Donnell starts the essay with an immediate fishhook, "I"m cool like this:" (367) in order to firstly grab the reader's attention and secondly to make the initial point about just how cool he is. ... He starts out his fourth paragraph using, "Once upon a time ." only to describe the story of how "niggas" came to be, and how they differ from black people. ... Other examples of Alexander just using language to catch the reader's attention includes the almost humorous introduction that he uses with his neighbor to show how even though many claim to want to know and experience other cul...

• Word Count: 1153
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In his incisive book, Islam in the African American Experience, Richard Brent Turner takes the reader through the evolution of Islam in black America. ... Turner focuses on how Islam spread to West Africa, and how it was adapted and changed by the natives. ... One thing that the Muslims offered that caught the attention of the West Africans was a chance to become literate by way of learning Arabic. ... He brings this up so that the reader may eventually link how the early differences between West African Islam and orthodox Islam would carry over to the twentieth century during the initiatio...

• Word Count: 3585
• Approx Pages: 14
• Has Bibliography

This room gives the readers the clues they need to know that this is not a nursery but a place to confine someone who is suffering from a mental illness. ... Furthermore, what neither her husband nor her sister-in-law understand is that by trying to force the narrator to rest, not to think, not to imagine, they simply allow her to turn her attention to the wallpaper in the room, which quickly engrosses her. ... He fights to feel, and the music he loves is part of how he expresses his rage and pain at being a poor black man with limited opportunities. ... Much to his surprise and his pleasure...

• Word Count: 1543
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

This room gives the readers the clues they need to know that this is not a nursery but a place to confine someone who is suffering from a mental illness. ... Furthermore, what neither her husband nor her sister-in-law understand is that by trying to force the narrator to rest, not to think, not to imagine, they simply allow her to turn her attention to the wallpaper in the room, which quickly engrosses her. ... He fights to feel, and the music he loves is part of how he expresses his rage and pain at being a poor black man with limited opportunities. ... Much to his surprise and his pleasure, ...

• Word Count: 1543
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School