Analyzing Belinda Luscombe's Essay 'The Last Taboo'

“The Last Taboo” by Belinda Luscombe
Journal # 2

1) Since people in society have endued to make the issues of race, age and religion non-issues, it is time to include physical appearance in this category as well. This is the thesis developed in the essay on relationships “The Last Taboo”. “Your religion is no big deal in the U.S anymore. Neither is marrying someone of completely different generation.” this quote supports the author’s thesis because as she stated before religion and age are non-issues anymore. Another example to support the authors thesis is “

2) In “The Last Taboo” the author emphasizes the thesis through the use of dash and rhetorical questions. “Nobody minds of you date outside your tribe... but - as my brothers and sisters of the gay community have found - there’s a world of difference...” the author puts a dash at the beginning and end of the example of the community to emphasize how physical beauty is the subject of discrimination just as homosexuality is. Another example is “do you and your spouse agree on how many mirrors there should be in the house? What angle they are placed at and how well they are lit?” the author uses rhetorical questions here to emphasize if you disagree on something as shallow as where a mirror is
placed then how do you deal with actual challenges you have to deal with. These two quotes show that the use of the dash and rhetorical question help the author emphasize the thesis in “The Last Taboo”

3) The style of the essay “The Last Taboo” is informal because of the use and 1st person point of view, contractions use and personal evidence being used. The essay is informal because it is in written in 1st person. “I’m talking of course of marriage outside your looks” the word “I’m” is used here which is 1st person therefore proving to be written in first person. “I didn’t mean to intermarry” there is the use of a contraction here “didn’t” which is only used in informal essays, as in this one. The writer has personal evidence throughout the essay unlike a formal essay which wouldn’t have anything personal. “It was just that I was young and naive enough to think that love will conquer all” this is the authors own personal evidence being used which proves it’s an informal essay. These three quotes prove the essay is informal.

“Breaking the Ice” By Dave Barry
Journal #1

1) “Breaking the Ice” is a personal essay as it contains personal experiences and is written in first person.
“I never did this. I know as Eric Knott knows that there was always...” this quote is an example of the essay being in first person as the author uses the word “I” which is done when the point of view being used in first person. A quote that’s an example if there being personal experiences in the essay is “This made for an extraordinary ride for my mother knew her presence was hideously embarrassing”. This quote the author talks about something that happened to him in the past with a girl therefore it being a personal experience. These two quotes prove the essay “Breaking the Ice” is a personal
essay.

2) The method of introduction used in the essay “Breaking the Ice” is unusual detail as the essay begins on dating but the introduction is about a mother fish eating her babies. The introduction starts with a mother fish caring for her eggs never leaving their sides “until her tiny babies emerge and at last she is able to eat them. She may be their mother but she’s still a fish.” this is an unusual detail yet its humorous. This proves the essay method of introduction is unusual detail.

3) In “Breaking the Ice” the audience meant for this essay is teenagers who want to ask someone out yet they are afraid of rejection. “To ask a girl out is to walk directly up to her on foot and say ‘so wana go out? Or what?’ I never did this” this quote proves that the audience is meant for teenagers because this is how most teenagers think and the language used such as “so wana go out? Or what?” adults to talk like this. Another quote that is an example that proves the audience is meant for teenagers is “This made for an extremely quit ride, because my mother realized here presence was hideously embarrassing…” adults can drive themselves unlike teenagers who are under the age of 16. These two quotes help prove the intended audience in the essay “Breaking the Ice” is teenagers.

4) The purpose of the essay “Breaking the Ice” is to entertain. The essay is a humours, and an easy read meant just entertain the one reading through it. A quote from the essay to show its entertaining is “Pick up that phone! Call Phil Grant”. This quote is proves the essay is entertaining because the author is saying call my friend and he will help hook you up with the person you like just like he did with me. The whole time you think the essay is trying to tell you how to be confident and be able to ask someone out by yourself but it’s a joke when he says call my friend to fix your problem.

5) The style of the essay “Breaking the Ice” is informal style because of the use of 1st person point of view, use of contractions, personal evidence used throughout and short sentences. “I never did this. I knew as Eric Knott knows...” this quote shows 1st person point of view through the word “I” is used. ‘’There’s this girl in my English class who is really good-looking.” there is the use of contractions in this quote which is “There’s” another example that the essay is informal. Personal evidence is used in this essay like- “this made for an extremely quit ride, because my mother knew her presence was hideously embarrassing.” This is something that actually happened to the author making it personal. There are as well short simple sentences “Thus is was that, finally, Judy and I went on an actually date, to see a movie in White Plains, New York.” this sentence gets right to the point and is not very long. These four quotes help to prove that this essay is informal through 1st person point of view, use of con tractions, personal evidence used throughout and short sentences.

“Please come for dinner” by Stevie Cameron
Journal #3

1) The author achieves unity in the essay “Please come for dinner” on the topic of compassion through the use of an effective thesis and effective topic sentence at the beginning of body paragraph. An example is “At the coffee hour after the service one Sunday last fall Cameron described a new program the church was undertaking called ‘out in the cold’” this is the topic sentence of the main body paragraph which show compassion achieved through unity because they are being compassionate starting up a program for the homeless people for food and shelter. “As the nights grew colder more and more people came. Soon they started showing up at 3pm and we started opening the doors up earlier” this quote shows compassion because they are opening the doors up earlier so the homeless people are out of the cold and can be in shelter longer. They show kindness and compassion towards these people. These two quotes show that unity is achieved through compassion by topic sentences and the thesis statement.

2) By using transitional terms and pronoun references that the author achieves coherence in “Please come for dinner”. “Today many of us see our friends...” this is an example of a transition term being used at the beginning of the paragraph which is “today”. “When I told him what I had done, he didn’t bat an eye. He said ‘great’” this is an example of the use of pronouns which is in essays which are coherence. These two examples of Transitional terms and pronoun references show that the essay “Please come for dinner” is coherence.

3) Understanding is the tone established by the author in the closing paragraph of “Please come for dinner”. “And the final gift they gave us is that we do not fear them anymore, nor do we avert our eyes” this quote shows understanding in the tone because the people finally understand that they should not fear these homeless people. The homeless people are kind people with good hearts they come to an understanding of this afterwards shown here in the ending when they say they do not fear them nor avert their eyes because they are friends now.

4) ____ is the method of development used by the author in the essay “Please come for dinner”.

“Remembrance” by Timothy Findly
Journal #4

1) The thesis of “Remembrance” is to be more than grateful for the time you had with a loved one who passed away, cherish the moments you had together and be glad you had the time you did have together. The thesis proves that the essay “Remembrance” is an argumentative essay because the author argues on how it’s not enough to just be grateful towards those who have past you need to honor them and be happy for the times you had together. “But I’d be a fool if I was just to say thanks- I’m grateful. I might as well hit him in the mouth.” This quote shows that the author is arguing about how it’s not enough to be so straight faced and say thanks I’m grateful you need to think so much more than that, honor them and cherish times you had with them. “Because my being grateful has nothing to do with he died for or what he died for. That was part of his own life and what I am grateful for is that he had his own life.” this quote shows the author arguing about how you should be grateful for their own life that they had a life and they lived a pretty good one. Be grateful for the time you had not grateful for him dyeing to save his country its good and all and it is thanked upon but to just say I’m grateful is not enough. These two quotes show that the essay is argumentative through the thesis.

2) Para 1 sentence 1:
The effectiveness of this sentence is that it makes you wonder why Remembrance Day is about remembering only the war and dead, it makes you think and gain a different perspective. The makes a statement similar to a rhetorical question to get you thinking why the war is all about the dead and the war dead why do we remember the sadness of war.
Para 4 sentence 1
The effectiveness of this sentence is to remind you to remember the important things even if they are small of the past and what you do with the ones you cherish. It makes you think of things you use to do, you think back to the past.
Para 7 sentence 1
The effectiveness of this sentence is to say yes your grateful for the many things he did and gave up to do his part for the country but you need to be grateful for more than that. It makes you think of different ways you can be grateful for the things you did together in the past.
Para 8 sentence 1
The effectiveness of this sentence is to realize and come to an understanding that remembrances day is so much more than honoring the dead. It’s about honoring the time you had with them and thinking and enjoying moments you got to spend with the one who has past. 3) The sentence is coherence with the essay “Remembrance” because the essay is about being grateful for the time you spent with the one you love and this is a memory of the past the author had with his uncle Tiff. It’s a happy memory that he had a chance to enjoy with his uncle before passing. So the sentence is coherence with the essay the author shares a personal piece of evidence that relates back to the thesis of the essay.

4) The essay “Remembrance” is an informal style because of the use of contractions, first person point of view, personal evidence and short sentences. “Maybe it’s sad – I suppose it is” there is the use of a contraction which is “it’s” an example in informal style essays. The use of first person is another example of an informal essay which is used throughout the essay such as “I like Remembrance Day”. The word “I” is used here which is used in first person point of view. “And high above my head, there was a tall glass jar on a table and the jar was full of hard French candies” this is a personal piece of evidence it was something that happened to the author that he experienced which is found in informal essays. “I know he sacrificed his life for his youth, his health and his country” this quote is short and simple and easy to understand which is found in informal essays such as “Remembrance”. These four quotes prove this essay is written in informal style.