the Law of the Few, Stickiness Factor, and Power of Context come into play in each one, either in a combination or separately.
Gladwell likes to use exemplification a lot so it'll be a large chunk of my paper.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Just Have to "Know Things"
Oh yeah.
Malcolm Gladwell's range of topics makes him a good author to read if you want to "know things," for, perhaps, the SAT or AP test. His articles give plenty of information on his topics and his examples make them clearer.
Malcolm Gladwell's range of topics makes him a good author to read if you want to "know things," for, perhaps, the SAT or AP test. His articles give plenty of information on his topics and his examples make them clearer.
A Raconteur
I'm in the middle of reading chapter 4, but I felt like I had to blog something before I forgot it.
I just learned that the word raconteur means someone who excels at storytelling and realized that Malcolm Gladwell is a raconteur (if you look at some of his videos you can see that he draws you in with his stories). His examples that I always mention are stories, his topics are always fresh because his stories are always interesting. Even in his book about epidemics, he went from a syphilis epidemic, to a Sesame Street epidemic, and now (where I'm up to) a crime rate epidemic in New York that suddenly and drastically dropped in the mid 1990's (the way epidemics of a disease do). He is redefining what I think of when I see or hear epidemic, since I always thought of it as a sickness that spreads quickly and vastly.
But yes, what I really wanted to share was that Gladwell is a raconteur, since I was trying to figure out what to make of all his examples up until now. In fact, in one of his essays, I remember reading that storytelling is a major category of communication.
Now something about the chapter. This chapter is only part one of the Power of Context, but he also summarizes the other two factors of an epidemic as well to clear things up in case there was any confusion, or if you (I) couldn't put into words what the significances of the three factors of an epidemic were (my favorite of which is the stickiness factor).
I still have a lot of reading left, I might have gone too far with the articles and started the book a little too late.
I just learned that the word raconteur means someone who excels at storytelling and realized that Malcolm Gladwell is a raconteur (if you look at some of his videos you can see that he draws you in with his stories). His examples that I always mention are stories, his topics are always fresh because his stories are always interesting. Even in his book about epidemics, he went from a syphilis epidemic, to a Sesame Street epidemic, and now (where I'm up to) a crime rate epidemic in New York that suddenly and drastically dropped in the mid 1990's (the way epidemics of a disease do). He is redefining what I think of when I see or hear epidemic, since I always thought of it as a sickness that spreads quickly and vastly.
But yes, what I really wanted to share was that Gladwell is a raconteur, since I was trying to figure out what to make of all his examples up until now. In fact, in one of his essays, I remember reading that storytelling is a major category of communication.
Now something about the chapter. This chapter is only part one of the Power of Context, but he also summarizes the other two factors of an epidemic as well to clear things up in case there was any confusion, or if you (I) couldn't put into words what the significances of the three factors of an epidemic were (my favorite of which is the stickiness factor).
I still have a lot of reading left, I might have gone too far with the articles and started the book a little too late.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Very Sticky
It's been a while since I posted, but I finally got back to reading The Tipping Point. When I first looked up Malcolm Gladwell before I chose him, "Stickiness Factor" was the first term I read and remembered about him, which is weird because the term itself did exactly what its definition is. It stuck to me. But yeah, I got to the chapter on it and found that the two predominant examples were Sesame Street and Blue's Clues.
Sesame Street's stickiness factor was its non-human characters, especially big bird. They grabbed the attention of the kids. But for Blue's Clues I'll say what was sticky to me from experience. First off, Blue and her clue's were significant symbols of the show and I remembered them well. Then, there's Steve and his handy dandy notebook. But the stickiest part of the show was definitely the end where all the clues are put together. I can see the clues floating in the air, even now. Yeah, he has some interesting stuff, I just wish I had more time to enjoy it... damn annotated bibliographies.
Sesame Street's stickiness factor was its non-human characters, especially big bird. They grabbed the attention of the kids. But for Blue's Clues I'll say what was sticky to me from experience. First off, Blue and her clue's were significant symbols of the show and I remembered them well. Then, there's Steve and his handy dandy notebook. But the stickiest part of the show was definitely the end where all the clues are put together. I can see the clues floating in the air, even now. Yeah, he has some interesting stuff, I just wish I had more time to enjoy it... damn annotated bibliographies.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Last of the Articles
I just finished through the last of the articles I'm reading before starting "The Tipping Point." They keep their extended examples but these last few also had something different. They were mostly about human behaviors and Gladwell used more emotional appeal than he usually does. Now there is still not a lot of it, but where he actually did use it I found was really strong. He placed them around the end of sections or articles and never over did it.
Here is also a bit more on Gladwell from the back of his book:
"Malcolm Gladwell is also the author of the #1 bestselling Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. He was a reporter for the Washington Post from 1987 to 1996, working first as a science writer and then as New York City bureau chief. Since 1996, he has been a staff writer for The New Yorker."
And we've been actually using The New Yorker in class as well.
Here is also a bit more on Gladwell from the back of his book:
"Malcolm Gladwell is also the author of the #1 bestselling Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. He was a reporter for the Washington Post from 1987 to 1996, working first as a science writer and then as New York City bureau chief. Since 1996, he has been a staff writer for The New Yorker."
And we've been actually using The New Yorker in class as well.