[General] Sentences which are part of a longer essay

[caban]

I am writing my next essay and I am curious what do you think about couple of my sentences. I am interested whether they are grammatically and syntactically correct as well as if they are logical and clear.

Those are the first sentences of the first paragraph:

Frustration. The child born from the marriage of will and opposition. The bastard which neither of them wants.


Here is the rest:


In the beginning there was nothing. Once the language fellow appeared on the scene, he plunged his magical hand into that nothing, and out of it he brought the first something into existence.

To put it in another way, the defining lines which draw boundaries between words are always chosen by the convenience tango between time and circumstance.

Thank you

 

[tedmc]

Frustration. The child born from the marriage of will and opposition. The bastard which neither of them wants.

These are not complete sentences.
What is the title of your essay? I know it is about language but you have made it too abstract for people to understand what you are trying to say.

 

[caban]

The title of my essay is "The real truth about truth - or is there one?"

Actually by posting the first lines I wanted to ask whether it is appropriate to include such phrases in an essay, at least in a less-restricted one which is written for the lay public, not for the academic circles. I know that is appropriate in novels. Ultimately I would like to develop my own language of writing and form which would incorporate solutions from different types of literary work.

I shall give the link to the whole essay later in the day, as to give the context for those few lines.

 

[Tarheel]

My opinion, for whatever it"s worth, is that it's more appropriate for a novel or short story than an essay. But isn't that a question for your professor?

As for the story itself, if there was nothing that means there were no people and thus no need for language.

 

[Tarheel]

Perhaps:

The Truth About Truth

 

[Tarheel]

Say:

written for the lay public and not for academic circles

 

[Tarheel]

Say:

I know that it is appropriate in novels.

 

[caban]

Thank for the feedback and grammatical corrections Tarheel, it is very important for me.

As for the issue whether this language is appropriate for essays or not, I guess it was my mistake in the first place to label my text as essay. I can't consult it with my professor, because this text is not written as part of academic assignment. I write it for my blog and my goal is to write papers about non-fiction matters - like discussing certain philosophical or social issues - with which I would prefer to have less-restricted form. The most important aspects for me are: the flow of reading, clarity of message, and a degree of aesthietic pleasure. If you are interested in reading some of the papers or just getting the idea, here is the address: http://www.towardtheunknown.com/about/

Of course I will love to hear any comments of yours as well as be very grateful

 

[Tarheel]

Hey, your writing is getting better. Really fast, too!

I have a lot of experience with titles. I've written about a million poems. (OK, maybe I exaggerated a bit.)

If you want me to comment on stuff it would best to post just a few sentences at a time.

 

[caban]

Thank you

Poems you say? That is actually great, because I would like to make my papers somewhat poetic. You see, one of my main objectives in writing is to convey certain scientific and philosophical ideas in a language that most people will understand. I think beautiful and vivid metaphors are the key here and poets are the absolute masters in crafting such rhetorical devices.

Below I am sharing the whole paragraph in which the sentence with language appeared. Here, the context is especially important.

First and foremost truth is a word and a word is a product of language. Language, in its simplest sense, is a comprehensive set of symbols. Every symbol represents a particular element of reality and by that I do not mean elements which are only physical in nature, but everything that reality encompasses – ideas and imaginations included. The very essence of language is that it works by way of self-reference. Namely, if you want to define one word, you have to refer to several others. Once you reach the origins of the very first words you realize that they had to be defined through contrast. Before you state that something is you need to state that something is not. In the beginning there was nothing. Once the language fellow appeared on the scene, he plunged his magical hand into that nothing, and out of it he brought the first something into existence.

I have already posted the whole paper and here is the link:
http://www.towardtheunknown.com/the-truth-about-truth-or-is-there-one/

 

[Tarheel]

The trouble with defining a word is that you have to use other words. There is, of course, no :getting around that.

I can comment on your blog if you like, but I'll have t9 comment on one or two sentences at a time.

 

[caban]

Thank you again Tarheel. I would prefer though, if it is possible, if you could explain me what kind of errors I make and give me general comments about my writings regarding grammar, syntax, and readability. This way I would understand the corrections you made and I could implement improvements to my writing much faster.

 

[Tarheel]

OK, but it is one thing to point out errors and offer corrections. It is another thing to offer explanations. (It takes more words, for one thing.)

The word "explain" is a beautiful word. In any case, while we explain things (or people), we explain something "to" somebody.

The word "writing" is, generally speaking, a noncount noun. (I might talk about Thomas Sowell's writings, but I am more likely to talk about his books and columns.)

 

[caban]

Thank you for explaining it ( to me )

I am not quite sure if I understand the part about "writing". Do you mean that when I am using it as a noun referring to my works ( essays, books, novels, any piece of literature ) I should always use it in the singular form "writing" or plural form "writings". I am confused, because in your example you used the form with "s" and I always thought that a noncount noun should be in singular form.

 

[Tarheel]

If you say "general comments about my writing" then it's a noncount noun. If you are talking about a person's books, essays, columns, etc. then you could arguably refer to that as his writings. But it has been my experience that only ESL learners use "writings". You might say: "Yeah, Ron, you're on an ESL website a lot. True, I. am. What I am saying is that "writing" is not a count noun. (You can't have two writings.) We don't talk about Thomas Sowell's writings. We talk about his books or his columns.

See what I mean? Too much typing! ;-)

 

[caban]

Thank you again. I know what you mean and that is why I appreciate it a lot! But of course I don't want to overuse your kindness and you already gave me much to work on .