Journal #2: The Writers of Shenandoah National Park

Writing is a means through which we express thoughts. In school we are taught to shape our thoughts into five paragraphs. We are told that before any introspection there ought to be a witty anecdote, or something to catch the readers attention. Writing has been formalized, and though doing so allows for clearer communication, our words often lose their genuineness in the process.

The people of  Shenandoah National Park - with shoddy grammatical skills and poor spelling abilities to boot - were beautifully genuine. I especially loved the women who stole the window. She was clearly remorseful, and her lack of formalized writing made that all the more obvious. This women had not been schooled in Aristotle's Rhetoric - using ethos, pathos, and logos to persuade -yet she used all of those tools, by instinct, to express how truly sorry she was, making her plea feels less like a tactical attempt to persuade the reader and more like a honest request for forgiveness. I especially like that despite her lack of education, which she admits to, she says in her letter that she is writing a novel. 

When writing for someone else, a writers goal is to be understood, and then, hopefully, to be moving. While reading the letters I could hear each persons voice and  I could empathize with their strife: I understood and I was moved. Therefore, I believe the people of Shenandoah are writers. 

When we were first asked to describe a writer, I said something about needing to be eloquent, but then Avery corrected me. A writer doesn't have to be eloquent. These letters prove that. A writer is simply someone with enough guts to expose their thoughts in text.