Week 8 journal

I think Morris's article offers a unique addition to our understanding of everyday writing. For me it doesn't seem correct to add gravestones and cemeteries to our definition. Morris often mentions the rhetorical situation of a grave stone, similar to a piece of everyday writing. Morris tells us that certain cemeteries were set up as a reminder that our time here on earth is short and it is not where humans plan to stay. While to some cemeteries served as a reminder of death but to others they serve as a message of something better waiting in the afterlife and a reason to live every day to the fullest. Morris also mentions certain symbols that also can serve as reminders of foreseeable death. such as skull and cross bones. Grave stones have an audience and often a rhetorical situation. But most of his assertions are based off historical facts, many thing have changed now. While gravestones still can serve as a memory of a person for loved ones, they are no longer very public. Graveyards are no longer located at the center of town in most places therefore their purpose of reminding the general public of death is no longer very applicable. Also I have not seen many large artistic statues in graveyards anymore, which could discount Morris' claim that they serve as a message to the public. Many of the practices he references are nearly obsolete in modern society.