An Update On ESL

I've been reading Eats, Shoots and Leaves. I'm not particularly fond of it per say, but over the past few days, I have found that it made an impact on the way that I look at the things around me. As I finish up my essay, I hope to be able to show this point. The book is successful in it's purpose, quite possibly because of the humor and rhetoric. ALSO, if someone could clarify the proper way to punctuate "hes and shes" that'd be great. :)

Essay Number Five "Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here?" by Mark Edmundson for The Oxford American

The author currently teaches at the University of Virginia, where he spends his time working on novels and other personal works such as papers and dissertations to further his career as his students go on and party. Or at least, so he says. In addition, the author has written several novels, one of which, "Why Teach? In Defense of A Real Education" correlates to some of the discussion in this essay. The memory of a discussion with his father, during which his father told him to pursue what he WANTED to do was the driving force in the creation of this essay. In fact, the entire essay had the same premise as said discussion. Edmundson wrote this essay about college; college life for students (and teachers for that matter) and what it is really like. He wanted to show his audience that college isn't about being the smartest, most hardworking student. He wanted to convince them that to succeed in college, life really, you must do what you love, not what everyone wants you to love. Without love, or passion really, you will not find the road easy, or the reward to be worth your while. (It's like in a movie that I love, one of the main characters says, "I'd rather do nothing and be happy than do something I know I don't love." Life lessons from romantic comedies everybody.)* Though the author's purpose is clear towards the beginning of the essay, it's quite murky from the third page on (until the end, which is quite full circle and cliché). After the discussion of the talk he had with his father, the author goes on several tangents. He discusses the lack of motivation that college students and teachers have and the thoughts of Freud, among many other distractions. If the author kept this essay short and stuck to the single point, his purpose would have been much better served. Though he meant to reach future college students, the juniors and seniors of the high school systems, the author's lack of focus made it hard to stay with him. In turn, those students, who usually lack patience, may give up on comprehending the material. The author also has a repetitive style to his work. It includes the use of several (too many!) lists. The lists are quite distracting and also lead audiences astray from the author's true purpose.


*Please Note: do not count for word count. Content was added to show personality, and give my last blog post some rhetorical flair of my own. (I quite like parenthesis in case you couldn't tell.)

Speaking of which, this moving picture GIF (hopefully? Technology is not a friend.) depicts Joy (the character) expressing what I believe to be the main purpose of this essay. The author, after all the tangents and unnecessary information, really just wanted to say this:

Thanks to http://weheartit.com/entry/63364429/via/EitiGrant

Essay Number Four "How Doctors Die" by Ken Murray for the Zocalo Public Square

After witnessing years of futile treatment as a doctor and chatting with other doctors on their preferred way to live life, Ken Murray was inspired to write this essay. He saw that there were benefits to letting life be as it will, not trying to extend it for as long as possible and to just let it be. Murray is a retired family doctor who was also a clinical professor of family medicine in LA. He was a contributor to the novel, How to Report Statistics in Medicine and has worked with several doctors in his career. Ken Murray wrote this essay on the end of life. The essay was not about the importance of medical treatment and prolonging life, instead it discusses how those who see these extensive medical treatments everyday are helpful in a sense, but interfere with the quality of life immensely. Although this was quite a serious topic, the author was able to make it entertaining by utilizing the rhetorical tool parenthesis. This tool allowed him to add in entertaining bits of side information that offer the audience insight and knowledge. This also allowed the audience to relate better to the essay and the medical terms in it, because the parenthesis offers an explanatory description.  Because the author takes so much care into explaining all of the medical terms and his own purpose, he is able to reach out to the masses. This essay served to inform people of the choices that doctors make but not to influence them necessarily. This means that the author was able to appeal to a broader audience, one that consisted of people who did not know this about doctors. The authors only true purpose in writing was to inform the public that their medicines and other futile treatment that they force doctors to provide to them is not the best solution. I believe that the fact that doctors don't want this treatment themselves proves this point, and that was the entire basis of the author's essay. Therefore, the author served his purpose well.

This woman has made the consious decision to live her life as it lasts and that she does not want to suffer in her last stages. This tattoo was referenced in the discussion of the "no code" situation that many doctors choose to put themselves in.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/gran-has-do-not-resuscitate-tattooed-152251

Essay Number Three "Vanishing Act" by Paul Collins for the Lapham's Quarterly

It's quite funny really, I started reading this essay purely because I opened the book to it's middle pages and read a little. I had no intention of reviewing it whatsoever, but I came to really enjoy it...

Paul Collins often works as a "literary detective" at NPR who uncovers information about lost authors and forgotten old books. It is because of this title that he uncovered the story of Barbara Follett. Collins has written seven books and currently teaches nonfiction at Portland State University. He specializes in historical writings. This particular writing was about the life of the successful child author, Barbara Follett, detailing accounts of her childhood as well as career (which all in all seemed to be the same. She didn't get out much.) Through this essay, Collins served to celebrate the memory of a great success in childhood authoring and to inform the public of her life, both the successes and the failures, the hard times and also the wonderful days that she lived. In addition he serves to offer up ideas on the life of child stars as a whole, analyzing connections between the lives of three major child stars. The author serves this purpose quite well, and I suppose that is what makes the end of the story so interesting, the parallels that the author was able to draw between them. He shows that each one was abandoned by a parent at some age, at which point the child's livelihood and joy began to dwindle. For Zerah Colburn it meant becoming broke and losing not only a father, but a mother as well. For Follett it meant losing the childlike innocence that she previously had, making her work darker and her trust of people almost nonexistent. In addition to proving this connection, the author was indeed able to celebrate the life and work of Barbara Follett by reintroducing her work and story in this essay. In fact, on the comment section of the original publication of this essay, many people inquire about reading her works. The author wanted everyone to be able to connect with Barbara's story and so the article was written in a way that appealed to all people.

This image depicts Follett in a forest, seemingly posing as the character Eepersip from one of her novels. In truth, the picture may depict Follett's desire even at a young age to disappear from the real world, an ominous omen of future events.
This picture was found at http://teenagefilm.com/archives/dear-diary/barbara-newhall-follett-vanished-novelist/

Essay Number Two "The Good Short Life" by Dudley Clendinen for The New York Times Sunday Review

This essay was written directly to people who are facing terminal illnesses. However, its prose speaks greater than that, reaching out to an audience much broader then originally intended. Family members of those with fatal illnesses and everyday readers are dually affected by its words. The essay served to show those living with illnesses that it's okay to not want to be a burden to your family, that it's okay to die but to celebrate life as well. Living while you can is important, but so is knowing when it is okay to die. The essay had such a simple purpose, and yet the author was able to achieve so much more. He says himself that after being on both sides of this situation that he understands the pain and hurt that his loved ones will feel and yet he still knows it is the correct decision. His words offer comfort and understanding to those in his daughter's position as well as to the terminally ill themselves as he speaks of his personal dealings both with disease and life. After watching several family members deal with disease and being diagnosed with ALS, the author began a reflection on life that spurred this essay. In his reflection, the author describes his disease with similes stating, "it looks like the ripple of piano keys in the muscles," and "it feels like anxious butterflies." These two descriptions are among the most powerful in the story because they force vivid images into the brain which immediately build sympathy in the reader. The similes allow those who are not terminally ill to understand the pain that their family member or friend is going through which in turn helps them understand the decision of that person to die. Prior to writing this essay, Clendinen had experience with the terminally ill in the fate of his mother and several other family members. He also had experience with both writing and editing  as he was the senior editor for The Baltimore Sun and a national correspondent/editorial writer for the New York Times.

On another note, I quite liked this essay and found it almost inspiring really.

I believed that this picture and the accompanying quote fit the purpose of this entire essay. The two flowers showed that solidarity is important in the ending stretch of life and the quote really says all that the author meant to say. I found it on this website http://www.firstcovers.com/userquotes/49220/live+your+life+to.html (which is terribly set up and completely unasthetic (ew.) (er, can you use multiple parentheses in another set of parentheses? Is it like math? This is a serious concern.)

Essay Number One "The Bitch Is Back" by Sandra Tsing Loh for The Atlantic.

The essay, "The Bitch Is Back" was written by Sandra Tsing Loh. Loh, a graduate from Caltech often contributes to The Atlantic magazine and graduated from the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California. Loh is the author of several books including, "Aliens In America." She is also a frequent commentator on several radio programs. In this essay on menopause, Loh discusses the physical symptoms, emotional behaviors, and all around insanity that it entails. She also describes preconceived notions about menopause and how for each woman, it is different. after reading several medical books on menopause and a single wonderful one that she could relate to, Loh took it upon herself to write this essay. She experienced personally what menopause was like and felt it necessary to provide real insight on the subject. It was through the use of humorous imagery ("like a fifteen-foot-tall Greek tragic figure..." (218) that Loh keeps readers entertained yet informed, simultaneously. She also utilizes personal anecdotes that allow the audience to relate to what she is talking about, as opposed to the dense material in medical menopause books. Throughout this essay, Loh directs her biting insight on what menopause is REALLY like directly at those who go through it. She even states, “Gentle reader, if you are a female of transitional age...let me be your Virgil to the literature of menopause. Loh writes as a guide through the stages of menopause, serving to inform and comfort along the way. As a woman who is currently going through the stages of menopause Loh can offer women not just a shoulder to lean on, but one to laugh along with as readers connect directly with what is being said. Loh discusses the unjust depiction of menopausal women in books that many women have witnesses, and shares her struggles with weight and new body changes, such as “Hadassah arms” that menopausal women understand and sympathize with. It is because of her ability to openly discuss her own experience with such brazen attitude and abandon that she does serve her purpose well.

This comic represents the menopausal woman as a bat crazy nutcase with severe anger issues. Throughout the essay the quthor discusses the misconception of menopausal women that it demonstrates.
http://www.markwoodcartoonist.myzen.co.uk/menopause1.html