Response to What Went Wrong? by Nancy Shute

Nancy Shute’s article What Went Wrong? must have received much national attention due to both that it was published in the U.S. News & World Report and that it came just two weeks after the tragedy at Virginia Tech University, on April 16, 2007. The article starts by introducing the focal point, Cho Seung-Hui, who was the killer of 34 human beings, including himself. Then, it continues, asking “why?” or “how?” did the killings occur.

Something important that I noticed about how Shute wrote this was that she stays true to her intended audience. It often focuses on how parents feel or how college students need help regularly. This caters directly to the middle age to senior citizen range of ages, and many times refers to students as ‘kids’. The use of this language is proof that the audience is not university students, as much of the article’s assertions may be offensive to some students. Since it is however in a more adult, mature tone, the journalist comes off as a little more knowledgeable or wise even.

Perhaps, Carolina Reader includes this article, despite it having a parental feel to it, was to encourage students to read and comprehend, subtly, that there are numerous ways to get help and that there are plenty of people on campus whose job it is to make students feel that they are not alone. It would be my assumption that Nancy Shute is around fifty years of age and is the mother of at least child. This situation that she in would allow for more harmony than constraint given that her audience are people like her, older.

The exigency that exists within this article very much surrounds the murders at Virginia Tech. Since it was such a tragic and nationally covered event, Shute probably did not need much outside motivation beyond what it meant to nearly everyone in America. This unifying force is the same reason why most readers did not need much outside motivation to read the article as well.