Introduction

Cynthia Ozick was born in New York in 1928. A writer of fiction, non-fiction, and drama, she has received numerous literary awards, including Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships. She has written several collections of essays, including Quarrel and Quantry, published in 2000. As you read Ozick's essay, pay particular attention to her use of poetic language.

Expository writing is informative and explains how something is done. It generally explains actions that should be performed in a series. This form of writing is considered “how-to” writing and is found in most instruction manuals. It may be in the form of step-by-step instructions or in a story form with the instructions/explanations subtly given along the way.

Read "Portrait of the Essay as a Warm Body"

The video below is a good introduction to Ozick's style of writing:

Watch the video below on how to annotate a text, then using the guidelines suggested, annotate Ozick's essay.

ePortfolio Submission

Save your annotation to your ePortfolio.

Answer the following questions on the essay and save responses to your ePortfolio:

To what extent does the title engage the reader's interest? How well does it reflect the approach and theme of the essay?
Choose two paragraphs that are particularly rhythmic and analyze the syntax. How does Ozick use techniques such as parallelism, repetition, variations in sentence length and type, and sentence fragments to create particular effects?
Refer to the website below for a better understanding of literary terms: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/writing_in_literature/literary_terms/index.html