1.  Of the selected readings from Writing and Place, which piece used thick description effectively?  How? 

Of the selected readings from Writing and Place, the piece titled, "On Seeing England for the First Time" uses thick description most effectively, as it provides the most details and adjectives to make the story more compelling.  Thick description can be defined as full, detailed description to the point of analysis intended to give a mental image of something experienced (Class notes).

In the story, the author writes, "...nose pressed up against a glass window, that is wrong. My nose was pressed up against a glass window all right, but there was an iron vise at the back of my neck forcing my head to stay in place" (Kincaid 104).  The description the author gave in the first description gave a mental image, but the additional information provided in the next sentence enabled the reader to analyze why that person's nose was originally pressed up against a glass window.  

Another example in this passage of effective thick description was the author's way of providing more details.  On page 105, the author used parentheses to provide more details than necessary, enabling the reader to have more of a mental image.  An example of this is as follows, "My dresses did not rustle in the evening air as I strolled to the theatre (I had no evening, I had no theater; my dresses were made of cheap cotton, the weave of which would give way after not too many washings) (105).  Having parentheses provides more details for the reader.

Other passages, such as The Science of Shopping and The Chinatown Idea were stories and facts put together.  The difference, at least for me, between the thick descriptions presented in these passages apart from the 'England' passage is that it held my attention longer, with not so many details, and more of a story like setting.  The passage 'Place' is more of a description of defining the word.  It is divided into sections that provides the descriptions in categories, making the layout of the passage easy to understand (effectively). 

2.  Comment on effective (or ineffective) techniques employed in either "The Church Uptown" or "Lane Library: A Living Learning Community" 

The effective techniques employed in "The Church Uptown"  is that the author used a 'case study' where he got other people's opinions and preferences on the St. Mary's Church.  Another effective technique used was that he used a personal narrative, especially in the memo, of how St. Mary's and Miami University relate to him.

"Lane Library: A Living Learning Community" used ineffective techniques that kept me drifting from the story.  It was more difficult to read, because the author used too much description that was irrelevant to the ideas presented in the story.  Out of these two stories, the Church Uptown was my favorite story.