What makes a good text great is the ability to support an overall theme with solid supporting evidence and a strong dialogue. A good example of a sound and well-worded text/speech would be “What is Water”, by David Foster Wallace. In this speech, Wallace uses a unique combination of grammar and strong supporting evidence to back up his theme, which allows the audience to relate to points being made. Although not clearly stating it, Wallace directly relates all the forms of evidence in “ What is Water” to the overall focal point of the text, which is realizing that there is more than a single way to interpret any situation and we mustn’t become a slave to any one outcome. The focal point or main idea of the text is described by using specific examples that include detailed-separate monologues within the speech, that help explain the points made by Wallace that relate to the specific words in each portion of the speech. These specific words such as the word “worship” that makes many appearances towards the tail end of the text and sparks the controversy of what worship can truly be defined as and the many perspectives that the word creates.  It is in these specific explanations which Wallace uses relatable situations to attract the target audience and allow for his points to be formatted in a style that is easily understood but creates controversy.  Wallace creates this controversy by taking the perspective of opposing views and creates a valid argument for each side. By doing so, Wallace’s main points of his speech are understood much easier Wallace relates back to his larger message that each situation has its conflicting views and the best outcome can only be reached by fully interpreting the points made by each view. It is the specific wording that Wallace uses to spark the initial points being made and the explanation of the examples and their conflicting views allows for him to relate his examples to the his main point with ease.

In this text, Wallace uses multiple words such as “worship” and “cliché” in specific situations as a focal point to that exact argument and in some of these instances even have the word representing a separate meaning. For example, Wallace uses the word worship multiple times while describing how people should follow their own path. How Wallace uses this specific term in reflects how he expects the text to be interpreted, by allowing the reader to make the connection of the expected meaning of the word. By providing different perspective for the word worship, Wallace relates the examples to the monologue’s focal point, which is there is more than one interpretation and each view has a valid point, creating a multiple correct understandings of the same passage. Wallace goes on to explain that even though one group acknowledges the word specifically, he leaves it to the reader to recognize the words true meaning in which they view it as correct.  Wallace could have simply crafted the expected connection to the word worship as being linked to religion. Although Wallace does make the connection between worship and religion, he does not limit worship to religion as he expands the term to any form of “worship” or practice that has substantial involvement in a person’s individual life. For examples, Wallace factors power and intellect when he states, “Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, and you will end up feeling stupid,” (Wallace XVI). This specific form of writing allows Wallace to draw a connection between the audience and the text’s message of multiple points of view in a single situation, by connecting the word worship with relatable forms of individual worship. Wallace does something different in the same speech with the word cliché. The word means the stereotypical choice or mainstream, and is used by Wallace when he explains how clichés are all similar. In this paragraph Wallace states, “This, like many clichés, so lame and unexciting on the surface, actually expresses a great and terrible truth.” (Wallace XIII) The context that Wallace uses this term in can be described as suggesting against it. Wallace’s tone is easily picked up upon as he uses the term similarly in the same paragraph, which allows his point to come across as firm and supported by multiple examples. For example, Wallace uses terms like worship and cliché that are common words with interpretation of these words are set and stone. Wallace then begins to challenge the audience’s believed understanding of the words with counter arguments that are easily relatable, which creates controversy. Throughout the speech Wallace talks frequently how people view the world in their best interest. This is truly evident in portions of the speech where Wallace begins to talk about the grocery store example and how every situation on the way home is miserable from the SUV induced traffic to the crowded grocery store. After describing the miserable events that it would take to get home, Wallace then sheds light on these situations by providing a counter argument, which causes the audience to reinterpret their initial perspective. For example, Wallace explains a heavily crowded grocery store with a long line and what appears to be a miserable checkout lady. At first he mourns the long line as he is simply trying to get home and makes an assumption about the lady with her kids and how she is acting like a poor parent. Wallace then creates the counter argument that the lady that was once viewed as terrible parent could possibly be a nicer person but has had obstacles recently preventing her from doing so (Wallace XIV-XV). The usage of such situations that provoke controversy or confusion guide Wallace’s main points of multiple perspectives in any given event and the first interpretation is not always the correct one.

Wallace begins his speech with a strong relatable example of the story of two fish swimming in a certain direction. The main point of Wallace’s usage of this example is the fact that we have become so accustomed to our own perspective that we almost become blind to things that are obvious. In this example, the irony of the fish not knowing what water is even though they have been in it their whole life paves the way for the rest of the speech. This exact moment reflects the main points of the text by using the one perspective of the two fish not knowing they are in water with the perspective of the fish asking how the water is. The one fish obviously knows they are in water but that is unknown to the other fish, but has created controversy to their perspective as to what exactly water is. This example then links the introduction to the common theme of multiple perspectives that Wallace creates with the words worship and cliché. Wallace again creates an alternative perspective by using another SUV example that is, 

“ The thing is there are totally different ways to think about these situations. In this traffic, all these vehicles stopped and idling in my way, its not impossible that some of these people in SUV’s that some of these people have been in horrible auto accidents in the past” (Wallace, XV). 

This example again relates Wallace’s speech to the overall main point of this speech, which is to view each situation with multiple perspectives because your initial viewpoint could be much different than the actual reason or another viewpoint of that same situation. 

Throughout the progression of Wallace’s speech, “This is Water”, he seems to constantly attempt to create a valid alternative opinion to each situation in which the audience would react similarly, such as the crowded grocery store, which ultimately created conflict and controversy. By providing specific examples of his supporting pieces of evidence, Wallace assures that his suggestions of truly becoming aware of the current situation will hopefully allow the opposite perspective to be acknowledged. However, these forms of conflict and controversy are not negative, but create room for constructive criticism and could be a helpful tactic in actually interpreting each and every situation with multiple focus points in order to find the best possible outcome.