Positive Effect of Taking Vitamins

¶ … Positive Effect of Taking Vitamins" and the narrative essay applying for a baseball scholarship show two different approaches to writing. The narrative essay is personal and uses the first person "I" to discuss my baseball career. Although the essay has a clear thesis related to the value of hard work in determining a person's success, the main gist of the scholarship narrative was to reveal my personal philosophy toward playing sports. The expository essay on taking daily vitamins has a more academic tone than the narrative and is therefore written in the third person. As an informative piece of writing, the essay on taking daily vitamins has a clear thesis that is supported by specific references to research reports on nutrition. The two essays are excellent examples of how I can change my tone, style, and diction to suit the needs of a piece of writing. Depending on the intended audience and the purpose of the paper, I can change my approach without sacrificing proper grammar and sound organization.

The paper on the positive effects of taking vitamins is organized to best convey the central ideas contained in the thesis statement, which reads, "The unscientific idea that consuming a diet which is proper and balanced would assure liberty from deficiencies relating to nutrition has given way to a new concept in mainstream medical science of daily vitamin intake for evading the risk of onset of serious chronic diseases - the view which is also reinforced by genetic nutrition or nutrigenomics." After a brief introduction, the first main section of the paper is on "Why Vitamins are Indispensable." That section includes information about specific groups of vitamins, and the information contained in the section is also backed by references to scientific research. Following the "Why Vitamins are Indispensable" section I included examples and observations documented in scientific literature on nutrition. Finally, I included a section on the role of vitamins in reducing health problems, which pertains directly to the thesis statement in the introduction. The role of vitamins in reducing health problems also serves as a conclusion to wrap up the paper and solidify its central ideas. Throughout the paper on vitamins I used appropriate transitions between paragraphs such as "Besides," and "Another example..." Transitions like these help enhance the flow of the writing and makes the paper easier to read. Although some of its diction and grammar could be cleaned up, "For the Positive Effect of Taking Vitamins" is a strong and concise piece of academic writing that met the original requirements of the assignment.

Using a wholly different tone and style, I wrote a narrative essay about my experiences receiving a full sports scholarship, its effects on my career, and my views toward hard work in athletics. After a brief but catchy introduction, I presented some background information showing why I became interested in baseball in the first place. I described my father's baseball career and noted how his coaching helped me attain the level of athletic prowess I did during high school. I noted also how hard work pays off: which is the central idea or thesis of the narrative essay. Because a narrative essay is by definition less formal than an expository one, the baseball scholarship piece is not as structured or divided into sub-sections. However, I do use transitions between paragraphs in the form of clauses like "Before I stepped up my training..." Those clauses helped enhance the flow of the narrative in the same way transitional words and phrases helped the flow of writing in the vitamin essay.

In the sports narrative, I also employed stylistic techniques that would have not worked in an academic essay like the one on vitamins and health. For example, in one paragraph I used a series of parallelisms that serve as a literary device such as those used by poets: "I started to lift weights and train rigorously. I watched what I ate. I also watched my favorite pitchers for inspiration, tips, and ideas. I read about baseball. I threw and threw until my arm hurt. I caught and caught. I worked out daily and practiced incessantly. I was obsessed and to a great degree, I still am." The repetition of the word "I" at the start of each sentence in that paragraph emphasizes the subject matter in that passage and changes the rhythm of the writing. To include such stylistic elements into an academic essay like the one on vitamins would have been inappropriate. Instead, the vitamin essay must be purely factual, slightly dry but still interesting and informative for the reader.