Speaker: Petula Dvorak is speaking as a working mother in August who is outraged by the increasing costs of childcare. Dvorak is an educated career woman who often must get creative with ways to keep her children busy during the summer months when school has yet to begin but summer camps are closed.
Occasion: The overall price of childcare is on the rise. Summer camps for children can now cost anything from $500 to $1000 a week, leaving few options for working adults who have children to "entertain". In America's economy there has been an increasing number of both parents of a household working since the recession. To make up for this childcare has gotten more expensive as there are more children who do not necessarily have someone to watch them. Now many parents must face the decision of sending their children to summer camp or taking them to work, and many offices do not approve of this practice.
Audience: The intended audience of this article clearly is the American middle class and mothers who want to find ways of keeping her children busy and "entertained" while she works. The intended audience can relate most to this topic because it is what a majority of middle class parents and single mothers experience during the mid-August months.
Purpose: The main purpose of the article is to inform readers of the rapidly increasing and outrageous costs of childcare. Summer camp rates have gone up due to parents having almost no choice but to scour the Earth to find one which suits their work schedule. The secondary purpose of the article for Petula Dvorak is to showcase how it is possible to take care of one's kids and career. With her own display of "summer camp" Dvorak shows readers just how hard it is to ensure the safety and happiness of one's children while working.
Subject: The focus of the article is the struggle of taking care of children during the time period when summer camps are closed but schools have yet to reopen.
Tone: The overall tone of the piece was earnest. Dvorak was very intense when discussing the issue of rising childcare costs but had a sincere state of mind considering she included her two young children in the experiment to see if one can take care of children while working.
Occasion: The overall price of childcare is on the rise. Summer camps for children can now cost anything from $500 to $1000 a week, leaving few options for working adults who have children to "entertain". In America's economy there has been an increasing number of both parents of a household working since the recession. To make up for this childcare has gotten more expensive as there are more children who do not necessarily have someone to watch them. Now many parents must face the decision of sending their children to summer camp or taking them to work, and many offices do not approve of this practice.
Audience: The intended audience of this article clearly is the American middle class and mothers who want to find ways of keeping her children busy and "entertained" while she works. The intended audience can relate most to this topic because it is what a majority of middle class parents and single mothers experience during the mid-August months.
Purpose: The main purpose of the article is to inform readers of the rapidly increasing and outrageous costs of childcare. Summer camp rates have gone up due to parents having almost no choice but to scour the Earth to find one which suits their work schedule. The secondary purpose of the article for Petula Dvorak is to showcase how it is possible to take care of one's kids and career. With her own display of "summer camp" Dvorak shows readers just how hard it is to ensure the safety and happiness of one's children while working.
Subject: The focus of the article is the struggle of taking care of children during the time period when summer camps are closed but schools have yet to reopen.
Tone: The overall tone of the piece was earnest. Dvorak was very intense when discussing the issue of rising childcare costs but had a sincere state of mind considering she included her two young children in the experiment to see if one can take care of children while working.
Petula Dvorak uses an earnest tone throughout her piece concerning summer camp costs. Dvorak conveys this tone through intensity, with phrases such as "Welcome to Camp Mommy-the awful weeks...". This phrase shows that Dvorak often becomes tense or tired around this time period. Dvorak also displays her emotion towards this issue through sincerity, by using tone words such as "delish" when she is making cookies with her boys while working. This word shows that she is relaxed and jovial about her experience juggling her boys and career during the summer. Dvorak's level of emotional attachment to the subject is very high considering she is a working mother who takes care of her children during the summer. One can interpret this level especially when she says "She was doing drugs, Sweet Pea," after an interview with someone getting high. The phrase acknowledges how Dvorak herself has had to take her own children on investigations with her for work, proving the situation she talks about is personal.