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.The critic Susan Sontag, forinstance, uses this beginning for an essay defining "Camp" (adeliberately pretentious style in popular art and entertain-ment):Many things in the world have not been named; and many things,even if they have been named, have never been described.One ofthese is the modern, a variant of sophis-tication but hardly identical with goes by the name of"Camp."Less commonly the subject may be delayed by focusingoutward, opening with a specific detail or example and broad-ening to arrive at the subject.Aldous Huxley opens an essayon "Tragedy and the Whole Truth" in this manner:There were six of them, the best and the bravest of the hero's com-panions.Turning back from his post in the bows, Odysseus was intime to see them into the air, to hear their screams,BEGINNINGthe desperate repetition of his own name.The survivors could onlylook on, helplessly, while Scylla "at the mouth of her cave de-voured them, still screaming, still stretching out their hands to mein the frightful struggle." And Odysseus adds that it was the mostdreadful and lamentable sight he ever saw in all his "explorings ofthe passes of the sea." We can believe it; Homer's brief description(the too-poetical simile is a later interpolation) convinces us.Later, the danger passed, Odysseus and his men went ashore forthe night, and, on the Sicilian beach, prepared theirpared it, says Homer, "expertly." The Twelfth Book of the Odysseyconcludes with these words: "When they had satisfied their thirstand hunger, they thought of their dear companions and wept, andin the midst of their tears sleep came gently upon them."The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the rarelythe older literatures ever told it! Bits of the truth, yes; every goodbook gives us bits of the truth, would not be a good book if it didnot.But the whole truth, no.Of the great writers of the past in-credibly few have given us that.Homer of the Odys-one of those few.It is not until the third paragraph that Huxley closes in on hissubject, of which the episode from the Odyssey is an example.Delayed announcement has several advantages.It piquesreaders' curiosity.They know from the title that the openingsentences do not reveal the subject, and they are drawn in tosee where they are headed.Curiosity has a limit, however;you can tease readers too long.A broad beginning can also clarify a subject, perhaps sup-plying background or offering examples.Finally, delayed an-nouncement can be entertaining in its own right.There is apleasure like that of watching a high-wire performer in ob-serving an accomplished writer close in on a subject.More immediate announcement, on the other hand, iscalled for in situations where getting to the point is moreimportant than angling for readers or entertaining them.Howyou announce your then, as with so much in writing,depends on is, on your reason for addressingyour readers.THE ESSAYLimiting the SubjectIn most cases a limiting sentence or clause must follow theannouncement of the subject.Few essays (or books, for thatmatter) discuss all there is to say; they treat some aspects ofa subject but not others.As with announcement, limitationmay be explicit or implicit.The first in which the writersays, in effect, "I shall say such and more commonin formal, scholarly writing.The grammarian Karl Dy-begins an article entitled "Where Our Grammar CameFrom":The title of this paper is too brief to be quite accurate.Perhaps withthe following subtitle it does not promise too much: A partial ac-count of the origin and development of the attitudes which com-monly pass for grammatical in Western culture and particularly inEnglish-speaking societies.On informal occasions one should limit the subject less lit-erally, implying the boundaries of the paper rather than lit-erally stating them:Publishers, am told, are worried about their business, and as awriter, am therefore worried too.But am not sure that the actualstate of their affairs disturbs me quite so much as some of the anal-yses of it and some of the proposals for remedying what is admit-tedly an unsatisfactory situation.Joseph Wood KrutchWithout literally saying so, Krutch makes it clear that he willconfine his interest in the problems publishers face to criti-cizing some of the attempts that have been made to explainand solve those problems.Besides being explicit or implicit, limitation may also bepositive or negative (or both).The paragraphs byand Krutch tell us what the writers will do; they limit thesubject in a positive sense.In the following case the Englishwriter and statesman John Buchan tells what he will not doBEGINNING(the paragraph opens the chapter "My America" of his bookPilgrim's Way):The title of this chapter exactly defines its contents.It presents theAmerican scene as it appears to one point of viewwhich does not claim to be that mysterious thing, objective truth.There will be no attempt to portray the "typical" American, forhave never known one.have met a multitude of individuals, butshould not dare to take any one of them as representing his coun-being that other mysterious thing, the average man.Youcan point to certain qualities which are more widely distributed inAmerica than elsewhere, but you will scarcely find human beingswho possess all these qualities.One good American will have mostof them; another, equally good and not less representative, mayhave few or none.So shall eschew generalities.If you cannotindict a nation, no more can you label it like a museum piece.Some or implicit, positive oris necessary at the beginning of most essays.Term papers,long formal essays whose purpose is to inform, technical andscholarly articles, all may have to engage in extensive bound-ary fixing to avoid misleading or disappointing the reader.Shorter themes, however, do not require much limitation.Readers learn all they really need to know by an openingsentence like this:College is different from high school in severalin teaching, homework, and tests [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]