Me Talk Pretty One Day

       David Sedaris’ Me Talk Pretty One Day is a capturing piece. But, even David Sedaris, an accomplished, well-known writer, falls victim to “collegiate pompous style” (Harvey 1). Many rules described in The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing by Michael Harvey were abused by David Sedaris in Me Talk Pretty One Day. In a great majority of his piece he is not concise and he uses commas incorrectly, But, at the same time, he does an impeccable job incorporating punch lines into this humorous piece and effectively using tricolon.

        David Sedaris simply did not “use process of elimination” to “add remarkable grace to [his] prose” and “make [his] prose easier to read and understand” (Harvey 1). In merely the first paragraph he describes “Festyland” as “a far-flung amusement park that advertises with billboards picturing a cartoon stegosaurus sitting in a canoe and eating what appears to be a ham sandwich” (Sedaris 11). This wordy description is in desperate need of “a hefty reduction in the total number of words” (Harvey 4). Again, later in the piece, Sedaris says “things they liked and disliked in this world” instead of simply minimizing the number of words and saying “things they liked and disliked” (12). This revision simply “[cuts] the fat” from an unnecessarily wordy sentence (Harvey 9).

        In Me Talk Pretty One Day, Sedaris faults with his use of commas. Repeatedly, he used a comma when connecting only two phrases with “and”. He writes, “her rabbity mouth huffed for breath, and she stared” when really he should say, “her rabbity mouth huffed for breath and she stared” (Sedaris 12). Michael Harvey stresses using commas correctly for, “defying today’s punctuation rules is perceived by readers as a sign of ignorance or carelessness” (Harvey 34). He defies the rules yet again by using an unnecessary comma to connect two phrases. Instead of saying “placed her hands on the young woman’s desk and leaned close” he puts an awkward, grammatically incorrect comma in-between “desk” and “and” (Sedaris 12).

          On the other hand, Sedaris does an impeccable job “[using] the punch line technique to set up a joke, [or] to deliver a memorable phrase’ (Harvey 28). He has a way of capturing the reader, even forcing them to crack a smile while reading his deviously funny punch lines. Take for example one of the sassy  lines of his peculiar teacher: “And do you love the little war” (Sedaris 12)? Whether or not you detest the story or are captured by it, it’s hard not to giggle. David Sedaris does a phenomenal job incorporating humor, following Michael Harvey’s guidelines.

           Tricolon appears numerous times throughout Me Talk Pretty One Day. This strategy of a list compiled of three things “[tends to feel] balanced and complete” (Harvey 53). David Sedaris uses this method almost everything he lists something. He writes about Anna, the girl who, “worked as a seamstress, enjoyed quiet times with friends, and hated the mosquito” (Sedaris 12). Describing things he himself detests he said three things: “blood sausage, intestinal pates, brain pudding” (Sedaris 13). And once again, when he tells things he loves he says, “IBM typewriters, the French word for bruise, and my electric floor waxer” (Sedaris 13). All of these examples show how perfectly Sedaris incorporated the tricolon method stressed in The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing.

            Me Talk Pretty One Day is a perfect example of a piece of writing that follows the rules The Nuts of Bolts of College Writing and disobeys them at the same time. The reader is bound to crack a smile at David Sedaris’ punch lines but may find the placement of commas awkward at the same time. His wordiness may be excessive at some points but he does a perfect job with his lists. By the end, the reader will turn the final page feeling quite satisfied.