Sarah Johnston
Mrs. Trahan
English 101
Rhetorical Analysis
20 October 2009
Have you ever read something that really impacted you? Have you ever written something in order to impact someone else? Throughout the essay, “Writing to Connect,” by Mary Pipher, she shines light on the fact that no matter what the intentions of the writer consist of, every piece has the ability to influence others. Pipher uses many rhetorical concepts such as ethos, angle of vision, pathos, and logos, as she discusses other’s writings. In using these strategies she makes it easier for her reader to understand her argument.
Pipher uses her device of storytelling to persuade her readers. She begins with the story of a hero, “Even though Anne Frank was ultimately murdered, she managed, in her brief and circumscribed life, to tell the truth and bequeath the gift of hope” (Pipher 202). Anne Frank’s diary was the turning point on how Pipher viewed the world. This allows her to begin to see the importance in everyone’s writing, whether it is a diary, story, letter, song, or film. She bombards the reader with story after story about how writers of all sorts create change, her knowledge on her argument proves that one can rely on Pipher’s proposal.
From the beginning of the passage, until the end Pipher emphasizes that one can change the world with words. The way she attacks this essay shows her passion and purpose for writing. “Ordinary people can and do change the world every day,” she conveys her reader to believe that they personally can impact other’s lives. She guides the reader in the way that they can begin to write without having to worry about if it will influence the world, “It was called the Law of 26, and it postulates that for every result you expect from an action there will be twenty-six results you do not expect. Certainly this law applies to writing” (202). Pipher’s main purpose in her essay is obvious; to encourage her readers to write because whatever they have to say can and will change the world.
Once Pipher finishes explaining ways that other people, such as Anne Frank, have changed the world she digs into her way of writing for a purpose. She allows the reader to feel at home with her struggle of writing the right thing in order to make her difference on people. In tackling the reader’s emotions, Pipher goes through the list of things that discourage her from writing. It is as if she does not feel like she has the capability to make a change, but the point of her essay is to have everyone work through that with her because, “Writing turns out to be one thing we can control in a world where much feels beyond our control” (207).