Graf # 14: Sample Contrast Essays Reaction
I didn't realize that I hadn't posted this. So sorry.
I have to tell you, it's hard for me to get into this essay. Comparison seems to insinuate that there's one of two that's better than the other one of two. People seem to be the most logical to compare but I can't imagine doing that and posting it for the world to see. My comparisons of people, when they happen at all are personal -- mental notes that get filed away, not essays. That's a very personal feeling based on my very personal experience. It is in no way a judgement, just good risk management for me.
So, I read the essays trying only to regard the writing, leaving the opinion out of it. I never know how you want me to respond to these things. Am I meant to comment on the writing or on the written word? What is my opinion? It's nothing. Would I read it if it weren't assigned? Most, likely not. The subject matter has to be of interest or the writing so fired up strong that it livens the subject. But my opinion is nothing. Even when I like the writing I can't analyze why. Either it touches or it doesn't.
I liked the dancing words of the Swanville meeting people. I could see the characters and it had a taste of Maine, which, to someone "from away", is most delectable.
Now, let's go attact that contrast, shall we?
I have to tell you, it's hard for me to get into this essay. Comparison seems to insinuate that there's one of two that's better than the other one of two. People seem to be the most logical to compare but I can't imagine doing that and posting it for the world to see. My comparisons of people, when they happen at all are personal -- mental notes that get filed away, not essays. That's a very personal feeling based on my very personal experience. It is in no way a judgement, just good risk management for me.
So, I read the essays trying only to regard the writing, leaving the opinion out of it. I never know how you want me to respond to these things. Am I meant to comment on the writing or on the written word? What is my opinion? It's nothing. Would I read it if it weren't assigned? Most, likely not. The subject matter has to be of interest or the writing so fired up strong that it livens the subject. But my opinion is nothing. Even when I like the writing I can't analyze why. Either it touches or it doesn't.
I liked the dancing words of the Swanville meeting people. I could see the characters and it had a taste of Maine, which, to someone "from away", is most delectable.
Now, let's go attact that contrast, shall we?
posted by millay at 11:59 PM
3 Comments:
Well, when I want a reaction (apart from just being a sneaky way to get students to read samples without giving a pop quiz the next day) I want exactly the sort of fruitful confusion, stress, candor, and personality that you give us so generously.
Comparison for Engteaches just means looking at similarities, as opposed to differences. Some of the best ones I've ever got I can't post because they frankly compare things like vehicles and the human body or making love to a football game. Mercy! Am I even allowed to say that much?
In any case there is no necessary pejorative tinge--no this-is-better-than-that to any of these essays. So, how's that contrast of your two sons going--from what I read you were hitting different-than and avoiding the better-than completely.
did that work?
Heck, I wrote you a mini essay and it's gone gone gone--you didn't get some kind of notification with the comment on it?
I said something like this: your comment on the contrast essays is just the mix of candor, confusion, consideration, and thought that it's too much to expect but that I eternally hope for.
Essays that compare or contrast don't have to have pejorative connotations--look no further than the contrast fragment you showed me: Aska and Hagen are different-than, you say, without one or the other being better-than.
Oh, there were 15 or 20 more grafs in my comment--the real deep good stuff. It's out in cyberspace right now edifying the critters in Alpha Centauri and still heading for the edges of the known cosmos.
Post a Comment
<< Home