Source 1.

Life magazine. 'Life Magazine "Identifies The New Teen - Age Market,”'. Life magazine 2015:

n. pag. Print.

Following the Second World War, there was the emergence and growth of a teenage market referred to as the Baby Boom that witnessed increased spending among the teenagers. The period inspired the Life magazine to write an article analyzing the consumer trends among the adolescents as businesses focused on designing products and advertisements targeting the growing market among the adolescents. The report is a result of investigative journalism written in August 1959 issue due to the need for the report due to the growing influence of the spending behavior of the adolescents to the entire US economy and hence the need to understand the consumer behaviors of the market niche. The report may be faced by biases because it is not a scientific research but is based on expert analysis and collection of information from the stakeholders who may be biased as they gave the information.

The major meaning of the source is that the teenage market niche is one that cannot be ignored at all costs. Especially with the increasing of the teenage population at the time as w result of the “baby boom” phase in the United States, the spending habits of the adolescents had become an integral part of the US economy that companies could no longer ignore. It was the inspiration of the advertisements that focused on the teenagers and the market still had potential since the number of teenagers was bound to increase by over 10 billion in the following decade. The report also emphasizes the importance of teenage spending saying that “if parents have any idea of organized revolt, it is already too late. Teenage spending is so important that such action would send quivers through the entire national economy.” It is an agreement with the importance of teenage spending to the economy of the country, and hence parents could not do much to control them. It is a phenomenon present in the contemporary society with the teenagers being a major target market for advertisements. The teenagers spend more on gadgets, trips, fashion and food and has continued to be a market niche with even more potential. It is a niche that the government or even the market players cannot afford to ignore and at that period parents have little control since adolescents move with the trends. The author has a tone of amazement and marvel as they observe the role that the teenagers are playing to the economy and consumerism of the country and the increased quest by parents to offer what they require. The report makes an argument that they support with qualitative and quantitative data from other sources makes an argument. The argument that teenagers spend more is used to persuade the reader on the significant role that the teenagers play to the consumerism in the country. The audience addressed is the public, and more so, the parents as the author change tone now and then to warn the parents of the fact that they can no longer change the trends since any changes may have adverse effects on the economy. The report develops from making a premise, inference on teenage spending based on observations made, and then the author goes ahead to collect data in support of the argument made at the beginning.

The author organizes the arguments in a coherent and systematic manner. The report starts with an introduction giving an overview of the situation as it is with spending of teenagers. It is intended to catch the attention of the reader and focus it on the theme of the research work. It gives a vivid analysis of the trends and then gives the guidance of the argument supported in the next sections of the report. In the body, it is well connected with the introduction of the report and provides evidence in support of the main argument. It gives a detailed analysis of the data from other sources. The author supports the main argument with both qualitative and quantitative data giving statistics of the population of teenagers as well as the potential projections for the future thus giving further emphasis to the importance of the teenagers in the spending culture of the entire economy. The author uses good \writing skills to integrate clearly the data and information from other sources including an overview of information given by a teenager who acts as a case study to the report to further provide the necessary information regarding the spending habits of the teenagers. However, they fail to offer counterarguments that could be present such as the possibility that the consumer behavior among the teenagers was a direct result of other extraneous variable and not from them. In such an argument, it is essential to have counterarguments to enable the reader to form a premise that is more informed and entirely based on the views and the standpoint of the author. The author is a good writer as they can make tonal variations and use data and other sources to pass their arguments. Moreover, they exude a form of writing skills in the style adopted to relate the topic and the hypothesis of concern to the audience. The author is also able to keep the reader engaged and interested in the main ideas thus convincing them to the premise made. However, the lack of counter-arguments and the lack of acknowledgment of the primary sources of the data and statistics used in the report to support their arguments. Every good writer identifies the need to acknowledge the source of any information they use in their works. The author uses imagery when they say, “A top student in her school, she is entering Occidental College this fall and will major in political science.” It is meant to indicate the level of seriousness that a year old Suzie Slattery of Van Nuys retains despite being given all the luxuries that she wanted. It is a way to communicate to the parents that giving a teenager what she wants despite the costs and the high-end life, they may still retain their focus and have priorities nod not just lose their direction as one may assume. The author uses the imagery to pass one the message that giving the consumerism among the teenagers is not all .bound to lead to negative consequences.

The report is historically signed since it gives the historical results of the Second World War and the resulting social and economic consequences. It is also key to enabling the reader to have an insight on some of the trends that are present to date regarding teenagers. It is the historical source that enables an individual to get the insight and the knowledge of the trends observed in the contemporary society. It is because, history has a way of continuity and repeating itself and hence can be used to equip the audience to be ready to face the challenges or even to appreciate the trends observed. It is also important at offering a historian the contexts that surrounded the events that took place at a certain period in history.

Source 2:

Zinn Howard  and  Arnove Anthony. Voices of a People's History of the United States: Excerpt

from Malcolm X, “Message to the Grass Roots” (10 November 1963). New York: Seven Stories Press, 2009.

The civil rights movement led to the rising of leaders majority of whom advocated for a more cautious approach to fighting for the rights of the blacks, but Malcolm X advocated for an uncompromising approach to the struggle. The source is a direct excerpt from Malcolm X’s “Message to the Grass Roots”, written on 10th November 1963. It was written by Malcolm X himself to call upon the oppressed people to rise and fight for their rights since there was no way America was going to grant them their basic rights without a struggle and hence the need to offer it to them. The source is subject to bias due to the emotional connotation that came with the oppression and therefore, Malcolm may have written or told the speech in a way that favors his course at the expense of hard truth that may be the necessary tools to draw a conclusion about the approach necessary for the Civil rights movement.

In the speech, the major aim of Malcolm X was to inspire and incite the marginalized people due to racial segregation through a call to action and a call for unity amongst them. He villainies the white majority that were the reason they faced the cruelty and the brutality of racism to get the people to act. The speech was an indication of the suffering and the turmoil that the African Americans faced at the time in the hands of legalized racism. It shows the deep wounds and pain that they felt against the whites, and it could be used to explain the tension that exists in some areas to date between the White and Black Americans. It is because, some of the people that experienced the oppression that came with racism may not yet be ready to forgive any white American.  The audiences are the black Americans and other people of color that faced abject racism in the United States. It also conforms on the cause of racial tension evident in American society to date. Malcolm is making an argument about the need for the people to unite ad rise as a block. He argues that their fundamental rights and freedoms will not be granted to them unless they work together as a unit to confront the common enemy that they have as he states, “We have a common enemy. We have this in common: We have a common oppressor, a common exploiter, and a common discriminator. However, once we all realize that we have this common enemy, and then we unite by what we have in common. And what we have foremost in common is that enemy: the white man.” His arguments were meant to inspire a more radicalized stance against discrimination than the other leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. that advocated for peaceful demonstrations to force the government to grant them their basic rights and freedoms. The arguments are used to evoke emotion and to persuade the listeners to get up in arms and do something together. Malcolm has a tone of melancholy and desperation that serves to demonstrate the kind of oppression that the African Americans faced and meant to appeal to the emotions of the audience as well. He also shifts the tone in some instance to incorporate an appellate tone that he uses to make appeals and plead with the audience to join him and for them to work together as a unit to engage in the revolution to redeem themselves from the oppression that faced them. Malcolm X also speaks with a strong conviction of what he wanted appealing for the revolution lists to engage in the violent revolution since the whites left the, no option. He argues that if the Americans made them bleed for them abroad then is okay for them to use violence in America to get what they want. The speech by Malcolm X is argumentative right from the beginning to the end. He uses observations to provide concrete evidence and cites the counterarguments of which he comes up with stronger arguments that enforce his main ideas.

The arguments by Malcolm X are structured in a very witty manner since he starts with introducing the real problem facing the African American fraternity among other that were segregated. He reminds the people the problems they face and then reiterates that they have no choice but to join in the armed revolution. He uses rhetorical questions to stir the audience to thinking about what it would mean and to engage them to see his perspective that results in engagement in the arguments that he makes. Malcolm was an exemplary speaker because the speech was written in a very informed manner. He uses the rules and figures of speech to give the advantage to make further his arguments. For example, he uses the ethos and pathos to make his arguments and appeal to the audience to join his course and also to be able to win them. He also starts the speech by growing his credibility by using the word “We” to indicate to the listeners that he was part of them and suffered the same suffering and pain brought by the racism, as the others did. He can capture the attention of the listener and retain it further. He goes ahead to use rhetorical questions that are meant to stir the imagination and involve the listeners even further before he offers a solution. It works to get the listeners having a mental picture of the situation as they think about the questions and it is this that further convinced the listeners. He asks questions such as “That revolution was for what? For land. Why did they want land? Independence. How was it carried out? Bloodshed. Number one, it was based on land, the basis of independence. And the only way they could get it was bloodshed.” It is this that inspires the audience to think about the options that Malcolm offered to them and also to consider the violent revolutions. The language, however, is biased in that Malcolm X uses the contexts and the wordings to suit the needs of his campaign. He relates the involvement of the World Wars to the war at home and calls the people to violence just as they were made to bleed for America abroad. He uses the past experiences of the audience and twists the significance of such experiences to convince further them to join an armed struggle for civil rights. He also does not indicate any form of progress resulting from past civil movements but focuses on negating racism to the extent that he stirs hate and anger among the audience so that they can rise in arms. For example, when he says, “So we are all black people, so-called Negroes, second class citizens, ex-slaves. You are nothing but a [sic] ex-slave. You do not like to be told that. But what else are you?” the author uses the correct English just including a few slang words used at the time. He further uses imagery and satire when he says, “You bleed when the white man says bleed; you bite when the white man says bite, and you bark when the white man says bark. I hate to say this about us, but it is true. How are you going to be nonviolent in Mississippi, as violent as you were in Korea?” Biting when asked to bite was imagery for the way the whites treated the African by making them do what they please without caring about what they want. He uses satire in when he asks whether they will be as peaceful as they were in Korea yet they had gone there to war during the Second World War. It emphasizes the writing skills of the author as being exemplary.

The speech by Malcolm X is significant as it indicates the historical leaders that called for movements and uprisings that changed the course of history for good. It is also a good source to learn how the civil leaders inspired and motivated the civil rights activists to join in the war against racism. Moreover, racism has been and is still a problem though in the modern society, it is moderated, and hence such a historical piece gives explanations of reasons for the deep-seated problem in American society.