Maegan Bennett
A small town girl with BIG dreams.
No one ever wants to talk about the big, bad “C” word. It’s like we think if we talk about it than we might get it. Can you guess this awful word? If not, don’t worry because I’m about to tell you. Cancer is a disease that effects a lot of people, but it’s not something that comes up in our everyday conversations. Instead, we choose to talk about the latest scandal or who’s going to win the next presidential election. Four years ago, I found out that my grandmother had been diagnosed with breast cancer. I really struggled with this news. I felt like I was alone and that no one knew what I was going through. After three weeks of living with this heart-breaking news, I found out that a girl on my soccer team was going through the same situation. We literally saw each other every day after school but had no clue that we were in a position to help each other. It would have been ten times easier to get through this situation if I could've had a friend experiencing the same feelings to talk to, but we had no clue because cancer is just something people do not talk about. This week, I came across a story about cancer that blew my mind. As I was reading it, I was reminded of all of the feelings I felt when I found out my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer. I remembered not wanting anyone to ever feel the way I did in those moments, so I decided that I am going to encourage people to include the word cancer in their everyday conversations. To start it off, I decided to share this unbelievable story about Chrissy Turner. The StoryOn October 5, 2016, People Magazine released an article about a nine-year-old girl who was diagnosed with breast cancer. In this article, Cathy Free tells the story of Chrissy Turner’s battle with breast cancer in order to help women better understand their chances of having breast cancer. Free recommends that you should be aware of your body no matter what age you are. Free reminds us that Chrissy is the youngest person ever to be diagnosed with this disease at age of eight-years-old. Chrissy was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer that affects one in a million people. According to Free, Chrissy underwent a mastectomy last December and now has a breast scan every three months. Free quotes Chrissy’s mother saying that “Chrissy is recovering well and is back playing and enjoying life.” "Chrissy will be one of the keynote speakers at 'The Pink Frog Foundation’s' fifth annual gala in Atlanta, GA," states Free. Even though Chrissy is usually a shy and quiet girl, she is willing to step up and speak out to make sure that everyone is aware of their body regardless of age. Free includes Chrissy’s advice: “Life is good and far too short.” Free also emphasizes that if you ever find a lump, don’t wait; You should go to the doctor and have it looked at immediately. The ToolsIn this article, Cathy Free uses storytelling to stress the importance of being aware of your body. Jay Heinrichs, author of Thank You for Arguing, defines storytelling as the best way to change an audience’s mood (83). In this artifact, Cathy Free tells us the story about the youngest person ever to be diagnosed with breast cancer. This nine-year-old little girl, Chrissy, was diagnosed with a rare type of breast cancer when she was only eight-years-old. She is now healthy and back to playing with her friends at school. Storytelling is like a Thanksgiving dinner. It is full of warmth and happiness, and it gives you a sense of comfort. All of the good food looks so good you can’t resist eating it, and you never leave the table wanting more. Free presents her story in the same way. She lays out all of the details and keeps our attention throughout the article. She uses specific words and phrases to play with her audience’s mood while telling the heart-warming story of a nine-year-old girl diagnosed with breast cancer. Cathy Free keeps her audience attentive by telling this story. “An attentive audience is willing to listen closely to what you have to say,” claims Heinrichs (57). In this article, Cathy Free holds on to her audience’s attention by explaining how Chrissy’s life has been affected by breast cancer, and the progress she has made throughout her journey. She tells us the ups and downs of her treatments and how she is doing at this moment Keeping an audience attentive is like giving a girl a puppy. She can play with it for hours and still not want to put it down. By keeping her audience’s attention for a long time, Cathy Free is able to make sure her audience is listening to what she has to say. Possessing your audience’s attention is great, but what comes next? Cathy Free decides to give her audience a desire to act. “The desire to act requires you to motivate your audience to do something or stop doing something,” states Heinrichs (25) Cathy Free hints towards the desire to act by showing her audience that breast cancer can affect anyone. Knowing that this innocent little girl was able to get cancer at such a young age allows us to realize that this terrible disease could also become a reality for us. This causes us to take action and become more aware of our own bodies. Giving your audience a desire to act is like bribing your sibling with a dozen of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies in order to get them to do the dishes for you. It may not be something they necessarily want to do, but knowing that it will benefit them urges them to do it anyway. The benefit of getting the cookies outweighs the inconvenience of putting up the dishes. Free gives her audience a desire to act in order to persuade them to do what she wants. She is striving to get women to pay more attention to their bodies, even if it might take some time out of their day for them to do it. It will definitely be worth the reward. The FixThis article starts off really well. As soon as I opened it, I saw a big title that caught my attention. Although after reading the title, I felt like I knew the entire story. Just by reading the title I knew what the entire article was going to be about. Free gives away the main message within the title. I think that if Cathy Free uses Heinrichs method of unannounced emotion it will allow her audience to feel a little more sympathy and connection towards Chrissy. Even though the title gives off too much information, I think the author still does a great job of making herself seem logical and credible. As a college student, I am constantly reminded to use reliable sources when looking up information. Professors insist that we cite the information within our work, and seeing this done in Free’s article helped me know that her information is true. Free's use of links to other sites gives us further information on unknown topics. By providing these links it allows me to know that her sources are reliable and that she just didn’t make up this information. The links also allow me to get a better understanding of the topics discussed without having to do any research of my own. They offer me quick and easy access to more information. When targeting an audience of such a big age range one might find it difficult to find a way to include everyone, but in this article, Free effectively reaches women of all ages by telling the story of Chrissy’s battle with cancer. By telling the story she keeps my attention, which allows me to feel more involved in the story. The way she tells the story made it seem like I was there while all of this was taking place. In Thank You for Arguing, Heinrichs states that there are three main goals for persuading people:
Cathy Free does a great job of giving her audience a desire to act. It greatly increases the effectivity of this article for me. After reading it, I didn’t sit there wondering what to do next or what was the point in reading it. Instead, I immediately felt the need to go and check my own body. Have you ever finished reading something, then found yourself thinking why did I just read that? The reason for that is the author is writing without a purpose. Thankfully that is not the case for Free’s article. Throughout the entire article, she is writing to make sure we become more aware of our bodies. She is striving to get us to understand that being aware of our own body could possibly save our life. Free reminds us that if we ever find a lump, don’t wait. Go get it check out by a doctor immediately.
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AuthorI am a student at Georgia Southern University. I love the outdoors, and my favorite flower is a sunflower. Archives
November 2016
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