Reading &
Analyzing Essay
Chapter 3
Pages 145-155
(make sure your read these 10 pages)
Types of Essays
• Narrative
• Expository
• Argumentative
• Note: think of these types “as degrees
of emphasis rather than discrete or
exclusive types” (Madden 146).
Narrative
• Tells a story
• Usually springs from an event or experience in
the writer’s life
• Intension is to make a point, present an idea,
or make an argument.
• Contains person comments, reflections, and
opinions.
• Voice
• Narrator feels frustration, pain, or joy
Expository
• Share, explain, suggest, or explore
information, emotion, and ideas.
• Although the narrative may use stories as
examples or may imply an argument or
position, the key to telling the difference is
the emphasis on showing and sharing
insight not primarily on telling a story or
making an argument.
Argumentative
• Proves a point by supporting it
with evidence
• Includes facts, statistics,
examples, & personal anecdotes
• Example: “A Modest Proposal”
LANGUAGE, STYLE,
AND STRUCTURE
Formal vs. Informal
• Formal
• Topic: Serious
• Tight, clear structure & strategy
• Voice is impersonal & detached
• Support is from facts, data, or statistics
• Language is formal; it doesn’t use everyday words or
phrases.
• Complex or classic structure
• Classic structure- intro includes an attention grabber & thesis,
body includes details and examples, and the conclusion
restates the support for the thesis and leaves the reader
enlightened and convinces.
Formal vs. Informal
• Informal
• Topic: lighthearted and serious
• Relies on detail, emotion, narrative, and personal
examples for support
• Words & sentence structure is conversational and
informal with everyday phrases, dialogue, narration,
imagery, and figurative language.
• Structure emerges from the subject matter rather than
a strict structure.
Voice
• Individual personality that comes alive in
the words.
• Tone- author’s attitude towards the
subject; readers pick up the tone through
the voice.
• Think about how you pick up a person’s
tone through their body language and the
intonation of their voice. You must also do
that while reading; it is just a bit more
difficult. 
• Choice of language helps create voice.
Irony
• Irony: contrast between appearance/expectation
and reality
• Verbal irony: contrast between what is said by
the writer and what is meant; sarcasm
• In “A Modest Proposal,” Swift didn’t mean
literally “eat the babies”
Irony
• Situational Irony: contrast between what is
expected and what actually happens.
• Example: You break a date with your girlfriend
so you can go to the ball game with the guys.
When you go to the concession stand, you run
into your date that is with another guy.
• Example: at the end of “A Rose for Emily” the
audience didn’t expect that Miss Emily had
murdered Homer Barron and slept with his
dead body. This was a shock in the end.
Irony
• Dramatic Irony: When the audience has important
information that the characters in a story do not
have.
• Example: When watching a talk show, the
audience knows why a person has been brought
on the show. However, the person sitting in a chair
does not know that he is going to be reunited with
a former lover. This adds to the suspense and
humor of the show.
• Example: In Romeo & Juliet, the audience knows
that Juliet is not dead but in a coma; however,
Romeo believes that she is dead and thus he
commits suicide.
Word Choice & Style
• Figurative language brings the writing to life.
• Concrete details and imagery pulls us into the
text.
• Formal vocabulary evokes a different response
from us than informal words.
Theme: What’s the Point:
• The insight the writers shares, or the point the
writer wants to teach, prove, or convince us of.
• Formal essays are easier to identify the theme
because of the tight structure and direct writing
style.
Aims of an Essay: Inform,
Preach, or Reveal
• Inform/teach• Formal expository essays
• Formal expository essays- usually to teach a lesson or convince us
of a particular moral view.
• Essay are usually written in response to a perceived political or
social problem, and thus have a moral or message.
• Usually share or reveal something insightful about human nature.
• Before starting the checklist on page
149, make sure that you have read
“Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan on
pages 150-154. 
Checklist
• Types of essays
• Would you classify the essay as narrative, expository, or
argumentative? Explain. Is the classification clear? If not, why?
• “A Modest Proposal”- Argumentative
• “Mother Tongue”- Expository, although it has some
narrative qualities. It uses person stories to prove her
thesis- “Language is the tool of my trade. And I use them
all-all the Englishes I grew up with” (150). There is also an
element of argument since she is trying to show that
simpler English or the English she spoke with her mother,
her dialect, is not broken.
Checklist
• Language, Style, and Structure
• In general, is the essay formal or informal? How so?
• “A Modest Proposal”- informal- uses absurd humor- figurative
language, specifically metaphor
• Juvenalian Satire: Harsher tone; more insult than humor; moral
indignation; criticizes evil
• Some would argue that because of structure (argument:
problem/solution) that it is formal.
• “Mother Tongue”- informal- light humor
• “I’ve been thinking about this lately”
• Simple language
Checklist
• Language, Style, and Structure
• How would you describe the writer’s voice? Do you find the
author believable? Why?
• “A Modest Proposal”- condescending, sarcastic
• “Mother Tongue”- respectful, happy, lightly humorous,
loving
Checklist
• Language, Style, and Structure
• Was the voice of the author effective in conveying the essay’s
meaning? Why?
• “A Modest Proposal”-yes
• “Mother Tongue”- yes
Checklist
• Language, Style, and Structure
• Is the language formal or informal? What does the nature of the
language tell you about the essay?
• “A Modest Proposal”- he must be informal to get his
point across to the English.
• “Mother Tongue”- She is informal just as her mother
tongue & dialect is informal
Checklist
• Language, Style, and Structure
• Are there many instances of imagery and figurative language
(simile, metaphor)? If so, how do they connect to or support the
essay?
• “A Modest Proposal”• Metaphor- compares children to livestock
• Simile- “nor act any longer like the Jews” (1030).
• Allusion- “Jews, who were murdering one another at the very
moment their city was taken” (1030).
• Verbal Irony
• Note: Make sure you are not just identifying the figurative
language, but that you are discussing why the author used
each.
Checklist
• Language, Style, and Structure
• Are there many instances of imagery and figurative language
(simile, metaphor)? If so, how do they connect to or support the
essay?
• “Mother Tongue”• Imagery- “I would see a burst of colors against a darkening sky,
the moon rising, the lowering of a curtain of stars” (153).
• Flashbacks- “When I was fifteen” (151).
• Note: Make sure you are not just identifying the figurative
language, but that you are discussing why the author used
each.
Checklist
• Theme
• What is the intention of the essay? Is it trying to inform us of
something? To prove or convince us of something? To share an
insight?
• “A Modest Proposal”• Swift is trying to inform his readers of the situation in Ireland
created by the English
• “Mother Tongue”• Tan is informing her readers the different languages that an
immigrant and their family have as they learn a new language in a
foreign land.
Checklist
• Theme
• What is the theme?
• “A Modest Proposal”•
•
•
•
incompetence of Ireland's politicians
the hypocrisy of the wealthy
the oppression of the English on the Irish
the filth and poverty Irish people live in needs to be remedied
• “Mother Tongue”• Don’t judge a person by how they speak
• You can do anything you want to do if you put your mind to it. “I
happen to be rebellious in nature and enjoy the challenge of
disproving assumptions made about me” (153).
•See pages 154-155 for
more questions over
“Mother Tongue” to
help you analyze an
essay.
Outline
• Intro
• Attention grabber
• Thesis
• Body Paragraph x3
• Topic Sentence
• Support
• Conclusion
• Restate thesis
• Readdress main points of body paragraphs
Topics for body paragraphs
• Type of essay
• Narrative
• Expository
• Argumentative
•
•
•
•
•
•
Formal or Informal
Voice & Tone
Irony
Word Choice & Figurative Language
Satire
Theme
Pick 3 of these topics to
discuss in your body
paragraphs.