A straightforward guide that makes use of the author’s extensive experience.
Gacharná, an English and writing instructor at the University of Phoenix, presents a hands-on workbook on how to write an effective essay for a college application.
The author notes early on in this detailed guide that her essay-crafting instruction focuses on three main aspects of the writing process: “Communicate. Navigate. Punctuate.” In this day and age, the competition for college entry is fierce; it may seem that every student needs to be a prodigy, or at least have an extensive resume by the age of 18. As a result, writing an essay to impress admissions officials can be a daunting undertaking. However, Gacharná reminds readers that academic essay writing is, at its heart, a technical skill, and it’s one that follows formulas that can be learned. Rather than beginning immediately with a draft, she says, one should step back and truly consider what one wants to write; the biggest part of the puzzle, she asserts, is communication. She goes on to discuss rhetorical and organizational modes, and steers students away from writing uninteresting “hamburger”-style essays in which the introductory thesis statement and conclusion are the two halves of the metaphorical bun, and the burger is the author trying to prove the thesis. The workbook also clearly defines the difference between revising and editing and shows how outlines are key to successful writing. What colleges are looking for, she says, are “noncognitive variables” such as confidence, long-range goals, or leadership skills. Gacharná breaks down an array of such variables with charts and illustrations.
Many of the lessons here are likely to feel familiar to students—such as the difference between thesis topics and topic sentences, for example—but Gacharná manages to present them in new ways by supplying practical tips, graphics, and relevant examples, including successful essays from actual students. The latter, in particular, will provide readers with strong models to guide them. The author looks at rough drafts and finished works, showing in specific detail how applying her principles can help shape a strong essay. As readers progress through this work, they will also find it useful to read the provided examples of college essay drafts that didn’t work; the author shows how to transform them into essays worthy of acceptance. One of the most useful sections in the book is a list of common mistakes students make, such as simply talking about one’s passion: “Please don’t use the word passion in your college essay. Period. Instead, show me what passion led you to do.” In moments such as these, Gacharna’s conversational frankness is refreshing. The last section includes several sample essays that address specific prompts and a list of ideas and topics to jumpstart the writing process; these practical tools are likely to give students the confidence to start drafting their own essays. The last five pages of the book contain testimonials from students and parents, expressing their views on how Gacharná’s advice set them up for success.
A straightforward guide that makes use of the author’s extensive experience.Pub Date: April 11, 2023
ISBN: 9798886541328
Page Count: 156
Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A top-flight nonfiction debut from a unique artist.
The acclaimed director displays his talents as a film critic.
Tarantino’s collection of essays about the important movies of his formative years is packed with everything needed for a powerful review: facts about the work, context about the creative decisions, and whether or not it was successful. The Oscar-winning director of classic films like Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs offers plenty of attitude with his thoughts on movies ranging from Animal House to Bullitt to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to The Big Chill. Whether you agree with his assessments or not, he provides the original reporting and insights only a veteran director would notice, and his engaging style makes it impossible to leave an essay without learning something. The concepts he smashes together in two sentences about Taxi Driver would take a semester of film theory class to unpack. Taxi Driver isn’t a “paraphrased remake” of The Searchers like Bogdanovich’s What’s Up, Doc? is a paraphrased remake of Hawks’ Bringing Up Baby or De Palma’s Dressed To Kill is a paraphrased remake of Hitchcock’s Psycho. But it’s about as close as you can get to a paraphrased remake without actually being one. Robert De Niro’s taxi driving protagonist Travis Bickle is John Wayne’s Ethan Edwards. Like any good critic, Tarantino reveals bits of himself as he discusses the films that are important to him, recalling where he was when he first saw them and what the crowd was like. Perhaps not surprisingly, the author was raised by movie-loving parents who took him along to watch whatever they were watching, even if it included violent or sexual imagery. At the age of 8, he had seen the very adult MASH three times. Suddenly the dark humor of Kill Bill makes much more sense. With this collection, Tarantino offers well-researched love letters to his favorite movies of one of Hollywood’s most ambitious eras.
A top-flight nonfiction debut from a unique artist.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-311258-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 31, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
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