Young and Dyslexic? You've got it going on Flashcards
Q4 plan
P1: positive portrayal of dyslexia
P2: response to dyslexia - other people’s negativity vs his positivity
‘Young and Dyslexic? You’ve got it going on’
‘you’ve’ - contraction - colloquialism & informal - friendly & approachable
‘?’ & ‘young and dyslexic’ - target audience, helping others, inclusivity
TAP
T: article
A: became national
P: to inform & educate about dyslexia & to inspire
P1:
‘we are the architects, we are the designers.’
personal pronoun ‘we’ - collective, inspire people with dyslexia - positive union
‘architects’, ‘designers’ - highly skilled, creative - recurring motif
‘being observant helped me make the right choices.’
‘observant’ - aware - perk of processing & neurodiversity
‘right’ - correctness, innocent & respect, morally/socially good - contrast others’ opinoins
‘a high percentage of the prison population are dyslexic, and a high percentage of the architect population.’
anaphora of ‘a high percentage’ - emphasises juxtaposition
juxtaposition/dichotomy of ‘prison’ (criminal, uncivilised, wrong, dangerous) vs ‘architect’ (creative, intelligent, well-respected) - dyslexia does not necessarily mean hindrance
‘job of a professor’
‘professor’ - intelligent - show dyslexia does not impact cleverness
‘my students would be officially more educated than me.’
humour, comedy - author is still important (professor)
‘if you don’t have passion, creativity, individuality, there’s no point.’
tricolon & asyndeton - number of other more important traits
education is much more than just grades - personality is more important - exemplified by himself
‘being dyslexic is the natural way to be. What’s unnatural is the way we read and write.’
antithesis of ‘natural’ vs ‘unnatural’ - dyslexia is superior & desirable - question convention
‘we’ - collective - universal message
‘being creative and so your creativity muscle gets bigger’
polyptoton of ‘creative’ & ‘creativity’ - emphasis
‘muscle’ - strength
‘bigger’ - comparative - positive improvement, imply future success
‘us dyslexic people, we’ve got it going on - we are the architects’
anaphora of title ‘we’ve got it going on’ - inspiring, uplifting tone
recurring motif of ‘architects’
‘us dyslexic people’ - label - like an inclusive group
P2:
‘there was no compassion, no understanding and no humanity’
tricolon crescendo - hyperbolise lack of care
criticise education system
repetition of ‘no’ - negativity & oppression
‘Shut up, stupid boy.’
‘shut up’ - imperative - harsh & domineering, sympathy for author
‘stupid’ - derogatory & ‘boy’ - trivialise him & his efforts
‘wrong’, ‘fell apart, in trouble’, ‘unable to read’, ‘no qualifications’, ‘dyslexic’
personal anecdote - individual example of universal message
semantic field of struggle includes ‘dyslexic’ - author taught it was a defect
disadvantages not author’s fault
‘conquering your fears and finding your path in life.’
repetition of personal pronoun ‘your’ - you can control your life
‘path’ - direction, purpose, fulfilment
‘if someone oppresses me because of my race I don’t sit down and think, ‘How can I become white?’ It’s not my problem, it’s theirs’
comical analogy - stupidity of changing a part of who you are - mocking bigots
‘race’ - permanent, same for dyslexia
‘become’ - change
personal pronouns ‘my’, ‘theirs’ - separation
‘don’t think of it as a defect.’
‘don’t’ - imperative, instructional educative tone
‘defect’ - negative stereotype - directly countering with ‘don’t’
structure
recurring motif ‘architect’ - creativity
past vs present - society becoming more open-minded over time & purpose to continue this
personal anecdote - connection & passion with topic - inspire/persuade audience more
comparative points
change in tone - negative to inspiring, positive, accepting
inspiring resolution
personal experience - personal anecdotes, ‘we’
challenge stereotyping & adversity
