Summer Blog #3

    In the essay “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” David Sedaris writes about his school in France and the difficulties of learning the language. He writes very well, but does not follow all of the guidelines for college writing. Sedaris uses plain style like The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing suggests, but he doesn’t focus on a main thesis for the paper.

    The language in “Me Talk Pretty One Day” is easy to understand, like Nuts and Bolts suggests. In the essay, Sedaris goes off to school to learn French, but faces many difficulties. He notices improvement by the end of the essay, and hopes that one day, he will master French. Even though in the essay Sedaris tries to prove to his teacher that he is smart, he doesn’t try to seem smart with his language for the essay. Therefore, the ideas in the essay aren’t clouded. He states plainly that “I’ve moved to Paris with hopes of learning the language,” and he also describes his teacher by comparing her to a wild animal so that the readers understand his challenges. The clear language allows the reader to understand the essay and experience all the things that happened in the story.

    Since “Me Talk Pretty One Day” isn’t a college essay, it doesn’t follow all of the rules in Nuts and Bolts, like talking in first person and not sticking to a thesis. The point of the essay is to tell a story about Sedaris’s experience in France at school, not to prove a claim. So, it only makes sense to write the essay in first person. He also wants to entertain the audience more than a college essay would. Sedaris describes the school and the city in more detail, and explains how many different nationalities that are much younger than him are gathered to learn. This adds more depth to the story, since the readers now know that Sedaris has to perform at a very high level to keep up with the other students even before the teacher is introduced. This style may not be fitting for a college essay, but Sedaris uses it well to tell a personal story.

    The Nuts and Bolts of college writing provides very useful writing tips that can also be used in other types of writing. However, it is okay to bend the rules when the essay isn’t meant to persuade the audience or prove a point.