Craft Analysis of "Me Talk Pretty One Day" - David Sedaris

Me Talk Pretty One Day. The title alone reels you in as you want to read the text to find out what the meaning behind the title is. That is the reason that I chose this passage to read. Sedaris' tone throughout the essay is kind of a depressed tone, it sounds like he is depressed and put down by the instructor of his french course. He is really into the fact that he wants to learn french. He moves to France and goes to a school there, as to learn the language better than he could in America. Sedaris is not alone in being belittled by his instructor for she didn't just pick on him but the rest of the class. But he still went home every night and studied everything so that he could go to class the next day and know just a little more so the teacher wouldn't pick on him as much. The tone of the time during class was a depressed tone, that everyone wanted to be there but at the same time didn't want to be there. The teacher rode on a high horse because she didn't speak only fluent french but 4 other languages too, including English, which she shows to Sedaris by saying in English "I hate you, I really hate you." (found on page 3, last paragraph) Now why in her right mind does the teacher feel the need to put everyone down, and to say something of this nature stating that she hates him. Why is that, is it because she herself has troubles in her life and she feels in her time of power of being the professor of a french course and the only one that can speak it fluently, that she can emasculate everyone in the class. But through all of that all of the students including Sedaris, go home every night and study their french for hours on end, an example of it is stated on page 14, 1st paragraph. "I took to spending 4 hours a night on my homework, putting in even more time when we were assigned an essay." Because of that the tone suddenly switches from a depressed tone to an upbeat tone right towards the end of the essay when Sedaris states, "Understanding doesn't mean that you can suddenly speak the language. Far from it. It's a small step, nothing more, yet it's rewards are intoxicating and deceptive. The teacher continued her diatribe and I settled back, bathing in the subtle beauty of each new curse and insult." From that moment the professor goes on to belittle Sedaris but this time he isn't hurt or insulted by it. He takes from it and with confidence replies to her insults with, "I know the thing that you speak exact now. Talk me more, you, plus, please, plus. Leaving you with a feeling of happiness and joy knowing that Sedaris gained his confidence back. From the tone of the essay it makes everything feel a lot better in the end.

Analysis for "Shooting Dad"

 Throughout the essay, Vowell uses the element "plot" to show how the story is. The narrator states that he isn't like his family. His dad is a NRA man, someone who takes pride in the 2nd amendment and expresses it frequently.  She shows how the narrator distances himself from his family staying away from the things that they do because he doesn't have the same interests as them. Because of that his sister (also his twin) states this " I am the loneliest twin in the world". This shows how the sister doesn't acknowledge the fact that she is his twin just because he doesn't want to go on family hunting outings, or things of that nature. Just because he doesn't express himself the way they do, they kind of shut him out, and he does the same. Now he doesn't hate his family he just doesn't believe the same stuff they do. Like how he is believes in democracy being a democrat and all he expresses this by putting a picture of Walter Mondale and Gerraldine Ferraro on the refrigerator, then his father takes it down and throws it in the trash, all because he is a republican. The narrators family really don't give him a chance to express himself freely while they do whatever they want. They just don't seem to find the time to learn what their son likes. As the story goes on the father 

Family Conflict

A family conflict. There isn't really a lot of conflict between two people in my family, or is there any between someone in my family and a random person. But I would still say that me and my brother don't get a long at most times, but who does with a brother, or sister. This isn't about me and him though, it's about what he had to deal with. The conflict that affected not only him but me, my parent's, other brother, sister, or anyone else in our family. This affected him the most. It wasn't recent, it was about 5 years ago I believe. My brother was in 5th grade and it was late winter January or February sometime around there. He was about 5'2'', not a big kid but still he was a little on the chubby side but not much. He was an outgoing kid hyper a lot of the time, but that's mainly because he has A.D.H.D., a lot of people in our family do, I have it my Father has it. But still this isn't what the story is about. Most people in their lifetime don't encounter a time where someone in their family is stricken with an illness that isn't yet curable. I can say that I have and still do. This conflict has been going on for sometime now, like I said it's been 5 years, but it's still going on to this very day. It's a conflict that he wakes up with everyday that he goes to bed with every night. Something that he knows is always going to be there with him wherever he goes in his life, it will be following him. The conflict that I am speaking of has had a lot of impact of everyone that surrounds him. This about my brother Zakk, the conflict that he had to deal with, was being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Now he was in 5th grade, a normal fifth grader my brother hadn't dealt with this his whole life. It's not like he was born with it, no he hasn't grown up with it. It just came like Odysseus hiding in a trojan horse. In other words nobody saw it coming. There was a period of 3 days where my brother didn't feel good, he was sick peeing a lot, and throwing up. Now we had no idea what it was at the time. So my mother took him to the doctor, the doctor examined him and after examining him and hearing what the symptoms were he took some blood from my brother, and had him pee on a strip. I can't remember what the strip was called although we have them at our house for when he gets sick to make sure he is alright. Anyway the reason they took the blood was so that they could check his glucose level, glucose is the sugar in the body, and he was checking to see if the levels were normal along with the strips. Now the normal glucose level for someone is about 4 milligrams per deciliter. Well as you can tell, his glucose wasn't normal and the strip wasn't what it should have been either. Now the doctor told my mother that Zakk had to go to the hospital right away, so that they can take care of him and give him the proper care that he needs. For the next week my parents were at the hospital with my brother, learning what they needed to know about diabetes. Now like I said we didn't see this coming so immeadeatly it wasn't taken too well.

Personal Narrative

- Story about you (non-fiction)
- Specific time or specific problem/conflict
- Has to have a setting
   - Characters, or people involved (the characters have to be involved in the situation or problem, have to be relevant)
- Expressed Ideas----> Clear
- Focus/Meaning
      - Emotional Center
- Surface level story with an under lying message
- Scenes
     - people interacting and talking
- Exposition---> Reflection
                              - Your take on what happened
                     ---> Connections
                      - Background Info
- Significant in Life


Abstract
- Vague, broad, general
    ex: big, small; good, bad; nice, mean
- Specific/Concrete
   - help pain picture for the reader
   - help point to a focus

"Letter from Birmingham Jail" By; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Summary:

      In "Letter from Birmingham Jail" by: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is responding to criticism about his nonviolent protest that landed him in jail. This criticism is from his fellow clergymen in the south, who didn't approve of his nonviolent correct action. King explains how the use of the nonviolent action is necessary to show that segregation is unjust, based from fact in the text. He states that segregation is unjust and that African-Americans are not getting the same rights as whites in America. Throughout the essay King deconstructs the criticisms of his fellow religious leaders. King also states that the only way to get things done is through the nonviolent protest. King doesn't intend to hurt anyone, and that there may be a time and a place for a violent protest but he believes that there isn't a need for that.

Response:

          I think that this essay was written very well he was able to show how he felt and what his beliefs are. There is no correct time for a nonviolent protest, there never is. But Kings states how is decision isn't the only one. "I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation." I don't think there is any other way to state how his cause isn't the only one. I think that there is no other way to state about what his protests stand for and how nobody but those who are the victims of segregation can understand.

Notes for January 24th, 2011

-Author  and title in the 1st sentence
-Also a main idea
-Supporting Ideas
-Summary should remain neutral and objective
-Facts of essay/text
-The Summary should never ever be in 1st person it should be in third person
     -Point of view (He, she, it, they)
-Make sure that it is concise, brief, and accurate
-Rhetorical appeals are; Ethos, Logos, and Pathos

"I Want a Wife" by: Judy Brady

Summary:
              Judy Brady's purpose of the essay, "I Want a Wife",  is to show women how men think, act, and feel. She being a feminist wants to show how men truly think of woman, that when they get what they want men set women aside for bigger and better things. Not only that but she wants to let the world know that she is fed up with everything that she is doing and wants to switch roles where she is the husband. Brady wants to have the satisfaction of not having to do those household things. Brady writes this essay in the 1st person,  She is writing as the man who wants a wife. She makes a list of the responsibilities that a typical woman from the 1970's would have. The tone of the essay isn't clear cut, but she is calm but clearly acting out about how men are and that they are evil and are two-faced. Her message was clear. She wanted women to know how men truly are. That they shouldn't believe anything that men say because it's not what they truly feel or want. That in the end no matter what women go through with men that they will get tossed aside like garbage.

Summary:
         I believe that in the essay "I Want a Wife", Brady effectively showed that her message was women are under appreciated and that she is fed up with it. That men take wives for granted. "If by chance I find more suitable as a wife than the wife i already have, I want the liberty to replace my current wife with a new one." That is a pretty clear cut message of how Brady portrays what Husbands do. At that time I think that the piece was worth saying, she is a wife and wants to show other wives that they aren't the only ones fed up with the system of marriage. "I belong to that classification of people known as wives. I am a wife. And, not altogether incidentally I am a mother." I think she just wants people to know that she wants to reverse roles for a bit. I don't think today that all of it would be the case, yes there are wives that are still in this role. But in other cases a lot of wives are the ones bringing home the bacon and the husbands stay at home and take care of the kids, cook, clean and other things of that nature.

Kevin Carter Photo

1. In Kevin Carter's photo of the starving child it portrays the effects of starvation have of a young child. My initial reaction to this picture was how bad the starvation is, this kid is lying face down in the dirt, why hasn't he been helped and why is he just taking a picture of this poor child instead of feeding him. Another would be about the vulture that is staring down the child, like he knows that the child is dying and itself (the vulture) is starving too. Some words that come to my mind right away are things like; sad, strange, anger, and so on and so forth.

2. This image portrays a young African child lying face down in dead, dry grass, and dirt. It seems like the child may be consuming the dirt because of the fact that he is so hungry. Meanwhile staring down (and also maybe starving) the kid is a vulture. It's a dying hungry little boy face down eating dead grass being sized up by a vulture.

3. There is a definite message in the photo. The message is look what is going on in third world countries that we aren't doing anything about. There is a child dying, and there is a vulture waiting for this child to die so that it can get it's own meal, and what are we doing about it? We apparently aren't doing enough with these send 15 cents to a child in need. I think that it needs to be a little more than that.

4. My view has changed but only a little, how does nobody know what happened to the boy? The child was 1 kilometer away and the photographer didn't do anything to help him, he just left. It shows that he only cared about himself. I hope that the child did receive medical attention, and I can only hope that he survived.

Notes 1-10-11

           4.Was the theme developed subtly or powerfully, or did the work come across as preachy or shrill?
           5. Did the action at the end of the work follow plausibly from what had come before?
           6.Was the language fresh and incisive or stale and predictable?
           7. In general, explain as specifically as possible what elements of the work seemed effective or ineffectively and why.
          
The Writing Process:
               - Generating initial Ideas
               - Relating those ideas to the writing situation or assignment
               - Conducting research to find support for the ideas
               - Organizing ideas and support and writing an initial draft
               - Revising and shaping the paper, frequently with the advice of other readers
               - Editing and polishing the paper
Ethos- Persona, or character you portray yourself when writing.
Logos- An appeal to logic.
Pathos- appeal to emotion.

Denote- Literal
Comotate-association

Active Reading: consists of taking notes, defining terms, and thinking critically about the contents of a text.

Tips on active reading:
-Annotate--take notes on the text
-Underline the thesis sentence or main idea
-List questions you may have about the text
-Respond to the text with your own remarks/ideas
-Highlight key terms or words that you need to look up
-Mark sections that you'd like to summarize in your own paper, so that they're easier to find once you've finished reading

Questions to consider while reading:
-What is the writer trying to say? What is the thesis or main idea of the text?
-HOw does the writer say it? What's the writer's tone/ethos? From what sources did the writer retrieve his/her information? Are they reliable?
-Does the writer effectively communicate his/her message? Does the writer explain terms and provide relevant examples?
-Was it worth saying? Are these ideas fresh/new, or has another writer already said them?

Questions to consider after reading:
-Now that you've finished reading, has your idea of the text's thesis changed?
-What did you learn that surprises or interests you?
-How does the information in this text agree with or contradict information on this topic you have already read or learned from your own experience?
-What questions do you still have about this text?
-Where can you find answers to those questions?
What in this reading might be useful in your own writing?

Summary: concise restatement of the most important information in a text
  Brief, accurate reflection of the essentials:
- The writer's main point
- Supportin ideas
-concludeing ideas

When you summarize, you are acting as an interpreter. It's vital that you understand what the author is saying in order to effectively communicate those ideas to your audience.

A summary must accomplish the following
- Identify the author and material. Do this in your first sentence
- It must give credit to the author throughout the summary, whether you are paraphrasing or quoting directly.
- It must be brief. You are only reiterating the main points. If your audience wants to know all the details of the original souurce, they can read that text themselves.
- It must be an accurate reflection of the author's emphasis. Accurate reading is a must.