"Education is what remains when we have forgotten all that we have been taught" (Savile). Education has been a subject of many academics and writers. Throughout the history, it has been repeated, that education is the noble ambition of ones life if he truly understands the meaning of life. In Sir Francis Bacon's "Off Studies," the consistent message is once again emphasized and brought to light. The structure of the essay enables the reader to focus attentively on the purpose of the written piece. Bacon's precise use of developmental and syntactical parallelism together with long sentences verses short sentences demonstrate the potential of vigilant structure in literature. .
Developmental parallelism is used in writing to compare or contrast ideas over the course of several sentences. In "Off Studies," as Bacon says, "Reading maketh full man; conference a ready man; and writing as exact man. And, therefore, if a man write little to seem to know that he doth not," it is apparent that he is persisting the fact that reading, conferring and writing are three essential components of an exact man". More specifically, in his second part of each fragment, he describes the difficulties that can face a man if he writes little, confers little, and reads little. Without writing, an individual must have an excellent memory to record all that he knows; without discussing his knowledge, an individual must be very talented to come up with arguments; and without reading, an individual must be very crafty to pretend he acknowledges most. The elaboration of Bacon's ideas also becomes evident in the quote "Some books are to be tasted, other to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things". The first sentence is the introduction to Bacon's statement and the following sentence explains the meaning respectively. Some books he says are to be "tasted" and read only in parts to get the gist of the story without wasting time, others are to be "swallowed" and read entirely but without putting much deliberation, and at last, some are to be "chewed and digested" and read with ones full awareness and interest.
