Email Tone

I recently asked my former employer for my w-2 information and this was the email response, "No problem. W-2’s came in yesterday, your taxable wages were $xxxxxx. FIT withheld was $xxxxx, SS was $xxxxxx, and MED $xxxxx. I will put yours in the mail today, are you still at the same address?"

The tone in this short correspondence is very good. I raised an issue as to whether my w-2 would arrive on time, and in response I got more information than expected. This email is short and to the point which made it powerful. The tone at the end was great, a sense of urgency followed up by question regarding accuracy. The beginning tone was positive and made light work of the issue i proposed.

Honestly I have to say that my initial email requesting the information had a negative tone as I expected this request to go unanswered. I was wrong. In reflection I learned that it is not wise to be to hasty and prejudge, something I am consistently guilty of. So, in this situation my old boss effectively changed the hole tone, that is my perception of how the situation would go down.

Worksheet for Defining Objectives

Rhetoric is persuasion in three different forms, and right now all I can think of is three other things I would rather be doing. I just moved into a new place for starters, and my thumbs hurt from twisting the cheap aluminum Allen wrench that came with my cheap new futon. So yeah, rhetoric. I need new a new pot and pan, that is indeed singular as my new pad only has two burners.

Logos, an element of rhetoric is going to help me decide on which pot and pan I buy today. I have two burners as I mentioned, one medium one small. After my Canadian pine futon was assembled, I stood in front of my new kitchenette debating with myself. How much can I cook at once? What is feasible? What is logical? Damn, these burners are close together. There is no way I could possibly cook with more than one pot or pan at a time. Problem solved, of course only after Logos took charge. This was not the case for Pathos and Ethos.

Ethos did not help me with my predicament. Why you ask? Because I am the most bias person in the world when talking to myself, and any other situation for that matter. Get a new pot and pan, don't get a new pot and pan I argued. I believed myself in both situations, how could I be wrong. Ethos, the argument of credibility failed me, after all I am an egoist. Next.

Pathos, an appeal to heart. Today I have one. I've had my current pots and pans for years, they were a gift. All the omelets, salmon, soup, and Korean food I have cooked in these slick Teflon coated disks. I am feeling a little attached because my history with the old pots and pans, but I don't need six. It is like adopting cats or something, you don't want to separate them from their siblings. Then I thought, I don't really like cats. Thinking about the cats made me angry, so I disassociated myself with the old kitchenware. Problem solved.

Now I am on my way to Outdoor Warehouse (R.I.P. Sportsman's) to pick up one new cast iron skillet and some kind of pot. Wish me luck.

Writing can be difficult and challenging for many people, this is the case for me. Whenever I am thrust into another required writing class visions of my childhood flash before my eyes. Pains pulse through my body in the form of confusion, boredom, and discontent.Thoughts of plain white paper containing half completed sentences and Times New Roman orders demanding I find a particular grammatical mistake haunt me. The smiles and laughs of the girls in pretty dresses who want to be teachers completed there writing task in less than thirty seconds throw their smirks at me for they are the winners of this particular competition. Marks of angry red slashed through my mistakes reminding me of my incompetence, red sharpies stare me in the eyes. In contrast I remember the joy of early mathematics and the breeze at which I pounded through problems, if only writing were this way.

I do not except failure, but find myself justifying bad grades on writing assignments claiming they add contrast to the good grades I get in other subjects. Writing is painful. Verbs, nouns, pronouns, antonyms, and any other grammatical definition inspire bouts of syncope. But, pain can some times be a good thing. Pain makes you stronger or increases your endurance, it can make you a better person. This is my hopeful disposition towards writing, that being more proficient in this challenging subject will make me a better person.

Now here I am in writing 402, blogging. This is my first time ever, I do not like sharing myself. But I can say is that regardless of how bad I am at writing, that whenever I get a bad or good grade I am filled with hope. The hope that people are still failed for bad work and reward for good, and that everything in life must be worked for and not handed out.