The Essay Topic List is located page 8 of the Calendar tab. For the Diagnostic, you will interpret a quote:
Essay 1Graded Diagnostic (Brief Full-Process Essay):
Compose a brief essay based on your interpretation of the quotation from John Miltons
Paradise Lost:
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heavn of hell, a hell of heavn (Satan speaking to his best friend,
Beelzebub, in Book 1, lines 254-255)
*It is not solely events themselves that determine our emotional reaction, but also how the mind
makes sense of them (a core principal of CBT (cognitive behavior therapy).
THREE (3) pages maximum!
Include a Thesis Statement (one sentence summary, last sentence of introductory
paragraph). Essay MUST include a Works Cited page, minimum three (3) sources;
personal example(s) acceptable but DO NOT count as sources. The quote alone should be
analyzed; no need to include any additional information about John Milton nor Paradise Lost.
You need not have read Paradise Lost.
The speaker is not important.
The speaker’s intended audience is not important.
The circumstances of which the speaker is making this statement (through his lens) is not important.
What IS important is how YOU interpret the quote through YOUR lens.
***We are just using a quote to compose a brief Diagnostic AND to establish context for the course. Keep in mind: the foundation for/focus of this course is, and will be all semester, the consequences of choice(s).
To get you started: For the first essay, the Diagnostic, it is not just our emotional response to situations/events, etc., but more importantly, it is how we respond, how we process cognitively that matters most–again, a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven. And understand that “heaven” does not mean perfection in this context; it means doing the logical, rationale, intelligent thing(s), which, in turn, means to not be lead solely by our emotions. Know this: emotions are fleeting.
A few students in the past have mentioned that the mind is very complex. I concur; it is a scientific fact. But one thing is for sure–if we have the mental ability and capability to discern (I will use this term ALL semester–it is my favorite word), our cognition, our thought process, our decisions will be logical, sound, moral and ethical. If we are lead by our emotional responses and the “nature of our truth” is based on these fleeting emotions and on what we know to be the wrong (immoral, unethical, compulsive) thing to do, we create what is known in Buddhism as “suffering.” We create our own suffering; thus, a hell of heaven.
We cannot control other people nor most circumstances; we can only control ourselves and OUR reactions/responses.
Begin your research and drafting of your essay; it will be due before you know it.
What type/kind of research? Well, what about psychological, sociological, ect. about how we, as human, make choices/decision. What about a definition or two? Specific examples would work nicely, too (even from other literature, TV shows, movies, etc). And yes, from your own experiences.
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