Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Mentor Text #1: “Language Choice” by Young-Jin Park

There is something highly unconventional about the style of writing imposed by Young-Jin Park. In high school, it’s rooted in a student’s mind to adhere to a strict flow of writing. Students are taught there is only one “plug and chug” formula for sentence structure that’s to be recycled for any type of writing, essays, analyses, and more. I recall a few of my teachers year past that encouraged my classmates and I to avoid being creative in our sentences; they wished to scan simply for content, if XYZ topic was mentioned, and as long as that was there, that’s all that was of concern to them. Never mind the student that wished to express themselves but was inhibited, despite “[wanting] to be acknowledged as an individual”.


Park is an excellent example of writing desired in college, especially New York University. Park employs an especially articulate sense of style to his writing, going so far as to bring in voice and personality to his paper to help the reader truly understand the message being conveyed. It helps the reader not only get the idea but then create an opinion of their own in which they connect to the essay even further. There is the need for words, like any piece of literature, to “be a thing of beauty” instead of merely just remaining a useless, nameless “tool or method” as Park says, that the Writing curriculum at New York University tries to incorporate, and does so practically seamlessly. This is especially apparent in the samples of work from students like Park.

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