What Do You Say to Millions of Men With the Power of God?

I was able to attend this General Conference's Priesthood session in the Tabernacle, which is right across the street from the Conference Center. I think my favorite talk was that of President Eyering, called "Be Ready." One aspect of his talk that stuck out to me was the way he wrote with consideration to his audience.

He begins by mostly addressing young men. For instance, he mentions things that would likely keep a young man listening: "It may be so small a thing as to keep careful minutes in a deacons or a teachers quorum" (par. 18) Later on, he says "In recent months I have heard deacons, teachers, and priests give talks which are clearly as inspired and powerful as you will hear in this general conference..." (par. 20).

However, President Eyering does not focus on young men throughout his whole speech. In paragraphs 30 and 31, he begins to address older men with the priesthood by teaching them ways to remain Christ-like and still be disciplinary: by doing it "in the Lord's way" (par. 30).

All in all, I was impressed with how he could reach out to all of his listeners individually. It means a lot to an audience if one can manage that.

Prophet Avoids Repetitive Nature

The whole university rushed to the Marriott Center Tuesday morning - some as early as 8 a.m. for the 11 a.m. devotional by the prophet. The heavily concentrated Mormon population would take any chance they get to listen to the most credible man on the Earth. They wanted to hear the message which the voice of the Lord was about to announce.

What interested me was that this man, who could choose any of the popularly spoken topics of the church such as the importance of scripture study, keeping an eternal perspective, and maintaining your testimony, chose to talk about prophets he had known in his lifetime. I assume that he understood we already knew these vital spiritual messages - they have been ingrained in our minds so that they may become second-nature. Undoubtedly, they are still important because they are always commented about in General Conference to the general Mormon public.

Yet President Monson takes into account that the students at BYU are strong members (hence their choice of BYU as their education for the next four years). He assumes that we are aware of scripture study, keeping eternal perspective and maintaining our testimony. Hence, President Monson appeals to the well-informed, orthodox Latter-Day Saints by teaching them unfamiliar topics. Who out of the audience would have been able to supply such specific details of the prophets' personalities and attributes before hand? I conclude that not very many. By including specific details, students develop a stronger faith in the men who have run the church in the past and who built up the principles we are learning about today. President Monson pointed out the credibility of these men so their messages may become more applicable. He took a step further than lecturing a repetitive spiritual message. Instead, he gave meaning to the origin of these spiritual lectures we always hear. Because of this, students establish a foundation for future spiritual talks and greater depth of their application to their lives.

Clearly emphasizing a learning atmosphere, Monson discusses the lives of prophets that he knew. We typically look at the prophets as the most righteous men, and we look at the messages they have delivered in the past. However, President Monson includes real details such as their favorite foods and funny things they had said. In this way, the prophets of his time truly became real to us as students of a separate generation. We become familiar with the kind of people they truly were. These prophets were no longer so distant - they didn't appear as powerful, influential prodigies but instead, friendly and real people.

For instance, President Kimball exemplified a prophet who portrayed an average human being. In preparation for a meeting, he proceeded to stuff papers in his refrigerator in order to get his room clean. By using such an example, we came to love prophets we did not personally know - they became "real" to us. He also described the humility of President Kimball. He would wear the same shoes, no matter how worn out they were or if they had holes in them. Before we had President Kimball as a prophet of God and after we discovered he was a humble man, who had trouble with cleaning.

Monson exemplifies an excellent sense of audience awareness because he surprised everyone with his discussion of the prophets. By doing this, we all walked out of the Marriott Center with more confidence of the leaders of a church, and a deeper love for the men who they really were. I feel that because President Monson avoided repetition of lessons we hear in General Conference, we were able to learn more about the men who truly impacted our religion on a more personal level. President Monson helped us build a foundation of understanding for the prophets that built the principles of the church.

Arrogant Columnist Loses Audience Members

I believe that we all agree that one of the nation's most recognized columnists is highly qualified in all areas of rhetoric. As we have already mentioned, Steve Duin is successful in persuading his readers through use of kairos and language tools (as Blake has mentioned in two of his earlier posts). However, at times even the most widely recognized columnist can lose audience members due to his arrogance of opinion and his assumptions of their knowledge.

Duin emphasizes the importance of community especially in this era. He does an mediocre job of using supporting evidence that this is the case. Duin points out that now more than ever we are experiencing times of isolation created by technology (iPhones, texting, emailing etc.) This is undeniably the truth, however I feel that he could use more emotional emphasis (pathos) to fully enhance this point.

Another example of how Duin lacks logos is how he does not fully align his readers with his examples. He refers to Roosevelt High, I assume it's a local school in Portland. He says: "One reason I remain fixated on the efforts -- especially those of the congregation at SouthLake FourSquare -- to bring stability to Roosevelt High is that the adventures cross the racial, social and material lines that so frequently divide us" (par. 16). This is the entirety of background information he gives concerning the "communal effort Obama is promoting" (par. 18). From this, I can infer that Duin is seeing an improvement in stability within Portland's local high school. For me, I am still left with the question of specifics: how is this being done at Roosevelt High? What efforts towards "stability" are being made? In this way, Duin assumes his audience is local and already has background knowledge. Yet he is a nationally recognized columnist. Obviously people from differing areas are going to read his work.

Blake's comment is right - in many cases, Duin is brief in order to promote readers to develop their own opinion. This is clear in his use of language tools, especially with rhetorical questions such as, "A president who 'believes in community above individuals'? In the sacrificial giving that serves those who can not fathom your prosperity?" (par. 20). This begs readers to think and question. Duin is undoubtedly not a writer who hands an opinion to you, but prefers readers to formulate their own based on what they've read. Acknowledging this, I feel that with the reference to Roosevelt High there could be more background information seeing as he uses it as his main example. If readers cannot understand Duin's main example, they will hardly be able to understand the reality of his concept.

Finally, and most importantly, Duin can be a very offensive author for those who disagree with his political ideology. Within the introduction to his article, Duin refers to his opponents as a "right wing noise machine" (par. 3). Not only is this a slap in the face to any conservative reading his article, Duin completely obliterates any possibility of acknowledging "fence-sitters" of the issue. In a major way, Duin does not acknowledge the opposing side and doesn't seem to make any attempt to find common ground. Furthermore, Duin does not establish trust. As we know, the only way to debate an ethical argument is to be charitable about the opponents' intentions. In no way is Duin open-minded and accepting - he is blunt and "political correctness" is somewhat absent. Hence, Duin does not exemplify an admirable sense of audience awareness.

Overall, the lack of community he expresses has potential to be such a powerful argument that could convince many fence-sitters of his opinion. Steve Duin is very abrupt with his points and expects the audience to fully understand the issue and the examples he refers to. Duin's work could be an all-inclusive article addressing political unity, but within the first few lines of his article he makes it clear that he is in no search for common ground. He is relying too heavily on his rhetoric status or credibility (ethos) while his argument lacks presence of logos or audience awareness.

9/11 -- Connecting the Cold to the Children

Peggy Noonan's article "The Children of 9/11 Grow Up" has a very strong emotional pull to its readers, as Phoebe analyzed previously. Almost as interesting as the emotional-side of this article is the audience that it addresses.

After Noonan's opening paragraph, she begins to both personalize her story and direct her audience away from just the general public. She starts off the body of her article with, "I've been thinking about..." (par. 2) in order to let her readers know that she is going to be telling her perspective on the effect 9/11 has had on college students that were children during this event. Noonan stays attached to the students emotionally and keeps the focus on them, but she separates her writing and views from the students. Her strategy is to make her story more appealing and applicable to people of her age -- those that have been through a great tragedy before.

Further on, Noonan states that "9/11 was for America's kids exactly what Nov. 22, 1963, was for their parents and uncles and aunts" (par. 6). Noonan doesn't bother to explain the date, because she expects the majority of her audience to know what that date stands for. For me, as a "child of 9/11" I had to look up the date to realize November 22nd, 1963 was the day when JFK was assassinated. Noonan used JFK as an excellent connection to bring more understanding of the situation to those that have grown cold to constant tragedy.

Those that aren't in Noonan's majority of readers aren't too distracted by this phrase because they just assume the date has a greater meaning to other people. A majority of those in this type of mindset are people that have felt overwhelmed by the events of 9/11. In order to keep this article attached to these readers, the imagery and emotion used by Noonan provides a bridge between her view and their memories. As Noonan interviews college students, those that have memories of 9/11 frequently connect their thoughts to the experience of the interviewees – including me.

"Children of 9/11 Grow Up" does a wonderful job to connect its older audience to the feelings of current college students, while also keeping those “children” interested in the article. This college connection might have been intentional, or Noonan might have been primarily focusing on her own generation. Either way, they are both great results of effective writing.

9/11 : A Reason for Unity and a Reason for Fear

As we pass the eighth year since 9/11, Peggy Noonan comments in the Wall Street Journal on its widespread emotional attachment to one particular age group. "The Children of 9/11 Grow Up" provides the commonly accepted opinion that 9/11 has an emotional connection that is taken very seriously by all Americans who were old enough to interpret the severity of the situation. When we all think back to the day of September 11th, there are common emotions felt by the general body of America - shock, remorse, pain and most importantly, fear. The author uses the emotional attachment to this particular historical event to convince us that there is a current undertone of fear among our communities in America that we are never completely safe.

In this way, the author utilizes emotional appeals to persuade us of this theory. She recognizes a serious event which is a very sensitive subject for many and persuades us that there is a constant fear present among the Amrican people. She uses interviews with young adults to enhance her argument. The age group Noonan focuses on the children who were old enough to understand the situation, but still children caught in their childhood. Noonan states, "Before they were carefree, after they were careful... the protected bubble of their childhood 'popped,'" (par. 5).

Noonan effectively applies the subject to a specific audience. Even her title begged curiosity - that is what drew me into open up the article. However, she also demonstrates that there is a broad appeal or an even larger audience because she connects this current day age group who experienced 9/11 to the generation of Pearl Harbor. She mentions that both audiences experienced the same set of emotions that should be acknowledged - they both have experienced "their first moment of historical consciousness" (par. 4). By tying both generations together, she suggests that these critical events in history significantly impact coming of age and maturing into adults. In other words, these historical events assist children in becoming American citizens and a part of a unifed body. "It completely destroyed our sense of invincibility... It showed the world could be a dangerous place for my generation that was never the case. My generation had no Soviet Union, no war against facism, we never had any threats" (par. 9).

It is clear that through Noonan's opinionated article, she uses the pathos or emotional appeal of 9/11 to connect to specific age groups and generations. She states that 9/11 is a way for that particular age group to achieve historical consciousness. She effectively persuades her readers that generations can be tied together through the historical tragedies they have experienced. Although there may be an undertone of fear, Noonan successfully creates a sense of unity because of her persuasion of tying generations together through their emotional experiences.