Third Entry

Analysis of Sedaris

In “Me Talk Pretty One Day” David Sedaris writes what some consider a comedic masterpiece. Even though Sedaris is writing for entertainment purposes solely, it follows the rules in Harvey’s book, The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing. Sedaris makes a perfect example in his essay of concision, clarity, and beginnings and endings.
Sedaris doesn’t write in the “pompous style”, as Harvey loves to refer to it, instead he writes very clearly and concisely. There is no ambiguity in any of his sentences that one could take from them. When Sedaris says, “My school is an easy ten-minute walk from my apartment, and on the first day of class I arrived early, watching as the returning students greeted one another in the school lobby.” (Sedaris), it is very concise and to the point. It gets what is needed across to the reader and there is no fat to be cut from it. Whether or not Sedaris produced “a wordy first draft” (Harvey), Sedaris does a good job in making things concise and easy to understand.
While Sedaris does not write for an academic audience, he still makes the effort to make his essay clear. Harvey states, “A general audience, for instance, needs more background and explanation...”. A common reader does not know all there is to know about one thing. Sedaris helps people out by saying, “I’ve spent quite a few summers in Normandy, and I took a monthlong French class before leaving New York”. Unless you stalk Sedaris and research all about him, you probably wouldn’t have known that. Without this sentence, the reader wouldn’t have a general idea about how much french Sedaris has taken. Sedaris also makes it clear when his french professor uses a word that he does not understand by putting in something like this “meimslsxp”. Of course the word is neither english nor french. He makes it obvious that he doesn’t understand everything that is said by saying, “I’m not completely in the dark, yet I understood only half of what this woman was saying.” (Sedaris). Sedaris’ clarity makes the essay easy to understand and helps make it more comedic.

One of the things that drew me into this essay was the opening paragraph. Harvey says, “The beginning grabs the reader’s attention, prepares a context...”. Sedaris does this beautifully in his opening paragraph. It starts out as “At the age of forty-one, I am returning to school” (Sedaris). This gives me the context of the essay. He draws me in by saying “... a far-flung amusement park that advertises with billboards picturing a cartoon stegosaurus sitting in a canoe and eating what appears to be a ham sandwich” (Sedaris). This is quite a way to draw someone in. Rarely, if ever, has someone used the words “stegosaurus sitting in a canoe”. This immediately gives the essay a comedic feel, which will draw the reader in further. Instead of ending it on a boring note, like “in conclusion” or “in summary”, Sedaris ends it on a comedic note, just how he began. Sedaris ends with him saying that he can now understand french, but that doesn’t mean he can speak it. The lasts words are poorly put together words in french to prove that point, that he still has not mastered it. The beginnings and endings are one of myriad things that make this essay a great read.

“Me Talk Pretty One Day”, is very well written, following the rules of The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing. It uses concision, clarity, and interesting beginnings and endings, all to make this awesome essay. Although in the essay Sedaris doesn’t learn to talk pretty, I am sure that he does.