Evaluation concepts and applications

¶ … entertaining style while at the same time not really making light of the situation. The author struck a nice balance between keeping the essay moving and almost humorous, but he still makes it clear that his attitude regarding cell phones is very real and somewhat serious. Another good balance found in the essay is between logic and emotion. In talking about the cell phone issue, Jonathan Rowe lays out a clear and rational argument for why cell phones should not be used as intrusively as they are, while at the same time making his frustration and the other emotional changes that cell phones have brought to humanity very palpable to the reader. Rowe's ability to cover all the areas of the issue makes this essay very effective in getting his point across; his tone is incredibly well balanced, which makes it much more persuasive than an argument with a single perspective.

God's Lonely Man

This article about Johnny Cash started out fairly promising, but quickly became rather boring. The various thoughts that the author had regarding Cash often seemed disjointed, and there was not a clear pattern or focus to the article. Though the details about Cash's life and the unique politicization of his songs was interesting, the method of the information's presentation in this article was not. A more focused article that dealt explicitly with one or two aspects of Cash's life would have made for a better read. It seemed as though Francis Davis was really attempting to write a full biography of the music legend in the space of a magazine article, and it ended up being spread all over the place instead of telling a concise, well-focused story.

She: Portrait of the Essay as a Warm Body

This essay (if the author would call it an essay rather than an article or tract) is very eloquent. At times, the language was a little too academic for my liking; I think the same basic points could have been made more persuasively using more common language. But that issue aside, this piece says a lot of interesting things about writing in general, and not just about writing essays. Cynthia Ozick's vies on poetry and novels, and the ways in which these intersect with and diverge from the writing that takes place in essays, are clearly laid out. These descriptions that Ozick gives of other forms of writing really help to make her definition of an essay stand out clearly. In addition, her use of examples from famous essayists of the past and the imagery she manages to incorporate make her meaning quite clear despite the obfuscation created by her dedication to an academic tone and over-use of unnecessarily large words.

A Letter from the Clergy