8-4 Summative Assessment Part Two Critical Analysis Essay PDF

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Me Talk Pretty One Day Article Analysis

“Me Talk Pretty One Day Article Analysis” Veronica Chamberland Southern New Hampshire University

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ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY ARTICLE ANALYSIS

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“Me Talk Pretty One Day” by David Sedaris teaches others what it is like to be a 41-yearold, non-traditional French class student in college. His essay is casual, very easy to read, and relatable. He claims that he had to overcome challenges and obstacles to achieve his educational goal of learning French. He decides not to give up, overcomes his obstacles, and enjoys the satisfaction of doing so. Sedaris's main claim that learning isn't easy and requires overcoming challenges and obstacles is well argued because he uses personal stories and experiences, and uses humor to engage and relate to his target audience. One way in which Sedaris convinces his audience is by talking about how one of the challenges he had to overcome were his insecurities. With Sedaris being a middle-aged man, he feels old, scared, unattractive, not very well dressed, and intimidated by other students’ confidence. Sedaris compares himself to Pa Kettle, “As an added discomfort, they were all young, attractive, and well dressed, causing me to feel not unlike Pa Kettle trapped backstage after a fashion show” showing how he feels out of place and not quite fitting in [ CITATION Sed99 \l 1033 ]. Starting an educational goal at his age was an insecurity he must overcome. In addition to dealing with his insecurities, Sedaris had to face not only his classmates, but his teacher as well. Sedaris also convinces his readers of how challenging achieving your educational goals can be by describing his teacher as very harsh and unsupportive. She would constantly belittle him and his classmates. At one-point, Sedaris’s teacher goes as far as telling him ‘“I hate you. I really, really hate you”’[ CITATION Sed99 \l 1033 ]. The teacher regularly emphasizes his lack of understanding and scorns him. Rather than showing frustration with the teacher’s behavior, he creates words as a coping mechanism when he doesn’t understand what she says. While dealing with his insecurities and his teacher, Sedaris realizes that he is not alone.

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Furthermore, Sedaris describes how his only comfort was knowing that he wasn’t alone and shares conversations he had with other students in order to convince his readers. One of his classmates admits to “the Sometimes me cry alone at night” [ CITATION Sed99 \l 1033 ]. It is then when Sedaris realizes that others must overcome their insecurities too. Right when he thought that he would never improve, he was able to understand every word that his teacher said. This was the moment when he started to enjoy the satisfying rewards of overcoming his challenges while learning French such as bonding with classmates and finally understanding every word anyone said. Throughout all his ups and downs, Sedaris manages to engage his audience with humor in every personal story and experience he shares. Sedaris shows humor on his work from beginning to end. With the quote “After paying my tuition, I was issued a student ID, which allows me a discounted entry fee at movie theaters, puppet shows, and Festyland, a far-flung amusement park…” he shows humor by describing how all the perks he gets are not age appropriate [ CITATION Sed99 \l 1033 ]. Also, he was able to compare how he was feeling twice as scared and nervous about taking on this journey when he reminisces about a time, when he was scared about a failed nursing student injecting him with horse tranquilizer. A very good example of his humor is when the teacher emphasizes his lack of understanding and scorns him when she says ‘“Were you always this palicmkrexjs?” she asked. “Even a fiuscrzsws tociwegixp knows that a typewriter is feminine.”’ [ CITATION Sed99 \l 1033 ]. By talking about his very unsupportive teacher, not only does he share a personal experience to draw his audience in but also uses sense of humor. Sedaris’s sense of humor affects his audience in different ways. His humor helps his readers connect to the story, making it more personal and relatable. When someone is in the process of learning a new language, words they do not understand or have not yet learned sound

ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY ARTICLE ANALYSIS

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like gibberish. Sedaris finds himself in a similar situation when his teacher said ‘“If you have not meismslsxp by this time, you should not be in this room. Has everybody apzkiubjxow?”’ [ CITATION Sed99 \l 1033 ]. The words he does not understand blend together to make an alphabet smoothie. This strange but funny thing also occurs when people try speaking a foreign language. People tend to translate sentences by rearranging the order of the words, misusing verb conjugations as a result. When Sedaris finally clearly heard and understood every word his teacher told him, he said ‘“I know the thing what you speak exact now. Talk me more, plus, please, plus.”’ [ CITATION Sed99 \l 1033 ]. His French was still broken, but his confidence and excitement spoke louder than his mistakes. Sedaris’ ability to not only be vulnerable with his audience but to add elements of humor within that allow readers to feel closer to his story and to him as a person. Sedaris's use of personal examples, experiences, and his sense of humor convince his audience because they can relate to his challenges and obstacles and his sense of humor engages them. At the start, Sedaris felt insecure and unmotivated until he shared similar experiences with his peers to reach his goals. This made him realize that he was not alone in his journey. Every situation has a bright side, one simply must find it. To conclude, a great deal can be learned about critical thinking, analysis and revision when writing one’s own work and analyzing someone else’s. When writing one’s own work, there can never be too much revision or feedback. There is always a way to improve one’s work and make it better. When analyzing someone else’s work, one thing that can be taken away from critical thinking is the importance and relevance of arguments and ideas as well as the reflection of one’s assumptions, values, and beliefs.

ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY ARTICLE ANALYSIS References Sedaris, D. (1999). Me Talk Pretty One Day. Esquire, 131(3), 86

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