Analysis
“Change is like a rest!” These were the words of one of the most famous African leaders whose identity I shall not disclose. Before he ascended to power, he was the darling of the people; loved and cherished by all. With his mobilizing powers, he helped the people oppose the then dictatorial government and together they achieved. A revolutionary movement was started and few months later, the activities of the government were paralyzed across the country. The people were allowed to elect a leader of their choice; and guess who was elected. Everybody was happy and highly optimistic that things would change to the best. Alas! To date, the people remain optimistic that someone would one day come from nowhere and save them. Indeed change is like rest.
The phenomenon described in the above story is actually the reality in many countries. It is extremely rare for a leader to be loved in a similar manner as he/she was loved before ascending to power. The selected analysis, “The Hero of Egypt,” is not an exception. The story is about Anwar Sadat who was one of the most loved people in Egypt before he became the president. Sadat, as any other person, was a proponent of self-rule: he wanted his country to take care of itself and not to be ruled by foreigners or outsiders. Sadat planned the assassination of King Basha and was arrested. From jail, he became the vice president and his policies were against Israel as he went further and launched war. When Sadat became the president, he strongly opposed the war against Israel. The war eventually stopped after his agreement with Camp David. This did not impress the Egyptians who, in response, planned his assassination.
The Genre
In basic terms, genre is the distinctive category of any literary work or composition, which is marked by distinctive form, content, and distinctive style. The text herein can be categorized as a biography genre presented as a short story.
Biography genre
The main features of a biography genre is that it is real (non-fiction) and gives the story of a real person’s life. The text is indeed the story of Anwar Sadat’s life thus qualifies to be in this genre category. A biography requires that the author carry out extensive research on the truth and validity of the matter. This can be done through primary data sources (interviews) or secondary sources (literature on already published materials). The author of “The Hero of Egypt” carried out extensive literature review as cited in the text.
A non-fiction story is a story that is real. It is factual. The story covers actual events, people, and places. The text herein draws facts from historical books and other sources. Anwar Sadat, the main focus of this text, was actually the third president of Egypt, who served from October 15th 1970 until he was assassinated in October 6th 1981.
The Community or context
This text captures the history of Egypt in the recent past. It is written in Egyptian context and acts as a good information source to those interested in knowing the series of events that occurred during this period.
The Audience
The text is not intended for any specific group of audience. It is a general text that acts as source of information to those who want to dig deep and get better understanding of the history of Egypt, its leaders, and its relationship with Israel.
Audience evaluation
Every writing has its intended purpose. Audience’s evaluation purely depends on this purpose. The text is informative. The audience would therefore establish whether the text displays the relevant information. I, as an audience, believe that this text performs its function as it takes us through the life and times of this great Egyptian hero; his achievements and failures.
Writer’s purposes
In this text, the writer’s main interest was to convince the reader that the main character in the text was actually an Egyptian hero. This is clearly seen in the conclusion where the writer states, “Sadat made huge changes on Egypt that helped, … I believe there will not be any president like him who will lead Egypt to a better future without making peace with Israel.”
The writer’s story and the flow of the text, has one significant message: change. The writer clearly depicts that change cannot be avoided. Before ascending to power, Sadat was one of the most loved people, probably because of his strong support for war against Israel. However, as the president, he became a strong oppose of the war and brought the war to a stop. This made the people to hate him. Sadat planned the assassination of King Basha; however, he was also assassinated. Many aspects of change are seen in the text and it can be concluded that the writer’s intention was to bring out the theme of change.
What I will do
Before starting to write, I would first of all Identify what I’m to write about, my audience, the context, the main message, the purpose of the writing, and the supportive documents (sources of reference).
When going through this text, it can obviously be identified that it is not a published work. The work has been produced by a student. This gives room for more improvements. I would first of all collect all the reference materials and get all the literature about the topic I’m to address. This would enable me understand best what I am to write on before I embark on the writing task. According to Lennie Irvin in the article “What Is ‘Academic’ Writing?”, the success of a writing depends largely on how well the writer understands the subject. If the writer has a clear mental picture of the subject, then, an excellent work is most likely to be produced. The writer of this text, based on the presented facts and evidence, did a thorough research and had vast knowledge in what he/she was to write about.
Good writing is about good language. When the language is poor, then the writing is as well poor even if the facts are presented as they are. It is therefore important to know the language structure and the rules before embarking on the writing task. This would help in avoiding grammatical mistakes. In the course of writing, some mistakes may accidentally be made. It is therefore important to be keen on the grammar and sentence construction, and to proofread the whole work. In the text, “The Hero of Egypt”, lots of grammatical errors are evident from paragraph to paragraph, some of which, in paragraph one, includes the following:
1. “Most of the famous President of any country was loved by the community and then they do a senseless move where they make the people hate them.” In this sentence, basic grammatical rules are not observed. The sentence ought to have read: “Most of the famous Presidents of any country were loved by the community; however, they ended in senseless moves that made the people to hate them.”
2. “its self” instead of” itself”
3. “During that time, most of what he was doing is talking against Israel” – here, both present tense and past tense are mixed in a sentence. “Is” should be replaced with “was”
I would try, as much as I can, to eliminate all the errors.
Writing is about proper choice of words. In order to create the necessary tone and the mood, I would choose my words properly and use the necessary punctuation marks. Not as compared to the writer of the analyzed article, I would see upon me that my communication is received by the readers, without any alterations in meaning.
According to Thaiss, Chris, and Zawacki (2006), it is important that the writer becomes “persistent, open-minded and disciplined”. I would be very much open minded in the work and give the reader the freedom to decide appropriately whether the text performs the intended purpose. In this text, the purpose of the text was to portray Sadat as a great Egyptian leader and hero. The writer perfectly achieves this; however, instead of giving the reader the freedom to decide from the given facts whether this is actually true, the writer goes ahead and affirms, in the conclusion, that Sadat was, and still is, the only Egyptian president who led Egypt to a better future.
A good writing should be guided by reason and not emotion or sensual perception (Thaiss et al., 2006). I would ensure that my opinion is reasoned out perfectly before rushing into conclusion. Before I conclude, I would ensure that I consider both the positive and negative sides of the argued point very open-mindedly before jumping into conclusion. The writer of the analysed text just concluded without considering the negative sides of the discussed “hero”.
As a writer, I would put into consideration a reader who looks for possible errors in my interpretations and try to anticipate the reader’s objections. This would enable me address the issues that may arise due to the objections.
As stated in the opening paragraph, “change is like rest.” Everything changes: people, opinions, decisions, etc. Writers also need to change. No writer is perfect. However, if a writer can perfectly consider the little things highlighted herein, a great result would surely be realized. I can’t afford to be left behind.
Works Cited
Thaiss, Chris, and Terry Zawacki. Engaged Writers, Dynamic Disciplines: Research on the Academic Writing Life. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, Heinnemann, 2006.
Bunn, Mike. “How to Read Like a Writer”, Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 2,
Lennie Irvin. “What Is ‘Academic’ Writing?” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 1,
