“Our Finest Hour”

1. “Our Finest Hour” By: Charles Osgood

2. Charles Osgood January 8, 1933- Reporter-currently hosting CBS News Sunday Morning Writer-has written six books and numerous short stories Newspaper columnist: Writes a bi-weekly column Remember Horton Hears A Who! ? Osgood was the voice of the narrator!

3. Focal Points Writing: Nonfiction Narrative Author’s Intent: Why did the author write this? What was the author trying to accomplish? Types of Humor: Understatement and Exaggeration Connections: Compare/Contrast with piece, “Was Tarzan a Three-Bandage Man?” Suffix: -ment

4. Intent The author is trying to amuse or entertain the readers. Entertain The author is explaining or telling the reader about something. Inform The author is trying to persuade the reader to agree with their point of view, or to take an action. Persuade Reflect The author is looking back on an event in their life.

5. Intent • How do you recognize the author’s MAIN intent? • Read over the selection. What type of mood does the author try to set? • Is the author trying to make you laugh throughout the story? • Is the author trying to teach you? • Is the author trying to persuade you to take action? Hint: We need to focus on what the author intended; sometimes their attempt may not be successful.

6. HUMOR * Understatement Understatement is when you make an event or situation seem less than it actually is. * Exaggeration Exaggeration is when you make an event or situation seem more than it actually is.

7. Understatement • Understatement is when you make an event or situation seem less than it actually is. • For example: My parents were not quite happy when Fluffy damaged the leather couch.

8. Exaggeration • Exaggeration is when you make an event or situation seem more than it actually is. • For example: My parents almost killed Fluffy when he devoured our leather couch.

9. Practice Let’s use the two different types of humor to compose our own sentences about an incident. Incident: A girl spills spaghetti in the lunchroom, accidentally hitting another student. Exaggeration: Understatement:

10. Practice Incident: A student overslept and missed the first hour of school. This results in the student missing an exam. Exaggeration: Understatement:

11. Suffix: Ment Ment: means to be in the state or condition of. VERB Noun Bewilder Excite Amuse Disappoint Astonish Bewilderment Excitement Amusement Disappointment Astonishment + Ment

12. Intent Identify the intent of each of the following sentences from the story. It was back when I was relatively new at CBS News. Only occasionally do most reporters or correspondents get to anchor a news broadcast. I, of course, was sitting there looking at the piece with bewilderment written all over my face….

13. Types of Humor Identify which types of humor are used in the following sentences from the story. (Exaggeration or understatement) All in all, it was not the finest broadcast CBS News has ever done. But there had been nothing on the news wires about everybody in Paris having died. (Visiting journalists from China) must have had a really great impression of American electronic journalism.

14. Compare/Contrast Compare/Contrast the two nonfiction narratives we have read in the past week, “Was Tarzan a Three-Bandage Man?” by Bill Cosby and “Our Finest Hour” by Charles Osgood. How are the pieces similar? How are the pieces different?

15. Compare/Contrast Consider: Classify what type of writing these selections are. Decide what type of humor the authors use. Does one piece use one type of humor more? What do the authors have in common? What was their main intent in composing these pieces? How do the writers connect to the readers? Is one more successful than the other? How do the authors’ views of their experiences change over time?

16. Compare/Contrast Create a Venn diagram of the two stories. Both Pieces Cosby’s Piece Osgood’s Piece