Name: Jenny Gerhard Period: 3rd

Date: 2/11/15

Professor Delivered a Moving last lecture

by Valerie Nelson
1.MLA Citation

Nelson, Valerie. "Professor Delivered a Moving 'last Lecture'"

Los Angeles Times
. Los
Angeles Times, 26 July 2008. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.

2. Say/Do Chart

Paragraph(s)

Saying

Doing

1-2

Intro of Randy Pausch and his

illness. Also describes what
Pausch does for a living.

Draws the audience in with a

strong emotional appeal &
provides lots of background
info on illness and Pausch
himself.

Intro of Pauschs last lecture.

Provides background info on

speech.

4-6

Describes how big of an

audience he had, however the
speech was mainly directed
towards his children.

Cites quotes from Pausch,

provides examples of the
speechs success.

7-10

States how genuine the speech

was and how it had a great
affect on the way the audience
perceived it. Because of this
genuineness, he also became
famous.

Provides quotes and

background information for
Pauschs co-writer, thus
creating more of an emotional
appeal.

11-13

States that people liked the

way that Pausch viewed death,
and how he decided to not let
it get the best of him.

Gives background of the

struggles he faced

14-17

Describes how Pausch was able

to achieve all of his childhood

Provides examples, and

popular quotes from the book.

dreams, which led him to the

mindset he has today.
Experience is what you make of
it.
18-22

Describes how much of an

impact Randy had on Carnegie
Mellon with all of his
achievements, despite the
obstacles he was faced with.
Also how Randy wants to pass
this legacy on.

Provides lots of background

info on his achievements, cites
examples, and uses an
emotional appeal at the end to
connect with the audience.

3.
Four-Sentence Rhetorical Prcis

Valerie Nelson, in her article Professor delivered a moving last lecture (2008), argues that
Randy Pauschs last lecture was a dare to his audience but mainly his kids, to push through
obstacles and achieve their level of success no matter the challenges. She supports this claim
by first providing background information on Pausch himself, then she states the audience
that he was originally trying to capture, then describes how the speech made him famous all
over the world, and finally states how the lecture deep down is to provide people with hope
that they can fight back whatever is bringing them down, just as he had. Nelsons purpose is
to educate people on the importance of this last lecture, in order to keep Pauschs legacy
going on. She establishes a bold tone for the readers of this book.

4. Believing/Doubting Game:

Hard work and believing in your dreams will

lead you to success. Even though you may
face challenges, you can overcome them. All
you have to do is keep the ability and the
drive to push on. As seen in the last lecture,
Randy Pausch was able to live a happy
successful life despite the difficulties that
were placed upon him.

Hard work and the drive to succeed doesnt

have as much of an impact on the level of
success you reach, as does the luck of
opportunities that are handed to you. For
example, in outliers, gladwell cites an
example on how this one man had a tough
time becoming successful because he was
brought up on nothing. He had the smarts,
but not the tools.