148 / Types of Writing
eating and rarely speaking to anyone. I had resented any intrusion—for that’s the way I came
to view it—on my privacy. I had detached myself from the crowd, watched the crowd as indi-
viduals, studied their expressions, their mannerisms, absorbed in and by the sensations. Alone
in the crowd. And I had grown.ANALYSIS of THE SAMPLE AUTobIoGRAPHY
The preceding autobiography answers why the writer enjoyed being alone in a crowd.
The following points make it work:
- The multi-paragraph sketch follows a chronological organization.
- It bears many of the characteristics of a narrative. [See Chapter 11, Narration.]
- The informal style offers further insight into the author’s personality.
- The dialogue sounds natural, not contrived, appropriate for the informal style.
- The paragraphing helps the reader follow change of speakers.
- Vocabulary and sentence structure suggest not only an informal style, but
casual characters and a casual situation. Note that only informal writing
permits the use of incomplete sentences. - The dialogue uses accurate punctuation, including commas setting off the
interrupting phrases and quotation marks indicating exact words. - Sentence fragments, usually inappropriate in nonfiction, serve a specific
purpose here. [See fragment in the Glossary.] Their use, however, should
not be misconstrued to mean that sentence fragments are appropriate for
all autobiographies. Not so. Here, the fragments show further informality
of style; but more importantly, the fragments suggest the author’s staccato
series of impressions. In other words, the fragments are used for stylistic
purposes. Furthermore, their use makes the sketch read more like fiction,
one characteristic sometimes apparent in an autobiography. By contrast, an
autobiography written in a formal style will not include sentence fragments. - Paragraph development [see Writing a Paragraph in Chapter 2, Writing]
is typical of fiction, not of expository writing. The paragraphs lack topic
sentences and carefully structured development. Instead, they follow the
narrative form, a change in time or character determining a change of
paragraph. Again, a more formal autobiography will take a more formal
approach, including a formal paragraph structure.
This autobiography succeeds. The writer answers the questions she asked of herself.
Granted, we don’t know how old she is, where she was born, who her parents are,
where she went to school, or where she lives. On the other hand, we have a general
idea of her age; we know how she feels about people; we understand her mixed atti-
tudes toward the Fall Festival; and we understand her new insight into her own pro-
fessional responsibilities and what they require of her.