close reading oct 23rd

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2011/10/24/111024taco_talk_kolbert

The diction of this piece is that of an informative and sophisticated piece of writing.  The purpose of this essay is to discuss the world's population and its rapid approach toward the 7 billion mark.  It uses a lot of technical jargon, which is representative of they type of writing that this is.  Words such as "per-capita food production" and " phosphorus-rich fertilizers" requires a certain amount of knowledge by the reader in order to understand the meaning of what the author is saying.  I found however that this relatively complicated topic of global population and its future was presented in a way that is easily understood by the audience.  The author clearly uses her education as a tool to explain and enlighten the readers, rather than require a lot of technical knowledge to interpret her essay.  


The details of this essay are very technical and specific, drawing from history, and without knowledge of some of these references much will be missed by the reader.  She describes the work of Thomas Matlhus, an author of an essay who promised global famine as a  result of large population growth and the work of Robert Ehlrich who promised a huge die off soon after the 1960's.  Obviously these predictions weren't correct but knowing the gist of these writers and beliefs adds to the understanding of this technical essay because they are very minimally described.  Knowing more about these authors in addition to knowing technical information about global food production downturn would overall enrich the understanding of this technical essay, more than just the slight descriptions given from this essay.  


The piece starts with very clear imagery.  The author paints a picture of where the 7 billionth child will be born - baby who does the trick will most likely appear in India, where the number of births per minute—fifty-one—is higher than in any other nation. But he or she could also be born in China—the world’s most populous country—or in a fast-growing nation like Nigeria or Guatemala or, really, anywhere.  This passage is very unique when compared to the rest of the essay.  This is really the only part that has anything resembling imagery.  I think that she used this sort of an intro, with rich imagery that makes the reader wonder to themselves where this mystical 7 billionth child will be born in order to grab interest from the get go of the reader.  I think that this is highly effective and it is a good way to lead into more technical writing by the author.