Introduction
Essay writing can be classified into different formats. The ability to produce good quality work comes from good writing capability. The book The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing gives guidelines on how to come up with well-written materials. Among the items that the book tackles are the presentations, grammar use, the command of written English, sentence construction, and also the flow of information.
Presentation
In the introduction part of the guide, the author explains to his audience the need to write., among the reasons given are; the explanation of ideas, the ability to have an influence on the thinking capacity of the people, the contribution that the authors make to the learning fields, and also how writing connects the writer to the rest of the world. The author also states writing is one of the contributing elements of promoting the success that the learner gets in college as well as fostering personal development.
Flow of information
In writing, the reader should be able to follow the information from the start to the end. This implies that the information should be clear and a good transition is followed from the start to the end. This mostly happens for academic books. An exemption is at times given to literature books where the information can start from the most recent to the most current. Moreover, the literature comes in many ways and at times the author creates suspense so as to lure the audience to continue reading through the works.
However, in academic articles, the reader should be taken from the first item to the last without being led astray. Where the author brings in a new item, a good introduction should be given and yen relevance to the other sections of the article be given. For example, if the book was talking about medicine, and the writer brings in the issue of nutrition, an introduction should be given for the new introductions.
The ability of the writer to quote from other sources apart from that in the current article makes the work more informed and more persons would be willing to use it as their reference. The book explains how the writer can increase the cohesion in the works by citing the information in one section of the book in another section of the same article.
Grammar and style
The language that the author uses in his writing is very important in any work. The ability to follow all the rules that govern the language is thus paramount in the production of goods written work. In English for example, there are rules that govern the different sentence formats and use of words, these rules include; sentence construction, use of the plural, use of question tags, punctuations, the ability to proofread, and also capitalization in the works. These rules should be followed properly in the paper.
The author gives books that the reader can consult for efficient writing. The books suggested give guidelines in; writing activities, how o remember and quote people, the writing profiles, concept explanation, and also the means that a writer can use to propose, argue and justify a position. One of the articles that are chosen for response is Sticks and Stones and Sports Team Names. Below is my response to the article.
Critical response to Sticks and Stones and Sports Team Names
The book “Sticks and Stones and Sports Team Name” deals with the issue of the names and mascots that sporting clubs take. To be precise, the author is critical of the use of ethnic-based names by some of the major clubs in the United States of America. Though the book addresses the issues in the author’s land, the same issue can be cited in many other countries across the globe.
The author is methodical in his choice of the title- Sticks and Stones and Sports Team Names. The words sticks and stones and specifically used together in reference to reprimanding and punishing. Thus, the author starts off the article with the questions; what sticks and stones; why the sticks and stones? As the audience reads the book, this topical theme unveils itself. The choice of examples is quite clear while the message that the author drives home self-explanatory. The quotations of the father complaining of his son’s forced enthusiasm on a certain team specifically stroke my mind. I imagined a situation that I was forced to follow a team or less a sport that I did not like. At that point, I concurred with the author that a single sport cannot refrain the members of the ethnic group from following the other sports.
When I first read the article, I could not help but accept the logic that he drives home. The many teams that use ethic names and mascots have been at the time and again a point of reproach to the ethic group being referred to. While the teams work to the benefit of the community when it is on the winning side, the opposite happens when the teams are on the losing side. This puts into a dilemma any fan who would wish to benefit from the use of the ethnic group by a certain team.
The realization that crossed my mind after reading the book is the fact that the community can not be held at the mercy of one team. The embrace of the name by one team makes it almost autonomous in that community and any other team that tries to use such a name will be viewed as a rival who expects to eat from the sweat of the monopoly. In my view, the precedent that has been passed by some courts of law as indicated in the article is plausible as they disapprove of the teams using ethnic-based names. This helps retain the name as communal as it deserves without one section of the group snatching the glory of the ethnicity.
On the other hand, I was apologetic to the teams who have been using ethnic-based names and mascots. The teams had drawn a great deal of audience from their use of names. In some instances, the teams have gotten donors who would wish that the teams take the glory of the ethnicity far and wide. Should the proposal of having all the teams using ethnic names and mascots drop them, such teams mentioned here would be risking losing part of the fans and also part of donor support.
After considering all the pros and cons of the use of ethnic-based names and mascots by teams, I bought the idea of the author. Any ethnic group cannot be owned by a singular sport or even a team. The proposal of having a ban on the use of such by teams by all the states and even world wide is feasible. The humiliation that communities go through when teams named after them produce deteriorating results can be easily evaded if this is affected.