MC Practice 2a

Ashley Ambrose

Paraphrase:
When a writing a biography, many writers do not capture the true life of their
subject, they do not go past the public papers and things they did rather than
who they were as a person and their motives. Even though some may
criticize the writer in his biography of Samuel Jackson to the very small
details, he still stands firm with is opinion and he believes he is in the right
because he is at least attempting to write the colorful life of Samuel Jackson.
Writers usually do not have enough anecdotes from their subject, but in this
case, James Boswell has too much in order to preserve Samuel Jacksons life.
He opposes Julius Caesars authority to prove the point that what he is doing
is not degrading or a waste of time.
Central Argument:
The central argument of the passage is that many writers do not put much
effort into looking past public records of the person they are doing a
biography on.
Assertions:
They rarely afford any other account than might be collected from
public papers, this supports the central argument because he is
stating that they, the biography writers, so not look past public papers
of their subjects, they do not try to imagine how this person lived, even
down to what their morning routine might have been.
But biography has often been allotted to writers, who seem very little
acquainted with the nature of their task, or very negligent about the
performance, this supports the central argument because he is
stating that unexperienced writers are the main authors of biography
genre, they do not know the process to making a successful biography
and they are very negligent to the art of it as well.
Definitions:
Context Clues:
Allot: to assign
Preferment: a series of events
Ludicrous: pathetic
Illustrious: bright in personality
Benevolent: blissfulness
Definitions:
Allot: to give something to somebody as a share of what is
available or what has to be done
Preferment: appointment to a higher position or rank
Ludicrous: utterly ridiculous because of being absurd,
incongruous, impractical, or unsuitable

Illustrious: extremely distinguished and deservedly famous

Benevolent: showing kindness or goodwill