Essay Unit
English 2201
Name:
TERMS
The ESSAY is a moderately brief prose discussion of a restricted topic. This topic is otherwise
known as the SUBJECT.
Every essay will have a PURPOSE, which is the central concern or reason behind the writing.
The THESIS STATEMENT will indicate the main idea behind the essay, revealing its purpose. The
thesis statement will usually be found at the beginning or end of paragraph one.
Every individual paragraph will have a main point, revealed by the TOPIC SENTENCE of the
paragraph.
An essay will also have an intended AUDIENCE, those people that the writer is intending to
speak to specifically. Sometimes an audience may be a very general group.
TONE is a term that refers to the attitudes toward the subject and toward the audience. An
essay may have a tone that is: formal, informal, intimate, solemn, somber, playful, serious,
ironic, condescending, and so on. Tone may be aided by diction, sentence structure, repetition,
imagery, alliteration, assonance, consonance, and so on.
An essay’s PLAN is the ordered arrangement of the ideas in an essay. It is also known as an
outline.
A writer’s STYLE is the arrangement of words in a manner best expressing the individuality of
the author and the idea and intent in the author’s mind. Style involves the way a writer uses
language – how s/he handles words, phrases, sentences, non-sentences, and paragraphs.
 Long or short sentences and paragraphs?
 Personal feeling? Philosophy?
 Wide vocabulary?
 Appealing to the senses?
 Denotation/connotation?
Sometimes an essay may use SATIRE, when a serious subject is treated in a humorous way,
exaggerated, ridiculed, so that on the surface it becomes a laughing matter.
Sometimes ANALOGY is used, whereby a relationship, or likeness, or parallelism is used for
explaining something: “This course is like a long hike. If you have the right provisions, and you
follow the right path, you’ll make great discoveries and enjoy the journey with your
companions. But you shouldn’t fall behind.”
Bias – prejudice
Cliché – a worn out phrase
Closing by return – ending an essay with a reference to the same anecdote or personal
experience that was used to open the essay
Colon – (:) this punctuation signals a list or an explanation
Conventions – accepted usage of language, capital letters, punctuation, etc…i.e. A convention
of letter writing would be the inside address.
Connotation – ideas and images associated with words that go beyond dictionary meaning, i.e.
New Orleans
Denotation – dictionary meaning of a word
Ellipsis – (…) this punctuation indicates that something has been left out; it is often used for
implication, i.e. “If I told you once, …”
Figurative meaning is not literal, i.e. crawling the walls (very bored); literal meaning, on the
other hand, would involve doing a wall at Walnuts.
Paradox – a statement that seems to be absurd or self-contradictory, but it is really founded on
truth (i.e. “More haste, less speed.)
Punctuation – the system of separating the written word (sentences, clauses) by the use of
punctuation marks; we will review the uses of each in class (capitalization, colon, dash,
exclamation mark, hyphen, italics, period, quotation marks, semicolon)
Rhetorical question – statement in the form of a question to which no answer is expected
Syntax – rules governing sentence construction
Voice – the personality of the speaker or creator that is revealed in a literary work through such
elements as style, tone, diction, etc.
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SOME THOUGHTS ON STYLE
Style - the arrangement of words in a manner best expressing the individuality of the author
and the intent in the author’s mind; adaptation of one’s language to one’s ideas
Points to consider:
1. arrangement of ideas
 sentence variety (short? long? simple? compound? complex?) paragraphs (long?
short?)
2. diction (word choice)
a. standard diction - words found in the dictionary  formal writing style
b. colloquialism - conversational, informal language  informal writing style
c. journalese - newspaper writing
d. slang - language of a particular place or age group
e. repetition creates emphasis by focusing the reader’s attention on a word, idea or
line over and over
3. Coherence - logical order; showing the relationship between ideas
(i) Transitional Terms - are words or phrases which help to achieve carry-over within
sentences, between sentences, and between paragraphs. Many good examples of
transitional terms are listed in the table on page 87. (Review the sample sentences
in your notes.)
(ii) Pronoun Reference - is the use of a pronoun in one sentence or clause to refer to a
noun in a preceding sentence or clause.
Examples
(a) The men who put together the sealing video did a great disservice to
our province. __________ should be punished.
(b) Hemingway and Orwell are famous writers. __________ book is entitled A
Farewell To Arms ?
(iii) Repetition of a Key Word or its Synonym - Sometimes repeating a word can lend
coherence to your writing, emphasizing your ideas.
Examples
(a)“We shall fight on the land .
We shall fight in the air.
We shall fight and we shall never give up.” - Martin Luther King, text - p. 107
(b)Violence is becoming prevalent in our school yards. ___________ has become an
issue for teachers at every level. ___________ has, in some cases, led to broken bones.
(iv) Parallel Structure - Parallel structure requires that all ideas presented in a series or list have
the same grammatical form.
Example
Going to school, listening to teachers, and ____________________ are not my idea of a
good time.
How to have parallel structure:
Conjunctions (and, but, or, both...and, either...or, neither...nor) should connect like
grammatical elements:
-two nouns i.e. He loves __________ and __________.
-two verbs i.e. She loves __________ and __________.
-two adjectives i.e. The kittens are neither __________ nor __________.
-two adverbs i.e. They ran __________ but __________.
-two prepositional phrases i.e. The school group will travel _______________ and
_______________.
-two participial phrases i.e. Jake likes the girl _________________________. Bill likes
the girl ________________________.
(v) Organization – spatial, chronological, or logical order
4. Figurative language
a. imagery - words and phrases which appeal to any of the five senses; a writer uses
imagery to make us see what s/he sees, i.e. the sunset was a mixture of varying
hues of red, orange, and the most magnificent purple
b. simile - a comparison of two unlike things, using like or as, i.e. beginning each day
with a smile is as easy as falling off a log
c. metaphor - a comparison of two unlike things, i.e. the cat’s eyes were two green
emeralds (...and yes, I am referring to a living creature)
5. Purpose - the reason(s) for writing
6. Tone - the writer’s attitude toward subject and audience
7. The use of dialogue and/or dialect
Here are some words which may be used to describe a writer’s style. This list is by no means
all-inclusive; however, it will give you an idea of how to talk about someone’s style.
-poetic
-journalistic
-humorous
-straightforward (explicit)
-dull
-sophisticated
-scientific
-vivid
-exaggerated
-descriptive
-dramatic
-subtle (implicit)
SOME COMMON TYPES OF ESSAYS
The argumentative essay is one in which a side is taken on an issue of importance. An
argumentative essay could be written on the controversial issue of CBC picketing the Terry Fox
Run, for example.
Eulogy – a speech or writing in praise of an individual, especially praising a dead person
A persuasive essay is an argumentative essay taken one step further, with a call to action being
made. i.e. “Write to CBC to complain about their interference in an important national
fundraiser.” This form will often use more passionate emotional appeals to stir up the reader
to feel the same way about the issue. In argumentation and persuasion, often emphatic
devices make the most appearances as well: repetition, bold and italicized fonts, short
sentences, strong punctuation.
A letter to the editor is a popular method of voicing opinions in a public forum.
Descriptive essays and narrative essays are defined below, under their methods of
development.
METHODS OF DEVELOPING AN ESSAY
Exposition is writing which explains.
The subcategories include:
 Cause and effect - i.e. This happened because… OR A result of this was…
 Classification and division - i.e. Every society can be broken down into these groups…
 Comparison and contrast - i.e. A morning person vs. a night owl
 Example and illustration - i.e. One example of Newfoundland’s uniqueness …
 Definition - i.e. A good student is one who…
 Process Analysis – i.e. How to [make, be, obtain]…
Description is writing which describes a person, place, or object. Its main purpose is to create a
dominant impression (main feeling) about that which is being described. Use spatial order and
numerous adjectives.
Narration is writing which tells a story, but in a narrative essay the story is a means by which
the writer can make a point, rather than a narrative shared more for entertainment purposes.
There will be a thesis statement.
The Expository Essay
Exposition refers to a method of writing whose purpose is very different from that of
the narrative. Story is the fundamental to narrative writing. If ideas-are expressed,
developed or analyzed, they are most often examined-in the essence of plot development,
characterization, and description. An idea does not take precedence over these narrative
elements. For exposition, an idea, a process, or a discussion forms the basis of expository
writing. What is more, it -is not enough to simply present ideas, as might be done in narrative
writing. Logic is used in developing these ideas and facts are used to support them. Logic and
facts,, as opposed to emotion and opinion, make exposition a distinct form of writing.
Persuasive writing is a subcategory of exposition. It refers to writing that attempts to
convince the audience to adopt a certain point of view or to act in a certain way.
Methods of Development for Expository Essays
The five common formats used in supporting facts presented in expository writing:
i)
Example & Illustration are used to support an idea, reinforce contention or clarify some
topic.
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Examples are in all forms of writing, and are rarely used by themselves.
Specific details are important in illustration.
Examples are specific are and make more general ideas clear and
understandable.
Concrete examples are used to support and develop abstract ideas.
Examples are used to clarify, explain, illustrate, compare and contrast.
Pictures, maps, diagrams, and charts can also be used to illustrate.
ii)
Cause & Effect are interdependent relationships. They attempt to answer the why and
what of a situation. The cause is considered the reason behind the situation,' and the
effect is what happens because of the cause. Incidents or events which occur in life are
the direct result of some initial situation or cause. That is, a thing cannot happen unless
caused to happen. This relationship between an effect and its cause is known as a
cause/effect relationship or more specifically in expository writing as causal analysis.
Cause and effect relationships can operate in either direction. They are interdependent
and attempt to answer the "why" and "what" of a situation and event.
iii)
Process Analysis gives directions and/or simply provides information about how to
perform a particular task, how something works or happened.
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Process analysis presents information and gives direction.
Process refers to the way something is done or how it happens.
Analysis of a process explains rather than specifically shows how.
How to do a process details specific steps.
A writer should look at the individual aspects of the process and their relationships.
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All the required information must be presented in a logical order. Chronological
order is important in the how-to process.
Limit your analysis to the essential aspects.
Effective transitions help achieve coherence in exploring a process.
Clear detailed diction is essential. Sentence structure should be varied but avoid
very long complicated sentences.
The colon is frequently used in the process writing.
iv)
Classification and division:
Classification is a means whereby items, ideas, topics or indeed any entity are
sorted and arranged into meaningful categories. This arrangement attempts to deal with
the complexity of a subject by separating it into smaller individual units. Each unit refers to
a previous less specific one and all can be included under the general topic. Classifying,
then, allows you to organize by following a hierarchical or graded arrangement, from the
general to the specific. It allows us to deal with one item at a time. (Music, country, rock,
bluegrass) These two or more items are arranged in classes or groups on the basis of similar
qualities or features. It makes order and sense of what we do.
Division deals with one item which is analyzed according to it's parts or sections.
It may be considered an extension of classification. (Different country singers
v)
Comparison & Contrast uses similarities and differences, or a combination of the two,
to illustrate and discuss an idea.Comparison and Contrast is often used to analyze and
evaluate ideas and to help develop an essay's thesis. Comparing looks at likenesses and
differences. Contrasting discusses how things are different. To compare is to examine
two or more items by looking at both their similarities and differences. To contrast is to
examine differences only between items.
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Block-method:
ideas are blocked into categories and paragraphs. Here a
writer discusses everything that needs to be said about Topic A in one, or a
series of paragraphs. Then the following exposition the essay continues with a
similar complete discussion of topic B. This method is more often used for
relatively short and simple essays.
Side by Side method: Lends itself to more complex and lengthy essays. Here,
the writer places points side by side, discussing only one division of the topic and
showing both comparisons and differences for both Topics A & B. The writer will
then continue with the second division of the topic, placing points side by side
until all divisions chosen are fully discussed and analyzed.
Definition is a type of expository writing which concentrates on detailing the
characteristics of a particular thing. It may extend beyond the basic definition by dealing with a
topic’s qualities, purpose, and history and so on. Definition is at home with process analysis,
where unfamiliar terms must be explained
Expository Essay
Holocaust Survivor Hedy Epstein, Arrested in Ferguson Protest, Says Racism Is Alive in
America
By Abigail Jones
Hedy Epstein turned
90 on August 15, and
she spent much of
last week
celebrating. Friends
and family traveled
to her home in St.
Louis, Missouri, to
join in the
festivities—so many
of them, in fact, that
it wasn’t until
yesterday that she
finally had a day to herself. Epstein left her home in the afternoon, accidentally leaving her cell
phone behind. By around 4:30pm, she’d been arrested.
A human rights activist and Holocaust survivor, Epstein had been following the unrest in nearby
Ferguson, where an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, was shot and killed by police on
August 9. Ever since, tensions have escalated. Protesters have taken to the streets for nine
consecutive nights. Reporters have been arrested and threatened. There have been scattered
reports of gunshots, looting and fires, plus countless photos and videos showing an overmilitarized police force firing rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowds.
On Monday, Epstein decided to do something about it.
She knew about a gathering in downtown St. Louis to protest Missouri Governor Jay Nixon’s
decision to activate the National Guard. As she and her fellow protesters peacefully marched
towards the Wainwright Building, where Nixon keeps an office, they chanted “Hey, hey! Ho, ho!
National Guard has got to go!” and “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” according to The Nation. Some
people gave speeches. Others held signs. Epstein says she and her fellow protesters aimed to
walk into Nixon’s office and formally ask him to de-escalate the situation in Ferguson. But
police and security officers blocked the door, preventing them from entering.
“I really didn’t think about being arrested or doing anything like that,” Epstein told Newsweek.
“I was just going to be somebody in the crowd. I guess maybe I was impulsive: Someone said,
‘Who is willing to be arrested if that happens?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’m willing.’”
A police officer informed the crowd that Nixon and his staff were not in the building, Epstein
says, and urged them to leave. When she and eight other protesters refused, they were
arrested for failure to disperse. Police handcuffed Epstein behind her back and took her to a
nearby police substation. She was booked, given a court date of October 21, and then told she
could leave.
“I’m deeply, deeply troubled by what’s going on in Ferguson,” says Epstein. “It’s a matter of
racism and injustice, and it’s not only in Ferguson…. Racism is alive and well in the United
States. The power structure looks at anyone who’s different as the other, as less worthy, and so
you treat the other as someone who is less human and who needs to be controlled and who is
not trusted.”
Epstein knows about injustice.
Born in Freiburg, Germany, in 1924, she was just eight years old when Adolf Hitler rose to
power. Her father ran a dry-goods business and her mother was a housewife; her family was
Jewish, and so she grew up witnessing anti-Semitism, boycotts and her family’s fears for their
own safety. When Epstein was 14 years old, her parents put her on a Kindertransport ship to
England, the British rescue operation that saved 10,000 children from the Nazis. She never saw
her parents or relatives again. They likely perished in Auschwitz.
“I’m Jewish and I was born in Germany, so I think I can understand what it feels like to be
African American in this country,” Epstein says. “I was a child living under the Nazi regime and I
lived in a village so everybody knew who I was and that I was Jewish. I remember feeling
uncomfortable walking down the street, seeing people cross to the other side of the street, or
seeing a Nazi I didn’t want to pass by.”
In the aftermath of the war, Epstein worked as a research analyst for U.S. prosecutors during
the Nuremberg Medical Trial. In May 1948, she arrived in New York City and immediately
started working at the New York Association for New Americans, an agency that brought
Holocaust survivors to the U.S. On the first day of her job, an African American woman showed
her the ropes at the office and explained that she could take an hour for lunch each day.
Epstein’s new colleague offered her a list of lunch spots in the neighborhood.
“I said, ‘Could we go together?’” Epstein recalls. “She said no, but I didn’t think anything of it. I
was asking her one minute before lunch, so I said, ‘Maybe tomorrow?’ She said no! I wasn’t
sure what that meant. A few days later, I asked her again and she said no. I was beginning to
feel uncomfortable. I said, ‘Is there something about me that troubles you? Is that why you
don’t want to have lunch with me?’ She said, ‘You know why.’ And I said, ‘No, I don’t.’”
After the woman explained why they couldn’t eat at the same restaurant, Epstein remembers
thinking, “Wait a minute. Lincoln freed the slaves. This is 1948. You can’t go to eat where I go?
Isn’t someone doing something about this?”
Epstein hasn’t stopped fighting for justice and civil rights ever since. She has fought for abortion
rights, anti-war efforts and fair housing. She is also an active supporter of the Free Gaza
Movement and has traveled to the West Bank five times. In 2004, she says she was detained at
an airport in Tel Aviv, where she was strip-searched and internally searched. A couple of years
later, during a peaceful demonstration in the community of Biilin, near Ramallah, she was tear
gassed. Sound bombs went off next to her, and she lost some of her hearing.
“The basis of who I am today was what my parents taught me and what I saw. They were
examples to me of how one lives and how one does not persecute other people,” says Epstein.
“I would like to think that they’re proud of me.”
Since her arrest yesterday, she has received countless emails and phone calls. “I usually go to
bed around 11:00 but last night I was still on the phone and still answering emails. I got to bed
sometime after midnight. At 6:20 this morning, the first phone call came in.”
“I’m a bit concerned that I’m the focus of what happened, but the focus should be the violence
in the streets and the violence by the police,” she says. As she told The Nation while being
escorted to the police van, “I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager. I didn’t think I would
have to do it when I was 90. We need to stand up today so that people won’t have to do this
when they’re 90.”
1. What are two methods of development used in this essay?
Method of Development One: ________________________________________
Explanation:
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
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Method of Development Two: ________________________________________
Explanation:
___________________________________________________________________________
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2. What is the author’s tone? Explain by elaborating on (and giving examples for) the
following points:
Tone:
______________________________________________________________________________
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1. Arrangement of ideas :
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
2. Diction:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
3. Coherence:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
4. Figurative language:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
5. Purpose:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
6. Use of dialogue and/or dialect
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
3. Identify a thesis statement for this essay. Where is it located?
The thesis statement is:__________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
It is located in paragraph: ________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Is it restated at the end? _________________________________________________________
4. Why is this classified as an expository essay?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
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Persuasive Essay
What Canada committed against First Nations was genocide. The UN should recognize it
PHIL FONTAINE AND BERNIE FARBER
Special to The Globe and Mail
On Monday, Oct. 14, we have the unique and historic opportunity to meet with Professor
James Anaya, the Special United Nations Rapporteur for Indigenous People. It is our conviction
that Canada’s history with First Nations people was not just dark and brutal, but in fact
constituted a “genocide” as defined by the 1948 UN Convention on Genocide. Unresolved
issues regarding genocide can have the effect of holding back real progress in economic
development in any community.
Genocides rarely emerge fully formed from the womb of evil. They typically evolve in a
stepwise fashion over time, as one crime leads to another and another.
The Holocaust is the undisputed genocide of all genocides, and it has been argued passionately
by many historians that no other dark period in human history quite compares to it. Although
qualitatively true in some aspects, modern historians no longer need to rely on shades of
darkness in order to analyze genocide.
The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
(CPPCG) was adopted on Dec. 9, 1948. It gives a very clear definition of what is and what is not
a genocide. Stated another way, since 1948, social scientists have had the necessary tools to
determine if genocide has occurred. It should also be pointed out that under the CPPCG, the
intention to commit genocide is itself a crime, and not just the act of genocide.
It’s clear that Canada’s first prime minister Sir John A. MacDonald’s policy of starving First
Nations to death in order to make way for the western expansion of European settlers meets
the criteria of genocide under the CPPCG.
Similarly, the entire residential school system also passes the genocide test, in particular if you
consider the fact that the Department of Indian Affairs, headed by Duncan Campbell Scott,
deliberately ignored the recommendations of Peter Bryce, Canada’s first Chief Medical Officer,
regarding the spread of tuberculosis in the schools. Such willful disregard for the basic
principles of public health constitutes an act of genocide by omission, if not deliberate
commission.
Finally, we have the very recent and painful memory of forced removal of First Nations children
from their families by Indian Agents which occurred in the 1960s, also known by the popular
term “Sixties Scoop.” This is an act of genocide that clearly meets the CPPCG test, and also fell
outside of the residential school system.
Our conviction is that Canadian policy over more than 100 years can be defined as a genocide
of First Nations under the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.
We hold that until Canada as represented by its government engages in a national conversation
about our historical treatment of the First Nations; until we come to grips with the fact that we
used racism, bigotry and discrimination as a tool to not only assimilate First Nations into the
Canadian polity, but engaged in a deliberate policy of genocide both cultural and physical; we
will never heal.
The fact that Canada’s Aboriginal peoples have not been wiped out, and are indeed growing in
numbers, is not proof that genocide never occurred, as some would have us believe. The
historical and psychological reality of genocide among our Aboriginal communities is very much
alive and a part of living memory. The sooner we recognize this truth, the sooner both
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians will be able to heal from our shared traumas.
This is adapted from a letter to the United Nations Rapporteur for Indigenous People delivered
by Phil Fontaine, a former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, and Bernie Farber,
senior vice-president of Gemini Power Corporation and former head of the Canadian Jewish
Congress. It is also signed by Elder Fred Kelly, a spiritual elder and member of the AFN Council of
Elders, and Dr. Michael Dan, president of gemini Power Corporation.
1. What are the authors trying to do with this letter?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
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2. What methods has the author used to help persuade the reader of the importance of
their words and to convince the reader to see their side?
Method One: ________________________________________
Explanation:
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Method Two: ________________________________________
Explanation:
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
3. How has the author achieved coherence in her writing? Give examples from the essay.
___________________________________________________________________________
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4. What is the purpose of this essay? Who is the intended audience?
___________________________________________________________________________
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___________________________________________________________________________
5. What information does the writer assume the reader already knows? What
information helps in the understanding of this essay?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Narrative:
Narratives in their simplest form refer to the telling of a story. It is possibly the most
prevalent type of human communication, and the oldest. Its purpose may be to illustrate a
point, to entertain or to describe an experience. Pure narratives exist only to tell a story.
Narrative essays are when an author attempts to communicate a point, or to show a complete
process. In this sense, the narrative becomes expository, and the narrative essay may be
defined.
Notes on narrative
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
The 5Ws must be-considered when writing a narrative.
A traditional narrative-has a beginning, middle and end.
Narration is found under all kinds of writing. There is always a storyteller.
The narrative essay is more than telling a story, is has a purpose.
Events are often arranged in chronological order with use of temporal reference points
to aid coherence.
Tone refers to the emotions and attitudes communicated to the reader.
Decide on the point of view.
Identify your details that develop your idea, limit them to those that are necessary.
Dialogue can be used to tell a story, depict character or to add to description.
Flashback can be used as an effective device.
Narratives may be employed in more than one method simultaneously, no one method
is usually used in isolation.
Narrative Essay
An Early Lesson on Race by Leigh Flayton
In the late 1960s, just before I was born, my parents began hosting inner-city kids for two
weeks every summer at our house on Long Island in New York. My father had seen an ad in the
paper for the Fresh Air Fund, and when he mentioned it to my mother, they decided to sign up.
My parents had moved to the suburbs shortly after the birth of my sister in 1963. Unlike most
of their friends -- Brooklyn Jews who settled in Jewish enclaves like the Five Towns -- my
parents bought our house in Bohemia, farther out on the island, based on a blueprint and its
affordable $19,490 price tag. They had no idea who would buy the other houses on the block,
but they spent many weekends driving on the expressway to park out front and watch the
house being built.
Bohemia became a blue-collar town filled with mostly Italian and Irish Catholic families and a
smattering of other ethnicities and religions. My parents were glad their children wouldn't be
raised in what my mother called "a suburban ghetto," but instead would experience some
diversity growing up.
Still, it was a surprise to our neighbors when Ricky, a scrawny black kid with hardly any teeth,
came to stay that first summer. Ricky had never been on a bike, and as he learned to ride on my
sister's purple Huffy with the silver banana seat, he crashed into parked cars on the street. One
day, he zigzagged up and down someone's driveway. The owner confronted my mother,
demanding to know why she had "brought him into the neighborhood." My mother said it was
a good idea -- not only for Ricky, but for "our kids, too."
One year when I was little we had two kids, Sabrina, who was a year older than my sister, and
Tony, who looked like The Buddha. By then, some of my parents' friends had signed on, too,
giving kids a half-acre of suburbia to call home, at least for a couple of weeks in summertime.
More than a few insults were hurled at our guests by other kids -- one boy, Jimmy, who stayed
with the Jeslineks, even got into a fistfight after someone called him a name -- but we just got
back to being fascinated by stories of what it was like to live in apartment buildings and walk to
school instead of taking the bus.
Sabrina stayed with us the next summer, too. Her mother, who was raising a family on her own,
took Sabrina on the BMT line near their apartment in Manhattan to Kings Highway station in
Brooklyn, where my father met their train. There was a lot of excitement in our house on those
July afternoons as we waited for the car to pull up in the driveway, knowing soon we'd see
Sabrina again. She spent the next few summers with us, for longer stays each time, and some
Christmas vacations, too.
During her visits we ran around outside with other kids or played board games in the yard.
There were conversations about tans and skin tones and whether hair was naturally curly or
straight. Then, we got an above-the-ground swimming pool, and Sabrina learned to swim. We
spent every sunny day in that pool, although one of our neighbors wasn't allowed to swim with
us. I knew it was because Sabrina was Black, but I didn't understand what that had to do with
anything.
Everything began to make sense when my family watched the miniseries Roots with the rest of
the country in January 1977 and I learned about slavery in America. I had recently turned 7, and
at first I was excited just to stay up late. But as the week went on, I remember feeling empathy
for the first time in my life. In another time, Sabrina might have been Mathilda or Kizzy. I
imagined how angry I'd be if someone hurt her. I worried about Kunta Kinte, Fiddler and
Chicken George, and hoped they'd be set free before the show ended. I learned the meaning of
poetic justice when Kizzy spat in Missy Anne's water. And then I thought those parents who
didn't want their kid to swim with Sabrina were like those horrible slave owners. I decided I
didn't want to be friends with anyone who wasn't allowed to play with Black kids or Hispanic
kids -- or Jewish kids like me.
By the late '70s, my brother, sister and I started going to camp and Sabrina stopped staying
with us. Eventually, we lost touch. But I still think about those summers, especially when I hear
about people taking in foster kids or being generous to people less fortunate than themselves.
As much as Sabrina's visits might have been a gift to her, they were a gift to me.
Identify each of the 5Ws in this essay:
a. Who: __________________________________________________________
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b. What: __________________________________________________________
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c. When: ___________________________________________________________
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d. Where: ___________________________________________________________
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e. Why: _____________________________________________________________
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2. What is the point of view of this essay?
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3.
What is the purpose of this essay?
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4.
How does the author organize this essay?
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5.
Is this essay coherent? Why or why not?
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6. Identify and describe the tone. Explain your answer.
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Description:
Description is as much a part of life as eating. Every description provides an opportunity
for a wide range of communicating methods, from words and gestures to facial expressions,
and grunts and groans. People use their sensory perceptions - the five senses. Words can be
used figuratively or literally.
Used literally, a word takes on a distinctive dictionary meaning. Black is a color. Used
figuratively it can stand for many meanings. Black, then, is not only a color, but might
represent death, night, evil and so on. Try to find a happy medium between literal and
figurative writing.
Notes on Description:
-We use the sensory perceptions of our five senses to describe.
-Descriptive writing may combine both literal and figurative language.
-Concrete and abstract words and images are use in description.
-Writers should include only the details needed to create a dominant impression.
-Spatial order is important in developing in description. (Direction, sequential, area of
importance)
-Though description may be done in Isolation, it is often an integral part of all forms of
writing
-Objective writing is unbiased.
-Subjective writing is biased/impressionistic of the author.
-The point of view is the vantage-point from which a writer will describe.
Brent Staples: Just Walk on By
My first victim was a woman — white, well dressed, probably in her early twenties. I came upon
her late one evening on a deserted street in Hyde Park, a relatively affluent neighborhood in an
otherwise mean, impoverished section of Chicago. As I swung onto the avenue behind her,
there seemed to be a discreet, uninflammatory distance between us. Not so. She cast back a
worried glance. To her, the youngish black man — a broad six feet two inches with a beard and
billowing hair, both hands shoved into the pockets of a bulky military jacket — seemed
menacingly close. After a few more quick glimpses, she picked up her pace and was soon
running in earnest. Within seconds she disappeared into a cross street.
That was more than a decade ago. I was 23 years old, a graduate student newly arrived at the
University of Chicago. It was in the echo of that terrified woman’s footfalls that I first began to
know the unwieldy inheritance I’d come into — the ability to alter public space in ugly ways. It
was clear that she thought herself the quarry of a mugger, a rapist, or worse. Suffering a bout
of insomnia, however, I was stalking sleep, not defenseless wayfarers. As a softy who is
scarcely able to take a knife to raw chicken —let alone hold it to a person’s throat —I was
surprised, embarrassed, and dismayed all at once.
Her flight made me feel like an accomplice in tyranny. It also made it clear that I was
indistinguishable from the muggers who occasionally seeped into the area from the
surrounding ghetto. That first encounter, and those that followed signified that a vast
unnerving gulf lay between nighttime pedestrians —particularly women — and me. And I soon
gathered that being perceived as dangerous is a hazard in itself. I only needed to turn a corner
into a dicey situation, or crowd some frightened, armed person in a foyer somewhere, or make
an errant move after being pulled over by a policeman. Where fear and weapons meet — and
they often do in urban America — there is always the possibility of death.
In that first year, my first away from my hometown, I was to become thoroughly familiar with
the language of fear. At dark, shadowy intersections in Chicago, I could cross in front of a car
stopped at a traffic light and elicit the thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk of the driver— black, white,
male, or female — hammering down the door locks. On less traveled streets after dark, I grew
accustomed to but never comfortable with people who crossed to the other side of the street
rather than pass me. Then there were the standard unpleasantries with police, doormen,
bouncers, cab drivers, and others whose business it is to screen out troublesome individuals
before there is any nastiness.
I moved to New York nearly two years ago and I have remained an avid night walker. In central
Manhattan, the near-constant crowd cover minimizes tense one – on -one street encounters.
Elsewhere —visiting friends in SoHo, where sidewalks are narrow and tightly spaced buildings
shut out the sky — things can get very taut indeed.
Black men have a firm place in New York mugging literature. Norman Podhoretz in his famed
(or infamous) 1963 essay, “My Negro Problem — and Ours,” recalls growing up in terror of
black males; they were “tougher than we were, more ruthless,” he writes — and as an adult on
the Upper West Side of Manhattan, he continues, he cannot constrain his nervousness when he
meets black men on certain streets.
Similarly, a decade later, the essayist and novelist Edward Hoagl and extols a New York where
once “Negro bitterness bore down mainly on other Negroes.” Where some see mere
panhandlers, Hoagland sees “a mugger who is clearly screwing up his nerve to do more than
just ask for money.” But Hoagland has “the New Yorker’s quickhunch posture for broken - field
maneuvering,” and the bad guy swerves away.
I often witness that “hunch posture,” from women after dark on the warrenlike streets of
Brooklyn where I live. They seem to set their faces on neutral and, with their purse straps
strung across their chests bandolier style; they forge ahead as though bracing themselves
against being talked. I understand, of course, that the danger they perceive is not a
hallucination. Women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are
drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence. Yet these truths are no
solace against the kind of alienation that comes of being ever the suspect, against being set
apart, a fearsome entity with whom pedestrians avoid making eye contact. It is not altogether
clear to me how I reached the ripe old age of 22 without being conscious of the lethality
nighttime pedestrians attributed to me. Perhaps it was because in Chester, Pennsylvania, the
small, angry industrial town where I came of age in the 1960s, I was scarcely noticeable against
a backdrop of gang warfare, street knifings, and murders. I grew up one of the good boys, had
perhaps a half - dozen first fights. In retrospect, my shyness of combat has clear sources. Many
things go into the making of a young thug. One of those things is the consummation of the male
romance with the power to intimidate. An infant discovers that random flailings send the baby
bottle flying out of the crib and crashing to the floor. Delighted, the joyful babe repeats those
motions again and again, seeking to duplicate the feat. Just so, I recall the points at which some
of my boyhood friends were finally seduced by the perception of themselves as tough guys.
When a mark cowered and surrendered his money without resistance, myth and reality merged
— and paid off. It is, after all, only manly to embrace the power to frighten and intimidate. We,
as men, are not supposed to give an inch of our lane on the highway; we are to seize the
fighter’s edge in work and in play and even in love; we are to be valiant in the face of hostile
forces.
Unfortunately, poor and powerless young men seem to take all this nonsense literally. As a boy,
I saw countless tough guys locked away; I have since buried several, too. They were babies,
really — a teenage cousin, a brother of 22, a childhood friend in his mid-twenties — all gone
down in episodes of bravado played out in the streets.
I came to doubt the virtues of intimidation early on. I chose, perhaps even unconsciously, to
remain a shadow — timid, but a survivor. The fearsomeness mistakenly attributed to me in
public places often has a perilous flavor. The most frightening of these confusions occurred in
the late 1970s and early 1980s when I worked as a journalist in Chicago. One day, rushing into
the office of a magazine I was writing for with a deadline story in hand, I was mistaken for a
burglar. The office manager called security and, with an ad hoc posse pursued me through the
labyrinthine halls, nearly to my editor’s door. I had no way of proving who I was. I could only
move briskly toward the company of someone who knew me. Another time I was on
assignment for a local paper and killing time before an interview. I entered a jewelry store on
the city’s affluent Near North Side. The proprietor excused herself and returned with an
enormous red Doberman pinscher straining at the end of a leash. She stood, the dog extended
toward me, silent to my questions, her eyes bulging nearly out of her head. I took a cursory look
around, nodded, and bade her good night. Relatively speaking, however, I never fared as badly
as another black male journalist. He went to nearby Waukegan, Illinois, a couple of summers
ago to work on a story about a murderer who was born there. Mistaking the reporter for the
killer, police hauled him from his car at gunpoint and but for his press credentials would
probably have tried to book him. Such episodes are not uncommon. Black men trade talks like
this all the time.
In “My Negro Problem — And Ours,” Podhoretz writes that the hatred he feels for blacks makes
itself known to him through a variety of avenues — one being taken for a criminal. Not to do so
would surely have led to madness —via that special “paranoid touchiness” that so annoyed
Podhoretz at the time he wrote the essay. I began to take precautions to make myself less
threatening. I move about with care, particularly late in the evening. I give a wide berth to
nervous people on subway platforms during the wee hours, particularly when I have exchanged
business clothes for jeans. If I happened to be entering a building behind some people who
appear skittish, I may walk by, letting them clear the lobby before I return, so as not to seem to
be following them. I have been calm and extremely congenial on those rare occasions when I’ve
been pulled over by the police.
And on late- evening constitutionals along streets less traveled by, I employ what has proved to
be an excellent tension -reducing measure: I whistle melodies from Beethoven and Vivaldi and
the more popular classical composers. Even steely New Yorkers hunching toward nighttime
destinations seem to relax and occasionally they even join in the tune. Virtually everybody
seems to sense that a mugger wouldn’t be warbling bright, sunny selections from Vivaldi’s
Four Seasons. It is my equivalent to the cowbell that hikers wear when they know they are
in bear country.
1. To which senses does this essay appeal? Explain, giving examples of at least three
senses:
Sense
Example from Essay
2. How has the author used figurative language to describe his experiences?
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3. Is this essay objective or subjective? Why?
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4. What is the author describing?
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5. What is the dominant impression or idea from this essay?
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6. Who is the intended audience for this essay?
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Visual Component:
1Past and present collide in the image, which was taken in May, showing FLOTUS speaking with a tour guide at
the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in Topeka, Kansas. The two women stand perfectly
aligned with the "white" and "colored" signs.
1. Describe this visual.
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2. What type of visual is this?
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3. Who is the intended audience for this visual?
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4. What is the focal point (point where your eye is drawn) in this visual?
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5. Where might you find this picture?
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6. Choose one of the essays above and complete the following chart:
Essay chosen: _________________________________________________________
Topic
Message
Intended Audience
Dominant impression
Language and/or layout
choice
Overall takeaway as a
reader/viewer
Essay
Image