Caitlyn Hoang

Speer - 4th Period

Ap English III

Essay Assessment
On your own paper, complete the following prompts as completely as possible as you read your
assigned essays.
A. Assigned Essay : Kill Em! Crush Em! Eat Em Raw!
1. Identify the hook
Kill Em! Crush Em! Eat Em Raw!
2. Who, specifically, is the speaker?
The speaker is John McMurtry
3. Comment on the writers voice and style:
The author talked mostly about his football career and how it some how related to war.
4. Who is the intended audience?
The intended audience would be those who would like to know the similarities and
differences between football and war.
5. What is the authors purpose?
The authors purpose of this essay was to portray how football and war are similar and
how they are different.
6. Note at least two sentences that are particularly effective (paragraph #, line #). Why?
Indeed, it is arguable that body shattering is the very point of football, as killing and
maiming are of war (paragraph 5, line 1-2). This is effective because this is the sentence that
shows the audience what the author is going to compare and contrast.
After every game, of course, the papers are full of reports on the days injuries, a sort of
post-battle body count, and the respective teams go to work with doctors and trainers, tape,
whirlpool baths, cortisone and morphine to patch and deaden the wounds before the next game
(paragraph 8, line 1-4). This is effective because like in battle, the author is saying that after the
battle (game) the players have to go to the doctors and get all bandaged up and get ready for the
next game.
7. Note at least two rhetorical devices that are particularly effective (paragraph #, line #). Why?
Played shoeless on a green open field with no one keeping score and in a spirit of
reckless abandon and laughter, its a very different sport (paragraph 9, line 2-5). This is a
flashback because the author is remembering how he played football when he was younger and
how it was so much fun.
And progressively and inexorably, as I moved through high school, college and pro
leagues, my body was dismantled. Piece by piece (paragraph 10, line 12-13). This is very good
syntax. This is because by leaving Piece by piece alone it creates a bigger image on how his
body kept breaking down, slowly.
8. Note two examples of the authors expository technique(s) (paragraph #):
After every game, of course, the papers are full of reports on the days injuries, a sort of
post-battle body count, and the respective teams go to work with doctors and trainers, tape,
whirlpool baths, cortisone and morphine to patch and deaden the wounds before the next game
(paragraph 8).
To grasp some of the more conspicuous similarities between football and war, it is
instructive to listen to the imperatives most frequently issued to the players by their coaches,
teammates and fans. Hurt em! Level em! Kill em! Take em apart! (paragraph 4).
9. Choose two tone words for the passage:
straightforward & factual
Caitlyn Hoang
Speer - 4th Period
Ap English III

10. Choose two tone words for the authors attitude:

objective and calm
11. Your personal reaction to the piece.
My personal reaction to the piece is that I found it interesting how similar that both war
and football games could be. They have very similar terms.
Caitlyn Hoang
Speer - 4th Period
Ap English III

Essay Assessment
On your own paper, complete the following prompts as completely as possible as you read your
assigned essays.
A. Assigned Essay : The Spider and the Wasp
1. Identify the hook
The case I propose to describe here is that of the tarantula spiders and their archenemy,
the digger wasps of the genus Pepsis.
2. Who, specifically, is the speaker?
The speaker of this essay is Alexander Petrunkevitch.
3. Comment on the writers voice and style:
The writer first wrote about the tarantula and then talked about the wasps and how the
wasps needed the tarantulas to reproduce.
4. Who is the intended audience?
The intended audience would be those who are interested in tarantulas and in wasps and
how they help each live.
5. What is the authors purpose?
The authors purpose of writing this essay is to portray explain how wasps needed
tarantulas to reproduce and how they relate to each others lives.
6. Note at least two sentences that are particularly effective (paragraph #, line #). Why?
They apparently have little or no sense of hearing, for a hungry tarantula will pay no
attention to a loudly chirping cricket placed in its cage unless the insect happens to touch on of its
legs (paragraph 4, line 7-10). This is effective because this shows that tarantulas has to adapt to
their surroundings to make a living and to stay alive.
In any case, the survival of the tarantula species as a whole is protected by the fact that
the spider is much more fertile than the wasp (paragraph 16, like 8-9). This is effective because it
shows how the wasp cant kill all of the tarantulas because the tarantulas produce more babies at
one time.
7. Note at least two rhetorical devices that are particularly effective (paragraph #, line #). Why?
Its legs stop twitching; its heart stops beating. Yet it is not dead (paragraph 11, line
17-18). This is a paradox because when a heart stops beating it should be dead, how cant it be
dead?
When the grave is finished, the wasp returns to the tarantula to complete her ghastly
enterprise (paragraph 11, line 1-2). This sentence has very good diction because instead of just
saying something like, to complete the job of paralyzing the tarantula, the author says to
complete her ghastly enterprise which gives it a darker and scarier feeling as you read the
sentence.
8. Note two examples of the authors expository technique(s) (paragraph #):
Laboratory experiments prove that tarantulas can distinguish three types of touch:
pressure against the body wall, stroked of the body hair, and riffling of certain very fine hairs on
the legs called trichobothria (paragraph 5).
For each egg the mother [wasp] must provide one adult tarantula, alive but paralyzed
(paragraph 9).
9. Choose two tone words for the passage:
factual and intense
Caitlyn Hoang
Speer - 4th Period
Ap English III

10. Choose two tone words for the authors attitude:

emotionless and factual
11. Your personal reaction to the piece.
My reaction to this piece is that I didnt really like it because I hate all bugs and it
disturbed me. And also that it surprised me that wasps were that smart, they could trick the spider
into doing what ever they wanted.