It is often forgotten that a tiny action or a couple of words have the potential to change someone’s world. While it may not be a conscious decision, perhaps in the realm of writing there is an unconscious desire to affect someone or something. After all, why was it so compelling to capture these thoughts in the first place? In Mary Pipher’s essay Writing to Connect, she is attentive of her audience and also supplies a heavy dose of pathos to convey her ideas.
The audience is clearly taken into consideration in this piece. Pipher has the aid of well-known figures such as Bob Dylan and Anne Frank to emphasize her point. The reader is able to connect on a whole new level when she drops familiar names. If she were to attempt this essay without these characters much of the effect would be lost in her explanations.
Opening with Anne Frank is a pretty blatant exploitation of emotion. This idea is assigned the degrading duty of dangling itself in front of the readers with the hope that they will take the bait. I latched on, and though it was a mildly low blow, Pipher still knows how to draw a reader in with her talk of “[losing] spiritual innocence” (Pipher 201). Quite a captivating foundation on which to build an essay.