Simple events in our lives are often overlooked in our rushed and demanding lives. The ornithological biographies of John James Audubon and Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek show what happens when you stop to smell the roses, or rather to watch the birds. Although describing similar events, the authors differ in their descriptions and views of what they would both consider a wondrous phenomenon. The authors' different tone, divergent diction, and disparate style show how one event can be seen in multiple ways. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"?Get the original essay John James Audubon uses a more specific tone in his excerpt when recounting the migration of the pigeon from the "northeast to the southwest” (5). Audubon demonstrates his use of precise diction by saying: "In a short time, finding the task I had undertaken impracticable, while the birds were flocking in innumerable multitudes, I stood up and, counting the points and then deposited them, found that 163 [points] had been achieved in twenty-one minutes” (10-15). When the author described this occasion, he had decided to sit down and count the number of flocks that had passed him. Instead of just saying that he sat down to count the flocks, he goes on to say precisely how long he had been sitting on the bench and exactly how many flocks he had counted. The author does this to allow the reader to feel that he is essentially experiencing what he is. In contrast, Annie Dillard interweaves a more informal tone into her writing, saying, “I didn’t move; they flew over my head for half an hour” (7-8). She adapts a tone that makes it seem like she's in a casual conversation. The reader can assume that she rounded the period. Instead of being precise like Audubon who marks the exact period as "twenty-one minutes", Dillard expresses the period as half an hour. It allows the reader to imagine the scenario by giving an estimate of time and also by being carefree in its description. Its simple setting and clear words are very different from Audubon's polysyllabic diction and extended description. John James Audubon's sophisticated diction creates a passage that seems well-processed and thoughtful. Annie Dillard's simple diction creates a more spontaneous description of the experience. When Dillard explains the beginning of the phenomenon, she clearly says, "Out of the darkening sky a dot appeared, and then another, and another" (1-2) instead of adding details as Audubon does when he talks about birds flying in masses. . Audubon states: “In you, almost solid masses, they darted in wavy and angular lines, descended and swept the earth with inconceivable speed… which then resembled the spirals of a gigantic serpent” (35-42). Audubon's description allows the reader to make fewer questions. The excerpt is already well handled and with the use of polysyllabic diction, the reader would prefer to find Audubon as a completely intelligible individual whereas Dillard's excerpt does not use polysyllables so much as it creates an image that seems almost effortless; a work of art. The excerpt from John James Audubon is a detailed, detailed description of an experience he had during his normal day. Although complex, the way he describes the experience is almost scientific. It gives exact figures on the number of flocks that flew over it in an exact time frame and specifies the direction in which they were flying. He describes a situation almost similar to the theory of big..