Reading: Process Analysis essays by Wendell Berry
by elackian
One of America’s foremost essayists and social critics, Wendell Berry is a farmer in northeastern Kentucky and an agrarian writer in the tradition of Henry David Thoreau and Edward Abbey. In a recent interview with Thomas P. Healy (in Counterpunch, April 15/16, 2006), Berry described the “very serious cultural and economic failure” of the industrial world:
We’re living at the expense of basic or primary workers, primary producers. We’re living off the backs of small farmers and Central American and Mexican migrants. And all the while we’re congratulating ourselves for getting over slavery. And that hasn’t happened.
In the following excerpt from his essay “A Few Words for Motherhood,” Berry describes the process of assisting at the birth of a calf–an experience that leaves the author “feeling instructed and awed and pleased.” Berry’s paratactic style, characterized by straightforward diction, is deceptively simple.
from A Few Words for Motherhood*
by Wendell Berry
My wife and son and I find the heifer in a far corner of the field. In maybe two hours of labor she has managed to give birth to one small foot. We know how it has been with her. Time and again she has lain down and heaved at her burden, and got up and turned and smelled the ground. She is a heifer–how does she know that something is supposed to be there?
It takes some doing even for the three of us to get her into the barn. Her orders are to be alone, and she does all in her power to obey. But finally we shut the door behind her and get her into a stall. She isn’t wild; once she is confined it isn’t even necessary to tie her. I wash in a bucket of icy water and soap my right hand and forearm. She is quiet now. And so are we humans–worried, and excited, too, for if there is a chance for failure here, there is also a chance for success.
I loop a bale string onto the calf’s exposed foot, knot the string short around a stick which my son then holds. I press my hand gently into the birth canal until I find the second foot and then, a little further on, a nose. I loop a string around the second foot, fasten on another stick for a handhold. And then we pull. The heifer stands and pulls against us for a few seconds, then gives up and goes down. We brace ourselves the best we can into our work, pulling as the heifer pushes. Finally the head comes, and then, more easily, the rest.
We clear the calf’s nose, help him to breathe, and then, because the heifer has not yet stood up, we lay him on the bedding in front of her. And what always seems to me the miracle of it begins. She has never calved before. If she ever saw another cow calve, she paid little attention. She has, as we humans say, no education and no experience. And yet she recognizes the calf as her own, and knows what to do for it. Some heifers don’t, but most do, as this one does. Even before she gets up, she begins to lick it about the nose and face with loud, vigorous swipes of her tongue. And all the while she utters a kind of moan, meant to comfort, encourage, and reassure–or so I understand it.
Selected Works of Nonfiction by Wendell Berry
- A Continuous Harmony: Essays Cultural and Agricultural (1971, reprinted by Shoemaker & Hoard, 2003)
- Recollected Essays, 1965-1980 (North Point Press, 1981)
- The Gift of Good Land: Further Essays Cultural and Agricultural (North Point Press, 1982)
- The Art Of The Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays Of Wendell Berry, Norman Wirzba (Counterpoint Press, 2002)
- The Way of Ignorance: And Other Essays (2005)
* “A Few Words for Motherhood” appears in the collection The Gift of Good Land: Further Essays Cultural and Agricultural, published by North Point Press, 1982.
Post below your responses to this essay for extra credit towards your FD2 packet. Note that not all answers will be credited. You can be awarded anywhere from 0 to 10 points per response.
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How is Berry’s essay NOT what I want you to write for this class? (In other words, how does his essay deviate from my “formula”?)
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Why would I have chosen this essay as a good example of a process analysis essay then?
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What are some clear statements that are obvious “instructive how to” sentences? Be sure to copy them down accurately.
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What is a paratactic style and why should you NOT use it in your essays?
elackian 
(Well first of all it is pretty gross(:…) basically he is just giving a step by step of what happen. And he did not really provide steps in all his paragraphs. Yes, it’s a personal experience but its not him saying this is the best way to deliver a calf.
Because you want to give us examples on ways that may seem right to us but there not what you want from us. Your showing us ways we may make mistakes. That way when we write we can have more of a sense on what not to do.
I loop a bale string onto the calf’s exposed foot, knot the string short around a stick which my son then holds. I press my hand gently into the birth canal until I find the second foot and then, a little further on, a nose. I loop a string around the second foot, fasten on another stick for a handhold. And then we pull. The heifer stands and pulls against us for a few seconds, then gives up and goes down. We brace ourselves the best we can into our work, pulling as the heifer pushes. Finally the head comes, and then, more easily, the rest.”
I want to say it means that you are more telling a story that giving instructions but I’m not sure
1.-How is Berry’s essay NOT what I want you to write for this class? In other words, how does his essay deviate from my “formula”?)
Berry’s essay does not give descriptive examples and does not explain the supporting reasons. It essay does not have a clear thesis that say this way is the best way of doing this.
2.-Why would I have chosen this essay as a good example of a process analysis essay then?
Because this essay have the sequency of what to do step by step, although it lacks of specific evidence to convince the reader.
3.-What are some clear statements tha ere obvious “instructive how to” sentences? Be sure to copy them down accurately.
I loop a bale string onto the calf’s exposed foot, knot the string short around a stick which my son then holds. I press my hand gently into the birth canal until I find the second foot and then, a little further on, a nose. I loop a string around the second foot, fasten on another stick for a handhold. And then we pull. The heifer stands and pulls against us for a few seconds, then gives up and goes down. We brace ourselves the best we can into our work, pulling as the heifer pushes. Finally the head comes, and then, more easily, the rest.
4.-What is a paratactic style and why should you NOT use it in your essay.
This style does not use transitions and connecting words therefore it doesn’t have organization.
We should not use this kind of style because it doesn’t fulfill the requirement of coherence that an essay should have.
1. How is Berry’s essay Not what I want you to write for this class?
Because is giving enough information, but some how is not supporting the thesis. I don’t see the motivation of him writing this essay. I also thing were missing the four steps unity, support, coherence and sentences skills.
2. Why would I have chosen this essay as a good example of a process analysis essay then?
It makes me see some mistake I will easily make, and understand how a essay looks when we don’t follow the proper format.
3. What are some clear statements that are obvious “instructive how to” sentences? Be sure to copy them down accurately.
I loop a bale string onto the calf’s exposed foot, knot the string short around a stick which my son the holds. I press my hand gently into the birth canal until I find the second foot and then, a little further on, a nose. I loop a string around the second foot, fasten on another stick for a handhold. And then we pull. The heifer stand and pulls against us for a few seconds, then gives up and goes down. We brace ourselves the best we can into our work, pulling as the heifer pushes. Finally the head comes, and then, more easily, the rest.
4. What is a paratactic style and why should you NOT use it in your essay?
I thing we should not use the paratactic style because it will not give us a good essay and we would not pass your class. Is like putting sentences together which have little or no relationship.