Evaluation essay paper help on "The Culture of Fear"

i have to write a 6-7 page evaluation essay on the book, The Culture of Fear. the goal is to judge and explain whether his argument matters and whether it succeeds. i am clueless on how to start it.

Greetings!

Fortunately, you have been given a bit of a road map in your instructions. An "evaluation essay" is asking for your opinion--basically, a critique. Here are a few tips for identifying the important points in the book:

Look at the book jacket. It should summarize what the author was trying to say.

Also check out the chapter titles. Each one will be about a point the author wanted to make.

Explain to someone else what the book was about. If you were going to teach this book as a subject, what would you tell your students? Obviously, you wouldn't cover every little detail. You would tell them the most important things that the author believes.

After you've decided what is most important in the book's content, you can decide if you agree or disagree with it. That is the evaluation part. There may be several points that the author has made; you may agree with some and disagree with others. I haven't read the book myself, but from the title I would guess that he is saying we live in a culture where fear plays a major role. Do you agree with that? Who (or what) does he say causes the fear? Is he correct? Etc. Once you see the extent to which you agree with the author (or disagree), you should be able to tell if he succeeded in convincing you.

I hope this helps. Good luck!

Sarah
EssayForum.com

i am on the right track with this essay? i am not finish with essay.

Barry Glassner's The Culture of Fear exposes how the organizations, groups, and individuals use issues to influence and benefit from our solicitude. Glassner shows how Americans spend lots of time and energy worrying about issues being presented to the public as issues to be worry about.

Barry Glassner's The Culture of Fear presents lots of interesting evidence in how the politicians and media worked together to play on American fears. Glassner give us an idea of how the media uses false information to gather the audiences to support the issues presented that could lead the audiences into thinking that the information was true, for example, the media might say that more teens are dropping out of schools then ever before but the truth is that the drop out rate is slowly going down. Politicians used America fears to gain support in their issue.

Good morning!

It seems like you have some good ideas to get started with. I find that using an outline helps me get organized in my writing, and it is something that may work well here. To begin with, chose major points from the text. It looks like you have begun to do this already. Your first pillar could be how groups and individuals use specific issues to influence what people deem worthy enough to worry over.

The second pillar may be how politicians and the media work together to play off American's fears. You will probably need three more large pillar topics for an essay of 6 to 7 pages.

Once you have these main pillars, use supporting facts and details to support them. You've already got some of those here. For the first pillar topic, you could use the examples the author states shows how Americans respond to these stimuli.

As for the second pillar, you can use examples such as the school dropout perception to bolster your pillar statements.

I would also suggest researching over the internet the book and other critical reviews of it to help clarify the text.

Good luck!

Regards,
Gloria
Moderator, EssayForum.com

i am finish with this essay. i don't want to sound like i am summarizing the book, am i on the right track? i hope it is ok to post this here, if no, i am sorry.

Fearing the Unnecessary

Barry Glassner's The Culture of Fear exposes how the organizations, groups, and individuals use issues to influence and benefit from our solicitude. Glassner shows how Americans spend lots of time and energy worrying about issues being presented to the public as issues to be worry about. There are dangers everywhere and we should protect our children from dangers like using weapon or pedophiles. We must face that plane crush or car accidents are no way to live in fear. Readers could relate to what Glassner has proposed issues that are a balance between important and unimportant as to what Americans fear.

Barry Glassner's The Culture of Fear presents lots of interesting evidence in how the politicians and media worked together to play on American fears. Glassner give us an idea of how the media uses false information to gather the audiences to support the issues presented that could lead the audiences into thinking that the information was true, for example, the media might say that more teens are dropping out of schools then ever before but the truth is that the drop out rate is slowly going down. Richard Nixon has stated, "People react to fear, not love. They don't teach that in Sunday school, but it's true" (qtd. in Glassner xxviii). Politicians used America's fears to gain support in their issue. For example, in 1995, an explosion occurs at a federal building in Oklahoma City and people start thinking that it was the Arabs (Glassner xiii). Later, it was found out that the bombers were two white guys from Middle America (Glassner xiii). Bill Clinton had stated that, "We know we've got about six years to turn this juvenile crime thing around or our country is going to be living with chaos" (Glassner xiv).

Each day, any person would experience violence in our home, our workplace, or on television shows. The author argues that guns are one of the problems in the United States. Glassner has stated that, "If journalists or politicians want to report on the dangers of teens that they should have something on their screen savers that reads, It's the guns, stupid" (Glassner 55). Guns are not the only method of choice children can use if they want to kill themselves. Children can find other methods in a suicide attempt, for example, jumping off a bridge or drown in a pool. Children can easily get access to guns without knowing the consequence of using a weapon. People would use a gun to get others to get their attention. The author compare United States with other counties that the United States is the only country with the largest people whom the guns are stolen from the owners (xix). The author made a good point that if less people were to own guns, most people would be alive today and there would be less death with the use of firearms (Glassner xix). When there are fewer guns for people to own, there would be less chance for people to kill someone in drive-by shooting or rubbing a store for cash. The government should made owning a weapon hard to get. This way people would be safe from others planning to shoot them. There are people who have guns in their cars where they can take the weapon out from a hidden area and shoot someone and drive away fast. Guns can be seen in shows like CSI New York where children will think that guns are cool.

There dangers in places we least expect. Cyberspace is a place where pedophiles can hide to gain the other person's trust to lure him or her into having sex. There is no one to stop them from doing what they want online. Sometimes children would go out and meet their online companion without ever knowing the dangers of strangers. Pedophiles can disguise themselves as priests or someone we can trust. The granny dumping is a bit ridiculous because the children might not be able to care for their parents so they are put in a nursing home. People are works in a nursing home doesn't always steal their patient's money. The media portray young people and others where the elderly shouldn't be able to trust.

Glassner expose how the media keep on showing news about people being killed by cars that cause people to wonder if that will ever happen to them. Once in a while, we see an article or on the news about someone dying in a car accidents. People don't have too much to worry rather or not they should worry if they are going to be the next one. Oprah Winfrey had an episode about road rage where she had say that everyone has being there where drivers might be giving you a dirty look or cuss at you for no reason (qtd. in Glassner 4). Glassner use a study from the American Automobile Association to show that about 218 deaths, or less than one in a thousand, directly to angry drivers. That seems to be a lot to be directed toward drivers. People have too much to worry about rather then a road rage. The media make it seem like it is a real tragedy that a lot of people had die in car crushes. There are other ways for people to die like place crushes or sudden illnesses. People would die in car accidents rather then plane crushes.

Plane crush are the least of anyone's worry. There is an unlike chance that people will die in a plane crush, say Glassner (183). True, people will not die in plane crushes as the media make it appear to be. The media keeps on making of false information about people dying in plane crush to make it appear as if it is a real tragedy the plane crush each time a traveler travels somewhere. Richard Newman, a U.S. News and World reporter, points of that the pilots would need to pay for their own training but there are other people that would be able to become pilots are not able to (qtd. in Glassner 186). The pilots might not be have plenty of experience is flying the planes. The government spends too much on airplanes instead of spending money for children.

Americans fear unnecessary issues. The issues would drive away from what really needs to be done. The author portrays himself as a human voice to show the reader to not fall into victims the media portrays some issue to be. At times, the author does fall into victim of what he says the media and politicians do to gain support. Some issues are left out without any explanations as to what those are.

Unimportant or important fears are what drive Americans crazy. Glassner use lots of statistics to help explain his thesis. The author states some issues that are not really important issues like granny dumping. The media portrays each issue like plane crushes that Americans should worry about. There are some issues that are worth our concerns. Americans shouldn't worry about issues that appear dangerous.

Good afternoon!

It looks like you've been hard at work! I think I'll just go through paragraph by paragraph to edit; I think that will be easier for both of us since this is a long post. Here it goes!

First block:

"...presented to the public as issues to be worry about."
Change this "worry" to "worried" because you are writing in the past tense.

"...like using weapon or pedophiles."
Change "weapon" to "weapons" to guarantee subject/verb agreement.

"We must face that plane crash or car accidents are no way to live in fear."
I'm a little confused with this sentence; it looks like you are trying to combine two separate statements. How about, "We must face that plane crashes or car accidents occur; it is not right to live in fear." Or something like that.

"Readers could relate to what Glassner has proposed..."
There should be a semi colon after proposed because you are linking two independent ideas. I am also a little bit confused at the very beginning of the sentence; if readers are afraid of these things, they do not relate to being able to discern between relevant and non-relevant fears. How about something like, "Readers could learn from what Glassner proposed; paying attention to issues that are a balance between important and unimportant as to what Americans should fear."

The second block:

*Depending on what reference style you are required to use, the titles of books and articles should be italicized or underlined. Refer to your reference citation style to find out what you should be doing. Also check on how you are to present in-text citations.*

"...how the politicians and media worked together..."
This "worked" should be "work" to keep with your tense.

"Glassner give us..."
Change to "Glassner gives us..."

"Glassner give us an idea of how the media uses false information to gather the audiences to support the issues presented that could lead the audiences into thinking that the information was true, for example, the media might say that more teens are dropping out of schools then ever before but the truth is that the drop out rate is slowly going down."
This is one huge run-on. Let's cut it up into more digestive pieces and trim it down to illustrate your real point. "Glassner gives us an idea of how the media uses false information to gather support or believe false information. For instance, the media might say that currently teens are dropping out of school now more than ever, but research shows that the drop out rate is in fact declining."

"Politicians used America's fears..."
Let's clean that up a bit; how about something like, "Politicians have used Americans' fears to gain support for individual issues."

"...an explosion occurs at a federal building..."
Make sure you are staying in the same tense; "occurs" should be "occurred. Because it is a proper noun, Federal needs to be capitalized.

"...people start thinking..."
Tense! "Started"

Third block:

"...person would experience..."
I think you mean "could".*Check your quotation about Glassner and guns. The punctuation doesn't seem right on the quote; it should read, "If journalists or politicians want to report on the dangers of teens then they should have something on their screen savers that reads, "It's the guns, stupid."
I also suggest starting a new paragraph about children and suicide methods, as it seems to be the jumping off point for a new topic.*

"...or drown in a pool..."
Change "drown" to "drowning".

"...the consequence of using..."
Change "consequence" to "consequences".

"People would use a gun to get others to get their attention."
This statement is confusing; I'm not really sure what you are trying to say here. It doesn't seem relevant to children and guns; perhaps just remove it all together.

"The author compare..."
Change "compare" to "compares".
To continue on with this sentence, it doesn't make sense. How about clarifying; "The author compares the United States to other countries, and the United States is the only country with the largest population of gun theft victims."
"...death with the use..."
Change to "...death from the use..."

"...less chance for..."
Change to "...fewer chances for..."

"...or rubbing a store..."
Change "rubbing" to "robbing". Also, clarify here; at gunpoint? Stores are robbed without guns, so you need to specify if you mean to include firearms.

************************************************************ *******

*Make sure you are not getting off into an editorial about the subject matter of the book; this essay is turning into more of an opinion piece about whether or not you agree with the author's assertions, and that is not what your instructor requested. The rest of this paragraph and following paragraphs do not seem to have any analytical value of the required text. I suggest you revisit the assignment requirements and reevaluate your work. Make sure you are analyzing what Glassner is asserting. Explain more about what he says in the book and why or why not his assertions are true or false.*

Keep working, you'll get there.

Regards,
Gloria
Moderator, EssayForum.com