Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Catton: The Writing Rebel

Bruce Catton is a writing rebel. When he writes his essay he doesn't follow the typical a,b,c order that is "the right way to do it", where Topic A has sample 1 and 2, and where Topic B is followed by sample 1 and 2... and so on.

Catton follows a structure of his own. It is very different yet very organized and easy to follow. For example he doesn't state his thesis until the third paragraph and he divides each paragraph to specifically talk about each person (Grant and Lee). Since he is talking about historical figures he begins by talking about what was happening at the time to set the reader in place and give them some brief knowledge about what was happening.

The body of the essay mostly talks about each historical figure in their own way. Each paragraph talks about their backgrounds, their views towards the war, and what they represented. It isn't until the last paragraphs where Catton actually begins to compare and contrast and analyze both of the generals side by side.

In this essay, Catton is arguing that both of these generals have very distinct backgrounds. Both were raised with different lifestyles, yet, they grew up to have the same mission. They were both brought in history and ended up doing something greater for the country which was to bring peace and end the war.

Catton uses this technique in order to show how two very different characters or what ever is to be compared can be similar and come to a common conclusion.

1 comment:

  1. You are right the author is a rebel in his writing style, but how did you decide that you wanted to do compare and contrast. Did it have something to do with the writing style the author uses or was it just because that is the one you wanted to do?

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