Thursday, January 31, 2008

Quotation by Atwan02

"The essay is, and has been all over the map. There's nothing you cannot do with it; no subject matter is forbidden, no structure, is proscribed. You get to make up your own structure every time, a structure that arises from the materials and best contains them. The material is the world itself, which, so far, keeps on keeping on." - Annie Dillard


I chose this quote because it is what I truly feel an essay is all about.  Annie Dillard describes how no one has ever really defined an essay so you can take an essay wherever you want to take it. An essay should be something that you want to write about, and then you can explore where you want to take that something that you want to write about. I find this whole quote extremely interesting especially because of Annie Dillard's second sentence. She writes, " There is nothing you cannot do with it [an essay]." I find this statement so true, you can do what you please when writing an essay. You should write as you please and what you please, it is your essay. Another quote i find interesting is when Annie says,"You get to make up your own structure every time, a structure that arises from the materials and best contains them." You don't have to follow the same old structure you learned growing up. For an essay to be an essay it doesn't have to be five paragraphs, it can be whatever you believe goes best with you essay. When writing an essay you should not let structure and formatting stop you from what you want to do with your essay. It is your essay so you should do as you please with it. Annie's last sentence is also i very interesting sentence to think about. When she says, "The material is the world itself, which, so far, keeps on keeping on," it really makes you think about the essay. This last statement of hers makes you think about the essay's past and where we are taking it to today. With so many open doors and so much freedom you have when writing and essay, the essay's future looks very bright and very unpredictable.