English 150

This lecture had a way of making you think differently about writing. One part of the lecture discussed (well actually, much of it discussed) that writing can make you a better person through service. I never have thought of writing as a particular service, but when I listened to this presentation it made me realize how building and destructive rhetoric can be. In one part of the lecture Mrs. Hedengren told us to think of an example of writing that we have done that has been a service to somebody. I thought of a time when I wrote my sister a little "thank you for being such a good sister note;" I found out later that that note had helped my sister in a time when she was feeling kind of down. Truly writing can be a good tool for service.

The name of the presentation itself was an emotional appeal that stirred a sense of belief within me. Hedengren used examples of two people that I believe in as good and evil from my own faith to tie me into the discussion; it worked perfectly. It made me think of how important writing has been to me through my interaction in the LDS church. Surely Nephi's writings were influential and important to me even to this day; how could I deny how important writing was after thinking of it that way. However, I do not believe that Mrs. Hedegren gave this presentation to convince us of the importance of writing, but rather to convince us how important it is to write righteously.

After easily convincing me of the universal influence that writing has on people, Mrs. Hedengren spoke about the importance of writing righteously. Included in her talk were sever "itty virtues" that lead to good and righteous writing. These virtues included humility, charity, clarity, and "stick to it itty." When speaking of humility, Mrs. Hedegren quoted Dick Guidon who said,"Writing is natrue's way of letting you know how sloppy your thinking is." I wrote that quote down when she presented it because writing has always been one way that heavenly father has humbled me; this part of the presentation spoke directly to the audience, me. On a rhetorical note, Hedengren strengthened her ethos constantly while speaking to the mormon-dominated audience by quoting scripture and prophetic council. She quoted more than one talk by President Henry B. Eyring, and quoted several scriputres from the Book of Mormon. She also talked about charity, clarity and stick to it itty, but I will probably be more brief about these because my blog is so long already. She connected me, the audience, into her presentation during charity when she used a direct quote that stimulated an emotional appeal. Her quote was by John Trimble; he said, "serve the reader." Of course this is such a small quote it seems like a strange thing to quote. But Hedengren tied it into her discourse by saying that it was natural to think about ourselves when we start writing, and that we need to be thinking about our readers. She then made an appeal to ethos by relating a personal story about when she was a part time faculty member at BYU in 1983. She supported all her claims and reasons with such appeals in a very affective way

I think my blog is already too long. But I think that I have given a slight overview of the awesome presentation as well as a partial summary of a few of the many rhetorical appeals and claims that Hedengren presented. Overall I think that the presentation was quite insightful and very effective in presenting the writers claims to the audience.

English 150

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Presentation

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Persuasive Picture

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