Tannen vs. Graff

Erin Laffin

Tannen and Graff's short essays about literature helped me understand how people can have a variety of different views and ideas on a similar subject. Overall I thought Tannen deliver her thoughts in a very clever and interesting way. I was able to relate and agree with everything she mentioned. I agree with Chelsea Day’s post when she discusses the importance of words.  I think one of the most interesting parts of Tannen’s essay is when she talks about how the words we chose have a huge impact on one’s perspective. I really enjoyed her example of the cars and how people imagined the accident based on the words “smashed” and bumped”.  It helped me, the reader understand exactly the point she was trying to make. I enjoyed Tannen’s short essay because I found it a lot more interesting to read, even if she doesn’t get straight to the point. I also really enjoyed the part about different “War”. I thought the way Tannen introduced and summarized her ideas on the matter were organized extremely well. I found Graff’s essay to be very formal and straight to the point. Graff’s talks very mature about the subject of arguments and his ideas are a lot easier said than done. For example he talks about establishing valid arguments instead of just jumping to conclusions. However sometimes in order to make a valid argument you need to make little arguments that support and build one’s idea up. Overall I really enjoyed reading both essays because they helped me to become more conscious about the way I use metaphors. However I was not found of the different parts in Graff’s essay where he talks about Tannen’s essay. I believe both essays together provided many great and useful ideas that I will be able to apply throughout this class.