Entry 3-Analysis of "Me Talk Pretty One Day"

           In the excerpt "Me Talk Pretty One Day", David Sedaris describes what learning French was like for him. His writing is witty and amusing, and it has a casual tone, as if he were holding a conversation with the reader. Despite this tone, the writing does not lack any formality in structure. In general, the essay follows most of the rules that Michael Harvey outlines in his book The Nuts and Bolt of College Writing.
          Sedaris's vocabulary is simple, avoiding what Harvey calls a "pompous style" (Harvey, page 3). Most of the words are short and common; the word the reader is most unlikely to know on the first page is probably "stegosaurus". Even in situations where uncommon words would be appropriate, Sedaris prefers to use several smaller words, or a hyphenated adjective. On page one, he describes his classmates as "well-dressed" rather than chic or elegant. On the same page, he chooses to write "what this woman was saying"over a shorter but more sophisticated phrase like "her dialogue", or "her discourse". Though this simple style Sedaris uses elongates the writing in places, it becomes much easier to read and understand.
          One technique Harvey describes that aids the flow of writing and "helps the reader absorb a lot of information without feeling overwhelmed" (Harvey, page 29) is the use of introductory phrases. Sedaris employs introductory phrases throughout the excerpt. On the first half of page 13 alone, he uses two: "While I can honestly say..", and "when called upon,...". He also uses participial phrases such as "Having given it some thought,..." (Sedaris, page 13), which help avoid cluttered sentences with an excess of clauses. Both these types of phrases also help the flow of the writing by varying sentence structure.
          Though Sedaris's writing generally follows the style Harvey suggests, it is not without its flaws. Sedaris uses the passive voice several times when it is unnecessary. In the first page, he writes that "Vacations were discussed" rather than "The students discussed vacations". This phrase sounds somewhat unnatural, and also goes against Harvey's rule of using consistent characters (Harvey, pages 23-27). The subject of the previous clause is the students, so the writing would flow better if the next sentence continued to describe the students directly using the active voice.
          Sedaris also frequently uses unnecessary prepositional phrases, which Harvey warns against. In the second paragraph, he writes "I've moved to Paris with hopes of learning the language." It would perhaps be clearer to replace the prepositional phrase with a participle to make the sentence "I've moved to Paris hoping to learn the language." The use of abstract nouns is typical in pompous writing, Harvey says and should be avoided because it confuses "who does what"(Harvey, page 13). There are many of other examples of excess prepositional phrases and the passive voice throughout the essay.
          In general, Sedaris writes in accordance with Harvey's suggestions, using short concise language that does not confuse the meaning with pompous style. Although there are places where Sedaris goes against Harvey's preferred constructions, these places are the exceptions, rather than the norm.