Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Being Green Post-Death

1. Conserve, reuse and recycle are the keywords here, but mostly the "reuse'" my favorite.
2. The theme or point to this essay is that reusing can take many forms, and that donating your body to be a future cadaver is a legitimate way to be green by reusing. When the author, Semrau, keeps information from the reader early on it better communicates the theme to the reader. The theme and Semrau’s sly way to reinforce his theme can be seen when he writes “Conserve, reuse and recycle are the keywords here, but mostly the "reuse'" my favorite.” He puts reuse in quotes to hint that there is other ways than a normal person would think of to go green by reusing. “My favorite” shows the reader that Semrau endorses this portion of going green. The rest of his theme can be found in his simple statement “Please consider joining me”. By withholding the advertisement to be a cadaver until the very end he has opened the readers mind to other ways to go green that may not be obvious to the reader. The whole story about his previous career and his dreams of being a surgeon set the stage for him to finally reveal his point, by engaging the reader in a green reusing mood than throwing his point out in the open.


Thursday, December 9, 2010

Language tools in Hymns?!?


The theme of Martin Luther’s hymn “Savior of the Nations Come” does not stray from its title. The whole song is centered upon Christ and has his birth as its theme. Luther has several language tools in his arsenal to help get his theme across to the singer and listeners. In his arsenal it is clear, however, that Luther likes using pathos to affect his listeners by going through their emotions to get his point across. Pathos is prevalent in the line “Wondrous birth! O wondrous Child of the Virgin undefiled!” Luther targets the emotions by using exclamation points and moving adjectives like “Wondrous”. While using pathos to describe the incredible birth of Christ through emotion he slips in another language device also. Repetition joins with pathos to create a sense of overwhelming joy. Another language tool that goes along with Luther’s use of pathos is rhyme. Although it may be over looked in the hymn because it is a song, it makes the verses flow and create emotion in the singer by making a beautiful tune. This delicate web of language tools effectively portrays Luther’s theme of Christ’s amazing birth flawlessly, in the form of a catchy heart-warming tune.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

An A+ Sermon

1. Reverend Borghardt used Christ 28 times. The verbs and verb phrases he used with Christ as the subject were: makes Holy, sets apart, took on sin and death, stain, lives again, died, rose and reigns, slain, put on our flesh and blood, makes us alive, puts his name, gives us songs, gives, came, make the blessings more, feels your pain, calling you home, on the face of God, died, lived, reigns for you.

2. The themes of Borghardt's and Edward's sermon differed most greatly on how the path to Salvation was portrayed. In Edwards gloomy sermon he used scare tactics and the horror of Hell to teach his listeners that they had to do work to obtain Salvation without emphasizing that Christ has done all the work already. On the contrary, Borghardt used Christ very effectively, correctly portraying the fact that Jesus is the answer to all of our troubles in life, and we do not have to do anything but accept the Salvation he earned for us. Borghardt had Christ as his theme.