To begin, think of an event from your past that seems somehow significant. Don’t go immediately for the most important moment of your life–choose a small moment that matters somehow. Some ideas:
An exciting moment from a game or performancethink about one important play or piece, not the whole season or your whole career
The delicious feeling of one bad thing youve done
An experience that changed the way you think about somethingyoull focus on the experience, not on the issue
A time you felt pressured to do something
A time you felt proud (or embarrassed) for yourself, your family, or your communityyoull focus on that one time, not on whats great about your family
A time someone proved to be a good (or bad) friendyoull tell the story of what happened, rather than write an essay explaining what friendship means
One experience that shows what it’s like to live through a pandemic. If people 50 years from now wanted to know what life was like for real people during this time, what would be one story you could tell to show them?
One experience that shows why you hold a position about a current issue. Is racism a real thing in 2020? Is our health care system fair and effective? Don’t write an argument–tell a story that shows how you have been affected by your issue.
What about using the story you wrote about in the practice writing from Week 1 or 2?
To give you practice with a variety of writing skills, this essay will include various kinds of materials:
Narration:
what happened
what people said (youll include at least one quotation)
Description:
where it happened
what things looked like, smelled like, sounded like, and so on (youll include at least one original metaphor or simile)
Reflection:
any necessary background information
what it felt like or seemed like then
what it feels like or seems like now; why youre still thinking about this; why it matters
Tight focus and strong sensory details: at least 500 words of your essay will cover only ten minutes or less of time, and the rest will be lead-up, follow-up, background and reflection.
The rules:
There are many ways to put this kind of essay together. Whatever style of essay you choose to write, it must meet some general guidelines:
The material in the essay must be true. Most of your material must come from your own observations and experiences, not stories you’ve heard other people tell.
There should be something to interest a reader (this is not journal writing, for you to express yourself to yourself). Why should someone who doesn’t know you care about this story?
Do not try to resurrect papers from high school or from an earlier college class. I’m looking for new, mature thought. Do not try to take a paragraph or short paper from an earlier class and expand it into a full essay. Trust me: it almost never works well.
The finished product:
Your finished essay will be 800-1000 words long (three to four typed pages if we were using double space–which we’re not) or longer. Youll write this in stages (a complete rough draft, a final draft), and you should expect to add and subtract material as you revise. Although I don’t require it, it would be a good idea to send me an email before you get started, so you and I can agree about whether your topic will work for this assignment.
The final draft of this paper is due at the end of Week 5.
One more thing:
You’re here to practice the skills necessary to give clear ideas and images to readers. This means that your three formal papers (and a few other smaller ones) are going to be read by at least four or five of your classmates at the rough draft stage. Don’t write about things that are too personal to share.
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