After you have read this piece, respond to it in your journal. You may wish to take some of the following questions into consideration:
What impression of this piece did you have when you read the first five paragraphs? Did it feel like a story? If not, explain why.
When you were half way through, did you have any idea of where the story was going?
Do you enjoy Ritter’s style? If you do, describe the passages you enjoyed most. If you don’t, explain why. Have you read any other works that had a similar tone? Explain.
Describe the dominant tone of this piece—or is there more than one tone? Explain. What do you think was Ritter’s aim in writing it? Evaluate her success in achieving her aims.
Ritter satirizes the “kind of meaningless adjective-noun†phrase so much admired by commercial airlines. Working with at least two other people reread this piece, collecting as many examples as you can of such jargon. Airline staff, of course, are not the only people who use meaningless, ambiguous phrases: so do some psychologists, some educators, some business people, characters on some television shows, and many advertisers. Join up with a few other students so there are four or five groups in the class. Work with your group to collect examples of such phrases over a one-week period. Arrange your findings in an eye-catching bulletin-board display. Make certain you do not give viewers the idea that these are admirable phrases!