In the article The String Theory, by David Foster Wallace, there were three writing techniques that I noticed Wallace used. First, I think Wallace was informative and explanatory. He explained why there are some professional tennis players who are unknown and obscure to the public eye. He explained how some tennis players, based on their world rankings, have to participate in untelevised pre-tournaments called ‘qualiers,’ and this pre-tournaments determines who will compete in the televised tournaments. “Somebody playing the qualies in Montreal is an undeniably world-class tennis player, but he’s not quite at the level where serious TV and money are,” Wallace explained.
Another writing technique Wallace used was descriptive. He gives very detailed descriptions of the tennis players’ physical characteristics for example here Wallace writes, “With few exceptions, all the tennis players have similar builds—big muscular legs, shallow chests, skinny necks, and one normal-size arm and one monstrously huge and hypertrophic arm. The last technique I think Wallace used was first-person. Throughout the whole article, instead of just talking about Michael Joyce and the other world-class tennis players in third-person, Wallace also incorporated his own ideas in opinions into the article. One example where first-person technique was used, “If you’ve played tennis at least a little, you probably have some idea how hard a game it is to play really well. I submit to you that you really have no idea at all. I know I didn’t and television doesn’t really allow you to appreciate what real top-level players can do.”
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