Israt Zahan Zia – COM101 Final Exam

Subject Code and Section Number: COM101NDC.04659.2221COM 101

Student Name: Israt Zahan Zia

Student Number: 139877195

COM101 Final Exam

Seneca College

Professor Nic Labriola

April 18, 2022

Israt Zahan Zia – COM101 Final Exam

Academic Response (10 marks)

 
In a well-organized, well-supported paragraph of at least 200 words, identify one of the
main arguments in the text from Chimamanda Adichie, and using the specific claims the
author puts forth, make an informed argument agreeing or disagreeing with that main
argument.
 
 
Transfer Response (20 marks)

 
Choose one of the two prompts below and write a response of at least 400 words. Read
the prompt carefully, considering your audience, purpose and the conventions of your
chosen genre.
 
Prompts

 
1. You have been hired as a writer for a student newspaper. Your first assignment is to
write a blog on how to write persuasively, using “The danger of single story" by
Chimamanda Adichie as an example of effective persuasion. Consider the author’s
audience, main message, support, and specific persuasive techniques. 
 
2. Your job at the Seneca Student Federation requires you to recommend guest
speakers to come to the college. Write an email to your supervisor, Ruth Trainer that
makes a persuasive recommendation for Chimamanda Adichie to come to Seneca to
give her talk, “The danger of as single story". Consider the author’s main message,
support, and appeals to the audience. 
Israt Zahan Zia – COM101 Final Exam

Table of Contents

Academic Response (10 marks)...................................................................................................................4

Transfer Response (20 marks).....................................................................................................................5
Israt Zahan Zia – COM101 Final Exam

Academic Response (10 marks)

In the TED talk “The danger of a single story”, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2009)

presented that a single story of certain people, family, society, culture, and country may create a

stereotypic misconception of those groups by mentioning her very personal experience. Firstly,

she provided the example of her house body named Fide who was portrayed as a member of a

very poor family. Chimamanda Adichie also initially created a concept that the boy is poor, and

she felt pity for him. But “beautifully patterned basket made of dyed raffia”. The second

experience that she underwent was when she went to the USA at the age of 19. Her roommate

also had a “single story” misunderstanding about Nigerian people. I also strongly agree with the

main idea of Adichie’s talk. In our society, there are lots of stereotypic misconceptions about

different groups of people, race, religion, and country. In most cases, this misconception is

developed by listening to different version of a single story of that certain group of people.

Later, this misconception creates many problems in society. To get an idea of some cultures, or

group of people, we must explore multiple sources of information and multiple stories about that

group of people.

Reference:

Adichie, C. (2009, July) The Danger of Single Story [Video]. TED Conference.

https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story/

transcript?language=en
Israt Zahan Zia – COM101 Final Exam
Israt Zahan Zia – COM101 Final Exam

Transfer Response (20 marks)

Prompt 1:

People write for many reasons. Some people write to describe something, some people

write expository, and others write to persuade about somethings. This writing focuses on how to

write persuasively and discusses the persuasive technique used by the TED talk “The danger of a

single story”, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2009). To write a persuasive writing, one should use

main three types of techniques those are logos, pathos, and ethos.

Firstly, the logos means “logic” in which the author uses some statistics or factual

information or date to convince the reader about his/her argument. Next the pathos implies

“emotion. In these types of techniques, the writer utilizes the emotional appeal to make the

reader believe his/her point of view. Lastly, the ethos refers to credibility where the author tries

to gain the trust of the readers and share the credible experience of his own or others.

In the TED talk “The danger of a single story”, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2009) use

all these three techniques with predominantly ethos or credibility appealing. She shares lots of

her experiences to prove that the single story is catastrophic. Firstly, she provided an example of

her childhood. When she encountered a single story of her house body named Fide who was

portrayed as a member of a very poor family. Chimamanda Adichie also initially created a

concept that the boy is poor, and she felt pity for him. But “beautifully patterned basket made of

dyed raffia”. The second experience that she underwent was when she went to the USA at the

age of 19. Her roommate also had a “single story” misunderstanding about Nigerian people. She

also used many emotional statements regarding the consequence of misconception of single
Israt Zahan Zia – COM101 Final Exam

story. For example, she said,” Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also

repair that broken dignity” (Adichie 2009).

Reference:

Adichie, C. (2009, July) The Danger of Single Story [Video]. TED Conference.

https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story/

transcript?language=en