Issue Paper Intro Draft

Over the Past few years, Youth have started leaving religious organizations in greater and greater numbers. Many people have attempted to answer why the youth are leaving and have given many different responses and perspectives on the matter. The best way to learn why the youth are leaving is to ask the youth and their responses can be very enlightening. When the youth are asked a common answer appears.” I started asking questions to my family and they couldn't give me a straight answer about anything.”, “This is what happened with me, I couldn't agree with the others at church because there wasn't enough proof. Nothing made sense half the time.”, “This made no sense to me,”, “It's a kooky religion with kooky stories.”, “It simply doesn't make sense …” One of the biggest reasons youth are leaving religion is because they don’t truly understand it. The youth of this generation are growing smarter and smarter, but their knowledge of science and reason is outpacing their knowledge of god by far. Much of what the church does and says makes no sense to these now learned individuals.  For these reasons, the best way to help the youth stay in church is to learn different and better ways to really teach the youth and help them understand religion and god. If that doesn't happen, the youth are going to keep leaving in bigger and bigger numbers.

Rhetorical Analysis Thesis propsal

For my Rhetorical analysis I will write about Patrick Clarks American Justice and Divine Mercy. For me, it was one of the most convincing arguments I read. I read the paper not having the same thought as his, but left thinking about the same thing. He understood his audience well, Christians, and referenced many biblical thoughts and ideas, even scriptures.

From those scriptural ideas he appealed to the base values people are taught in Sunday school, basically playing off of ethos. In his paper, he didn’t just reference the bible to get support though. He stated things the bible taught, and then he put them together to make a solid defense for his point, (mainly for Christians, but once again, that was his audience) playing off of Logos. By starting his paper with “Here are just a couple scattered thoughts that came swirling into my mind in the wake of Osama bin Laden’s death:” He showed that he was more speaking from his heart. That made people listen to what he had to say, because it felt more sincere. That coupled with the emotion of the time and topic, made the paper a very strong Pathos paper too.

Patrick Clark’s paper might not have been the longest paper, or maybe the most convincing to the general audience. Given his audience though, the paper was very effective in using rhetorical arguments and so was very convincing

style academy 3

Absolute phrases

            I looked for an activity that I thought I could help me, so I decided to try the absolute phrases activity. In my past paper, I seemed to lack some conviction in what I was saying. I had a lot of logic, but instead of really saying “This is the way it is” I said “I think it’s this way”. That is not very effective in a rhetorical situation, so I wanted to try to do better and I thought that absolute phrases might be able to help me. They sound firm and strong, what I need.

            The Concept really was not what I Thought it was at all. Instead of teaching me how to write more forcefully, confidently, it taught me how to combine two sentences in a different way. I was sad that it didn't teach me what I thought it would, but I did find the writing style to be more intriguing. I agree that the separated sentences he showed were boring, and Being able to combine them into one flowing sentence, just by taking out the “to be” verb, was really cool. I can definitely see how that would help me to keep the readers intrigued in what I was writing. Honestly, I have the most fun with these activates when it allows me to add my own parts to the sentence, like it did with the last exercise. That allows me to add what I want to the stories, intrigue, mystery, shock, whatever I feel like. I am not sure I am doing the method right, I often just add “ing” to the verbs to make it fit, but he said that was one of the strategies. So I might not have gotten what I expected out of this assignment, but what I did get will help me to be a more compelling speaker, and I need that.

Faith in america Review

Pathos: Mitt Romney did not use Ethos very effectively in his speech. He did talk about things that would cause emotion in groups of Americans. He got the emotion of the defenders of this nation by mentioning those who want to destroy it. He sought those who love America by quoting the founders. He tried, but his talk ended up sounding just like another talk from a politician vying for more supporters, not sincere or from the heart.

Ethos: Mitt Romney Used ethos a lot better. By quoting the Founders of this nation, he got their support on this topic. Their words are highly respected and Mitt Romney showed well how they sought freedom of religion, not the destruction of it. He added to his own credibility by talking about his family and the things they had done, like March with martin Luther king, and give aid to the needy. He effectively fought for our trust.

Logos: I found the Logos of the paper to be mediocre. He did point out how the founders didn't want leaders to be tested about their religion, and people seeking the candidate’s belief are doing that exact thing. He also points out how many religions have common values running through them that help the nation and people in general. He finally points out how those seeking to remove god from the state are seeking to enforce secularism. He had some solid points, just not quite enough.

Opinion edit. Reflection

    I actually had fun writing this opinion editorial. When i signed up to take this class, i was rather worried, I do very well in my classes, but English classes were always hard for me. As i prepared to write this Editorial though, i found that it came to me fairly naturally. I started by thinking how people should make more things, add to this amazing world. I realized that might be hard topic to argue though (it was very unique to me), so i expanded the argument to how we should all use our time more wisely. I felt that was a issue we all have experienced, but haven't really talked about much, so it seemed to be a great opinion editorial topic. The ideas started flowing from that point.
   As i prepared to write the paper, i didn't know how i really wanted to write it. I could try to make it very formal and informative, like most other papers i had written, but that didn't seem enjoyable.Then i had an idea for something else i could try. I could write the paper like a story, showing how i came to my collusion and backing it up with evidence along the way. Once i had that idea, i knew that was how i was going to write my paper. It wasn't how i typically did it, but i thought it would be a little better that way.
   I was fairly worried once i wrote the paper though. Unlike other papers i had written which had followed strict bounds, this one kind of just came out of my head like a stream of thought. I think the thing that stopped the paper from turning sour was the fact that i had been thinking about the issue since we had gotten the assignment. I hadn't really written anything down, but i had thought a lot about how i wanted to write it and the evidence i wanted to use. That gave me a chance to organize the paper in my head, so when it came out, it wasn't just a random stream of thoughts. I was relieved when others said that the draft was enjoyable.
    It is interesting writing about our need to use our time wisely. Some times i felt bad because i wasn't the perfect example of what i talked about, but i think that worked in the end. When it comes down to it, none of us can use our time perfectly well. We need rest, we are human, and we all slip up sometimes. That is why i loved the ending of the paper. The real message is that we need to TRY to do better with our time, That is what is expected of us. That is practically my family's motto, As long as we do our best, things will be okay. It was fun to incorporate that in. I'm happy the paper turned out how it did and hope it helps some people.

Pathos from Emily Matchar

    Emily Matchar Does a fairly good job at using pathos in her article "Why i cant stop reading Mormon housewife blogs".  The first thing she did was show people's experiences and feelings from the Mormon housewife blogs. These quotes and remarks show how these blogs make other people feel, how it uplifts them. Showing how these women feel, make you feel those same things too, bringing in emotion.
   She shows how today's homes are hard on so many people, How many people don't find joy in family life. she explains that seeing people find happiness is a ray of light for everyone else. She explains that it makes people wonder if they shouldn't go back to the way things were. This is a current issue that a lot of people have different emotions about, so it brings more emotion into the paper.
    I think the most effective things she did though was write it the way she did. She didn't write it like a fancy paper, with only scientific terms. She wrote the article with really visual words, words where you read it and you see images in your head. Words can have an effect on emotion, but i find visual things really bring on the most emotion, and the way she writes really let you see things. They make you understand how she feels and bump up the emotion even more. She did a good job, it was an enjoyable paper.

Worst Movie Ever

I didn't upload this onto blogger earlier, so i decided to now. It kind of out there, but my mind was thinking about the movie at the time.

Finding the worst movie that is liked by many was hard for me. Usually when a movie comes out I will listen to a review about it before I see it, so my list of bad movies is short. After considering the subject for a Time though, a movie quickly came to mind, Rocky. Rocky is a movie loved by many. It fails though because it falls short of its purpose. Instead of inspiring us to try, it shows that we need luck to win.

            The Story is about Rocky Balboa, a boxer, who is just trying to make it through life. He is very strong but not that bright. His is in a rough spot and stuck there. Fortunately for him, the Heavyweight champion of the world, Apollo Creed, needs a challenger and deigns to challenge Him. Once people hear that Rocky will be Fighting Apollo, They all get behind him to help and in the end he holds out against Apollo during the fight. He inspires everyone in a classic rags to riches tale.

            Rocky is not the role model he should have been. Anything he got, he took with sheer Persistence or force, easily seen in his second job as a debt collector. He was in a bad situation in life but he wasn't trying to change it, he was just living there. The only thing that brought him to greatness was luck. He started trying after his lucky break but in the end He still couldn't beat Apollo Creed. Apparently Trying isn't enough, we all just need to be lucky to become great.

            Though Rocky is a highly beloved movie, It fails in its purpose. There are many other movies that teach Better morals and inspire people to try and rise higher. This inspires people to wait for fortune to come to them, reminding them that won’t always work. That to me is why Rocky is one of the Worst Movies.