Post 1: Discourse Surrounding the Essay

The “Who Cares” factor?
“My teacher wrote who cares?... to filter all the data through the mesh of personal relevance…”- Geoffrey Wolff

I like this quote because it talks about essays that are boring and confusing to the reader. An influential essayist knows what the reader wants and needs to read. A writer does not focus on unimportant details. Rather a good essayist focuses on what is important to the reader. The problem lies within the fact that the writer may see something as important while the reader may see it as unnecessary.

I agree with this quote because often time we read something that we feel is absolutely boring or irrelevant to our lives. It is hard to concentrate on an essay that is of no interest to the reader. If a reader is bored, they may start skimming through the essay and they might even miss a very important detail. A good writer must filter out all unnecessary data.

An important thing to take away from this quote is that not every detail is important to the reader. The reader wants to know the most important information and not be bothered with anything else. As a writer, a particular detail may seem important to you, but when writing you must always consider the reader’s point of view. Will they see this same detail as important even necessary to understanding the essay? For some essays, I appreciated that the writer included minute details because I didn’t know very much about the particular topic.

Another important aspect of an influential essayist is a person who shows both sides of a story without giving a biased viewpoint. No one wants to read an essay that only shows one side of the story. The reader may have a different opinion than the author, so I think it is important to show both sides so the reader can form their own opinion after reading the essay. If the essay is biased, the reader may have a “who cares” attitude towards the writer’s opinion.