English 101: Writing Assignment #2—Classification, Definition, Process Analysis or Example. You Pick!
Due in rough draft for PR 7/18, due to me in final draft 7/23
The tasks: You’ve given each other helpful introductions to these kinds of essays and ways of thinking. Pick one of these modes to help you brainstorm, structure, and develop an essay. Attend to the basic traits and requirements of this mode and to the helpful hints your teachers and your book suggest. Use this space to review your chosen mode.
Write a two to three page essay that...
My requirements for all these types:
First, YOU MUST ENJOY WRITING THIS ESSAY! This doesn’t mean your essay has to be funny or clever or... You can write ardently about your topic, or whimsically, or satirically or whatever. I just want you to enjoy the process and to tap into to the potential for self-expression and for genuine communication that essays offer.
Second, by now you’ve probably picked up on the fact that I value critical thinking and insight highly in my grading scheme; having something you think worth exploring and articulating is the only reason to write an essay. Please be that sure you essay is thoughtful and that you care about your topic and discussion. Please also be sure that your essay has a strong thesis and that this thesis governs the essay’s unfolding discussion.
Third, your essay must clearly use one of the four rhetorical modes as part of its organizing force. Of course, a definition essay might use comparison to make a point; a cause and effect essay might use narration and description, etc. An example essay might include definition, etc. Do use the book’s guidelines and checklists to help you generate, develop and edit your essay.
Fourth: Please attend carefully to the construction, clarity, economy, and rhythms of your sentences. Read you essay out loud as if it were written to be performed. Listen to its sounds, to its music. Remember to let go of “sounding smart” through extra verbiage and multi-syllabic word choice. Think about crafting sentences that reach readers directly.
Fifth, you must specify a very particular audience for your essay. It might help to think about how/where you would get this essay published. Or you can choose a more personal audience; one student wrote a grand essay to the daughter he hasn’t had yet…
Additional paragraph: At the end of your essay you must include a well developed paragraph that names and describes your audience and that points out the ways you shaped, pitched, worded, and edited this essay with this particular audience in mind. NOTE: your essay will automatically drop .5 if you forget this paragraph. OUCH!
The most successful student essays I’ve read in response to this assignment had distinct purposes, audience, tones, contexts, etc. Each successful essay was written in one of the writer’s authentic personas or voices. I’ve read playful essays about the advisability of popsicles and the beauty of the old coffee shop. I’ve read heartfelt essays about the distinct culture of funerals and the multiple meanings of the word “ghetto” and on and on. Each grew from the writer’s faith in their brand of wisdom, in their own experiences and in their analysis of these experiences.
This might be the last time in your college career that you’re asked to use writing to discover and value personal quirks, insights, processes and to share them artfully using the written word. Please revel in this opportunity.
We will generate the grading criteria together.