One of the aspects of David Sedaris‘ essay that you examined yesterday was his movement from summary to scene and vice versa. The first of those occurs with these words of his teacher’s: “If you have not meimslsxp or lpgpdmurct by this time, then you should not be in this room” (par. 4). Sedaris alternates summary and scene throughout his essay. As you begin planning and drafting your own literacy narrative tomorrow in class–and as you continue to write–look back at “Me Talk Pretty One Day” and note how Sedaris uses summary and scene as building blocks.
You also identified Sedaris’ use of similes, metaphors, and hyperboles, including these:
- David Sedaris employs a simile when he describes himself as “not unlike Pa Kettle trapped backstage at a fashion show” (par. 3).
- Sedaris fashions a metaphor with the words “everybody into the language pool, sink or swim” (par. 4).
- The essay “Me Talk Pretty One Day” features the hyperbole “front teeth the size of tombstones” (par. 7).
- David Sedaris uses a simile when he writes that one classmate’s introduction sounds “like a translation of one of those Playmate of the Month data sheets” (par. 10).
- The author of “Me Talk Pretty One Day” turns to hyperbole when writes, “The teacher killed some time accusing the Yugoslavian girl of masterminding a program of genocide” (par. 14).
- Sedaris’ teacher insults him with a simile when she remarks, “”Everyday spent with you is like having a cesarean section'” (par. 27).
The bulleted sentences above follow the format that you should follow in your group exercises that require quotations. These are the specific guidelines to remember:
- The answer should be a minimum of one sentence. It need not be a long sentence, but it should include concrete detail.
- The sentence should not begin with a quotation. Though journalists, fiction writers, and memoirists sometimes begin sentences with quotations, in academic writing, quotations are introduced with signal phrases.
- Do not foreground the paragraph or page number in a sentence. The most important feature of the sentence is the writer’s particular use of words. The page or paragraph number follows in the parenthetical citation.
Work Cited
Sedaris, David. “Me Talk Pretty One Day.” Me Talk Pretty One Day. Little Brown, 2000. pp. 166-73.
“What’s in a Name” Follow-Up
Friday’s blog entry offered a bonus assignment credit to any student who posted a response that identified the classmates whose names are also common nouns, which makes them playable Scrabble words.
Kudos to Annaliese Abboud, Cameron Anderson, Haven Tucker, and Bailey Upchurch for correctly identifying playables names.
Below are the complete lists of the students in sections 8 and 18 with playable names. Their playable names appear in boldface type.
Section 8
- Gi (a white garment worn in martial arts) Amitrano
- Aly Deters (to discourage)
- Calla (a tropical plant) Dickey* (a blouse front)
- Amanda Franco (a monetary unit of Equatorial Guinea)
- Chloe Freeman (a free person)
- Raven (a large black bird) Houston
- Campbell Nelson (a wrestling hold)
*Calla Dickey is no longer enrolled in section 8; she remains in the list because her first and last names offer opportunities for learning additional playable words.
Section 18
- Adrienne and Kamauri Brown (a color created by mixing all three primary colors: red, yellow, and blue)
- Grayson Crouch (to stoop)
- Garrett Hickey (a scar, especially one caused by a love bite)
- Heloise Richer (the comparative form of rich)
- Haven (a shelter) Tucker (to tire)
- Bailey (an outer castle wall) Upchurch
For their efforts, Annaliese, Cameron, Haven, and Bailey will receive a bonus assignment credit in the short assignments (course work) category
I may offer additional bonus assignments, so be on the lookout for those. Reading all of the notes that I post for you here, on my blog, will ensure that you don’t miss those opportunities.
Next Up
In class tomorrow, you will begin drafting your first major writing assignment longhand. The assignment, a literacy narrative, is an account of a learning experience involving reading, writing, or learning to speak a language. As part of your prewriting process, look back at “Me Talk Pretty One Day” and consider how you might incorporate into your own essay some of the same elements that David Sedaris includes in his.
Jane Lucas 