Once More to the Lake

1.Why did The New Republic include the first paragraph? Do you think the essay would be more or less effective if it began simply with the sentence "On July 27, 1995, my sixteen-year -old nephew was shot and paralyzed"?
Dickerson had her first paragraph as it was to show us her background before she talks about the issued at hand. She wants to show us that she is well-educated and that she has worked her way through life to get a respectable job despite having few privileges in childhood. …