Preview

Essay on the Power of Words

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2077 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Essay on the Power of Words
For those of you who like to create, you know that you are never fully satisfied with what you produce. Sure it may get the grade or suffice for what you planned to accomplish, but the thoughts circling what you could have done differently or ways you could improve can grow in the back of your mind. Maybe after investing great measures of effort and time, you are DONE by the time you’re done; don’t want to think about it, just want to move on. But maybe you go back, and go back, and go back, and can’t stop dwelling on things you could do or change to make whatever you made/produced/created manifest the ideas in your mind in a more accurate way.

WELL, that is how I feel about what I write. Since coming home for the summer, I’ve revisited old papers and essays for further refinement and fine tweaking just because I think it’s fun (and because I’m a perfectionist, whoops). So some of the essays I post are more loved and tended to than others, but today I am posting the first essay I wrote for the Nonfiction Writing class I took this past spring at KU. It’s come a long way since then, and I’m certain I will pay it a visit again in a few weeks or months and mix things around yet again. One day I love it and am happy with the progress I’ve made, and another day I am frustrated by my inability to express exactly what I want how I want. But that’s just the way it is, I suppose! SO ALL THAT TO SAY, here are some thoughts on the power of words, which just so happens to be the clever title of my essay. Boom. Feedback welcome!

The Power of Words

The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
-Proverbs 18:21

Long before I began, words existed. Even in my infancy, I babbled indistinct jargon to empty air. As a toddler, my parents spoke to me and urged me onward as I struggled to coerce meaning into form. With great exertion, I studied the shape of their mouths and attempted to recreate the sounds myself. Through practice,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Rhetorical Essay

    • 1197 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Ellen Goodman’s attitude toward Phil in “The Company Man” seems to be frustration and disappointment. She explains how Phil, the main subject practically worked himself to death. He was a “workaholic,” meaning he put his work above anything and anyone, even his wife and children. This explains Goodman’s disappointment towards Phil because he let work take over his life and force him to push away his loved ones and close family members. The author expresses frustration by writing in the passage that Phil let work cause him to work himself to death finally and precisely. The obituary said that he had died from coronary thrombosis, which is a blockage of the flow of blood to the heart, caused by a blood clot in a coronary artery. Everyone who was close to him knew that instantly because of their knowing of Phil personally. Phil was a fifty one year old vice president who never stopped working, even on his off days. On the day he died, that Sunday was supposed to be his off day but he was still working. Goodman uses description to describe and explain how Phil worked himself to death. She stated that he was vice president at his company, he had no outside extracurricular interests, and how he worked like the Important People. Goodman also uses contrast and comparison to explain her attitude toward Phil as a working man. She compares Phil to his friends and acquaintances by stating that after Phil died, his friends and close ones began to think for five or ten minutes about how they were living their lives. They may have been going at the same rate as Phil, so after they seen him put to death by working, they began to think about how much they work and how they can avoid dying due to work. Goodman also uses…

    • 1197 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    When writing an essay there really is more to it than just writing words down and making sure the words is used correctly. When someone is having thoughts they need to write them down and just go from there. At first it may not be perfect, but the writer can always go back and change the errors that need to be fixed. Before reading this I figured it was going to be about bad writing and one should not worry if it is not perfect. This made me realize that it is not about how you write, but what you write about and how to get your thoughts across.…

    • 1355 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    english essay

    • 414 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The author Tina Fanning in the newspaper article “cars no longer sustainable”, which was written in July 2007, contents the effect of car usage on global warming and the effect on the future of our children that proves the high level of harmfulness that global warming causes. The audience in this article is aiming at car users and state governors.…

    • 414 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    rhetorical essay

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The 1918 influenza epidemic inspired author John M. Barry to write about the importance of uncertainty in science and research. In his piece, The Great Influenza, Barry endeavors to reveal to both researchers and men of modern science that science is not a domain in which one can rely on the comfort and strength of certainty. Rather, it is a domain that is reserved for the courageous and one in which the “weakness” of uncertainty must be embraced. To stress this point, John M. Barry rationally employs rhetorical strategies, and effectively convinces his scientifically-minded readers, that one must “move forcefully and aggressively even while uncertain” to be a successful scientist.…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Rhetoric Essay

    • 1220 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an autobiography in which Mr. Douglass tells his life story. He was born into slavery and experienced many harsh realities that shaped his life. Frederick Douglass was a free black man at the time in which he told this story. He is writing to his audience to inform them about slavery. His claim is that slavery is bad and must be stopped. His experiences help form his rhetoric as a credible speaker; His use of pathos truly develops the negative emotional and physical aspects of slavery on slaves.…

    • 1220 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Words have always fascinated me, ever since my mother used to read fairytales to my brother and me for bedtime. Growing up I realized words were not only for listening but also for playing with. The only thing I needed was inspiration to draw them closer to me. But, as you see, having inspiration on your side is not a simple task. You have to fight ghost,…

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    rhetorical essay

    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Women have been told what to do since the beginning of time. “Pink Think” furthers that idea. This article by Lynn Peril explains what influences have impacted the way females act and think. Emotional appeal, the use of the theory pink think and her use of specific examples from history all come together to establish her case that women have been expected to fit into a specific mold in order to be a successful woman in life.…

    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    rhetoric essay

    • 898 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In his article “If Technology Is Making Us Stupid, It’s Not Technology’s Fault,” David Theo Goldberg effectively informs the reader about the effects that computers in the home and school environment could have on the future education of the coming generations. Goldberg achieves this by executing defined organization and adding unique comparisons about the potentially crippling effects technology can have on a society when put into the wrong hands.…

    • 898 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rhetoric Essay

    • 1262 Words
    • 4 Pages

    With today’s scientific knowledge, scientists concluded that “…an estimated 443,000 people die prematurely from smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke, and another 8.6 million live with a serious illness caused by smoking. Despite these risks, approximately 46.6 million U.S. adults smoke cigarettes” (Ung). These deaths were all caused either by lung, mouth, larynx, pharynx, esophageal, and/or bladder cancer (Tobacco Use). You might ask yourself, why do people still smoke even though they know that they can get cancer from it? Well, before the discovery of cigarettes being harmful to your body, people thought that cigarettes were actually beneficial to your body. This created an influx of demand for cigarettes from the consumers. Because of this influx, cigarette companies wanted to find a way of luring the consumers into buying their cigarettes. They found that by using rhetoric in their advertisements, they were able to develop multiple ways of persuading consumers into thinking that their cigarettes turned them into a celebrity and that even doctors smoke cigarettes. With this being said, I will compare and contrast a Capri Super Slim and a Lucky Strike cigarette advertisement and show how cigarette companies back then used rhetoric to convince buyers into purchasing these two products.…

    • 1262 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rhetoric Essay

    • 590 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Rhetoric devices make persuasive writing very effective and more interesting to read. Studying rhetoric devices in English class, I have learned how to use and see these in effective writing. While some may argue that persuasive writing is not strengthen by rhetoric devices but by evidence, I certainly believe that rhetoric devices connect and deliver very strong persuasive writing to an audience. Rhetoric devices, mainly ethos, logos, and pathos, make persuasive writing very effective because they support and strengthen the arguments.…

    • 590 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This class has taught me many things about myself along with many necessary skills needed while writing. I know now that, through hard work and determination, I can achieve what I might think to be impossible. While reflecting back on my initial writing abilities, I see the weak, uneducated style of writing. Each essay shows my progression and improvement, and, after a while, the class began to become much easier. Today, after practicing throughout my essays this semester, I believe that I, in fact, have…

    • 914 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    English Essay

    • 1896 Words
    • 8 Pages

    This quote means that you have many moments in life that are simply just to take up time and carry one throughout the years but memories are much more important and stay in one’s head forever with no time limit. This quote is significant to the two novels Rush Home Road and Kite Runner because each protagonist has a past that they carry with them throughout their years. Their memories of tragedy are with them forever and there is no way of escaping them permanently. In the novels Rush Home Road by Lori Lansens and Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, the protagonists, Addy and Amir, are constantly drawn back home by recalling difficult memories, through adoption, and with the idea that they have a mission to complete.…

    • 1896 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I really enjoyed reading A Loss for Words: the Story of Deafness in a Family. I found the book to be a pleasurable and extremely fast read. Lou Ann Walker definitely has an impacting touch on anyone who reads her story. This story highlights the challenges of being different. Her parents being deaf really caused a strain on her lifestyle. Also, the reactions of others affected her tremendously. Lou Ann really opens the eyes of those who do not understand deafness. How the deaf community functions and how it is really a whole other world. I found Lou Ann really put her heart into this story. She really exposed herself; and, at the same time, did so with humor. It was evident that Lou Ann loved her parents but her relationship with them because of their handicap is altered from the norm relationship of a daughter and her parents. This is where the strength in their family lies.…

    • 308 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    English Essay

    • 459 Words
    • 2 Pages

    “To David, About his Education” by Howard Nemerov, explains that education isn’t always as important as you think. Nemerov supports the fact that outside knowledge and experience are far greater amenities then education alone. Nemerov advocates his theme by using literary devices such as verbal irony and tone. Nemerov mocks the way children are traditionally taught by using the devices for sarcasm to balance the pretend seriousness he conveys in the poem. For example Nemerov states, “The world is full of mostly invisible things… to find them out, things like how many times Byron goes into Texas… you have to go to school and study books.”…

    • 459 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Power of Language

    • 1073 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Language plays an important role in communication by bringing people together and enriching their relationships. Language can also alienate those who do not speak it properly, or at all, from those who do. The essays, Mother Tongue, by Amy Tan, best known for her book, The Joy Luck Club, and Se Habla Espanol, by Tanya Barrientos, delve into the many powers that language holds. These essays reflect how by not speaking a language in proper form and by not speaking a language at all, affects the lives of the subjects of the stories.…

    • 1073 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays