Zero
01-22-2006, 10:17 PM
So basically I had to read this horrible, boring, narrative essay. I then had to answer the three "questions of meaning" after it. I'm not going to post the questions, you should be able to figure out the questions. The last part (re-write) wasn't required or even asked for. I just wrote it to show how I didn't mind wasting a little time considering I had just done so with the rest of the homework. Now I'm going to waste some of the world's time. Read it.
1:) My first impression was excitement. Finally, something besides incessant, redundant rambling was on the verge of happening. I hadn't sensed this coming, pretty much because paragraph after paragraph leading up to the abrupt change was basically the same ideas restated with new examples. I didn't count on this writer changing it up, although I was hoping he would. The effect of the dramatic ending to a “rather upbeat essay” was disappointing. Never would I have expected a writer of this caliber to write something so in depth and detail to say so little.
2:) What the writer appreciated about the lake hadn't changed. The changes were very minor, insignificant, and took very little away from what he loved about his experiences there.
3:) I don't think White clearly alludes that his father is either dead or alive. He could very well be alive, but could also be dead; the essay doesn't rule out either. I really don't think his father being alive or dead would change his love for the lake or the comparison of his relationship and experiences with his father, to those of his son. I can't answer the last question because I don't detect a “sudden thought of death.” Writing about a storm or his son getting his groin cold doesn't throw up a death flag to me.
My (short) re-write of this essay, 1/10th of the size, but it says the exact same thing.
Every summer as a child, my family went to a secluded lake in Maine for the entire month of August. I loved the smells, sights, and sounds of the area. The area was so peaceful that it was almost supernatural. I hadn't been back to lake since I had grown up and had a family my own, but I decided to take my 8 year old son to the lake one summer for a week of fishing and camping. As soon as I arrived at the lake, I realized nothing had changed drastically. Even some of the minor details that could easily change had remained the same. The only differences were slight technological and social changes. I still loved this place. I soon saw great similarities between my relationship with my son, and the relationship that I had with my dad when we came to the lake. I remember all of our stories and experiences. One experience I remember was the way people would still swim and joke despite rain. I was experiencing this again as it rained. My son grabbed his swimming trunks from the line where they where hanging in the cold storm's rain. He then pulled the swimwear up to proper wearing height, and I could almost feel the cold sensation that he experienced.
1:) My first impression was excitement. Finally, something besides incessant, redundant rambling was on the verge of happening. I hadn't sensed this coming, pretty much because paragraph after paragraph leading up to the abrupt change was basically the same ideas restated with new examples. I didn't count on this writer changing it up, although I was hoping he would. The effect of the dramatic ending to a “rather upbeat essay” was disappointing. Never would I have expected a writer of this caliber to write something so in depth and detail to say so little.
2:) What the writer appreciated about the lake hadn't changed. The changes were very minor, insignificant, and took very little away from what he loved about his experiences there.
3:) I don't think White clearly alludes that his father is either dead or alive. He could very well be alive, but could also be dead; the essay doesn't rule out either. I really don't think his father being alive or dead would change his love for the lake or the comparison of his relationship and experiences with his father, to those of his son. I can't answer the last question because I don't detect a “sudden thought of death.” Writing about a storm or his son getting his groin cold doesn't throw up a death flag to me.
My (short) re-write of this essay, 1/10th of the size, but it says the exact same thing.
Every summer as a child, my family went to a secluded lake in Maine for the entire month of August. I loved the smells, sights, and sounds of the area. The area was so peaceful that it was almost supernatural. I hadn't been back to lake since I had grown up and had a family my own, but I decided to take my 8 year old son to the lake one summer for a week of fishing and camping. As soon as I arrived at the lake, I realized nothing had changed drastically. Even some of the minor details that could easily change had remained the same. The only differences were slight technological and social changes. I still loved this place. I soon saw great similarities between my relationship with my son, and the relationship that I had with my dad when we came to the lake. I remember all of our stories and experiences. One experience I remember was the way people would still swim and joke despite rain. I was experiencing this again as it rained. My son grabbed his swimming trunks from the line where they where hanging in the cold storm's rain. He then pulled the swimwear up to proper wearing height, and I could almost feel the cold sensation that he experienced.