I've fixed up my essay a little bit and was woundering if you could go through it.
Mark Kurlansky’s thesis for the book Salt is clearly declared on the interface of the book, “…salt-the only rock we eat-has shaped civilization from the very beginning... about 100 years ago, when modern geology revealed how prevalent it is, and salt was one of the most sought-after commodities, for without it humans and animals couldn’t live.” Salt has shaped civilization and was considered so inestimable that it was often stockpiled by farmers and even today salt is used as currency in some places.
Kurlansky supports this thesis by discussing the importance of fish and many other foods that can be preserved longer when salted. Having the ability to store food, for a longer period of time, allows for civilizations to expand and develop. For example people could live in colder climates by stockpiling food in the fall. Not having to go hunt for a meal every single time you wished to feast allowed people to stay in one spot and not have to move around as much. As a result people were able to build more permanent homes which lead to the building small villages. Wars have even started over the control of salt. For example Kurlansky discusses the Salt War of 1877 that divided Southwest residents and brought the only recorded defeat of the Texas Rangers. Salt deposits located in the Guadalupe Mountains were almost chemically pure and people from both sides of southern Texas and Mexico collected it for free until there was a dispute over who controlled it. Salt was even taxed in many places to make revenue for the economy which in many cases did the opposite of it was supposed to do. For example one of the many accepted reasons the French monarchy broke apart was because of the so hated "gabelle", or salt tax, which imposed a larger fee on farming peasants than it did on the aristocracy. The British also tried to regulate their salt in a similar fashion and they got a similar result as the French. We now have the technology to preserve food longer without the need of salt but that doesn’t mean we can do without it. To better understand how valuable salt was Kurlansky compares it to gasoline, a product today that’s just as valuable as salt was. Kurlansky explores the idea of how valuable salt was by discussing many ancient civilizations and what they used salt for. For example the Celts were a great producer of salt. The cod became a massive marketed salted product. The Egyptians discovered that salt preserved bodies very well and used it to help the mummifying process of corpses to avert rotting.
Salt is a book about salt hence the title of the book. It’s important to realize how valuable salt was as we take it for granted today. There are some pictures from different sources that are included in the book along with many recipes that he cites. To be exact there are a total of forty different recipes that tell how to make some food that will include the use of salt in some way or another. There is no real use reading about how to make sauerkraut from a recipe that dates back to the 1800s. It’s like your reading an encyclopedia on the subject rather then a book about history because of all of the recipes. Kurlansky mentions fish even more times than he writes giant walls of cited text telling how to make some food that can just be skipped over. The book as a result get’s really dreary and monotonous after about two hundred pages in or so as fish is mentioned every other page. The book does talk about many ancient civilizations like the Celts or the Vikings and how they used salt and goes on to discuss other areas and time periods and tries to connect them to salt. Expect to learn some amazing facts and to come away with a wealth of knowledge from reading this book. Kurlansky will even talk about routes of words or phrases like how the word “salary” is derived from some word which literary meant “salt” and how some people even got paid in salt. That’s were the saying came from “earning his salt”. Many interesting facts like that one make the book somewhat pleasurable to read. Kurlansky jumps around from place to place and century to century following no particular order which makes it even more of a pain to understand. If the book was a few hundred pages shorter like Cod the book would have been so much better as the book is dragged out so much which just adds to the feeling that you’re sitting through a boring church sermon. The first one hundred pages or so are beautifully constructed. Kurlansky managed to get the track shoes on his feet and gets the book running but he forgets to put the spikes on and to tie them. I enjoyed reading the first couple of chapters though. Kurlansky talks about how many people claim to have a salt free diet when in reality most people take in a vast amount of salt every day and don’t even know it. When people think of salt they think of little white crystals that are sprinkled onto french-fries when in reality almost every single type of food as some type of sodium in it. Many doctors tell us how bad salt is for the human body. When in reality we can’t live without it. A small amount of salt in the daily diet is healthy but taking in too much can be harmful. One thing is for sure though, this book should be kept out of the daily diet. A small amount of this book is healthy to consume like the first two hundred pages or so, but don’t take too much of it in and try reading the whole thing as it’ll go on and on. It looks like they forgot to put the fine print on the back of this book, if a couple of hundred of pages were accidentally added to your book and you accidentally read them, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center right away.
Mark Kurlansky’s thesis for the book (COMMA) Salt (COMMA) is clearly declared on the interface of the book, “…salt - the only rock we eat - (EITHER USE TWO "N DASHES" [--] OR AN "M DASH" [—] WITH A SPACE ON EACH SIDE.) has shaped civilization from the very beginning... (IF THIS IS NEW SENTENCE, INDICATE THE END OF THE PREVIOUS SENTENCE BY ELLIPSIS AND A PERIOD.) about 100 years ago, when modern geology revealed how prevalent it is, and salt was one of the most sought-after commodities, for without it humans and animals couldn’t live.” (QUOTE SEEMS AWKWARD. CAN YOU STATE INFO IN YOUR OWN WORDS?) Salt has shaped civilization and was considered so inestimable that it was often stockpiled by farmers (COMMA) and even today salt is used as currency in some places. (THAT'S WHERE THE WORD, "SALARY," ORIGINATED.)
Kurlansky supports this thesis by discussing the importance of fish and many other foods that can be preserved longer when salted. Having the ability to store food, (NO COMMA) for a longer period of time, allows for civilizations to expand and develop. For example (COMMA) people could live in colder climates by stockpiling food in the fall. Not having to go hunt for a meal every single time you wished to feast ("EAT"?) allowed people to stay in one spot and not have to move around as much. As a result (COMMA) people were able to build more permanent homes (COMMA) which lead to the (DELETE "THE".) building small villages.
USE NEW PARAGRAPH TO INDICATE CHANGE IN IDEAS,PLACES, PERSONS OR TIMES.
Wars have even started over the control of salt. For example (COMMA) Kurlansky discusses the Salt War of 1877 that divided Southwest residents and brought the only recorded defeat of the Texas Rangers. Salt deposits located in the Guadalupe Mountains were almost chemically pure (COMMA) and people from both sides of (DELETE "SIDES OF" FOR CONCISENESS.) southern Texas and Mexico collected it for free (COMMA) until there was a dispute over who controlled it.
Salt was even taxed in many places to make revenue for the economy (COMMA) which in many cases did the opposite of it was supposed to do. For example (COMMA) one of the many accepted reasons the French monarchy broke apart was because of the so (DELETE "SO".) hated "gabelle", or salt tax, which imposed a larger fee on farming peasants than it did on the aristocracy. The British also tried to regulate their salt in a similar fashion and they got a similar result as the French.
We now have the technology to preserve food longer without the need of salt (COMMA) but that doesn’t mean we can do without it. To better understand how valuable salt was (COMMA) Kurlansky compares it to gasoline, a product today that’s just as valuable as salt was. Kurlansky explores the idea of how valuable salt was by discussing many ancient civilizations and what they used salt for. (TRY NOT TO END SENTENCE WITH A PREPOSITION, WHICH REQUIRES AN OBJECT. COULD USE "...AND THEIR USES FOR SALT.") For example (COMMA) the Celts were a great producer(S) of salt. The cod became a massive(LY) marketed salted product. The Egyptians discovered that salt preserved bodies very well and used it to help the mummifying process of corpses to avert rotting.
Salt is a book about salt (COMMA) hence the title of the book. (ISN'T THAT STATING THE OBVIOUS? REPHRASE.) It’s important to realize how valuable salt was (COMMA) as we take it for granted today. There are some pictures from different sources that are included in the book (COMMA) along with many recipes that he cites. To be exact (COMMA) there are a total of forty different recipes that tell how to make some food that will include the use of salt in some way or another. There is no real use reading about how to make sauerkraut from a recipe that dates back to the 1800s. It’s like your reading an encyclopedia on the subject rather then a book about history because of all of the recipes. (AWKWARD SENTENCE.) Kurlansky mentions fish even more times than he writes giant walls ("WALLS"?) of cited text (COMMA) telling how to make some food that can just be skipped over. ("OMITTED" OR "DELETED"? PREPOSITION AGAIN.) The book (COMMA) as a result (COMMA) get’s (NOT A POSSESSIVE.) really dreary and monotonous after about two hundred pages in or so (COMMA) as fish is mentioned every other page.
The book does talk about many ancient civilizations (COMMA) like the Celts or the Vikings (COMMA) and how they used salt (NEW SENTENCE.)and goes on to discuss other areas and time periods and tries to connect them to salt. Expect to learn some amazing facts and to come away with a wealth of knowledge from reading this book. Kurlansky will even talk about routes ("ROOTS"?) of words or phrases (COMMA) like how the word “salary” is derived from some word which literary meant “salt” and how some people even got paid in salt. That’s were the saying came from “earning his salt”. Many interesting facts like that one make the book somewhat pleasurable to read.
Kurlansky jumps around from place to place and century to century (COMMA) following no particular order (COMMA) which makes it even more of a pain to understand. If the book was a few hundred pages shorter like Cod (COMMA) the book would have been so much better (NEW SENTENCE.)as the book is dragged out so much (COMMA) which just adds to the feeling that you’re sitting through a boring church sermon.
The first one hundred pages or so are beautifully constructed. Kurlansky managed to get the track shoes on his feet and gets the book running (COMMA) but he forgets to put the spikes on and to tie them. I enjoyed reading the first couple of chapters though. Kurlansky talks about how many people claim to have a salt-free diet (COMMA) when in reality most people take in a vast amount of salt every day and don’t even know it. When people think of salt (COMMA) they think of little white crystals that are sprinkled onto french-fries (COMMA) when in reality almost every single type of food as some type of sodium in it. Many doctors tell us how bad ("EXCESSIVE"?) salt is for the human body. When in reality we can’t live without it. (NOT A SENTENCE.) A small amount of salt in the daily diet is healthy but taking in too much can be harmful.
One thing is for sure though, this book should be kept out of the daily diet. A small amount of this book is healthy to consume (COMMA) like the first two hundred pages or so, but don’t take too much of it in and try reading the whole thing (COMMA) as it’ll go on and on. It looks like they forgot to put the fine print on the back of this book, if a couple of hundred of pages were accidentally added to your book and you accidentally (DELETE SECOND "ACCIDENTALLY" FOR CONCISENESS. DON'T "POISON" YOUR READERS.) read them, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center right away. (CUTE! ARE YOU "ASSAULTING" THE BOOK?) ;-)
YOU REALLY NEED SOME HELP WITH COMMAS AND PARAGRAPH CONSTRUCTION.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_comma.html
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_commaproof.html
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/606/01/
In the future, if nobody is available to proofread your work, you can do this yourself. After writing your material, put it aside for a day — at least several hours. (This breaks mental sets you might have that keep you from noticing problems.) Then read it aloud as if you were reading someone else's work. (Reading aloud slows down your reading, so you are less likely to skip over problems.)
If your reading goes smoothly, that is fine. However, wherever you "stumble" in your reading, other persons are likely to have a problem in reading your material. Those "stumbles" indicate areas that need revising.
Once you have made your revisions, repeat the process above. Good papers often require many drafts.
I hope this helps. Thanks for asking.
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