Stylistic Analysis

529 Words3 Pages
A Stylistic Analysis of Edward Lurie’s Louis Agassiz: A Life in Science Louis Agassiz: A Life in Science, written by Edward Lurie, seeks to present a bibliographical account of Agassiz’s life and hopes to display how vital his contributions were to the studies of geology, paleontology, and zoology. The book is formatted to follow a chronological timeline, making it simple for the reader to navigate through the text, and adding a sense of coherence throughout the piece. At the end of the piece, Lurie makes note of several sources he used to help him write his book, including publications by Agassiz himself, manuscripts, magazines, biographies and appraisals of Agassiz’s life written by other authors. By including this information, Lurie instantly acquires credibility from the reader because he does not attempt to claim information that is not his own. The book is divided into nine sections, each relating to a specific time period in Agassiz’s life. The chapter titles are unusually straightforward, ranging from “The Formative Years” to “The American Welcome” to “Building a Museum”, making it easy to maneuver through the material quickly and efficiently. Pictures are included to draw the reader in and provide a clear image to go along with the vivid descriptions that Lurie provides throughout the piece. As for the writing itself, Lurie does an excellent job of clearly describing Agassiz’s accomplishments in an easily comprehendible manner, while still sounding eloquent and well educated. Lurie speaks about Agassiz in a manner that reflects a sort of praise, possibly suggesting that his audience should also possess some sort of desire to admire Agassiz and his work. As opposed to just including facts about Agassiz’s life and accomplishments, Lurie adds his own opinions about Agassiz to his writing. For example, he claims that Agassiz is one of the most
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