"Me Talk Pretty One Day" and The Nuts and Bolts of College Writng

While reading David Sedaris’ essay “Me Talk Pretty One Day”, I was able to see that he does write effectively according to points brought up in Michael Harvey’s The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing. Though, not completely concise, the essay does show flow, and gracefulness.

            In The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing, concision is defined as the “leanness of words” (Harvey 1). It gives examples such as reducing “Euthyphro continues to further justify his actions” to “Euthyphro continues to justify his actions” (Harvey 6). In a nutshell, you have to make your sentences short, sweet, and straight to the point. According to the points given in the book, Sedaris’ essay is not very concise. For example, when Sedaris receives his student ID:“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 that advertises with billboards picturing a cartoon stegosaurus sitting in a canoe and eating what appears to be a ham sandwich.”(Sedaris 11) .This passage has too many unnecessary details that don’t even have to do with the main point of the essay. The simple sentence “After paying my tuition, I was issued a student ID” conveys the same message in 39 words less than the original.

                        While lacking in concision, “Me Talk Pretty One Day” has flow. When describing a fellow classmate, Sedaris states: “The first Anna hailed from an industrial town outside of Warsaw and had front teeth the size of tombstones. She worked as a seamstress, enjoyed quiet times with friends, and hated the mosquito.” (Sedaris 12). The description fits the examples given in The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing. The book states that there should be something to bind the passage together, with references, to said something, that point back to it (Harvey 23). In Sedaris’ sentences, Anna is the subject, the “she” in the next sentence points back to Anna and links the two sentences together. Harvey also adds that a passage that “hands off” to the next subject has flow (Harvey23). For the above section, the next subject would be mosquitoes, as the following sentences are about the teacher rambling about mosquitoes.

            Another thing that Sedaris’ essay has is gracefulness. A point brought up in The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing is how parallelism adds to the gracefulness of a piece (Harvey 50). In “Me Talk Pretty One Day” Sedaris states: “When called upon, I delivered an effortless list of things that I detest: blood sausage, intestinal pates, brain pudding. I’d learned these words the hard way. Having given it some thought, I then declared my love for IBM typewriters, the French word for bruise, and my electric floor waxer” (Sedaris 13). The parallel elements in the passage are delivered, learned, and declared. These elements are what make this part of Sedaris’ essay “graceful”.

            Overall, Sedaris’ essay displays many of the points given in The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing, which makes Sedaris’ writing clear and effective.