discuss the four major books we read this semester:

Write an essay of 1000 words on the following topic:

SHOULD THE READINGS IN AN ENGLISH 101 CLASS BE DRAWN FROM CLASSIC (18th and 19th and 20th centuries) SOURCES OR FROM CONTEMPORARY (21st century) SOURCES?

You must discuss the four major books we read this semester: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Confessions of an English Opium Eater, My Bondage and Freedom, and How to Win Friends and Influence People. You may also discuss other assigned works (scroll down to the last page to see a list of our readings for this semester.) Do NOT discuss any works we did not read specifically for this class.

Think about the topic first. Gather your ideas. What are the pros and cons on both sides?

Gather your examples to support your points.
Organize and order your ideas and your examples.
Pick a sidedo not say both or a combination of both.
Have a number of reasons for picking the side you picked.
Write a clear thesis giving the reasons why you think as you do.
Consider the opposition point of view. Whichever side you pick, also present (and then refute or invalidate) the view from the other side.
Give specific, relevant examples to support your ideas.
Provide clear transitions between ideas and between paragraphs.
Make sure your essay has a conclusion and doesnt just stop.
Proofread your essay before uploading it to CANVAS.

Check for major errors:
Run-on sentences (including comma splices)
Fragments
Sentence structure errors / Mixed Construction
Pronoun reference errors
Subject-Verb agreement errors

Check for mechanical errors
Use commas correctly
Use semicolons correctly
Use colons correctly
Use apostrophes correctly
Spell correctly
Capitalize correctly

Show me your ability to write reasonably, clearly and with precision.
Not required but encouraged: show me you can construct sentences with parallel structures.
Not required but encouraged: show me you can construct periodic sentences.
Not required but encouraged: show me you can use repetition effectively.
Not required but encouraged: show me you can avoid clichs.

There is no right or wrong answer to this question. You will do well as long as you construct a clearly-written and well-supported persuasive argument free of major errors.

All of the readings for English 101 (except for two) are non-fiction works.

Jonathan Swift: A Modest Proposal (1729) [essay]
Benjamin Franklin: Sayings of Poor Richard (1732-1758) [proverbs]
Samuel Johnson: Rambler #47: On Sorrow (1750) [essay]
Samuel Johnson: Quotations from Boswells Life of Johnson (1791) [quotations]
Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1791) [autobiography]
Thomas De Quincey: Confessions of an English Opium Eater (1822, revised 1856) [autobiography]
Ralph Waldo Emerson: Self-Reliance (1841) [essay] and aphorisms from Emerson’s Journal [quotations]
Frederick Douglass: My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) [autobiography]
Upton Sinclair: The Jungle (1906) [excerpt from novel]
Robert Frost: Mending Wall (1914) [poem]
Dale Carnegie: How to Win Friends and Influence People (1937) [self-help book]
George Orwell: Politics and the English Language (1946) [essay]
John Fitzgerald Kennedy: Inaugural Address (1961) [speech]
Martin Luther King, Jr.: I Have a Dream (1963) [speech]

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