An Acme Review
This rate and review is offered in the spirit of assistance. Please feel free to ignore any, or all suggestions. This is your work, and I'm just happy to have had the chance to review it!
What are my overall impressions?
I am a sucker for a troublesome musing and was pleased to see a potentially controversial opinion piece entered into the Anything but... contest. Your title and brief description lead potential readers to understand exactly what they may be getting into. If that doesn't, the big red letters, establishing your position in the opener soon will, and I for one thoroughly enjoyed a refreshingly swift setting out of stall. I hunkered down with a grin on my face. Simple is best, so folks say. A simple approach was effective in not only establishing where you were coming from, but also in providing a strong, well-articulated narrative voice. I like that in an essay, and, if other readers like that, too, I think they will enjoy this author's approach to essay presentation.
Yes, there are some slightly dodgy grammar issues (mostly around pesky punctuation issues and sentence structuring, which I will point out later), but a good rant is a good rant, whether you agree with the opinion or not. Time spent editing will be of benefit to your readers enjoyment of this thought-provoking write
What are my favourite parts?
Readers don't necessarily have to agree with your opinion to enjoy this well-structured and thoughtfully presented opinion-piece; Well, just look at me: a practicing Anglican Catholic who used to work for the Church of England and self-confessed super-fan of His Nibs; I had a thoroughly enjoyable time being made privy to a logical argument, presented in a delightful way with real depth of feeling and some pretty good arguments. Here's one I liked:
For me, once my body ceases to operate, there will be nothing, which presents no horrors for me, although I know many people find such an idea difficult to deal with. Arthur Schopenhauer, the German philosopher, said, "After your death you shall be what you were before you were born." I can't disagree, although I do feel a little sad if n years of experience need to disappear down the gurgler of time.
Of course, I would rather like to go back to God. I have a childhood, vague remembering about 'the Orange'--a place, a colour, heaven? Who knows? But it works for me, and that's the point, isn't it? Not everything works for everyone. There are no right or wrong answers, only our opinions, built on our understanding, knowledge and experience. Opinion pieces, like sermons from a pulpit, offer insight and guidance based on the deliverer's understanding, knowledge and experience. We may not all be religious, nor acknowledge gods or a God, but we all human, and as such, we are more than the sum of our parts. I loved the way your article got me to pause, take in another's perspective and think. A good opinion piece should stir the reader to think
What are my suggestions?
This is an opinion piece, and one of the most enjoyable parts of it being one was your very informal approach to a conversational style of writing--perfect to hear your voice. The only issue with that is the compromise made with writing rules for grammar and punctuation. As your train of thought builds up steam, there are a few fragmented sentences littered along the track. Add to that a number of conjunctions starting sentences and misplaced commas where periods should be and your write could get derailed. Sure, it is old-fashioned to balk at the idea of a conjunction starting a sentence, and I am hard-pressed to think of a writer who doesn't slip a few ands and buts in as sentence starters, but when a writer breaks that rule a lot the reader may start to wonder if they know their craft. My suggestion would be to proof with fresh eyes and see if you need all those sentence-starting conjunctions, edit specifically for punctuation, and ask a friend to read it aloud, noting where they may stumble over sentences.
Even though this is not an academic paper, I do like sources. I think if you have gone to the trouble of popping quotes in to back up your argument, it is worth the time to pop in corresponding in text citations and bibliography. After all, your article could inspire readers to read on, researching your arguments further. You do this once, but it would be a better presentation of your text to do it throughout: Harvard, APP, whatever reference style you like, would make a positive contribution.
You do cite rather a large direct quotation from Bertrand Russell. Do you need all of it? If you think the answer is still yes, then do consider its presentation: it's practical to differentiate direct speech from things pointed out in speech (when we emphasise and stress certain words and phrases with quotation marks), so most style guides advocate use of single quotation marks for one expression and double for the other. Also, when the speaker carries on to a new paragraph, do not close speech mark punctuation on the old paragraph, but do open them again on the new paragraph.
This is a nice opinion piece. Tweaked a little in editing, it could make a very good one
On a more serious note, I was rather disturbed by one point you made away from your central argument, which, as a right-thinking, unbiased, tolerance-loving, open-minded individual, even I couldn't swallow:
there is no Santa.
|
|