Through out the summer I have been following editorial writer,Verlyn Klinkenborg who writes for the New York Times opinion page. This writer caught my eye because while reading biographies about all the editorial writers, I saw that he had a lot of experience writing books and writing in magazines so I was sure that his articles would be interesting. Another reason I chose to follow him was the list of things Verlyn wrote about. The topics included were: Agriculture, Environment and Culture. I think all these topics are intriguing and as soon as I clicked on his name, I knew I made the right choice. His article titles were all very inviting and up front about what each article was going to be about. I wanted to read all of them, but I knew to just choose a few of my favorite ones.
The first article that caught my eye had a simple title called "Locust Moon". Since the title was very simple, I thought the article would be that way also, but when I clicked on it, I saw something completely different. Klinkenborg used a wide range of adjectives to describe this locust. The words were so vivid and created a full picture in my mind with every sentence I saw. The article itself was started out by Verlyn writing a story about himself. The little details he included were enough for me to feel like I had actually known this man and been there while this story occurred. "Locust Moon" was about the locust that the author had been seeing more and more. Not only did Klinkenborg give his insight on what he saw- the locust making the sky look darker and darker at night time, but also included facts about locusts. The editorial itself is called "Locust Moon" instead of just "Locust" because I feel as Verlyn wanted to make it more interesting and create another picture by giving the image of black locusts actually taking up the moons light. For the starting and end of the editorial, he decided to talk about fireflies in both. Having the contrast of the fireflies light and the locusts darkness really added to the effect of the article because for me- I am not exactly sure what locusts look like, but of course I see fireflies all over the place, so for me to have that comparison, I could really tell how dark the locusts are. In my opinion, this article definitely drew me into read it and I think it did that for many other people too. Verlyn Klinkenborg used many rhetorical devices such as spectacular imagery, stating facts and comparing objects to help the reader paint a picture in their head of how the author wants the topic to be portrayed. The style of his writing really flowed in my mind because it went from a story that drew me in, to the topic discussed and then facts about the topic. It wasn't too long of an article, so I never got bored and with all the imagery I was actually wanting to read more about the topic. The position the writer is making is that the locust is taking up much of the sky at night and I can tell the reader doesn't like the locust and wants to see the light of the moon and fireflies. I think this topic isn't as big as some topics, but I do think many people will agree with his position on it because of Klinkenborg's ability to write about something as little as locusts and play it up by filling the article with adjectives and personal experiences that will get the reader to take the the time at night to see if the moon is actually getting filled by these bugs- at least I know that's what it did for me.
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