Reading Essays Here are some questions you might ask when you are faced with the task of reading and writing about essays. (Note that cross-references refer to selections in Literature: Reading and Writing the Human Experience, seventh edition.) 1. What is the author's thesis (or unifying idea)? What evidence or arguments does the author advance to support the thesis? Is the thesis convincing? If not, why not? Does the author rely on any basic but unstated assumptions? 2. What is the author's tone? Select for analysis a passage you consider illustrative of the author's tone. Does the author maintain that tone consistently throughout the essay? 3. How would you characterize the author's style? For example, are the syntax, length of sentences, and diction elevated and formal or familiar and informal? 4. What rhetorical strategies does the author use? For example, can you identify the effective use of narration, description, classification, comparison and contrast, analogy, cause and effect, or definition? Note that one of these rhetorical strategies may constitute the unifying idea of the essay and the means of structuring it. Jessica Mitford's "The American Way of Death" (p. 933) is an essay in definition that effectively uses comparison and contrast and analogy. 5. What are the major divisions in the essay, and how are they set off? Are the transitions between the divisions effective and easy to follow? 6. Analyze the author's opening paragraph. Is it effective in gaining the reader's attention? Does it clearly state the essay's thesis? If it does not, at what point does the author's thesis and purpose become clear?