Style Academy #5

Intentional Sentence Fragments

                A sentence is supposed to be an independent clause with a noun and a verb that can stand on its own. Fragments are usually missing verbs. I always thought sentence fragments were bad and that I would get docked points for it on my assignments. In this video, they use an example of a Rick Riley article from sports illustrated. He uses fragmented sentences to emphasize his point and grab our attention. He could have written them as normal sentences, or complete sentences. But Riley uses fragments purposely to draw attention from the reader. Fragments can be a powerful rhetorical tools. Rick Riley and Stephen King use fragments for powerful affect. From the  sentences before the fragment, we think these authors are going one direction, and then the fragment can flip the whole direction around. Sometimes by using complete sentences, power, or humor, or emphasis is lost. Fragments can get the intended point across quickly and boldly. However, it is still important to make sure that when you use a fragment that it is relevant, makes sense and works with the idea of the sentences before and after. So although you need to be careful when using fragments, using them purposefully and correctly can add a lot of strength to your writing. 

Style Academy #4

       I did the repetition lesson on style academy, and learned how it can help and hurt in your writing. To apply it in my paper, I tried to repeat the most important parts of my paper in different ways and apply pattern to my writing. I also got rid of a lot of repetition that I thought hurt my paper, the bad kind of repetition.
        I repeated the word "generalization," "misconception," "misunderstood," all paired with "Islam" to try and restate the main problem my paper was supposed to be addressing. Some of my paragraphs would repeat themselves a little bit, but I think they were repetitious in the way that emphasized important points and not in an ineffective way.
        Hopefully I didn't use too much repetition, or use it in a way that makes me sound dumb, or like I am just trying to get my word count up.
        I tried to use the examples on Style Academy of anaphora and epistrophe. I'm not sure if I used them right, but I think both of those would be good forms of writing and repetition to develop for future writing assignments.

Hannah Miller

Style Academy and Reflection for my Rhetorical Analysis Paper

            The Style Academy lesson I did was the absolute phrases lesson because it helped get more information into one sentence. Applying this lesson into my writing and using it in the revision process helped my sentences become more informative and clearer. I tried to put more information into each sentence with out making it so long that it would be too difficult to read or understand.

            For example, I applied this to my thesis so that I could combine all my thoughts into one sentence using coordinating conjunctions and taking out the “be” verb to instead using participial verbs to complete the phrases. This my thesis from the first draft: “President Obama had a far more effective speech than President Reagan. Obama’s use of humility, personal stories, and emotional and logical appeal reach a far broader primary and secondary audience than Reagan does in his far narrower minded speech.” I rewrote this many times, but this is how it looks after applying this lesson to my thesis

“Although both speeches were about religion in politics, President Obama had a far more effective speech than President Reagan because Obama’s use of humility and personal stories, statistical evidence, and emotional and logical appeal reaches out and invites the action of tolerance to a far broader primary and secondary audience than Reagan does in his narrower minded speech.”

            After applying this lesson to my thesis statement and many other sentences in my paper, I found that it was much more comprehensive. My sentences flow, and the paper as a whole feels easier to read.

One of the best openers I can remember is from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It begins with the narrator Nick about to tell his story. But first, he has this to say. 

“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. ‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.’”
That introduction shapes the whole book and I think I would have read it with a completely different perspective Nick hadn’t opened with that.

            One of the greatest conclusions that comes to mind is the last scene in a movie called Amelie. Where the main character, Amelie, rides through the streets of Montmartre in Paris with her new found love and confidence. The camera work is amazing as it follows Amelie and Nino, while a beautiful accordion song is playing, which adds heavily to the emotion. I think this ended the movie perfectly because it invited the viewer to feel the same things that Amelie had finally found.  It really resonates with anyone who is watching.

Proposal for Opinion Editorial

               This is basically the same exact thing as my last post. Instead of a free write though, it is a proposal. But yeah. Basically the same thing only more boring. 

                              

               My proposed topic for my opinion editorial is whether or not it is legal and/or moral to refuse marriage licenses to gay couple because of your religious beliefs. My claim will be that it is not legal nor moral to deny someone their right to be married just because they are gay and do things that are not in correspondence to the way another individual believes. My reasons will be that is illegal in the United States, and touching on the issue on a moral or ethical stance, it isn’t very Christian for Christians to be discriminatory towards people who do not share their beliefs, or to any one in that matter.

                The United States Supreme Court has declared it unconstitutional to deny the right of marriage to gay couples. For someone to do so, claiming that it goes against what they believe in as far as their religion, does not excuse you from respecting the liberties of others. Touching on this will be using Logos.

                Christians above all should be accepting and loving in all conditions. Because someone uses their agency to choose a different life style than you would choose for your self does not give any Christian any kind of authority to deny that persons agency. I think this particular issue will be using ethos and pathos.

                I think this is a good paper topic because it is kairotic. A story on this exact issue was just on the news, and there has been lots of chatter on this topic because of how recent the Supreme Court decision was. My paper will be able to add to the discussion going on about gay and religious rights. 

Free Write for Opinion Editorial

                One potential thought I had for my opinion editorial on religion in America, was something I recently saw on the news about gay rights. In this story, a woman who is a county clerk in Kentucky denies to give gay couples marriage licenses, claiming she is acting “under God’s authority”

                Gay marriage is now legal in all 50 states in the United States. However, there is a large percent of Americans who are opposed to gay marriage - generally Christians. This once again brings up the long debated dilemma of the rights of religion vs. the law.

                The first amendment in the United States constitution protect the rights of individuals to practice whatever religion they want. I believe that the supreme court has interpreted this later to mean we all have the right to practice our beliefs, so long as our beliefs do not put others in any danger, or infringes upon the rights of others. Obviously I would do more research on the details if I end up choosing this as my topic. But when this country clerk insist that it is her right to deny a marriage license to gay couples because of her beliefs, does that not encroach on the rights and beliefs of others? Should this be allowed or not?

                In my opinion, because she is working for the State of Kentucky she must abide by the law of the land (The Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage.) She does not have the right to withhold a State marriage license to any couple, gay or straight. She does not have to endorse gay marriage, but she does have to obey the law. Personally I also believe that just as God lets us have our agency, we as Christians need to be mindful and respectful toward the agency of others. We do not have to right to force some one else to live by our beliefs. And that goes for any religious nomination, because we all differ in belief, and it is okay to disagree.

               Dallin H. Oaks said in his talk, Loving Others and Living with Differences, “When our positions do not prevail, we should accept unfavorable results graciously and practice civility with our adversaries.” 

About Me

I swore I would never write a blog.
But here we go.

I'm not the best at introductions, and I am not the most interesting person, but hopefully I can make this interesting enough

I was born in Colorado but have lived in good ol' Provo Utah for most of my life, and have absolutely loved it. Provo is a  good place to be.

Views from my beautiful home town.

I graduated from Provo High School, (literally just across the street) and absolutely loved that as well! I played golf and basketball all four years. My golf team was really good, we won two state championships. My basketball team however, was not so good. But we always had a good time!

The question, "What kind of music do you like?" always stumps me. My family always makes fun of me when I am playing my music on shuffle and the songs that come on will range from The Black Keys to Backstreet Boys, to Taylor Swift, to Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong, to The Milk Carton Kids (folk) to Lucius (indie singer/songwriter) to ABBA. So literally anything that I think sounds good.

 My taste in movies is the same. I love Hot Rod and Nacho Libre, but I also love some great foreign films like Children of Heaven and Amelie.

I love to travel and have been fortunate enough to get to travel to quite a few places with my family. Probably my two favorite travel adventures I have been hiking through the Andes to  Machu Picchu, and living in London for 2 months.

I'm one of those people that often suffers from "resting brat face" to put in nicely, so if I seem like I'm angry or in a bad mood, I'm probably not. It's just my face. Most of my friends thought I hated them initially because of my previously stated condition, but I don't hate any one, I promise! So don't be scared of me.


I have not decided on a major. So, yeah. I will probably be one of those people who somehow end up graduated with out ever declaring a major, and then I can just be like, "Pretty much I can do anything. Hire me." and employers will be like, "Um, no."

Any way, that's me!