Walkabout essays

Walkabout essays In the novel Walkabout, the writer, James Vance Marshall, wants us to understand accepting differences. He shows us this idea through the character of Mary. Throughout this book, Mary overcomes this idea and accepts the culture that is not familiar to her. At the beginning of the book Mary did not appreciate the Bush Boy for helping out Mary and Peter. Mary did whatever she can to avoid the Bush Boy and even tried to get her brother from getting near him. The girls first impulse was to grab Peter and run, but as her eyes swept over the stranger, her fear died away. Mary at first thought the Bush Boy was a threat to her, giving her fear and curiosity on whether she should trust the Bush Boy or not. She gradually became familiar with the Bush Boy and realized that he was not as bad as she thought he was. Still Mary could not become friendly with him like her brother is. The one thing that was blocking their friendship was the nakedness of the Bush Boy. Yet his nakedness still appalled her. She felt guilty every time she looked at him. She told herself that it wasnt his fault he was naked, that his nakedness was due, purely and simply, to his primitive way of life. But this didnt make it, for her, any more acceptable. Altho ugh she could not accept this feature of the Bush Boy, Mary still followed him and trusted in what he did for Peter and Mary. As they continued their voyage Mary still showed no sign of care for the Bush Boy. When Peter told Mary that the Bush Boy is going to die, Mary said that it was just a cold and that it would go away. I think hes sick, Mary. He looks O.K to me. Hes got a cold, Pete. Like you had. Nothing to bother about. Mary never really cared about the Bush Boy as much her brother, Peter did. Mary went on throughout the journey without really caring about the Bush Boys health. Later in the book, the Bu...

3 Revised Run-In Lists

3 Revised Run-In Lists 3 Revised Run-In Lists 3 Revised Run-In Lists By Mark Nichol A run-in list is one that is incorporated into the body of a sentence, rather than formatted as a numbered, unnumbered, or bulleted list with each item on a separate line. Such a list, unfortunately, often invites errors when writers don’t attend to interrelationships among the items or become intimidated into believing that organizing the items is more complicated than it really is. Here are three types of errors introduced into run-in lists and how to remedy them. 1. â€Å"Students plant trees to halt coastal erosion, monitor water quality, and educate others about the importance of environmental stewardship.† As written, the sentence suggests that students plant trees to accomplish the three goals subsequently listed. However, the trees were planted only to control coastal erosion; the other two items in the sentence are separate activities. To eliminate ambiguity, reorder the three items, simultaneously improving the sentence rhythm by placing the activity descriptions in order according to the length of the phrase: â€Å"Students monitor water quality, plant trees to halt coastal erosion, and educate others about the importance of environmental stewardship.† 2. â€Å"With severe fetal alcohol syndrome, there can also be organ deformities, including heart defects; heart murmurs; genital malformations; kidney and urinary defects.† Semicolons are necessary in a sentence containing a run-in list only if one or more items in the list are themselves lists and the sentence cannot be reorganized otherwise. In this case, the list is not complex it consists of a simple roster of typical organ deformities and semicolons are not required. Also, the conjunction in â€Å"kidney and urinary defects† does not serve as a final conjunction in the list unless â€Å"kidney defects† and â€Å"urinary defects† are treated as distinct list items separated by a comma and the conjunction; because they are combined into one item, they must be preceded, as is, by a conjunction. However, to improve sentence rhythm, I placed â€Å"genital malformations† as the last item, so the conjunction precedes that phrase: â€Å"With severe fetal alcohol syndrome, there can also be organ deformities, including heart murmurs and other conditions, kidney and urinary defects, and genital malformations.† 3. â€Å"Preliminary research shows that it: reduces the risk of trauma, decreases the frequency and severity of alcohol misuse, and increases enrollment in specialized alcohol abuse treatment.† A colon should precede a list only when what precedes the colon is a full clause. In this case, the preceding wording is a simple phrase; the colon between the pronoun and the verb is a clumsy interruption: â€Å"Preliminary research shows that it reduces the risk of trauma, decreases the frequency and severity of alcohol misuse, and increases enrollment in specialized alcohol abuse treatment.† (A colon is appropriate in this revision, which is wordier than necessary: â€Å"Preliminary research shows that it has the following outcomes: It reduces the risk of trauma, decreases the frequency and severity of alcohol misuse, and increases enrollment in specialized alcohol abuse treatment.†) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Has vs. Had20 Pairs of One-Word and Two-Word FormsPredicate Complements