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Maya angelou: caged bird (analysis)
Maya angelou: caged bird (analysis)
Maya angelou: caged bird (analysis)
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To truly compare or justify anything to be superior to something else, you must have more than one thing to compare. When I start to review narrative and descriptive essays, I have to try to understand what separates the two. I chose to compare “Caged Bird”, by Maya Angelou as my Descriptive essay and “How to say nothing in 500 words”, by Paul McHenry Roberts as my narrative essay. To me these two essays set themselves apart from each other, not just because of the different styles of writers, but the meaningful message that was delivered in both essays. While both of these essays have a strong message that it delivers, but only one truly keeps my attention, answers all of my questions, and helps me to imagine every word that is in the text. In the text of, “Essentials of College Writing”, it is stated, “Consider what would be interesting to you as a reader and what kinds of details and information you look for when you read a piece of personal writing”, (Connell, C. M., & Sole, K., (2013), Chapter 6. Section 6.2, paragraph 5). As a writer I believe it you have to grab the reader’s attention, answer whatever questions they have, and really help them imagine what they are reading. Initially, I was leaning to favor the descriptive essay, “The Caged Bird”, written by Maya Angelou, but after further consideration and critiques, I discovered that, “How to say nothing in 500 words”, written by Paul McHenry Roberts won me over. This change of mind came to me as I read each essay over again and then it was a clear choice of which essay was arguably the better style.
To be considered a good descriptive essay, according to what I read in, “Essentials of College Writing”, a descriptive essay must use specific language, use specific d...
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...or future papers, regardless if they are narrative essays or not, this is a great approach that I think can improve my academic writing skills.
As I stated earlier, both of these essays have a strong message that it delivers, but only one truly keeps my attention, answers all of my questions, and helps me to imagine every word that is in the text. It is clear that the narrative essay is superior to the descriptive because of all of the details that are utilized to prepare the narrative and the impact that the narrative essay has on the reader. No one can deny that both are a good choice, but this narrative actually is structured better than the descriptive essay and it just has a completion feeling that you can kind of anticipate because of the way the narrative began. Once again the narrative essay indisputably suffices all of the reader’s needs while reading.
However, though John Warner’s argument is strong, Kerri smith’s argument is stronger. In Kerri Smith’s article “In Defense of the Five-Paragraph Essay,” She claims that the five-paragraph essay should stay taught in schools as a guideline for a well-structured essay. She explains the five-paragraph essay as an “introduce-develop-conclude structure” that even great expository writing follows this structure (Smith 16). She purposefully communicates to her audience this idea to show that this structure gives students the knowledge and capability to write a professional essay. The five-paragraph essay includes the three key points to have a well-structured and organized essay. By mentioning that other great writers use this form of structure, she creates a stronger argument as to why the five-paragraph essay is important to education. She continues her article by explaining her early stages of writing and how she was taught; over time, her teachers would show her new ways to improve her writing which, in the end, she was told to think “of those five paragraphs simply as a mode of organization” (Smith
There are four main modes of discourse: expository, narrative, descriptive, and persuasive. In Mary Rowlandson’s A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, it is apparent in the title that it is a narrative. Like Mrs. Rowlandson’s literature, Olaudah Equiano’s From Africa to America is a narrative. A narrative form of literature is a story, account of events, or experiences, whether it is true or fictitious. In this case their stories were their real experiences and they gave the reader actual facts and information, also making it expository. "The closeness of the place and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us." (73) This is a perfect example showing that Olaudah Equiano’s narrative is also descriptive, giving the reader vivid images in his mind, whereas Rowlandson’s narrative rarely has descriptive content. These works of literature may also be portrayed as persuasive by the quote of, "..Overwhelmed with the thoughts of my condition.." (7) Mary Rowlandson was overwhelmed with her emotions. This quote may persuade the reader ...
...e author actually lived through it, and as you are reading his story it is much easier to picture yourself in his shoes. The other great thing about a narrative, is that it leaves much less room for misunderstanding or misinterpretation allowing you to absorb the maximum amount of information the author has to offer his reader. When given a choice between a multi directional interpretation based descriptive essay, or a clear life reflective narrative essay, I am pleased to say, with taking all of these points into consideration, that I would choose a narrative essay every time.
From our very first narrative, “My Writing Story” to the most recent opinion editorial assignment, I can honestly say I enjoyed writing each paper. But, my favorite writing assignment
The literary devices used in the literary essay are description, definition, examples, narration, compare and contrast, cause and effect, classification and division. On the other hand, the short story uses narrator, setting, characterization, plot and perspective. Lastly, both the literary essay and short story convey life-learning lessons. “In Groups We Shrink” sends the message through examples and description while “The Lesson” uses narration and
My very first paper is my Narrative Essay. This is one of my favorites and well as one of the ones
By starting this essay with narrative writing he captures the reader’s attention, especially the readers with the same literary repertoire. This is what happened in my case. I have a certain fascination for cars, so when I noticed it was about a car it just grabbed my attention and kept it.
I wrote short stories, poems, and articles; all centering on an idea of deep relevance and striking resonance. I experimented with various styles and numerous techniques with the majority of them proving to be useless and unimportant. However, despite these seemingly futile grasps at concrete steps towards amelioration and evolution as a writer, all of this experimentation paid off when it finally led me to the one particular style of writing that I enjoyed immensely: essays. After discovering my hidden talent for creating formal compositions and literary pieces, my writing had improved vastly. This was because I finally gained the crucial self-analytical skills required to be able to identify my strengths and weaknesses and break through this obstacle which had obstructed my path to
We would do research on a subject or a person, and write about them. We, once again, were not allowed to be unique in our writing or think creatively or critically. This is the time when I was taught the five paragraph essay. As stated in Gray’s article, the five paragraph essay is detrimental to students’ writing. This format for writing is damaging because it doesn’t allow students to express their own ideas about a topic. It does not allow for any creativity or uniqueness in a paper. In tenth grade, I wrote many papers for my English class, but I never once got an A on them. I was led to believe that my writing was weak because I could not relate to what I was writing about. I did not have any emotional connection to the research papers I had to write, and it made it harder for me to write them. I had grown up not being allowed to think critically, and therefore, my papers in high school lacked creativity and deeper
The examples used in the essay are the main contributions to the message. Without examples or really without a fine overall story the text simply can't be interesting. Even a very awkward structure and complex words can make a for a good and easy read if the story can enthrall the reader. The story and the examples given are the most important variables in a personal
A successful descriptive narrative displays the necessary information for a reader to explain or develop speculations within the material. Narrating the text of a story, told through one or more narrators, allows the audience to connect with the feelings of the narrator. A description includes imagery for the audience’s recognition. Furthermore, descriptive narratives have a purpose and are there for a reason. “Shooting an Elephant” and “The Lottery” are both descriptive narratives. Descriptive narratives show a clearer understanding of the passage; therefore, the stronger text is “Shooting an Elephant” because of its detail and the plot’s conflict.
The Structure of a Compare and Contrast Essay. (2014). [online] Retrieved from: http://writing.itu.edu.tr/cc2.pdf [Accessed: 16 Feb 2014].
In Paul Roberts essay, “How to Say Nothing in 500 Words”, he explains in detail all of the ways in which students can write an essay without making an actual statement. This essay exposes several ways that one could eliminate excessive wording and cut right to the actual meaning in an essay. While Roberts makes some important suggestions about producing real content and reinforcing claims with concrete evidence, his opinions seem to represent restrictions that undermine the need for individual expression and creativity when writing.
Do you recall the last 500-word essay you had to write? Or perhaps the last 500- word essay you had to read? As a teacher, Paul Roberts spent a large portion of his time reading 500-word essays. Paul Roberts found these compositions were uninspired, and done in the last possible minute. Paul Roberts wrote three books to aid you in becoming better writer. “How to Say Nothing in 500 Words” comes from Roberts’ best-known book, Understanding English. “How to Say Nothing in 500 Words” aids you by suggesting what not to say. This exert from Understanding English has 10 mistakes, and possible ways to avoid these mistakes.
After working in business for quite a few years, I finally had the freedom to read whatever I wanted in my spare time, but as I ventured into more and more difficult works, I found that the ideas I wanted to express weren’t easily contained in just essay form. I found that I wanted to share this with others, and learn how to improve my own writing, but bring these different ideas to others. I originally had come back to school to do more of a research oriented study, a science or math based major. After retaking the English Composition 122 class at CLC, where we covered science fiction along with classics, and other forms such as memoirs, I began to realize that my passion for reading and writing could be beneficial to others as well as myself.