Rhetoric and Reason

I remember when the Church began to put a lot of emphasis on Family History and the youth. To me, it started with Elder Bednar. He gave a talk one General Conference about the youth doing Family History, and made a promise that if we would, the Gates of Hell would have no powers against us. That promise has stuck with me for a long time. Recently, I had the opportunity to attend a charity event. The seating was assigned, so when I arrived I gave my last name to the girl at the desk, and she promptly told me to sit at table 16. There were a few other people sitting at our table, so my date and I started making conversation with them. I chatted with the older couple directly next to me, and found out that the husband was from California. "Where in California?" I asked---I know the state pretty well, having spent most of my childhood summers hiking through the mountains. "Oh it's a little town in Fresno, I doubt you've ever heard of it." He responded. ...

I'm feasting on tomorrow's, never living in today's.

Over the summer I made a goal to be more active and lose some weight. After serving an LDS mission I was somewhere around 20 lbs overweight, and I hated it. I hated not being able to find clothes that fit well, I hated feeling a little thicker than everyone else in my age group, I hated how I would say, "I want to lose weight" and my friends would say, "no you don't! You look great!" (there is nothing more discouraging to someone who wants to lose weight than hearing that they shouldn't bother, it won't make a difference anyways). Well, I started running. It was hard. It was exhausting. I got shin splints. I got blisters. But, I lost weight. I lost 25 lbs. It was probably the most exciting moment of my year to get on a scale and realize I had actually hit and then exceeded my weight loss goal. But here's the problem: I'm gaining it all back. Over the summer it was easy to work out. I could do it in the morning before I went to work (altho...

In class today we watched a comedian, Ryan Hamilton. The question posed was: can a comedian be persuasive? Ryan is an interesting comedian, a small-town Mormon trying to make it big in New York obviously has an interesting insight to the city-life, and he's not afraid to share it. He knows his audience doesn't come from the same background on he does, and he plays to that fact. Cracking jokes about the "sober life" and how it clashes with his social life. Although he presents a strikingly different life-style than other comedians, he does so naturally and with charisma, which made him entertaining to watch and even relate too--despite lifestyle difference with much of his audience. Everything he says can resonate with the other lonely hearts listening in, and makes them laugh in solidarity. The purpose of persuasion is to sway someone to your point of view/way of thinking. A comedian's purpose is to entertain, not necessarily persuade. To what are they persua...

I've talked about this before in this blog, but recently I did a research paper for my English 312 class. And oh man, it was a doozy. I've talked enough about the topic that I don't think I need to go over it again, but let me just share my experience about writing the paper. Writing a research paper is a long and arduous process--especially if you're a perfectionist like I am. The most time consuming process of the whole paper is probably the research. This is a research paper after all, if you don't have all the necessary information to back up your argument, your paper is automatically weakened. So here are my 3 tips for research: 1. Set a time frame: Don't dawdle on your research, but don't let it consume you either. Being able to set a strict time frame on your research will help you work effectively and efficiently when you actually sit down and start digging in. Doing research can be like watching a car accident, you don't want to actually s...

Reading has always been a big part of my life. I remember first learning how to read and thinking to myself that it was too hard, I couldn't do it, I was just going to be illiterate for the rest of my life (these were my thoughts, although perhaps not the same word choice).  I did learn to read, and it quickly became my favorite past time. Long late hours into the night with a book, my parents would have to come and turn my light off or I would never have slept.  I love the feel of the binding in between your hands, the smell of the pages is almost as intoxicating as the story within--and so I could never really get behind books on tape. I felt like I would be missing something if I didn't have the book in my hand. My brother however, loves Audible. He loves it with a capital L. It might have something to do with his lifestyle; he works construction and is always moving around, driving, and working. His job calls for early mornings and sometimes late nights. He simpl...

Writing a research paper is no easy task. The very words, "Research Paper", strike fear into the heart and soul of every college student in the Nation. At the beginning of this class, I knew it would be difficult to complete this assignment. But I enjoy writing, it's an activity that has been part of my life ever since I was a little girl. I've written short stories, essays, chapters to future novels, newspaper articles, opinion pieces and so on and so on. So, part of me was excited for a chance to hone my writing skills by taking on a big project, such as a Research Paper. Here is the secret about writing: it's actually very easy. As long as you have passion and determination, your writing can be great. Here is the other secret about writing: it takes a good idea. None of the above can happen if you're missing this one step. In marketing they call it the "Big Idea". It's the spark of an idea that fuels ambitious projects: big ideas can chang...