English Composition - Daisy Arabella

Tiffany Pratt

Allison Davis

February 2, 20117

ENG-122-X765 English Composition 1

“Me Talk Pretty One Day – Writing Notes

The text that I chose for my critical analysis project is an essay written by David Sedaris titled "Me Talk Pretty One Day". This essay was humorously written to recount the author's first day of a French course and being one of the oldest students in the class and was very detailed.

I believe that the purpose of the writing was to recount his experience in wanting to learn the French language.  Throughout the essay, the writer described what it felt like to be the oldest student in the class, the different students of different nationalities and explained not understanding some of the things that the teacher was saying in French.

One of the key points that supports Mr. Sedaris' purpose is when he described in the second paragraph when he explained that he moved to Paris in order to learn the French language.  He also explained arriving early on the first day and observed other students returning from vacation and how they communicated with each other.  Another point was when he had to remind himself that he was much older than the other students in the course.

The intended audience of "Me Talk Pretty One Day" could be a multitude of people. The way that Mr. Sedaris wrote his essay can be in the form of a detailed letter to family and friends or he could have written it in his journal.  The challenge with it being a letter could be that he could lose the readers interest because it's so detailed.