EHRENREICH – “Serving in Florida” QRS
1) Enrenreich opens the selection with “Picture a fat person’s hell…” (para. 1)? What is the intended effect Does she want to
shock or disgust the reader? IS she being humorous?
2) Enrenreich describes the kitchen in terms of bodily organs and functions. What response is she trying to evoke? Is she
successful? (See paras. 1 and 2.)
3) Enrenreich provides fairly extensive commentary in footnotes. What is the effect of this strategy? In the footnotes, is her tone
different from the one used in the body of the piece?
4) Enrenreich uses lively, emotionally charged language throughout. Identify one passage and analyze the diction, especially the
connotations of the words. Suggestions: the paragraph beginning “Now, the Industrial Revolution is not an easy transition…”
(para. 3) or “I make friends, over time, with the other ‘girls’ who work my shift…” (para. 11).
5) Enrenreich occasionally uses crude expressions. Are they appropriate? What is her intended effect in shifting to diction that is
not only informal but, some would say, crass?
6) Enrenreich is both outsider and insider in this selection: that is, she is the writer observing the environment in which she is
playing a role. How does she make this narrative stance work? Does she shift abruptly between describing what I going on
and commenting about it, or does she move smoothly between the two? Discuss by citing specific passages.
7) Discuss specific instances of humor in this selection. Is it primarily ironic humor? Aggressively sarcastic? Affectionately
amusing? Cite specific passages in your response.
8) What elements of fiction does Enrenreich employ? Consider such elements as figurative language, dialogue, narrative
commentary, and description of people and settings.
9) In this selection, Enrenreich does not state a thesis or indicate directly what her purpose is; instead, she works by inference
and implication. What is her purpose? State it directly in a sentence that begins, “In this selection, Enrenreich…”
10) At times, Enrenreich seems to raise tangential issues. When she describes her coworker smoking, for instance, she writes:
“Because work is what you do for others; smoking is what you do for yourself. I don’t know why the antismoking crusaders
have never grasped the element of defiant self-nurturance that makes the habit so endearing to its victims- as if, in the
American workplace, the only thing people have to call their own is the tumors they are nourishing and the spare moments
they devote to feeding them” (para. 2). What is the effect of this commentary? What is its relevance to Enrenreich’s overall
purpose?
11) How does Enrenreich establish her ethos in this selection? What part does her relationship with George play in her appeal to
ethos?
12) Who is Enrenreich’s audience? Base your answer on the tone you detect in specific passages.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
TONE
MESSAGE
Tone(s) used, shift(s) in tone, how tone conveys the
Message(s) conveyed, audience(s)
message(s)
DICTION
Groups by part of speech, tone, effect, etc.
SYNTAX
Figurative language, patterns, parallel structure,
antithesis, juxtaposition, rhetorical questions, transitions,
overall structure, paragraph structure(s), etc.
INTRO WITH GOOD HOOK, THESIS, LANGUAGE, TONE, AUTHOR, MESSAGE
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OUTLINE FOR BODY PARAGRAPH ORGANIZATION
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CONCLUSION WITH SOME ACTUAL CONCLUSIONS DRAWN
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