READING GUIDE: EXPLORATION AND EXPOSITION
EXPOSITORY ESSAYS FOR ANALYSIS
NOTE: Read each essay at least twice. Read the essay first on your own to form your
personal reactions. Next, use the study questions on this Reading Guide for a close
reading. Consider each author one of your instructors! What can you learn from each
author that you can use in your own writing as you write Essay #2: the expository essay.
Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue”
1. What, specifically, is Tan’s purpose for writing “Mother Tongue”?
2. Note her audience. “Mother Tongue” first appeared in1990 in Threepenny Review,
a literary magazine. Account for her use of “you” and “we” throughout the essay.
3. What is her tone(s)?
4. What are her some of her writing strategies (the specific developmental strategies)?
Note where she uses narration, description, example, definition, classification, and
comparison/contrast.)
5. Note her introduction. What is her strategy of introduction to lead to her thesis?
6. What is her thesis?
7. In her introduction, what does she state she is not? In contrast, what does she state
she is? How does she define what she is?
8. What does she say she spends a great deal of time doing? Note how she uses this
key word to create cohesion in her essay.
9. Pause for a moment! What is the purpose of an essay?
10. What do you find both surprising and engaging about the word “Englishes”?
11. How was she made keenly aware of the different “Englishes” she speaks?
12. Note the title. What is the literal definition of a “mother tongue”? How does she
use the term as a pun? Explain.
13. How would you outline the essay? Analyze her content and break it down into
three major sections (I, II, and III). Justify your decision for the three major areas.
14. Note each major section you identified. Note body paragraphs. As you note the
body paragraphs, look for the f eatures of the body paragraphs we have studied in
this unit: topic sentence, development/support, unity, and coherence. As you
note coherence, look for her transitional devices within each paragraph and
between each paragraph.
15. As you examine the body paragraphs, note her developmental strategies:
narration, example, and classification.
16. Note her use of dialog. What does she gain by quoting her mother rather than
paraphrasing her?
17. What point does Tan make with the examples of the stockbroker and hospital?
18. Why is Tan critical of terms like “broken” and “limited” English?
19. Why is Tan critical about teachers encouraging Asian students to study math and
Science?
20. What was Tan’s attitude about her mother when Tan was a child? As an adult, Tan
express what attitude about her mother?
21. Note in her second-to-the-last paragraph how she summarizes and classifies to fit
the examples she has used throughout her essay.
22. Note Tan’s conclusion. What does Tan say she now “envisions” as she writes?
Why?
Brent Staples’ “Black Men and Public Space”
1. Who is Brent Staples? Note any literary biography.
2. What is the subject matter of this essay? What issues in America does his essay
dramatize?
3. What is Staples’ writing purpose in his essay?
4. How would you characterize his audience (first published in Harper’s magazine
in 1986)? Later he expanded this essay for Ms. magazine and titled his essay “Just
Walk on By: Black Men and public Space.” How might he address the all-female
audience of Ms?
5. What words would you use to describe his tone?
6. Characterize is his persona.
7. What is his strategy of introduction? Note the word “victim” in the first
paragraph. What connotation does the word have? What irony do you find in the
first paragraph?
8. What is his thesis? What does he mean by “unwieldy inheritance”?
9. Examine the organization of the body of his essay. What developmental
strategies does he use? Point out examples.
10. Point out, as part of his organization, his examples that support his thesis. (In
particular, note paragraphs 1, 5, 8, and 9. How does the example in paragraph 9
differ from his other examples?
11. What strategies does he employ in his conclusion?
12. From details in the essay, what are some of the shaping forces in Brent Staples’
life? Personal values?
Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named
Maria”
1. What is Ortiz-Cofer’s strategy of introduction? How many paragraphs constitute
her introduction?
2. What is her thesis?
3. As you read, note what you would call some of the shaping forces in her life.
What are some of her personal values?
4. Note that her essay, like Leslie Marmon Silko’s, is expository (she informs and
explains as well as argumentative. Note that as she develops her essay she turns to
narrative examples to prove her point.
5. As you read, note the allusions: West Side Story, Rita Moreno, Evita, “Don’t Cry
for Me Argentina,” and “La Bamba.” Explain these allusions. (Recall: what is the
definition of an allusion?)
6. Much of the body of her essay consists of narrative examples to prove her point.
What are some of these examples?
7. Where do you find her giving explanations?
8. Note she saves her example of what happened to her at the poetry reading until
the end. Why is that?
Leslie Marmon Silko’s “In the Combat Zone”
1. Who is Leslie Marmon Silko? Note literary biography about Silko on the
website about her.
2. Where and when did this essay first appear?
3. As you read this essay, note what forces or influences have contributed to her
identity. When you finish her essay, decide how would you characterize her
identity?
4. What assertions does Silko make in her introduction?
5. Note her pronoun use. Who would you say is her immediate audience?
6. What is Silko’s thesis? What is the subject matter of this essay? How, later, does
she focus this subject matter?
7. According to Silko, are most men aware of what precautions women take when
they venture out alone at night?
8. What is Silko’s specific purpose in writing this essay? In what way is “In the
Combat Zone” an expository essay? Is the essay also an argumentative essay—
does she argue for her audience to do something or change a belief?
9. Does Silko raise awareness in her essay? Explain.
10. What is the specific subject of this essay?
11. In addition to narration and description, what developmental strategies does
Silko use to develop her thesis (examples, definitions, comparison/contrast,
classification, cause/effect, and/or process)?
12. Note the interplay between her hunting stories (her personal narratives) and
violence perpetrated by men. (Note interplay between hunter and hunted.)
13. What “myth” does Silko want to destroy?
14. What do the Laguna Pueblo people instill in their children?
15. Silko says that who is responsible for keeping “patriarchy” securely in place?
Define the term “patriarchy.”
16. Define the term “combat zone.” How is this zone different for women alone at
night than it is for men on a battlefield?
17. What word or words would you use to describe Silko’s tone? Her persona?
18. Note effective examples of Silko’s sentence structure (simple, compound,
complex, compound/complex).
19. Note effective examples of Silko’s diction (concrete, specific, and vivid
language, imagery, and figurative language).
20. What is Silko’s method of conclusion? How does she create unity in her essay by
using content that appears both in her introduction and conclusion? Note the
“framing” that contributes to the essay’s unity.
21. From details in the essay, what are some of the shaping forces in Leslie Marmon
Silko’s life? Personal values?