As Americans we must begin to understand that the world around us is changing technologically, politically and economically. In “The Last Superpower” an excerpt from the book The Post American World by Fareed Zakaria published in 2008. Zakaria highlights these changes. Thomas Friedman, the author of "The World is Flat", a piece from the book The World is Flat: A brief History of the 21st Century published in 2005, also highlights the same changes currently taking place in the world. Zakaria and Friedman define these changes as globalization. The obvious common ground shared by both authors is their depiction of globalization and the effects it has and will continue to have on modern life. Contrary to sharing the same main topic, both authors take a drastically different approach to how they convey their information to the audience. The differences shown are mainly due to their personal and educational backgrounds, definitions of globalization, and each author's individual writing styles. First of all, by looking into Fareed Zakaria's background you will find that he is an Indian-born American journalist and author and host for CNN. Zakaria also graduated from Yale and received a doctorate in political science from Harvard. On the other hand, we have Thomas Friedman, an American author and New York Times columnist. Friedman is a three-time winner of the prestigious Pulitzer Prize. It can be assumed that since Zakaria has the PhD, his credentials could make him more trustworthy. For some, that might be enough to give him an advantage over Friedman right from the start. Friedman does not hold a PhD nor does he include statistics in his excerpt, but he provides his audience with information...in the middle of the paper...his writing is analytical. For example, Zakaria uses statistics to explain the stability of the United States' share of the global economy during wars, depressions, and rises in power by stating, “With 5% of the world's population, the United States has generated between 20 and 30 % of the world's population." production for 125 years”. This statistic means that despite the difficult times of the past, America has still maintained its share of global economic importance. This example shows his form of writing along with the evidence Zakaria uses to support his claims. Friedman's form of writing is completely opposite. He comes across on a more personal level and seems to be able to paint a visual picture from what he is writing. Friedman's first-person point of view makes his passage easier to understand because he tells his experiences and thoughts as a story.