October 21, 2002

In the previous issue, we read one of Emily Dickinson's poems on death. However, for an English learner who has decided to improve his or her writing, it is far from enough just to read and forget. Ask yourself some questions after reading and try your hands on the same or a similar subject, and you will make great progress!

Think of the ocean. What will come to your mind at the mention of it? And how will you approach the subject in your writing? The following is an excerpt from Rachel Carson's  The Edge of the Sea, which might give you some inspirations.

The edge of the sea is a strange and beautiful place. All through the long history of Earth it has been an area of unrest where waves have broken heavily against the land, where the tides have pressed forward over the continents, receded, and then returned. For no two successive days is the shore line precisely the same. Not only do the tides advance and retread in their eternal rhythms, but the level of the sea itself is never at rest. It rises or falls as the glaciers melt or grow, as the floor of the deep ocean basins shifts under its increasing load of sediments, or as the earth's crust along the continental margins warps up or down in adjustment to strain and tension. Today a little more land may belong to the sea, tomorrow a little less. Always the edge of the sea remains an elusive and indefinable boundary.
The shore has a dual nature, changing with the swing of the rides, belonging now to the land, now to the sea. On the ebb tide it knows the harsh extremes of the land world, being exposed to heat and cold, to wind, to rain and drying sun. On the flood tide it is a water world, returning briefly to the relatives stability of the open sea. (This excerpt is taken from The Margin World of Rachel Carson's The Edge of the Sea.)

The readers may find that Rachel Carson had the seashore, or "the edge of the sea" as the focus of her writing. In fact, for any writing, to choose a proper focus, or in other words, to approach the subject from a particular aspect is very important. For learners especially, a proper focus helps to prevent over-generalization and bring out more details and relevance. The author also paid attention to the structure of her writing. Take the first paragraph for example, readers can find a clearly stated topic sentence at the beginning ("The edge of the sea is a strange and beautiful place.") ,and a conclusion at the end ("Always the edge of the sea remains an elusive and indefinable boundary."). The middle part of the passage mainly dealt with two features of the seashore, i.e. the tide and the sea level. And the description of the two features was connected by a transition sentence ("Not only do the tides advance and retreat in their external rhythms, but the level of the sea itself is never at rest."). Also, many writing techniques were employed in the description, such as parallelism ("where…, where…" "as…, as…, or as…"), inversion ("For no two successive days is the shore…"), and contrast ("Today a little more land may belong to the sea, tomorrow a little less."), etc. Moreover, the author's diction varied ("unrest', "never at rest", "elusive and indefinable") but at the same time clung to the main feature―"strange and beautiful", which was presented in the topic sentence. Now to sum up, the excerpt had a clear focus, was well-organized in overall structure with explicit topic and conclusive sentences, used transition between two features and employed several writing techniques and a varying diction. All these make Carson's writing not only explicit but also enjoyable to read.

Questions for readers:
What is special, according to you, in Rachel Carson's treatment of the subject matter?
What other writing techniques did Rachel Carson employ in the above excerpt? Try to appreciate the second paragraph on your own.
How will you treat the subject of the sea? What other features can be the focuses? What technique will you use?
Try to write a short passage on a similar topic.


  Rachel Carson(1907-1964) is the author of five famous books: Under the Sea Wind (1914), The Sea Around Us(1951), The Edge of the Sea (1955), Silent Spring(1962), and The Sense of Wonder(1965), which are all concerned with environment issues and aim at waken people to environmental problems.