I read "The Future has an Ancient Heart" and wrote about how the author used various aspects to achieve her goal.
Rhetorical analysis
Have you ever been scared of a new chapter in your life to begin? This is how seniors feel as they are soon to approach graduating college and entering into the real world. Cheryl Strayed gives these students great advice by giving them personal stories and by opening up about her past to give them the confidence they need to be successful.
Cheryl Strayed, also known as Sugar, advises seniors as they are close to graduating. Sugar starts with a quote, “The future has an ancient heart” by Carlo Levi. She started with this quote because we can think we know how our life is going to play out, but we have no idea. She assures them that everything will be okay even if you mess up. She was an English major too and lied for six years about having an English degree. She goes on to say you should never have to explain your plan for your life to anyone. All you have to do is pay your bills, be kind, give it your all, and find people who love you and love them back.
Sugar used ethos when she told personal stories. She talked about taking Latin to finish her degree. She said one thing that she never forgot from her Latin class was that a language that is descended from another language is called a daughter language. She connected this back to how it was about to be a new era for the graduating student’s life. She also used ethos when she told them that she messed up a lot in her life. To be such a successful person like Sugar it is easy to think that her life has been perfect. Providing the students with the reassurance that she messed up a lot along the way and still turned out to be successful shows them that it is okay to mess up too.
Sugar used pathos in her speech when she opened up about her past. She said she felt ashamed that she was a waitress before her first novel got published. She said her dead mother was a waitress and she felt as though she was supposed to be the family member that “made it”. Showing the students that you do not have to have your life all figured out right when you graduate gives them peace for the future.
Sugars message to seniors gives them confidence for their new chapter to begin. She connects to them by using ethos and pathos. Opening up about her past and giving personal stories makes seniors feel like she was talking to them personally. Knowing someone has been in your shoes and made it through just fine is reassuring. It gives seniors peace for the unknown that is about to come.
Cheryl Strayed, also known as Sugar, advises seniors as they are close to graduating. Sugar starts with a quote, “The future has an ancient heart” by Carlo Levi. She started with this quote because we can think we know how our life is going to play out, but we have no idea. She assures them that everything will be okay even if you mess up. She was an English major too and lied for six years about having an English degree. She goes on to say you should never have to explain your plan for your life to anyone. All you have to do is pay your bills, be kind, give it your all, and find people who love you and love them back.
Sugar used ethos when she told personal stories. She talked about taking Latin to finish her degree. She said one thing that she never forgot from her Latin class was that a language that is descended from another language is called a daughter language. She connected this back to how it was about to be a new era for the graduating student’s life. She also used ethos when she told them that she messed up a lot in her life. To be such a successful person like Sugar it is easy to think that her life has been perfect. Providing the students with the reassurance that she messed up a lot along the way and still turned out to be successful shows them that it is okay to mess up too.
Sugar used pathos in her speech when she opened up about her past. She said she felt ashamed that she was a waitress before her first novel got published. She said her dead mother was a waitress and she felt as though she was supposed to be the family member that “made it”. Showing the students that you do not have to have your life all figured out right when you graduate gives them peace for the future.
Sugars message to seniors gives them confidence for their new chapter to begin. She connects to them by using ethos and pathos. Opening up about her past and giving personal stories makes seniors feel like she was talking to them personally. Knowing someone has been in your shoes and made it through just fine is reassuring. It gives seniors peace for the unknown that is about to come.
reflection
I crafted my thesis statement by using the by and by statement. I told the main idea that I was going to talk about in the rest of the essay.
I just started writing and if I thought it sounded good, I would keep it but if it sounded like it didn't flow, I would fix it.
After my meeting with my professor I realized I gave too long of a summary so I went back and deleted a lot of the summary. I only kept what I thought was necessary to know.
I also had to go back and include an introduction paragraph because I had forgot to add one. Having a strong and clear thesis will make writing the essay easier. Once I wrote my introduction paragraph and the thesis I could go back and see if I was on topic and clearly explained how the author was successful in writing the email to the students.
Also, I went back and changed it so it was more in MLA format. Before I said the author used pathos, logos, and ethos. I went back and changed it to only pathos and logos because I felt like there wasn’t a lot of good ethos included in it. I wanted to focus on those two.
If I could give myself advice two weeks ago, I would have told myself try to remember back to Junior year when we learned how to right good essays the whole year. Junior year was MLA and essay heavy so it gave me good practice on how to write essays.
It is so easy to forget all that we learned and just start typing to what I think sounds good. Next time I write an essay I want to plan out what I am going to write about.
For this essay I just started writing and I think an outline would make it a lot easier to make sure I am on task.
I just started writing and if I thought it sounded good, I would keep it but if it sounded like it didn't flow, I would fix it.
After my meeting with my professor I realized I gave too long of a summary so I went back and deleted a lot of the summary. I only kept what I thought was necessary to know.
I also had to go back and include an introduction paragraph because I had forgot to add one. Having a strong and clear thesis will make writing the essay easier. Once I wrote my introduction paragraph and the thesis I could go back and see if I was on topic and clearly explained how the author was successful in writing the email to the students.
Also, I went back and changed it so it was more in MLA format. Before I said the author used pathos, logos, and ethos. I went back and changed it to only pathos and logos because I felt like there wasn’t a lot of good ethos included in it. I wanted to focus on those two.
If I could give myself advice two weeks ago, I would have told myself try to remember back to Junior year when we learned how to right good essays the whole year. Junior year was MLA and essay heavy so it gave me good practice on how to write essays.
It is so easy to forget all that we learned and just start typing to what I think sounds good. Next time I write an essay I want to plan out what I am going to write about.
For this essay I just started writing and I think an outline would make it a lot easier to make sure I am on task.