ENGL 1102
Janssen
Essay #1: Chapter Analysis
This essay assignment is meant as an accompaniment to the presentation of your assigned chapter. They will compliment and inform one another. In order to teach a concept, you need to know it well, and writing is the most comprehensive way of demonstrating knowledge. For this essay, you will be discussing the contents of your chapter in greater depth than will be possible in the presentation. Working on this essay concurrently with the presentation, you should develop a level of confidence and expertise on your chapter that will make the presentation easy! Here is what I want you to do:
1) Provide a comprehensive summary of the material contained in your chapter. This means that you need to discuss the material in your own words. This is not an absolute rule; short quotations are allowed, but for the most part, you need to discuss the chapter contents in your own way without relying on Graff and Birkenstein’s exact words. Your discussion of the chapter should be clear and accurate. Those two criteria are important for the entire essay, but they are particularly significant for this first section.
2) Provide at least 3 examples of the concepts covered in your chapter from outside the book itself. You need to look for material that helps to illustrate the central move or moves discussed in your chapter. If you find something that works in another book or on the web or TV or whatever, make a note of it, literally. You can use it, although you must be able to document your sources. Keep in mind that you can use bad examples to illustrate just as effectively as you can use good examples, as long as you know the difference of course. You may also create examples to illustrate your chapter’s contents.
3) Conclude with a discussion of the importance of knowing the material in your assigned chapter. Discuss why you think it is valuable to know this stuff.
Your essay should be 3-4 pages long, double-spaced, written in a standard essay format.
Your essay should also contain a Works Cited page that documents ALL the material you used, including They Say/ I Say
A rough draft of this essay will be due on January 31, and the final draft will be due on February 14.