My Watch, A True Story, by Muriel Spark
...er watch had suffered greatly. Luckily, after taking it to an antique jeweler, the watch was repaired back and happily back on her wrist, though it no longer had all (emphasis mine) its original pieces. At length, twenty years later, spark noticed a missing diamond. Without hesitation she brought it to “a jeweler of long acquaintance, […] X” (1). Feeling a little uneasy about “a shady character” (1) lurking outside the window, Spark left the watch behind to be repaired in trusted in X’s hands. Just a few hours later, while at her friend Penelope’s house, she received a fax from X to call him immediately. He informed her that the watch had been stolen, by who he thought might have been by the younger couple that had come in after she had left. Soon learning that X was uninsured, Spark began her research to appraise her nineteen thirties diamond Cartier watch. With the real loss being her deprived of her everyday watch was, Spark soon discovered that it was worth possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars. She stated that she would have much rather herd that it wasn’t worth anything, and she said, “And as for selling it, I wouldn’t think of selling such an old friend” (2). Just as she received another (self emphasis) fax, she discovered some news. X, not being the greatest at English or grammar (2), brokenly stated, “ I give good news my wife having put herself to rummage in drawers […] retrieved your watch”. Lastly, ending with joy, Spark stated, “I have my watch-such an old friend […] back in the safety box goes my old friend […] for which I derived so much pleasure for the best part of my life”. Correspondingly, the organization and development of an essay possesses the same importance as the audience, purpose, and content. The paragraph must flow especially when moving from dialogue to discretion by keeping the paragraphs relatively long, Writing well (214), and they must follow in logical order for the audience to understand the purpose and content. Spark organized her essay in chronological order showing the change in time, and more importantly, the age and growing value of the watch. Secondly, she also shows the sequence of events using description and a degree of suspense. For instance, when Spark and her friend were getting her watch repaired by X, they notice a “shady character” (1), and then the watch subsequently appeared to be stolen. The reader, in his or her own mind can put various conclusions together of what happened to the watch, and it isn’t until the end that the reader discovers what happened. When reading or interpreting the tone, one must translate the author’s words into expressions to get the overall perspective of the essay. Spark ultimately speaks in first person using an informal tone. Primarily one interprets a pleasurable story with an overall happy ending. However, Spark writes the story of her watch in a way that the reader gets a sense that she is talking directly to him or her, thus making them feel obligated to listen. As Joan Didon, the author of On Keeping a Notebook describes, “The rest of us are expected, rightly, to effect absorption in other people’s favorite dresses, other people’s trout”, Primis, (196). Lastly, the style/ diction is important in that it is necessary to write using clear sentence structure, and in a way that the audience can relate. Spark’s ...