My Group Experience

During the exercise in class on disecting Dave Eggers essay To Serve or Fail, I found it difficult to try and distiguish between the concession and the opposition and rebuttal. I did find, however, that working in a group definatley helped me to understand the differences once I knew what paragraphs they were. I also found that in the essays that we have read in class that being able to distinguish between the different paragraphs is going to be a tedious task just due to the fact that not all the parts we were trying to find are going to be in every essay. I did find this exercise helpful and interesting though just because it helped me to understand a writers argument. This also provided an outline for me so I didn't have to keep reading the essay from beginning to end four or five times to get their point. All in all this exercise was fun and informative.

What made the biggest impact

I found that the previewing technique made the most impact in preparing me to read either of these essays. Reading the biographical data at the beginning of each of the essays gave me more insight into what i was about to read and definatley peaked my intrest. After doing so, I found myself more inclined to read A Modest Proposal just due to the fact that I already had heard of Jonathan Swift through Gulliver's Travels, and had childhood memories of this story. I also found it particularly interesting that he was ordained in the Church of Ireland and that this essay may have some religious implications, which, again I am very interested in. All in all, I think that the previewing technique will be one that I use before I read anything that may possibly interest me.