Blog entry 1: Learning outcome 1

Body Ritual among the Nacirema is a perfect example for learning outcome one.   Learning outcome one is all about how the audience and purpose affect the structure of the article or writing.  The audience of this article is Americans.  The purpose of it is to show weird things Americans do on a daily or monthly basis in a different point of view.  For example this article is about describing Americans in a different way.  The “tribe” the author is explaining is called the Nacirema’s, which is American backwards, but he is actually talking about Americans.  One example the author uses in the writing is “Despite the fact that these people are so punctilious about care of the mouth, this rite involves a practice which strikes the uninitiated stranger as revolving.  It was reported to me that the ritual consists of inserting a small bundler of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures.”  This quote is describing Americans brushing their teeth.  The “hog hairs” are the brushes on your tooth brush and the “magical powers” is the tooth paste.  Another example the author uses is “This part of the rite involves scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp instrument.”  This quote is describing a man’s shaving of his face.  The sharp instrument is a razor and lacerating the surface of the face is the process of shaving.  The author had to think about how he was going to plan this piece because his purpose was supposed to be about Americans without them knowing.  The structure and content of this writing had to be planned out very carefully.