Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Effective Essay Tools

The most important techinque someone can use in their writng would have to be the description details they put in it.  Without such details a reader would become uninterested in the essay and probably quit reading it.  In the essay "There Is a Spitting Tree in Spanish Brooklyn" by Ernesto Mestre-Reed, the author used descripting details to show comparison between his grandfather and a guava tree.  The author said that the grandfather was an expert a spitting-- he would spit anywhere, anytime and when the tree released its fruit they would look as if it spat onto the ground.  I found this humorous in a way because we usually don't compare people to trees in this manner.
In the essay "More Room" by Judith Ortiz Cofer, the author described her grandmother and her childhood.  She was able to put a vivid image of her grandmother's life in the reader's mind.  She described her grandmother as a holy woman, by telling the reader about a crucifix that hung over the grandmother's bed, also the grandmother realized that the only means of birth control available to a Catholic woman of her time was sacrifice and that she did.  She gave up having children to gain control of her life. 
In the essay "Piling on the Cookies" by David Barboza, the author goes to describe the Oreo cookie throughout its manufacturing life.  It gave many factual details and described to the reader the way the cookie has changed since 1912.  It showed the different types throughtout the years and compared them to the bland Oreo.