McCarty 1

Theresa McCarty
English 1101
ProIessor Beth Caruso
6 October 2011
A Man oI Many Hats
II you were to see my husband anywhere on any given day, ninety-nine percent oI the
time he would have on a hat. He rarely walks out our Iront door without one on. He only takes
it oII in public iI we`re in church or out to dinner. He`s been that way as long as I`ve known
him, and every year since we were Iourteen years old, I have bought him a hat Ior every
Christmas and every birthday. These hats aren`t just a Iashion statement, they serve many
purposes. Each one is a text that tells something about who he is. I chose to analyze one in
particular that he wears pretty regularly. It is a black baseball cap with the symbol Ior UNC
Chapel Hill on the Iront and an outline oI a ram on the side.
The genre oI this item is a hat. Hats can serve many purposes. Hats with bills can be
used to keep the sun out oI the eyes. Some hats keep the head warm or dry in bad weather. A
hat can also be used as a Iorm oI protection Ior the head. It can be used to cover up a bad
haircut, or it could cover your hair when you need a haircut badly. It could also serve the
purpose oI being Iashionable. Many people wear diIIerent hats depending on what color outIit
they may be wearing that day. Hats can also have speciIic designs that represent something that
the wearer enjoys and is passionate about.
This hat serves many oI the purposes oI its genre well. The bill shades his Iace Irom the
sun. It completely covers up his head and all oI his hair just in case he wants to hide something.
The hat is Iashionable and can be worn with many oI his clothes oI the same color and style.
Comment |BC1]: SwlLch Lhese
Comment |BC2]: 8aLher Lhan polnLlng Lo Lhe
asslgnmenL lnLroduce Lhe haL a blL more fluldly
Comment |BC3]: 1hese senLences convey no
real meanlng buL lf you connecL lL Lo Lhe nexL
senLence or senLences you can make a much
sLronger lnLro for your paragraph
Comment |BC4]: Pow does Lhls dlffer from Lhe
ldea ln Lhe prevlous paragraph?
McCarty 2

Being the huge Carolina Ian that he is, most oI his clothes match this hat. I think the most
important purpose oI this hat Ior him is that it represents something that he is passionate about.
He has been a diehard Carolina Ian since he was very young. He wears this hat in support oI the
team that he loves.
Although this hat serves most oI the purposes oI its genre well, there are a Iew that it
does not. A baseball hat will not protect the head Irom bad weather. It is cut to be worn above
the ears, so it will not keep someone warm when it is cold outside. It isn`t particularly helpIul in
the rain either. It is mainly made oI cotton, and in a hard rain, will not keep his head dry. The
only weather this hat may serve protection Irom is the sun. On a hot summer day, he would not
get any sunburn on his head. His hat doesn`t really oIIer his head much protection Irom objects
that might hurt him either. The materials the hat is made oI are not very hard or tough to
penetrate with Iorce. There are a Iew practical purposes this hat does not serve, but it IulIills all
the purposes that are important to its wearer.
There were not any obvious Ilaws that came Irom the creator oI this text. The hat came
Irom the store in brand new condition ready to serve all the purposes it was meant to IulIill. It
has since collected some Ilaws Irom being worn that tell a story about the wearer and ways he
has altered it to better serve its purposes Ior him. The most obvious Ilaw is the ring oI
discoloration on the lower Iront and upper brim oI the hat. Since this hat is less than a year old,
the sweat that caused the discoloration shows that he must really like to wear that hat because he
has worn it regularly enough to begin to wear out its color. A reader oI the text might assume it
is his Iavorite hat because he appears to wear it so oIten. There is also a bend in the bill Irom
where he shaped the hat to better Iit his own head. The inner band oI the hat is also stretched out
to Iit the size oI his head better than it would anyone else`s. The Ilaws that he has added to the
McCarty 3

text make it is his own and only do more to serve the purpose oI the text showing other people
something about the wearer.
This hat serves many oI its purposes well, but he doesn`t wear the hat to keep the sun out
oI his eyes or to hide his hair. He wears it because he likes how it looks and it supports his
Iavorite team. The text speaks to the people around him about who he is. It tells people that he
loves the Tar Heels and that he regularly wears a hat, especially this one. This text is successIul
at serving that purpose Ior him.
OI course there are texts in the hat genre that serve the purposes oI a hat in diIIerent
ways. A toboggan, Ior example, serves many purposes oI a hat that the Carolina hat does not
serve. My husband also has a knit toboggan that he wears oIten when it is cold outside. The hat
is an ugly burnt orange color. He wears this hat when the purposes that it serves outweigh the
things he likes about his baseball hat.
The toboggan is not particularly stylish like the Carolina hat would be, so the purpose oI
Iashion is not served by this type oI hat. There is no design or anything special about it, so it
doesn`t say much about the wearer`s personality other than they do not like to be cold. There is
no bill on this hat either, so it will not oIIer the eyes any protection Irom the sun. It isn`t very
helpIul in the rain because it is not waterprooI, so his head would still get wet. Although the
toboggan does cover the entire head allowing Ior the concealment oI a bad haircut, that isn`t the
main purpose oI this text Ior him.
The purpose that a toboggan serves Ior my husband that causes him to choose to wear
this hat over any other that he owns is that it keeps his head warm in cold weather. He mostly
works outdoors or indoors in places without heat. In the winter when the temperature drops
down it is important Ior him to have on a hat that covers his head and ears. The hat is made out
McCarty 4

oI thick knitted wool which is much better at keeping the head warm than a cotton ball cap.
People, especially men having less hair than woman, lose most oI their body heat Irom their
head. A toboggan helps keep that body heat inside the body where it belongs. This hat serves a
more practical purpose Ior him than the Carolina hat does, so when necessary, the toboggan is
the hat he chooses to wear.
Another hat he wears regularly serves a purpose Ior him entirely diIIerent Irom the
Carolina hat or a toboggan. He is a general contractor by proIession, so a hard hat is a necessity
Ior him on the job. The hard hat is a hat he is required to wear at certain times, so there is no
choice involved like the other two hats. The purpose this hat serves is arguably more important
than the purposes served by any oI his other hats.
His hard hat is certainly not Iashionable. It is actually not a very good looking hat at all.
There isn`t anything on it that tells people anything about who he is other than the job he does. It
doesn`t keep his head warm at all. It is actually large enough that when it is cold he can wear his
toboggan on underneath it. It does protect his head Irom other elements such as sun and rain.
This hat is more helmet like and is made out oI a hard, durable plastic. It also has a small bill on
the Iront that could help keep the sun out oI his eyes similar to the Carolina hat. There isn`t
really anything special about his hat. It`s just like anyone else`s hard hat on any construction site.
The purpose this hard hat serves that is most important to my husband is that it protects
his head Irom Ialling objects. All the workers on site have to wear a hard hat when any work is
being done above their heads. II something Ialls Irom the raIters oI a building and comes down
on his head, the hard hat will protect him Irom serious injury. In most cases, except in the case
oI something Ialling that is extremely heavy, this hat does a very good job oI serving its purpose.
It may not be a stylish hat, but his hard hat is very important to his saIety.
McCarty 5

My husband owns many hats and each one serves certain purposes that are important to
his liIe and who he is. Whether it is Ior style or protection each one has a purpose that is
appropriate at diIIerent times in his daily liIe. When given the choice though, he will usually
throw on that Carolina hat. It`s just who he is.



















Comment |BCS]: 1heresa

?ou make some excellenL polnLs ln Lhls paper buL
Lhey seem Lo be undercuL by Lhe paragraph and
senLence sLrucLure you have Work Lo glve your
ldeas clear lnLroducLlon wlLhln your paragraphs and
a clear concluslon before you go on Lo Lhe nexL ldea
1he senLence sLrucLure you use causes Lhe ldeas ln
your lndlvldual paragraphs Lo seem as Lhough Lhey
do noL relaLe Lo one anoLher under a larger Loplc
because Lhe senLences are shorL and choppy Work
on elLher comblnlng Lhe conLenL of Lwo or more
senLences Lo make a longer one work Lo elongaLe
your senLences or work on uslng effecLlve
LranslLlons from senLence Lo senLence 1hls wlll
make your ldeas and your sLrucLure much more
coheslve and much clearer

LeL me know lf you would llke any help wlLh Lhls l'm
looklng forward Lo seelng whaL you'll revlse for Lhe
porLfollo!

Ms C
McCarty 6

Works Cited
Brown Toboggan. 'Tobaggan. Carhartt. 2007.
Doerre ConstructionHat. 'Hard Hat. 3M. 2010.
UNC Tarheels. 'Baseball Hat. New Era. 2010.



















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McCarty 8