A wee bit late.....

Amidst the decline of church attendance by youth many question the youth themselves and the programs that surround them. While the activities and curriculum are important for youth we have neglected to evaluate the very people who influence and often shape them and their character they develop in the church. Youth are often seen as whining, selfish and rude, with this perception filling society it often feels the minds of the youth. This causes the girl or boy to fill this way and they are treated this way by leaders  in the church. In contrast when a leader takes the time to love and care for these teenagers they begin to feel that they are worth something. In the church if supportive and dedicated leaders were present to support and care for the youth, the teenagers would  feel attracted to church and the respect they receive there.

Mini Assignment

What I think I'm movin towards for my topic is something along the lines of  how leaders affect the attendance of youth in the church. Especially the importance of taking the time to lead the kids in the best way possible for them, taking into account home life, social standing, certain barriers and so much more. Where I'm finding a lot of help from is Christian/Religion magazines that are trying to increase attendance too, so their arguments come in handy while I form mine so I can see how other factors affect attendance like prayer, friends, family and so on. I'm going to approach it from the perspective of the youth and all that is going on at that age and then from a psychological perspective, and human development perspective.

Rhetorical Analysis Thesis Proposal

I have decided to write an analysis on the article, “Ashcroft and Friends Versus Washington and the Framers: Fighting Words for a Secular America” I chose this article because of it’s specific angle on the issue of church’s relation to state. The author, Robin Morgan, discusses the founding of America, she takes on the argument that too often we assume the founding fathers were religious and built this nation on those beliefs.  Through her skillful writing that appeals to ethos, she utilizes direct quotes from the founding fathers proving their complete detachment of church and state. 

She doesn’t’ simply summarize what their quotes say concerning their character, but connects it directly back to the nation and the government that was produced by these men and their personal beliefs which we learn were quite secular. Her final statement reads, “That’s only a sampling, quotes that blast cobwebs off the tamed images we have of the Founders. Their own statements…can reconnect us to our proud, secular roots, and should inspire us to honor and defend them.” Her call to action is powerful following her rebuke of the ideas and arguments of so many in America today.

Faith in America

By adopting an authoritative voice, Mitt Romney increases the audiences’ confidence in his message. As an example, in the beginning he quotes John Adams and throughout the speech he quotes other historic figures and references them in relation to his topic of faith in America. Presenting himself as a presidential candidate and therefore a political figure, he shows his knowledge for the country’s history and his appreciation for the founding fathers of our country.

In his message he tells the audience his appreciation for other faiths by sharing their various practices that he would like in his own church. He mentions Catholics, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, Lutherans, Jews and Muslims. By mentioning other religions and showing respect for their practices he is able to make a connection with not only members of those faiths, but any reader in America with the belief of religious freedom. Even though I am not any of those religions, he gains my respect that not only does he know their practices, but he admires them.

Finally, we get to the part of his argument that appeals to the logical side of one’s mind or the more logic thinking audience. One of the counter arguments he brings up is the effort by some to eliminate God or any reference to religion from the nation and its practices. He references the belief that it does not encourage people to think on their own, especially Atheists and Agnostics.  To refute the argument he again references the rounding of the country, the fact that it was made not on one religious platform, but the belief that there is a higher power looking out for our country and its proceedings.  

Addiction to Mommy Blogs

1. She brought in her own personal addiction by sharing the irony of it by saying how she was a depressed, overworked Ph.D. student along with her friends. By bringing in her own situation you relate to her feelings. You also get a better view as to how she interacts with the mommy blogs in contrast to her life. 

2. Throughout the writing she is constantly labeling the blogs and the bloggers live's with word like adorable, lovely, old fashioned, comforting, easy going, happy and many others. The use of the descriptive words helps you to imagine what the blogs are like. Like I said earlier, it sets up a contrast with the feelings in the world today which are harsh, sad, judgmental and definitely not comforting.

3. She brings in the counter argument saying that they're dishonest in the way they portray married life, raising kids, and just being a mom. She taps into the pressures of being a mom in Utah and how many feel the pressure to be perfect in all they do. She turns the counter argument to her favor however because she uses it to highlight the bloggers in such a way that you see them as human and choosing to see the positive side in life. This helps the reader to further relate to her argument as to why the blogs are a great thing.

A Paper About A Paper

This opinion editorial was a very fun paper to write! It was nice to have freedom to choose what we wanted to write, how we wanted to write it, and how we wanted it to be taken or what tone we wanted it to take on. What really helped me in the writing process for this paper was the free write and the rough draft posting on google drive to receive comments from peers. The free write was very helpful because it got ideas generating inside my head without the pressure of writing a paper. Although I didn’t write about anything that was in my free write, it led to my mind finding the topic I wanted my paper to be on. Putting the rough drafts in google docs so we could get comments from our group was super helpful. Especially when we had the class where all we did was talk about each other’s paper. It helped to have the discussion between writer and readers be direct and interactive. 

I would say one thing that would have been really nice would have been to have us post the paper to the google docs again before we turned in the final. That way our group could read it again and see if the changes they had suggested had worked and see how the paper worked after the critiques were taken into account. I know personally I loved the suggestions my group gave, I just wasn’t sure if I had edited the paper to the point that they had wanted it to be at. So it would have been nice to receive that extra layer of critique and assurance of the paper’s quality.

I don’t know as if I had any expectations, but I liked that it was very free and open to my ideas as a writer. I was allowed to explore my own thoughts and beliefs and then express it in the way I wanted it to be presented. 

Style Academy.

I'm not going to lie, but that was kind of interesting. It was cool in the beginning how you could watch him construct new sentences and also hear  his thinking process as he was 

doing that. 

Kind of like he said, there is no right way to construct a sentence, I mean besides the obvious grammatical rules that are universal. Constructing a sentence is like choosing an outfit. We all have different styles and even if two people are given the exact same closet, they will always come up with different outfits. The analogy is the same when it comes to universal laws that usually should not be broken. For example with outfits, rules concerning the pairing of colors, black and brown, navy and blue, similar colors like dark and light purple. However, these rules can be broken if they're pulled off in the right time, place and setting. 

It's the same with sentences, everyone's mind works in a different way which leads them to view, write, and construct many different things. You can also pull of stylistic additions if you have it in the right context that will support it.