Grant and Lee: A Study

¶ … Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts,' author Bruce Catton uses the block method to make his point. Instead of going back and forth a great deal and making each separate point about the differences between the two men, he chooses instead to talk for a while about Grant, and then switch and talk for a while about Lee. While he does make separate points in his paragraphs about each individual man, his style is much closer to block style than it is to point-by-point.

The main thesis of the essay is that Grant and Lee were very different in everything that they had grown up with and how they had gotten to their respective positions, but that they both were true and excellent fighters, and that was their one main similarity. Catton made the argument very effectively by talking about the background of each man and giving a strong understanding of how different they really were, which was important to prove his point.

Toward the last of the essay, he tied it all together with the similarities between the two men, in order to make sure that his point was understood. I liked the essay because it read more like a story than a textbook, which is not what one usually expects when it comes to history. It was interesting and refreshing while at the same time providing a lot of information. In Margaret Atwood's 'The Female Body,' the style is point-to-point as opposed to block.

This is evidenced by the way that Atwood talks about the female body being one thing and then goes on to say it is another and another. The thesis of this piece of writing is to show that women are seen as so many different things in our culture. It is somewhat hard to understand that from the writing, though, because it seems to be nonsensical at times and confusing. The argument lacks clearer information and is too abstract to follow it comfortably.

Although I understood what Atwood was trying to say, I did not really like this essay that much because it seemed like it did not really have that much of a point or that much significance - there was no substance to it. Undoubtedly, there would be many people that would enjoy the essay and find it very interesting, and it is interesting, but it is hard to follow what Atwood is really trying to say.

Without the lead-in to the essay that talks about what Atwood is trying to say, I am unsure as to whether I would have been able to say exactly what Atwood was trying to indicate about the female body. Once it was pointed out, the essay made more sense to me and I understood, but still did not really enjoy the essay. Russell Baker's essay 'School vs. Education' appears to use a combination of the block and point-by-point methods.

He talks about school and about education, switching back and forth, but the blocks about these things are short, and he works to make quick points about how school and education are not the same. The thesis of the essay revolves around this concept of school and education being different, and Baker is very good at making his argument.

School does often involve telling those that test students what they want to hear, while education comes from actually learning something, not just remembering it long enough to pass a test on it. Many people do not understand this distinction in school, but when they get into the 'real world' they will often discover it.

I liked this essay a lot because it was very true to life, and because Baker was not afraid to say what he thought about the issue instead of trying to make sure that he kept everyone who read the essay happy with his beliefs. Since he was not trying to please everyone, his honesty came through and was quite valuable. Men and Women Talking on the Job' was written by Deborah Tannen and deals with differences in communication between the genders. It is written in the block style.

The main thesis of the essay is that men and women have very different communication styles and this often leads to problems and misunderstandings. The author makes her point very well, and the way that she does this is by story-telling. Whether these stories are fictional or real does not really matter, because they are well-written and very important to getting her point across.

In these stories, she shows how much difference there is between the communication styles of males and females, and how quickly problems can arise if people with different styles begin to talk to one another. Especially if these same people argue about something, there can be many problems with understanding what one person is trying to get across, because the other person would not argue in the same way.

Tannen makes her argument very effectively by using these stories and examples instead of just talking about communication and what differences can be seen between men and women. She also adds credibility to her argument by saying that not all men and women fit the typical patterns of communication for their genders.