Second Edition Essays Thought and Style Brian John Kellow Krisak Prentice Hall Ginn Canada Scarborough, Ontario‘on Da} in publicaio” Z ing i Canadian Catalo itle: Main entry under © : ey ! yet Essays : thought and sty . "i \ ded. t - ISBN 0-13-378225-5 ~ seondan eget Readers—Essays. 2. Re: ” ' acl 0h a ta. , 3. English essays : 7 Kellow Brian. “I. Kris ; ‘ I Kellow, 4 Gee é PE1421.E77 1995 . \ ; © 1996 by Prentice h = Jinn Canad: ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Pearson Education in an No part of this book may be reproduced in : wet in writing from the publishers. Prentice-Hall, ic, Englewood Cliffs, ea Prentice-Hall Internatior Inc., Londor Prentice-Hall of Austra’.., Pty., Ltd., Sy Prentice-Hall of India Pvt., Ltd., New D. Prentice-Hall of Japan, Inc., Tokyo RE Prentice-Hall of Southeast Asia (TE) Ltd., vingapor 4 Editora Prentice-Hall do Brasil Ltda., Rio de Jane ul Prentice-Hall Hispanoamericana, S.A., Mexico ISBN 0-13-3 78225-5 Publisher: Donna MacCallum Managing Editor; Linda McGuire itor: Karen Alliston ; Production Co-ordinators: Stephanie Cox and Rose Marie Walsh } Director: Alex Li Cover and Interior Design: Anne Goodes Cover and Interior Photos: Ron Fehling

expansion of the idea of class to include gend d eet civ fon gender and race follows logi- ly from her anecdotes about herself, the husb: i cessful black journalist. This is a pivot See ee focu is a pivotal moment, for it enables her to s now on the role of women in particular. (Carol Shields uses the same aj hi : with a general idea and, mid pproach in her essay. She begins aspect of it. This meee through, zeroes in on one particular hace om the general to the particular is one this anthology, for i eveloping a thesis. Many of the essays in Steinem looks at ee le, work in quite the opposite direction.) and claims with approv. ae rent thinking of the women’s movement, ae paragraph 7 that “we ; il at just when her readers oe cone a begun to challenge elves on the back) Steinem raises i ing this (practically patting e stakes again: just how ef- pretati 256» oo .. fectively are we thinking about future planning> venders to think, and now asks us to think ie ee Ga & ; challenges us to consider the necessary, practical steps to aes from here. Then in paragraph 9 she clarifies her approach by warn ing us of the dangers of imitating the “culturally masculine” approach to time. This leads to her next paragraph, in which she arrives at a pos- itive evaluation of both approaches, and a deeper look at our human experience of living in time. In all of this Steinem has not cited any statistics, or quoted any authoritative sources. In order to support her argument she has relied on personal anecdote, informed observation, and her own critical evaluation of what she sees around her. Her readers have been called upon to empathize, accept, perceive, reconsider, think more pro- foundly, act. Steinem has travelled quite a distance from her opening statements. In a few short paragraphs she has expanded, complicated, clarified, and deepened the issue at hand. It is useful to map out the structure of a good essay. We are not necessarily aware of “structure” when reading an essay that compels us: the effect is of an effortless flow of ideas forming a satisfying whole. To go back and analyze its structure is to unearth the blue- print, and so to understand better what the author did to make it all look so easy. Construct an outline for each of the essays you have chosen. Note how the author builds his or her argument. Look for the different ways the thesis is supported, and how the level of thought develops, There are a number of approaches to stucturing one’s ideas; the ones you will reveal for yourself here will give you an idea of some possibilities. Conclusion The conclusion of an essay should, of course, follow logically from the preceding argument. It should’sum up, reiterate, even expand the view—or in a final fluorish, offer a last twist on it. It should make judgments that carry weight and offer insights that reflect an original way of looking at things. How closely should the conclusion correspond to the introduc- tion? Look back at your chosen group of essays and compare their respective introductions and conclusions. The conclusions of the more formal essays troductions in an expanded context or at a deeper level. For tend to reassert the in- example, 257consider the introduction and conclusion of Adrienne Shadd’s essa “|nstitutionalized Racism and Canadian History” (p. 183). Shadd states her thesis clearly, right at the beginning. She then goes on to support and develop it through an interweaving of personal experience and historical fact. Shadd’s conclusion reiterates her original premise, but with all the force of persuasion she has accumulated through the course of building her argument. This classic structure is like a well- built house: strong and cohesive? In other essays the conclusions echo the introductions in quite al- tered contexts. Here the author's path twists and turns and develops quite beyond the opening statement. For example, look at Annie Dillard’s “Living Like Weasels” (p. 15). She begins her first para- graph with the deceptively obvious statement, “A weasel is wild,” and goes on to describe the habits of the weasel. It’s all quite straightfor- ward. Now read the conclusion, and see to what reflective lengths this creature has taken the author, Although the seeds of the conclu- sion are con, ned in the introduction (see what Dillard does with the simple ob. ervation, “obedient to instinct”), the author's path is unexpected. The progress of her thought is seemingly loose and twist- ing, but it is logically coherent. She has travelled far afield, but she has kept the thread unbroken. Now compare Steinem’s introduction and conclusion. Let us con- sider her conclusion as comprising the last two paragraphs. How ddes she go from +r first line (and thesis statement): “Planning ahead is a measure of- “to “And time is all there is”? By deepening her con- cerns: from’ easons why men and women approach time differ- ently, she come _:0 reflect on how the extremes of both approaches “waste” time. She too has travelled far. She has surprised the reader by transforming a look at gender inequality into a reflection on our shared human approach to time. And all this in a logical, paragraph- by-paragraph progression. ‘The sense of surprise is essential to good writing, as long as it fol- lows from the argument in question. It’s the sensation we experience when we come upon a new insight, a new perception: something that, without realizing it, we somehow already knew—only now we're able to put it into words. This returns to the earlier point about essay writing as an exploratory activity. It is just these surprises that occur to us as we write; unexpected connections that bring pleasure to writer and reader alike. 258