Analysis Of Lecture By Randy Pausch

At the beginning of this semester, I would never have imagined that a book I was being forced to read for a Dual Credit English course would end up meaning so much to me, or touch me in the way that it did. Reading The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch touched my heart in more ways than just one and opened my mind to many new ideas. In this book, Randy finds out he is dying of cancer, and his whole world is flipped around. He comes to the realization that his time on Earth in finite and coming to a close. Randy became determined to use his last bit of time he had alive on Earth in a positive way and in a way that would leave a positive impact behind for his family, friends, coworkers and everyone in between.

In this Ted talk, Mr. Norman Spack talks about a very sensitive issue prevalent in the whole of the world, an issue which affects a substantial population of the world yet people find it difficult to address it. He talks about how sometimes when a child is born the doctors find it difficult to specify the sex of the child because of either the discrepancies among the externals or between the internal and external organs of the body. I agree with his statement that many times our feelings and sexual orientation differ from our gender identity. We also feel something which is not a normal thing for our gender but is a common trait with the opposite gender. The speaker rightly points out that whether the sexual orientation is in harmony with

“Hypothetically, if you knew you were going to die and you had one last lecture, what would you say to your students?” That is how Professor Randy Pausch, from Carnegie Mellon, began his last lecture, a speech entitled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” while in fact he was dying of Pancreatic Cancer. He knew he only had months left to live and put together this last lecture to read to his students. His lecture focuses in on points such as the importance of: making sincere apologies, not whining, being gracious and being humble. To stress his thoughts and views on life and following one’s dreams, Randy Pausch used a great amount of repetition, metaphors, allusion, humor, ethos, and pathos in his last lecture.

Placher presents the essay of Thomas de Vio, Cardinal Cajatan, a treatise that discusses the disagreement of the Catholic’s faith and the Lutheran’s faith concerning the issue of “Faith & Works”. Cajetan rejected the concept of Lutherans claimed that one could be justified while remaining a sinner. The treatise laid out Cajetan view of evidence against the Lutheran’s claim.

“Ultimately the product that any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about, but who he or she is” (Zinsser 5). James Baldwin did exactly that when he published his memoir, Notes of A Native Son. Through a collection of ten essays about his real life experiences, Baldwin was successful and effective in opening the reader’s eyes to the racial oppression that is reality for many across America. Baldwin presents his experiences and details in such a manner that does not lose its purpose or the reader’s attention. Much of the suggestions William Zinsser wrote about in On Writing Well is detectable in Baldwin’s writing, even though it might not be word for word. Regardless, Baldwin is able to successfully and effectively keep readers

In Randy Pausch 's "Last Lecture," Randy discusses how he achieved all of his childhood dreams throughout his life and how he helped others achieve their dreams. Often times, childhood dreams are forgotten due to life stressors, other opportunities and interests that come along and, ultimately, believing that those childhood dreams are unachievable. However, this was not the case for Randy Pausch. Randy created a list of things that he desired to experience throughout his lifetime, and through persistency, acceptance and some modification, he was able to complete his list. Similar to many children 's "being an astronaut" dream, Randy had a couple dreams that seemed impossible. These seemingly impossible dreams on Randy 's list included: "being in zero gravity," "playing in the NFL," and "being Captain Kirk." While Randy never received the opportunity to play football for the NFL, his understanding and lessons learned from his football experiences made up for this shortcoming. Nonetheless, Randy was able to conquer all of his other dreams. With each dream Randy discusses, he explains each "brick wall" he hit along his way and what he did to get around these walls.

You would think a man dying of cancer would not be so happy and willing to spend the last few months of his life giving a lecture. But, Randy Pausch, who has 10 tumors in his liver, does not want people to pity him for having cancer. Rather, he wants to teach people how to follow their childhood dreams. Looking at the seven elements of communication we see how he is so effective in his last lecture.

Both the stories of Russesabaginga and Orwell are set in a time of violence and corrupt authority which delivers a sustaining impact to the changing world views around them. Their tales are very moving and evoke a thought process in the reader which questions the morals and standards of current society. Although both stimulate the readers mind, the way the writer’s ideas come across are quite different from each other. An Ordinary Man written by Russeabagina is presented through examples of logos and ethos due to the logical appeals of his ideas on family and perseverance. He employs ethos as well through his deliberate efforts to link the humanity within a genocide to the moral philosophy of the audience. Contrarily Shooting an Elephant written

Jai Pausch shares her story for the first time: her emotional journey from wife and mother to full-time caregiver, shuttling between her three young children and Randy’s bedside as he sought treatment far from home; and then to widow and single parent, fighting to preserve a sense of stability for her family, while coping with her own grief and the challenges of running a household without a partner. Jai paints vivid, honest portrait of a vital, challenging relationship between two strong people who faced a grim prognosis and the self-sacrificing decisions it often required. She faced life without her husband she called her 'magic man,' Jai learned to make herself a priority to create a new life of hope and happiness - as she puts it, to 'feel

I have chosen to analyze the essay, “Heroism: Why Heroes are Important”. The article was written by a Professor of Philosophy, Scott LaBarge. He felt very strongly that a person having a hero is very important. He goes in depth about his personal hero Thoreau, and he claims that he wouldn’t know where he’d be without him (1). He talks about how deep this connection from his hero is through being convinced “that living deliberately meant becoming a philosopher” (1).

Some one I consider to be a personal role model is Randy Pausch. Pausch was a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon Univeristy when he was given a terminal diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Upon this diagnosis he decided to retire from teaching, but not before giving his last lecture. This lecture was eventually turned into a book, and it is surprisingly upbeat. As Pausch explains, terminal cancer is something no one wants, but it doesn’t mean you should start counting down the days. Pausch decided to use the time he had left to achieve his dreams and in the process he inspired others to do the same. I consider Randy Pausch a role model because when often when a facing a bleak situation we choose to let it define us. Pausch decided

The Last Lecture began as a good-bye speech, made by Randy Pausch, a 47 year old professor diagnosed with terminal cancer. His speech at Carnegie Melon University became an Internet phenomenon. It has also been published as a book. I really thoroughly enjoyed his Last Lecture speech. He had a lot of good talking points and brought up some new perspectives, or ways of looking at life situations that got me thinking. He talked a lot about his dreams when he was a child and was very humorous and inspirational throughout his speech. He also had a lot of quotes that I really enjoyed and they are what I want to focus on.

While reading the book, the inflection point for me was when he acknowledged that his own religion falls short. Because, like all religion, it tends to propagate divisive

This speech is Karl Paulnack’s welcoming address for incoming freshman students. He addresses that music isn’t apart of arts and entertainment rather music is an invisible force that helps us piece ourselves together. Paulnack believes that music is an essential part of life and goes to prove it by telling his experiences with it. He describes the first moment he truly understood music and the impact it has on people. Paulnack portrays the day after 9/11 after he struggles to find any meaning in being a pianist. After a long time of questioning himself he observes the city and notices something. He sees that in this time of grief and sadness people are singing. From this he learned that music is a form of expression, it allows people to express their feelings when they have no other words to describe them. Paulnack goes on to describe what he says was the most important concert of his life. He and a friend were playing a concert at a nursing home. During their performance, one man began to cry, it was at that time Paulnack knew the man was a veteran. After Paulnack and his friend finished the piece, they announced that the piece they were playing was Aaron Copland's Sonata, which was a work

For this section of his book, the author decides to interview Louis S. Lapides. Pastor Lapides is a Jewish man who believes in Jesus and his status as the Messiah. In his interview with Strobel, Lapides mentions on several occasions his original beliefs in a conservative Jewish Synagogue. He references the fact that the notion of Jesus as the Messiah was rarely spoken of in complementary ways. The view of Christianity that Lapides was introduced as a young man was different than the one that the Christians lived by. Pastor Lapides left the Jewish religion after several incidents in his personal life such as his parents divorce or his time spent as a soldier during the Vietnam War. Throughout the chapter, the reader can see the struggles that Louis Lapides went though during his spiritual journey. This is perhaps a reason for Strobel’s choice of interviewees because of the lack of bias that he has on the subject of Jesus as the Messiah. Because he was not brought up in an environment that forced certain ideals upon him, Lapides is not tainted by naïve thoughts that are in the minds of certain Christians when it comes to the acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah. He was able to build his own acceptance of his own beliefs with the influence of his