Reading Response 2

Most research papers are written essays to try and prove the writer’s views and opinions about a certain topic of concern. For these kinds of papers, you do lots of research for pieces of information that would strengthen and support your specific point of view. However, in the kind of paper that we as a class are about to write, you ask a question that interests you, and research sources to find answers that will provide educated answers to your area of concern. You aren’t necessarily looking to support your argument, rather looking for answers to a question that you want a real answer to.
In the essay, “An Experience With Acronyms”, Jay Holmquist makes his paper a discovery essay rather than a traditional research essay by asking a question and researching different sources to find answers. The author asks, “What would make these people feel so passionately about their pro- and anti-drug views?” (Holmquist B24), then resumes his paper with, “To understand this completely, I think we need to first understand why people even do these drugs.” (Holmquist B24)Instead of writing a paper filled with sources that support a position Holmquist takes, he asks a question and searches for different answers that relate to his concerns. Holmquist searches for information regarding certain popular “rave drugs”, and his experience with using them, along with the pros and cons of using ecstasy, LSD, and others, and eventually ends the essay with his lesson learned. He turns his essay into a discovery paper by asking what make people feel so passionately about their stance on the drug views. You get the feeling that he is writing not to persuade his audience, but to search for answers for himself, just as Ballenger says a discovery essay should, “Actively use the information to explore or answer questions or to test the truth of an idea or thesis.” (Ballenger 433). Holmquist uses credible sources and useful information to show his audience, as well as himself, different reasons that would shape how individuals feel about drugs. The author definitely adds his own voice into his paper using the phrases, “I personally” and “After that we…” He includes his personal story while also pursuing the answers for his questions, thus looking for something he is interested in and not trying to prove a point. The controlling idea of Holmquist’s essay stems from curiosity, he wants to know for himself and for his audience what the dangers of the drugs are, while also discovering information that may help people form their own opinions on the subject.
In another example essay, “Why Do People Tan?” by Amy Garrett-Brown, the author researches a topic she has questions about and searches for answers to fulfill her curiosities as well as inform the reader. Garret-Brown states that she can’t understand why people tan when they know the dangers of it, “I don’t necessarily wonder why people tan, but why they completely gyp themselves of the pleasures of the sun to be rewarded with a battle with cancer at worst and saggy skin at best.” (Garrett-Brown 460) she is asking a question to the general public, opening up a door for more research. Bruce Ballenger says that a discovery paper should be an essay in which, “Academic research is driven by questions, not answers.” (Ballenger 432) and this element is present in her essay. Amy Garret-Brown successfully includes her own voice in her essay by regularly interjecting her thoughts about the topic as well as including quotes and evidence from credible sources, “I disagree. But I’m no expert, so I sought proof of my hunch that the sun is really our friend and found it.” (Garrett-Brown 460). Overall, Garrett-Browns paper includes most the essential elements that Ballenger would consider necessary to create a discovery paper, not a research paper.
After reading these essays, I have a better understanding of how I can write my second essay. I think it is interesting how Holmquist integrated his own story into his paper, which gave you a perspective into why that topic interested him and what role it played in his life. As for the “Features of The Form” that Ballenger wrote, it is helpful to have some sort of rules to a discovery paper to help guide you as you write your essay, especially when you don’t have any ideas on how you may start writing.

Three possible “discovery” questions:
Why is ecstasy of interest to so many high school students and does the drug really have long-term effects on your health?
Is methadone properly prescribed to recovered drug addicts? Why may some people be opposed to the distribution of this drug as a relapse preventer?
Does society look at people with tattoos in a different way? What are some of the origins of the tattoo culture and why is there sometimes a negative views of people with body art?

Reading Response 1

An autobiographical essay sounds like the simplest of all essays to write because you don’t necessarily have to do any kind of research for it. It is a work that solely consists of your own words and opinions. As you start to write; however, it seems to unfold into something more than a lesson learned, you are likely to find out more about the situation that you yourself lived and thought had all figured out.
In The Curious Writer, Bruce Ballenger states that in a personal essay, there is no way to hide behind the pronoun “one”, and that you are fully exposing yourself when writing a personal narrative. Ballenger points out that a personal essay should reflect the questions, “Why does this matter? What do I make of it? How does it change the way I think of myself and the way I see the world?” (Ballenger 93). The author also advises that you write an autobiographical piece on something that you aren’t fully familiar with. Life lessons can sometimes be metaphorical and with a simple happening, you can learn a valuable piece of information that you cherish for the rest of your life. Authors Charlotte Hogg and Catherine Black take simple happenings in their life and can easily turn out a grand significance of the event while including what Ballenger would consider essentials in writing a personal essay.
In the essay, “I’m a Believer”, Charlotte Hogg tells her story of being a fan of a certain celebrity from her teen years into adulthood. She concludes her essay by sharing that although she thought she knew Davy Jones from the Monkees, only after meeting him in her adult days did she realize that this person she thought she knew so well, she really didn’t know at all. There are ways in which Charlotte Hogg follows what Ballenger would consider necessary features of a personal narrative. Hogg is able to take a simple story in her life and turn it into a meaningful lesson that anyone could apply to his or her own life. Her main thesis, that you may not know people as well as you think, does not come through until the end of the narrative. Ballenger would agree that in personal essays, a thesis may not appear until later, unlike many other kinds of essays you write.
The other essay I read, “The Joy of Mud”, by Catherine Black, is a personal narrative about Black living in Hawaii and never wholeheartedly wanting to stay there. As she spends a day in a mountainous setting with one of her good friends, she eventually finds herself finding that she always thought of herself as not rooted, but in the moment she finds that she is indeed experiencing being rooted. Thus, the way I understood, the meaning of her essay is that sometimes you find what you were looking for when you least expect to discover them. I also think she is stating that the path rarely traveled is one that may lead you to what your looking for and you may be surprised in how you feel about it. This essay has the same features of what Ballenger would consider essential features for a personal narrative. Like Hogg’s story, the thesis of this essay is not mentioned in the beginning of the paper, but comes through toward the end of the narrative. Ballenger says that a personal essay relies on memory and observation, and Catherine Black’s essay is one that is very descriptive and her words create vivid images of the scenario, making you feel like you are right there with her.
Even though these stories are narratives of simple happenings in the authors’ lives, I think that the actual story is told to control the “so what” of each essay. Hogg tells her story to give an example to help you understand that some things are different than you come to believe, even when you’ve done your best to try and understand it. The way I interpreted it was that there are some things that you can’t control and no matter how hard you may try to keep up with something, you may eventually find that what you saw from afar is not what you see up close. While I’m reading the essays, especially Hoggs’, I found myself asking, “why does this matter? What lesson will she learn from being a super fan of a celebrity?” The authors had me asking how the essays were going to end and what real lesson was going to be learned. While reading Catherine Black’s essay I felt the same way, I asked myself where the story was going and why it mattered. For her essay, I felt that curiosity was controlling the “so what?” factor. I wanted to keep reading to find out what was going to be the end result, what life lesson was she going to extract from this event in her life.
Both essays have elements of Ballenger’s “Features of the Form” and bring readers to ask the “so what?” question. They involve minor events in the authors’ life in which a deeper theme is waiting for the reader to discover.