Blog Post Three

The potential impact of letters

This week in class we looked through three different letters asking for a call to action. Through the analysis of these letters, I was better able to understand how I am to approach my own letter writing.

The first letter we went over was a letter that was written to a college student by a college professor professing his love for the young student. It’s clearly an inappropriate move for a professor to make regardless of whether or not it was attached to her final grade. Regardless of the fact that she was no longer his student, she was still a student at the university and he should have known better than to approach her with a letter suggesting that they start anything. The letter itself tries to take make it sound like a harmless statement of affection but the letter was clearly meant as a means of getting something. He wanted to start something up with the student expecting her to not report his letter. Although the professor intended for this letter to be a closed letter, sent to one specific person, the letter ended up being an open letter that when reported and opened up the conversation about the student professor relationship and what is considered appropriate or not. It also gave way to many other students opening up about similar situations that they faced with that particular professor or with others they might have encountered. It was admirable that this student decided to share this letter, regardless of the backlash that she could potentially face. This letter really made me think of the idea of an intended audience and how this letter ended up reaching many more people than just that one female student. It also made me think of the consequences of certain actions associated with words and how to be mindful of our decisions moving forward.

The second letter is a demand letter written by a woman who experienced harassment from police officers alongside her husband. She wrote the demand letter from the perspective of her husband. Her letter was interesting to read as it depicted a situation that many have found themselves in as well. I found it interesting that she chose to write it for him. I wondered if she decided to do that because the people she wrote the letter for would take them more seriously or because the citation they received was given to the husband since he was in the drivers seat. The letter itself taught me hat its very important to know where to place the ask or the demand. This letters demand was towards the end after an extensive recap on the events of that night. It should have been more towards the beginning but I will say that their story did serve in terms of providing pathos. It did elicit my sympathies and can see how it would be persuasive to someone in charge.

The last of the letters were actually letters to the editor concerning vaccinations. Some of the entries were more informative while others were driven by emotions. I found that by bringing up emotions it can be very persuasive in proving a point.

Reading all three letters and all of the differences between them made me look back to my own letter and I realized that I want to make sure that the letter is to the point as well as relates to hopefully other college students at CSUSB. This can be difficult to accomplish but i hope that the letter reaches the intended audience and makes a difference on campus.

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