common place blog1

John McCain has a remarkable record of leadership and experience that embodies his unwavering lifetime commitment to service. First elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona in 1982, John has led the fight for reforming Washington, eliminating wasteful government spending, and strengthening our nation's armed forces.


The paragraph I have chosen comes from the John McCain website. After entering the website, if someone wants to learn more about John McCain, they will click on the about link and this is the first thing they will see. When evaluating the style and grammar, it is important to understand the purpose of the passage. Similar to a lot of political writing (especially party affiliated), the intention is to convince the reader that the politician is the kind of person they would like to see in office. It is imperative to grasp the readers’ attention, and convince them immediately of this idea. It is obvious that this short biography of John McCain is written in a different style than an encyclopedia would have it recorded. In any type of literature written by candidate, a campaign will many times pick to voice on issues that target a large majority of voters. In the first sentence, the campaign writers do a great job of concentrating on certain adjectives that focus to John McCain’s leadership. The first sentence has three phrases/words that emphasize this trait: “remarkable record of leadership”, “experience”, “unwavering lifetime commitment to service”. There is alliteration in “remarkable record”, and “experience that embodies”, that makes the sentence smooth and easy to read. In the first sentence, the campaign has indirectly referenced John McCain’s service to our country. In the second sentence, it refers to his wealth of his experience and leadership again, showing how he has been a politician since 1982. When looking at the grammar of the sentence structure, it is full of adjectives and nouns. There is an opportunity to substitute a subjective pronoun for John McCain. However, the campaign chooses not to, trying to give the reader first name recognition of the canidate. This structure can be adjusted by removing a few phrases and words to totally state negative views on a person or group of people.



Celebrities live out of control lives, expecting that they are to powerful to be reprimanded. This mindset has led to the removal of positive role models for children, eliminating good examples, and strengthening the acceptability of mayhem.


Changing a few words and phrases, this paragraph can turn into a opinionated rant on people that is quite effective.