down from the screen and slips behind the steering wheel of many an American vehicle, be it hot rod or family sedan, pickup truck or tractor...

You have to read this four page to make the assignment # 1 this assignment will be at the end-----------------------------------------------------------In Martin Gottfried essay, a little bit of Rambo step. down from thescreen and slips behind the steering wheel of many an Americanvehicle, be it hot rod or family sedan, pickup truck or tractor trailer.7%e essay was published in the "My Turn" column of Newsweek in1986. Driving etiquette has not improved.The car pulled up and its driver glared at us with such sullen 1intensity, such hatred, that I was truly afraid for our lives. Except forthe Mohawk haircut he didn't have, he looked like Robert DeNiro inTaxi mover, the sort of young man who, delirious for notoriety,might kill a president.He was glaring because we had passed him and for that affronts 2he pursued us to the next stoplight so as to express his indignationand affirm his masculinity. I was with two women and, believe it,was afraid for all three of us. It was nearly midnight and we were ina small, sleeping town with no other cars on the road.When the light turned green, I raced ahead, knowing it was 3foolish and that I was not in a movie. He didn't merely follow, hechased, and with his headlights turned off. No matter what suddenturn I took, he followed. My passengers were silent. I knew theywere alarmed, and I prayed that I wouldn't be called upon to protectthem. In that cheerful frame of mind, I turned off my own lights soI couldn't be followed. It was lunacy. I was responding to a crazy asa crazy."I'll just drive to the police station," I finally said, and as if those 4were the magic words, he disappeared.Elbowing fenders: It seems to me that there has recently been 5an epidemic of auto macho-a competition perceived and expressedin driving. People fight it out over parking spaces. Theybully into line at the gas pump. A toll booth becomes a signal forelbowing fenders. And beetle-eyed drivers hunch over their steeringwheels, squeezing the rims, glowering, preparing the excuse of nothaving seen you as they muscle you off the road. Approaching ahighway on an entrance ramp recently, I was strong-armed by atrailer truck so immense that its driver all but blew me away by70 Examplesblasting his horn. The behemoth was just inches from my hopelesslymismatched coupe when I fled for the safety of the shoulder.6 And this is happening on city streets, too. A New York taxi drivertold me that "intimidation is the name of the game. Drive as if you'redeaf and blind. You don't hear the other guy's horn and you sure ashell don't see him."7 The odd thing is that long before I was even able to drive, itseemed to me that people were at their finest and most civilizedwhen in their cars. They seemed so orderly and considerate, soreasonable, staying in the right-hand lane unless passing, signalingall intentions. In those days you really eased into highway traffic,and the long, neat rows of cars seemed mobile testimony to thesanity of most people. Perhaps memory fails, perhaps there werealways testy drivers, perhaps-but everyone didn't give you thefinger.8 A most amazing example of driver rage occurred recently at theManhattan end of the Lincoln Tunnel. We were four cars abreast,stopped at a traffic light. And there was no moving even when thelight had changed. A bus had stopped in the cross traffic, blockingour paths: it was normal-for-New-York-City gridlock. Perhaps impatient,perhaps late for important appointments, three of us nonethelessaccepted what, after all, we could not alter. One, however,would not. He would not be helpless. He would go where he wasgoing even if he couldn't get there. A Wall Street type in suit and tie,he got out of his car and strode toward the bus, rapping smartly onits doors. When they opened, he exchanged words with the driver.The doors folded shut. He then stepped in front of the bus, tookhold of one of its large windshield wipers and broke it.9 The bus doors reopened and the driver appeared, apparentlygiving the fellow a good piece of his mind. If so, the lecture waswasted, for the man started his car and proceeded to drive directlyinto the bus. He rammed it. Even though the point at which hestruck the bus, the folding doors, was its most vulnerable point,ramming the side of a bus with your car has to rank very high on afutility index. My first thought was that it had to be a rented car.lo Lane merger: To tell the truth, I could not believe my eyes. Thebus driver opened his doors as much as they could be opened andhe stepped directly onto the hood of the attacking car, jumping upand down with both his feet. He then retreated into the bus, closingthe doors behind him. Obviously a man of action, the car driverGottfried/Rambo of the Roadlucked up and rammed the bus again. How this exercise in absurditywould have been resolved none of us will ever know for at thatpoint the traffic unclogged and the bus moved on. And the rest ofus, we passives of the world, proceeded, our cars crossing a field ofbattle as if nothing untoward had happened.It is tempting to blame such belligerent, uncivil and even neurotic1,ehavior on the nuts of the world, but in our cars we all become alittle crazy. How many of us speed up when a driver signals hisintention of pulling in front of us? Are we resentful and anxious topass him? How many of us try to squeeze in, or race along theshoulder at a lane merger? We may not jump on hoods, but drivingthe gauntlet, we seethe, cursing not so silently in the safety of oursteel bodies on wheels-fortresses for cowards.What is it within us that gives birth to such antisocial behavior 12and why, all of a sudden, have so many drivers gone around thebend? My friend Joel Katz, a Manhattan psychiatrist, calls it, "aRambo pattern. People are running around thinking the Americanway is to take the law into your own hands when anyone doesanything wrong. And what constitutes 'wrong'? Anything that crampsyour style."It seems to me that it is a new America we see on the road now. 13It has the mentality of a hoodlum and the backbone of a coward. Thecar is its weapon and hiding place, and it is still a symbol even in this.Road Rambo’s no longer bespeak a self-reliant, civil people toolingaround in family cruisers. In fact, there aren't families in thesemachines that charge headlong with their bright on in broad daylight,demanding we get out of their way. Bullies are loners, andthey have perverted our liberty of the open road into drivers' license.They represent an America that derides the values of decency andgood manners, then roam the highways riding shotgun and shriekingfreedom. By allowing this to happen, the rest of us approve.Thesis and Organization1. Divide the essay into sections. What paragraphs introduce the essay?Which paragraphs comment on the introduction? Which provide theauthor's major example? Which generalize about it? What paragraph orparagraphs conclude the essay?2. Gottfried uses both extended and multiple examples in his essay. What,if anything, does this variety add?ram POPOINTERS FOR USING EXAMPLEExploring the Topic1. What examples can you think of to illustrate your topic? Are all ofthem from your own experience? What examples can you find fromother sources?2. Check to see that your examples are both pertinent and representative.Do they fit? Do they illustrate?3. Which examples lend them to extended treatment? Whichare relatively unimportant?4. How fad liar is your audience with each of your examples?5. Which examples best lend themselves to your topic? In what orderwould they best be presented?6. What point do you want to make? Do your examples all support thatpoint? Do they lead the reader to your major assertion?7. What is your purpose behind your point? Is your primary aim toexpress your own feelings, to inform, to persuade, to entertain?Drafting the Paper1. Know your reader. Figure out where your reader may stand in relationto your topic and thesis. It may be that your audience knows little aboutyour subject or that the reader simply hasn't thought much about it; onthe other hand, maybe the reader knows a great deal and holds a definiteopinion. Once you have made an informed guess about your audience'sattitude toward your topic and thesis, reexamine your examples in thelight of that information. Some may have to be explained in greater detailthan others, and the more familiar ones will need to be presented in anew or different light. Use the techniques you would employ in writingI descriptive papers.2. Know your purpose. Self-expressive papers are often difficult to writebecause you are so close to being your own audience. If you are writingwith this aim in mind, try making yourself conscious of the personalityyou project as a writer. Jot down the characteristics you wish to conveyabout yourself and refer to this list as you revise your paper. While thisis a highly self-conscious way to revise, when it is done well, the resultappears natural. You will also need to double-check your examples,making sure that you present them in sufficient detail to communicatefully to your audience. That warning serves as well for informative andpersuasive papers. Again, use description to make your examples hit themark: use sensory detail, compare the unfamiliar to the familiar, beI ! Pointers for Using Example 91concrete. If you are writing a persuasive paper, use these techniques todevelop your emotional appeal.. Consider extended example. If an essay rests on one example, thatillustration must be chosen and developed with great care. Make sureyour example is representative of its class and that you provide allrelevant information. Make as many unobtrusive connections as you canbetween your example and the class it represents. During revision, youmay want to eliminate some of these references, but at first it's best tohave too many. If you are writing a persuasive paper, you don't want tobe found guilty of a logical fallacy. .4. Consider multiple examples. Most essays rely on multiple examplesto support their points; nevertheless, some will be more developed thanothers. Figure out which examples are particularly striking and developthem, reserving the others for mere mention. Show how your examplesfit your point and stress what is noteworthy about them. To lend breadthand credibility to your point consider citing statistics, quotations, authorities,and the experience of others as well as your own experience.Comment on what you take from other sources in order to make it moreyour own.5. Arrange your examples effectively. The most frequent pattern oforganization moves from the less dramatic, less important to the most, but examples also can be arranged chronologically or in terms of frequency (from the least frequent to the most). Like the essay itself, each paragraph should be developed around a central assertion, either stated or understood. In longer papers, groups of paragraphs will form a paragraph block in support of a unifying statement. These statements guide the reader through your examples and save the paper from turning intoa mere list. 6. Make a point. Examples so obviously need to lead up to something that it's hard not to make a point in this kind of paper. The only real pitfall is that your point may not be an assertion. Test your thesis by asking whether your point carries any information. If it does, it's an assertion. Say you come up with, "We live in a world of time-saving technology." You can think of lots of examples and even narrow down the "we" to "anyone who cooks today." The setting is obviously the kitchen, but is the revised thesis an assertion? Given the information test, it fails. Your audience already knows what you are supposedly informing them about. But if you revise and come up with "Electronic gizmos have turned the kitchen into a laboratory," you've given the topic a fresher look, one that does contain information.--------------------------------------------ContinuesNowAssignment #1: Summary: After reading the assigned essay for this week, summarize it. Summarize carefully and precisely with attention to accurate identification of the article’s main points, omission of less relevant details, inclusion of relevant detail, organization scheme, composition, and strength in grammar, mechanics, and phrasing.