Written Persuasion

This is my final blog post for my English 312 class! I can't say that I have been the best at writing and posting regularly on here but it has been nice writing about different topics that I may have not otherwise communicated in some way. It is also hard to believe that my junior year is already halfway over. It seems that just yesterday I was stepping onto BYU campus as a freshman and hoping that I would be able to find all of my classes but now I am almost done with my junior writing class. I was worried that I wouldn't know what to write for my blog posts but the ideas came to my head rather easily. I have written about my hobbies, what I did for a day, and about my family. Fifteen blogs was not as many as I thought it was going to be. I will probably not continue blogging but I may try to make a better effort of writing in my journal, which can be a little more private.  It occurred to me while writing these blog posts that persuasive writing is a big part of everyday comm

The article, "The Stories that Bind Us" showed how children can better handle life situations when they have a family narrative. The more a child knew about their families, the better they were able to handle stress and difficulty in school and other aspects of life. When children know details such as where their grandparents grew up or how their parents met, this led them to feeling apart of something more than just themselves. While reading through this article, I realized how blessed I am to know so much of my own family narrative. We love to tell stories in my family and some of my favorite stories include how my parents met and about when I was born. My parents met at church because both of them had siblings in the same ward in Agoura Hills, California and my mom was babysitting my cousins that day. My dad lived with his brother at the time and so that was the ward he regularly attended. Their siblings had tried to previously set them up but it hadn't worked out so t

I can't believe that Christmas is less than a month away. This time of year is my favorite because of all the cheer and joy that seems to be present at this time. I was very happy to find the station that plays nonstop Christmas music because Christmas music is some of my favorite music. A smile always appears on my face while I'm belting out classics such as "Jingle Bell Rock" or "All I Want for Christmas is You". While some say that it doesn't feel like Christmas yet because there isn't any snow on the ground, this is not a problem for me because I grew up in Southern California and have never had a white Christmas. Some of my fondest memories come from going to the beach during Christmas break and searching for seashells. It is also very stressful because people are busy trying to get everything done for the holiday season and finals are looming but somehow the Christmas spirit overcomes this all. I hope that amid all the stress that we can rememb

Has anyone tried to ask you if they look young for their age? What is a twenty-five year old supposed to look like anyway? I don't know if I could answer that question myself and try to avoid answering those questions as much as possible. Over the past two summers, I have gone home to work at the Princess Cruises headquarters. When I am working there, everyone comments how young all of the interns look. The age range for the interns in my department this summer was 19-22 and so whenever we were walking around people assumed we were interns and would ask us what department we were working for and where we went to school. Although someone could probably not guess my exact age, they knew that I was young. There was one incident over the summer where one of my coworkers was mistaken for an employees child on take your kid to work day but we all laughed it off. The year before there was a 25 year old in our intern group and because I was nineteen he would constantly say what a baby I wa

Although I am not the best at writing down my goals, it is better late than never. Below I will put down three writing goals and three reading goals that will help me be a better and more efficient learner through the rest of the semester and beyond. Reading Goals Generate a purpose question Make sure I know answer to the purpose question Summarize in my head as I continue to read so I know what I have read Writing Goals Make sure to outline the main ideas of my paper Make sure to proofread after finishing writing Make sure that everything ties back to my thesis statement 

I have been dancing for most of my life. I was enrolled in ballet when I was almost seven years old and continued to take ballet until I was a senior in high school. The photo on the left is from my first year of Nutcracker from when I was a snow tree. If you can't tell I am the one on the left in the front. It was probably a good thing I was enrolled in ballet because my throwing and kicking skills are not the best. I am also not the most physically aggressive and would prefer not to run into other people, I do that enough on accident. I was more of a recreational dancer than anything but it has been a constant in my life for the past thirteen years. Since enrolling in college, I have participated in various types of dance such as jazz, social, Polynesian, folk, and Latin. These classes have always been a way for me to get in some physical activity while having fun. Nothing gives me almost as much instant joy as getting on the floor and breaking into dance. Not only have I learne

Singing is something that I have done since before I entered school. My family is very musical and many of my relatives sing and/or play an instrument. I took singing lessons when I was very young and did choir in elementary, middle, and high school. In addition to this, I have also sang in ward choirs and in small groups for church. Although I have grown up singing, it has never been easy for me to sing by myself in front of audiences. Being shy is probably part of the problem but I have also had some experiences that have made me more hesitant to sing a solo. I remember once in elementary school auditioning for a solo when I had a cold and therefore did not sound the best but still decent. As it can be assumed, I did not get the solo and I was a little devastated. In fifth grade for our promotion ceremony they had auditions to sing a solo part to Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten". Again I tried out and again I did not get the part. One of the things that was frustrating

It has come to my attention that family mottos are actually something that families will create and live by. They usually seem to include some type of encouraging message such as "our family does not give up" or "return with honor". Our family never came up with a family motto but there are some unofficial ones that have been mentioned throughout my life. I don't necessarily live by them but they are kind of humorous and have brought a laugh when they are brought up. One of those mottos is one that my dad has always brought up, which is "If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying". Now this is a horrible motto to live by but my dad always will bring it up probably because we don't cheat and the irony plays out when he will tell friends to have us recite what he always says. Another motto that comes from my mom is "You can marry more in a minute than you can make in a lifetime"which again is not taken very seriously. I would like to c

Topic: I am studying the effects of female child marriage on those involved in the marriage and children. Question: Because I want to see how this practice affects the well-being of those affected throughout their life and see if there are negative effects and if there are policies to reduce the amount of child marriages worldwide. Significance: I decided to research this topic because this is something that disproportionately affects girls that are in poverty and in low-income countries. These females will be less likely to finish school and will have less opportunities to grow as an individual and help their situation. This practice can also be a form of oppression that prevents these females from having more choices and limits them to being under their husband's control rather than making their own decisions. Audience: My audience will most likely be pro in that most will believe that there are adverse effects of having girls married off before they are a legal adult. There c

When I first heard of the comedian Ryan Hamilton, I had to make sure that I had read that correctly. I have a cousin named Ryan Hamilton and although he is quite the self-professed comedian, he is a lawyer by occupation. However, this Ryan Hamilton is a single male comedian from a small town in Idaho that attended BYU and lives a life free from alcohol and drugs. Although it is never mentioned in his segment, it can be assumed that he is most likely a practicing member of the LDS church. Audience? Those who are anticipating comedy whether at the live show or watching the content on TV or on the Internet. There is also an emphasis on clean humor rather than comedy that relies on crude behavior or language. Persuasive? He is able to be make comedy that surrounds situations around himself by telling stories about his background, his daily life, and the people that he has interacted with. How? He uses self-awareness and self-deprecation to express humor. He makes fun of how he looks lik

As someone that would consider themselves shy, it has never been an easy process to make new friends. It takes a little more time for me to form friendships but I do try to go out of my comfort zone and approach people in social settings. I do not have answers on how to approach people to form friendships easier but I have learned a little on how friendships are formed in my sociology class. By using this knowledge there could also be some simple solutions to make sure that friendships stay intact. There are two reasons why people choose the friends they do. One of those reasons is homophily, which is forming friendship due to shared interest. When people share something in common such as the same favorite t.v show, this can lead to friendship and hopefully as time goes on the friends will find other ways to strengthen their bond. The other way that friendship is formed is through propinquity, which is friendship formed due to spending a good amount of time together. This is why it is

This past week I was able to go to the Family Discovery Center in Salt Lake City for the first time. As a resident of Southern California, home is not close for me and so I have gone to relatives that live close by for Thanksgiving for the past three years. This has given me the opportunity to do different activities during the Thanksgiving break. As the family I was with this year was from Sandy, we decided to go to Salt Lake. Unlike a good amount of young people, I really enjoy family history and so I was excited to go to the library. It is very high-tech and interactive and not as intimidating as people would think. Each person is given a tablet and there are different stations that they can dock at. Some of the stations included famous relatives, what the world was like when I was born, my heritage, and photo opportunities. There was also the option of seeing if other people at the center were related to you. I was able to take some photos as a Englishwoman and as a Scandinavian wo

In his talk given in the Saturday Afternoon Session, Ronald A. Rasband gave a talk about the divine design of Heavenly Father. His talk was memorable for me because of what happened that day. I was able to attend conference at the conference center Saturday afternoon with my immediate family except for my dad. After the session of conference, my aunt came home with us because my uncle and my brothers were going to the Priesthood Session. A friend of mine is serving in the Salt Lake Temple Square Mission and so we tried to find her before we left and although we searched and searched, we were not able to find her. We walked around a little more and then started to head to the car, my sister and I realized that my mom and aunt were not right behind us and saw them farther back talking to someone. The woman that they were talking to was a sister missionary from Italy that had served in the Brussels, Belgium mission when my uncle was the mission president. She had recognized my aunt and wa