Comparison and Other Modes of Writing Used by Annie Dillard
English 1A, Section 5400
Writing Assignment #2
25/2/2014
Final Draft
Comparison and Other Modes of Writing Used by Annie Dillard Though most people don't have this advantage, Annie Dillard uses her skills as a reader to improve her writing in the moth essay from her book “Holy The Firm”. Dillard uses comparison and several other modes of writing to convey and support the main point and purpose of her essay; some of the other modes Dillard uses are: narration, description, argument, and process analysis. Dillard uses narrative writing throughout most of her moth essay. Narrative writing tells a story. “In a narrative events must be told or shown in some orderly sequence (the plot), by a particular person (the narrator), from a particular perspective (the point of view), and within a definite time and place (the setting)” (Cooley 123). Dillard uses narrative writing successfully throughout her essay. One example of Dillard's use of narrative comes from the middle of her moth essay. A golden female moth, a biggish one with a two-inch wingspan, flapped into the fire, dropped her abdomen into the wet wax, stuck, flamed, frazzled and fried in a second. Her moving wings ignited like tissue paper, enlarging the circle of light in the clearing and creating out of the darkness the sudden blue sleeves of my sweater, the green leaves of jewel-weed by my side, the ragged red trunk of a pine. At once the light contracted again and the moth's wings vanished in a fine, foul smoke. (Dillard 6).
Dillard demonstrates use of narrative in this paragraph by providing a plot, a moth flying into a candle and lighting up the clearing. Dillard (the narrator) writes from her perspective (the point of view) and tells us that the setting is in a clearing at night. The above paragraph is also an example of objective description and process analysis. When you describe something objectively, you describe it based on facts such as 'a two-inch wingspan' . When you describe
Writing Assignment #2
25/2/2014
Final Draft
Comparison and Other Modes of Writing Used by Annie Dillard Though most people don't have this advantage, Annie Dillard uses her skills as a reader to improve her writing in the moth essay from her book “Holy The Firm”. Dillard uses comparison and several other modes of writing to convey and support the main point and purpose of her essay; some of the other modes Dillard uses are: narration, description, argument, and process analysis. Dillard uses narrative writing throughout most of her moth essay. Narrative writing tells a story. “In a narrative events must be told or shown in some orderly sequence (the plot), by a particular person (the narrator), from a particular perspective (the point of view), and within a definite time and place (the setting)” (Cooley 123). Dillard uses narrative writing successfully throughout her essay. One example of Dillard's use of narrative comes from the middle of her moth essay. A golden female moth, a biggish one with a two-inch wingspan, flapped into the fire, dropped her abdomen into the wet wax, stuck, flamed, frazzled and fried in a second. Her moving wings ignited like tissue paper, enlarging the circle of light in the clearing and creating out of the darkness the sudden blue sleeves of my sweater, the green leaves of jewel-weed by my side, the ragged red trunk of a pine. At once the light contracted again and the moth's wings vanished in a fine, foul smoke. (Dillard 6).
Dillard demonstrates use of narrative in this paragraph by providing a plot, a moth flying into a candle and lighting up the clearing. Dillard (the narrator) writes from her perspective (the point of view) and tells us that the setting is in a clearing at night. The above paragraph is also an example of objective description and process analysis. When you describe something objectively, you describe it based on facts such as 'a two-inch wingspan' . When you describe