I'm writing my first serious essay, and it's on Different Types of Love in A Midsummer Night's Dream. I'm not sure about how "formal" it has to be. I know all academic writing cannot be casual, according to a grade 7 teacher of mine, and I'm not sure if these three sentences are too "casual".
Different Types of Love in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
An orange is a very complicated fruit. For the duration of this essay, please think of it as an analogy for love. It’s made up of several slices, as love is made up of several aspects.
~Thanks!!!!!!!
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51,243 / 50,000
Apr 26, 2008 - 10 19
I believe it's considered improper to flat out say you are writing an essay. The idea is to educate the reader of the essay in a formal, structured way, without it...well...sounding just like an essay.^^;; Although I applaud analogies, for they can be clever and used for effective object lessons, you have to be sure that in the end your point is obvious. So, my advice is to proceed with caution and be sure you can truly work with your analogy. Also, I wouldn't advise saying stuff like "In this essay," etc. Just say something in the realm of, "Love is metaphorically like an orange." Good luck! :)
36,321 / 50,000
Apr 26, 2008 - 21 38
I like it! That's very creative, and it sort of makes me want an orange. I would almost like it if you drew the analogy out more. I mean if you sort of said a little more about oranges before you said it was an analogy for love. Like: "An orange is a complicated fruit. It's made up of skin, meat, and several different slices. It's full of Vitamin C. No matter how hard you search, you can always be surprised by a stray seed. For the rest of this essay, please think of an orange as an analogy for love."
73,001 / 50,000
Apr 27, 2008 - 07 16
I think your gut is right in telling you that it isn't exactly essayworthy. It's not so much informality or saying that it's an essay: its that you're apologizing for your argument being 'complicated' and bad. Just use an orange as an analogy for love and if they don't get it, it's their fault.
Maybe something like:
"An orange is very like love. Love has many different aspects, much like the slices of an orange and while these segments seem similar in nature, the tastes can be broken down by their sublties: point 1, point2, point3, etc."
1,652 / 50,000
Apr 27, 2008 - 16 21
Oooooooohhhhhhhhhhh.
Does it sound like I'm apologizing? O__O. okay. I'm taking out the "for the duration of this essay" blah blah. Now, it's something like:
An orange is a very complicated fruit. So complicated, in fact, that it is very similar to love. Within love, many different aspects can be found. Likewise, within an orange, there are many slices. Apart from this feature, oranges also have juice, seeds, and Vitamin C. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare uses different couples to represent exaggerated, almost stereotyped versions of these aspects of love. He uses Helena and Demetrius to depict blind love, Titania and Bottom to portray false love, and Hermia and Lysander to represent true love.
That's the intro paragraph, it's long....and it jumps here: "Apart from this feature, oranges also have juice, seeds, and Vitamin C. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare uses......"
To clarify, I'm going to go on the orange thing..."juice" will be blind love, sweet but lacking substance/reality, "seeds" will be false love, "Vitamin C" will be true love, it rewards you in time, or is truly healthy or something. Does anyone want to stop me here and now and point out the impractibility of this before it's too late?!
THANK YOU for all your comments so far. Any more would be greatly loved even though I swear I'm starting to see oranges.