Thursday, September 18, 2014

Thursday, September 18th--6:30 pm

Hello,
below you will find a copy of the out of class essay #1 assignment, distributed and discussed in class on Wednesday.


English 5, Fall, 2014
Instructor: C. Fraga
Out of Class Essay Assignment #1--200 points possible

Assigned:  Wednesday, September 17
Rough Draft Due (optional) no later than: Monday, Sept. 29 (typed, MLA format)
Final Draft Due Monday, October 13
REMINDER: IF YOU CHOOSE TO SUBMIT A ROUGH DRAFT, THEN YOU MAY REVISE THE ESSAY ONCE YOU RECEIVE YOUR GRADE, AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WISH.

Reminders:
·      Please underline your thesis statement.
·      Please attach your rough draft to the back of your final draft when submitting.
·      This essay must follow MLA format for the set-up of your essay. No Works Cited page is required since you will not be conducting any outside research for this essay.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF HOME
Essay Prompt: This essay asks you to employ your narrative, descriptive and analytical writing skills.

Consider your childhood and write about a place where you felt most comfortable, safe, happy and content. This place COULD be your actual house, or a room in your house, but it could be ANYWHERE. (your grandparents’ home; the school yard; the playground at a neighborhood park; Little League games; dance class; the tree house your dad built for you, etc.)

Your essay must include a detailed description of this place and the story of this place—what happened here? Why did this place bring a sense of comfort and safety and enjoyment to you? What did you do when you were at this place? And finally, why do you think it was so significant and memorable for you? Looking back, does this place in any way reflect or symbolize or help define who you are today? Why or why not? Be specific.

Your goal is for the reader to actually SEE this place and UNDERSTAND its importance and effect on you as a young child. Perhaps the reader will also get a sense of your personality, sensibility and passions.

FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS ESSAY ONLY, I AM ASKING YOU TO ORGANIZE IT IN A CERTAIN WAY—NARRATIVE FOLLOWED BY ANALYSIS. We will discuss this at length IN CLASS. You will want to take notes during the discussion. J

REQUIRED LENGTH:
I do not believe in giving my students a specific page length requirement or word count requirement. Part of being a successful writer is knowing how to address a prompt accurately and fully and knowing when to stop writing. I WILL suggest that it would be challenging to complete this assignment in less than at least three pages. Not impossible, but challenging.




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