Summary Of Mary Pipher's Writing To Connect

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Mary Pipher is a psychologist who focuses her studies on how mental health can be caused by influences in culture and writing. In her chapter, “Writing to Connect,” Pipher shows that writing, in particular, can “share our stories, connect with each other, and influence some aspect of our world” (436). The reader can see her field of study throughout “Writing to Connect” and understand the concepts she introduces. Pipher’s directs her writing to “community groups, schools, and health care professionals” (436). This audience is the majority of recipients of her work she travels to speak about. Pipher wants her audience to connect their stories with the people around them, and together work on impacting some part of the culture around them. Throughout …show more content…

Pipher uses several personal stories throughout the text to engage with her readers. Anecdotes are a very powerful tool in rhetoric because not only does it publicize your personal experiences, it also can allow the reader to feel connected to the author. She begins with a story of when she was "a twelve-year-old, in Beaver City, Nebraska" to set the stage for her story (Pipher 436). Not only does the connect her to the community groups that could contain parents of children of similar age, it also connects her with the members of schools. Through these particular members of her audience, she shares her personal story that will allow the individuals to place themselves in Pipher’s situation. She also wrote about the impact “when [she] was fifty-five years old…[visiting] the Holocaust Museum, in Washington D.C” that shaped her view of the world (Pipher 436). Pipher maintains this connection with her readers by sharing another story about "visit(ing) a market on the Burmese Border" to draw into conclusion her writing (441). The market is where she realized that words and writing allow us to connect with one another. Pipher was able to draw emotion from the readers and persuade them to let the world, and its writing, influence them, similar to how it influenced her. One of the main arguments that Pipher makes in “Writing to Connect” is that sharing stories connects individuals with each other and lead to perceptions of the world being influenced. This rhetorical choice in particular directly applies to her purpose in every