Katia Peltekian Name: _______________________________

UPEN 002
Critical Reading Fall 2020

Sample Response
Smarter or More Confusing? Creative title; not the article’s

(1) In the article “Remote Control: The Battle of (1) First sentence that gives full name of
Wits with Home Appliances,” (Miami Herald, author, full title in quotation marks,
March 25, 2000) Dave Barry claims that he does publication info and a paraphrase of the
not want appliances to have even more features writers idea to which the paragraph will
than they already have because he has trouble respond to
using the already existing ones. (2) I agree with
Barry that home appliances, especially a simple (2) The general sentence that introduces your
appliance such as the TV, have too many features response. This is similar to a Topic
and application that are not used by most people. Sentence, introducing your response.
(3) Nowadays, TVs are almost useless unless we
subscribe to a cable company that will provide us (3) From this sentence onwards, it is all
with a number of TV channels. In order to do that, personal input about the topic being
discussed. Nothing in this part goes back to
the cable company provides us with a cable box
the original article – except in rare cases
which comes with a remote control different from
when necessary. This is all your personal
the TV’s. Of course, if we have a DVD, we end up
opinion/experience/knowledge.
with yet another remote control, and when
teenagers are around, the TV could be connected
to a game console too. If we look at the remote
controls, we see over 50 buttons on each; do we use
them all? I doubt it. In fact, the average adult uses
only a few of these buttons: on/off, volume
up/down, channel up/down and occasionally the
mute or the menu button; teenagers might use a
few more, but there are certain buttons that are
definitely never used by the average household. So
instead of adding more features, I believe
manufacturers should come up with a TV that
comes with a built-in cable box, a game console, a
DVD & stereo, and internet all together operated
by one simple remote control. If these companies
believe there are too many tech-savvy people who
need all those buttons on their remote controls,
then the manufacturer can simply supply them
with a more advanced – not smarter – remote
(4) The concluding sentence ties the
control. Let the consumer choose the simple or the
paragraph back to the writer’s original
complicated control system. (4) In fact, if signing a
point.
petition or calling a manufacturer will help stop
this upsurge of features on our appliances, as
Barry urges consumers to do, then I will do so and By Katia M. Peltekian ©
ask my friends to do the same too.