Write an essay in which you tell a story about something
that happened to you which changed your attitude and/or your actions. A narrative is a
sequence of events leading to a climax. The thesis of a narrative is the moral or lesson
you learned from this sequence of events. As you think about stories you could tell, also
think what the purposes of telling that story might be. You could write possible thesis
statements by beginning “From this experience I learned that . . . “ and fill in
the rest of the sentence (eventually leave out the words “From this
experience I learned that.“ Think of as many purposes as you can. Tell us
what you learned about yourself, what you learned about other people, what you learned
about the world in general. Identify in your own mind your audience. Perhaps think about
telling this story to a younger brother or sister; what would you want your sibling to
learn from your experiences to avoid your mistakes or to learn from your successes? Try to
go beyond the obvious lessons (like “Don’t drink and drive”) to deeper,
more revealing, psychological lessons (like why do you drink in the first place? why do
your friends let you get drunk and then try to drive?) Your purposes should come naturally
from the story itself.
This story should take place within 24 hours, preferably within 2 hours. If you try to tell me all about your 2-week vacation down in Mexico, you will either need to write 50 pages or you will provide only skimpy detail about any one incident. Instead choose one incident from one day and tell that story. Your incident should have taken place at least one year ago for you to have the right perspective and to know how that incident changed you. Students always ask me if your narrative has to be the truth. Yes, it must be true. On the other hand, how do I know whether you wore a blue shirt or a green shirt. I do start to become suspicious of the truth if you tell me that little green men came down and kidnapped you and took you away to their planet. Tell the truth about what happened that caused the change but if you happened to stop at McDonald’s on the way, since that is not essential to your point, you can leave out that truth. Most especially, if your team lost the championship, don’t tell us that you won, even if you think that would be a better ending, because you learned from losing and you don’t really know what those who won did learn. You may change the point of view; by that I mean that you can tell your own story but make up a name for your protagonist, i.e., “George then tried to hide the drugs in his locker at school.” I would choose this method if the story you want to tell illustrates what you would like a younger brother or sister to avoid doing because you made a mistake. And inevitably there are students who believe nothing interesting ever happens to them, although Cousin Susie is always involved in fascinating events. If someone else’s story is very well known to you because you have heard it countless times, you could choose to write that story and you could write it in the third person: “Susie was on her way to Tijuana when she ran into an old friend.” Or you could write Susie’s story in first person: “I was on my way to Tijuana I ran into an old friend.” Usually, narratives are more effective if written in the first person; therefore, I suggest you use “I.” But this means also that as you read the narratives that other students have written, you cannot assume that a student in our class actually had those experiences; they may all be Cousin Susie’s (or George’s). Also since this is your first paper and a very personal one, I would like you to turn in the rough draft without your name on the paper. Please identify your papers using only the number and letter lable you chose to tell you to which group you were assigned, for example A2 or D4.
To decide which story about yourself you should tell, first think of at least three you could tell and then come up with the purposes you could have for telling each story. Try to think of any many possible purposes for each story as you can. Then choose the story with the most interesting, original purposes because that will give you the best chance for a better-than-"C" grade. You should do some sort of prewriting for this assignment, either a 10-minute write, or clustering, or an outline. Try to generate as many concrete details as you can to include in your essay.
Student or Teacher Analysis
The assignment is to write an analysis of a student or a teacher you have known or had with respect to that person’s learning or teaching effectiveness (either someone who is especially good or particularly poor).
The analysis essay is different from the narrative in that there will be a specific introduction paragraph specifying pertinent characteristics or traits of the person you wish to discuss and a thesis statement explaining how these traits would create a good student or teacher. Examples of poor teaching may be used also, but they will be most effective if this example is used to show how poor teaching affects student learning or how to overcome poor teaching and still have student success. For each character trait that you discuss, you will need some concrete, specific examples to show that trait in action; therefore, your narrative skills will be in use for small examples, short narratives. The best examples are personal experience of a particular incident which happened in class or to the student. These are stronger if they are presented, not as examples of things which happen every day (i.e. “We always began the day with a current event report”), but rather as a specific incident (i.e. “One Friday, when it was her turn to present the current event . . . “).
Prewriting:
Choose about 3 people you could be analyzing. For each person, list possible purposes for doing the analysis to see how strong your thesis statement might be. If you are analyzing a student, you should be doing so to convince others that s/he is a good student (hence you want to avoid having nothing but negative qualities you discuss), and also to figure out how he could improve as a student. Another purpose might be to decide what kind of a student he is (hands on, aural, concrete sequential, etc.) so that he or she can choose the best teachers and classes (and maybe even career choices) based on his/her strengths and interests. If you are analyzing a teacher, you should be doing so to decide what makes for effective teaching either in general, or for your style of student in particular. You can do this by figuring out what worked or didn’t work well for you in your interactions with a teacher you have had. You could try to decide what that teacher tried to emphasize (memorization, creativity, etc.) and make part of your purpose a discussion of what should be the emphasis in the classroom (or outside of it). Choose your subject by what thesis would be the most interesting, original, or profound.
Begin by listing as many qualities as you can think of to describe yourself or your teacher. Use terms we have discovered by reading “Three Heads” or by doing the psychological profiles. Choose which 3 or 4 characteristics you want to use and provide specific, concrete examples, illustrations, experiences which would show these traits.
Outline your essay. Your structure should probably look like a typical 5- or 6-paragraph essay:
Introduction paragraph -- including thesis statement and possibly organizational principle.
Body paragraphs (3 or 4) -- including topic sentence in each with specific concrete detail as support.
Conclusion paragraph -- including thesis and possibly summary material
Remember, your body paragraphs will be different in analysis than they were in narrative. You will need a topic sentence in each paragraph, which presents a statement about a particular trait the student or teacher has; then you must provide support, in the form of personal experience, details from class or from study habits, etc.
Here is a sample narrative paragraph:
Within two miles of leaving the cantina, we were pulled over by the Mexican police. They must have been waiting outside the bar for any inebriated Americans to leave. The officer asked us to step out of the car and proceeded to look inside the vehicle. Our guilt lay blatantly on the floorboard. The joint, so carefully hidden, had jarred loose into plain view. As the young officer reached over to pick it up, I felt a wrenching knot twist in my stomach. All those past warning from my family and those who cared about me always seemed meaningless until that moment. Hand-cuffed and in a daze, my friend and I were taken away. I knew I was in serious trouble this time.
Here is a sample analysis paragraph:
The teachers I have had the greatest respect for are those who have had the ability to teach their students creatively. My high school English teacher, Mr. Salzman, showed the class how to write short paragraphs called the “21 senses.” He used this tool to get us to realize that there are more senses than the basic five we are familiar with. The idea behind writing these paragraphs was to get us to describe feelings such as happiness, hunger, and sadness in a well-described but concise manner. In each we were asked to describe one sense and not include any others. An example of this would be my “sense of hunger” paragraph, in which we were not allowed to write about how the food tasted because that would be describing the sense of taste. When we had finished our first paragraph, he asked us to rewrite it, this time without using any passive voice. He started the lessons with an explanation of how to remove the passive voice and replace it with a new, more exciting, active voice. As an example of how this improves writing, I changed the first sentence of my sense of sight paragraph: “As I was climbing the rock, I saw the dirt which was fallen to the ground below” to “My shoulder grinds into the side of the rock, sweeping off dirt and letting it hurtle itself to the earth far below.” This task became much harder, but once we had mastered this writing technique, we felt as though we had really accomplished a worthwhile paragraph. Because of his creative, new ways of teaching, I will always remember his class and how his teaching style reflects in my writing style today.
When you have written and revised your person analysis, I want you to turn in two copies to me. One is a plain copy with no additional marks. On the other copy, I want you to identify your own thesis statement, topic sentences, concrete specificity, etc. as delineated below.
PUT IN ID ASSIGNMENT
The Art Analysis essay differs from the Person Analysis only in that the support used for the topic sentences will take the form of details of the art work rather than personal experiences of the student or teacher. The purpose for analyzing a work of art is to evaluate its worth. You should be trying to convince your reader that the work of art you have chosen is a great work of art. (If you think it is merely mediocre, why would you pick that work to analyze, unless everyone else thinks it is a great work of art and you wish to point out its flaws. However, this might be tricky and might make you seem ignorant if you simply do not recognize the strengths of the work of art.) You should get to the technical level of how the work of art was put together and explain how the technical level influences our appreciation (the sensual level) or understanding of the meaning (the expressive level). For example, if analyzing a painting, you should look at not only the subject matter of the painting but the arrangement of the objects or people on the canvas, the choice of colors, the kinds of brushstrokes which give impressions or clear detail to the painting. With music you might comment on the key the song is written in, the tempo, the variety and number of the instruments used as well as any words which might be used as lyrics. Again, you should have a clear thesis and logical topic sentences which support that thesis with concrete details from the work of art to support those topic sentences.
If you have a work of art that others could see, a picture of a statue, a painting, a photograph, please try to find a way to include that picture on your rough draft. John Goldsworthy in the Writing Center MB-4 can help you scan in a photograph. If you are working with music or audio material and can include it as an attachment, please do so.
An argument is presenting a controversial issue on which there can be two different sides, taking one side and developing logical, structured evidence that supports your side in order to convince the reader to accept your opinion, or perform some action, or do both. You cannot write on a topic on which noone would take the other side, i.e., war is horrible, because who would argue that war is good? (Well, I guess you could present an argument that war was good for the economy.) You do not have to argue the stand that you believe in; you could try to argue the opposite stand just to see if you could develop a logical persuasive essay on that side; therefore, I will not assume that the stand you take is necessarily your own. However, it will be easier to argue one side if you do believe it. Your task is to persuade, which means you may use manipulative tactics, knowing full well they may not be the most valid or provable evidence. You may use any of the following in developing your argument: reasoning or logical arguments (inductive or deductive arguments), evidence in the form of case studies, facts or established truths (like The First Amendment prohibits Congress from abridging the freedom of the press), figures, authority opinions, personal experience or observation, hypothetical situations which logically connect to your issue, analogies (which don't prove anything but can illustrate a point), and/or emotional appeal. You must avoid logical fallacies, such as claiming cause and effect if one event precedes the other, attacking the person making the opposing argument instead of dealing with the issue itself, basing conclusions on too little evidence or on evidence which does not logically connect with your conclusions, stereotyping, engaging in either/or thinking, or presenting faulty analogies as arguments.
You should decide what issue you will argue, what points or arguments you will make, then order your arguments in the most effective manner in order to accomplish your goal of persuading others. Remember your audience will necessarily be people who don't agree with you (you don't have to convince those who do agree with you). But you must not belittle their beliefs, though you may point out any fallacies in their logic or unsupported arguments which might have swayed them into the wrong conclusions.
This will be a 4-6 paragraph essay, with a catchy opener, a clear thesis statement in the first paragraph but probably not too close to the first sentence because it is at the time that you announce your thesis that your reader knows you don't agree with him on this issue, at least 2 and preferably 3 or 4 strong arguments in favor of your stand, and a conclusion paragraph that restates your thesis.
The goals of literary analysis are to present your interpretation of the primary text (story, poem) and support that interpretation with textual evidence. You can assume your readers have read the story or poem, so plot summary is not in order. You can, however, refer to specific actions or dialogue in the text and summarize that one small section briefly to remind your reader of the incident. And you should plan to cite from the story or poem any passage that would support your point. You might be analyzing the theme of the story (what issues does it raise and what stand does the author seem to take on the issues), for example infidelity in "The Storm" by Kate Chopin or decision making in "The Road Not Taken." You could analyze a character from a story or the persona of a poem. You could evaluate the setting of a story or poem and what effect that has on our understanding and/or enjoyment of the story/poem. You could identify a specific idea or motic, such as the role of music in Sonny's Blues, and see what the author is saying about the role of the artist in today's world.
Again, this should be a 4-6 paragraph essay, with introduction and conclusion and at least 2, preferably 3 or 4 body paragraphs. You can structure your essay on the order of the story or poem or a more effective way might be to discover the points of your analysis and jump around in the story or poem as the evidence best fits your points. You do not have to analyze every line of a poem or every action in a story; choose the part of the piece which best support your points.
A term paper is a researched document in which you are synthesizing the arguments you read about a particular controversial topic. You should choose a topic of interest to you: perhaps something concerning your major or a social issue you have some interest in. You will be living with this topic for at least a month, so choose wisely. It should not be a biography of a person or any other paper in which you are required only to reproduce facts; there must be something you are required to evaluate and pass judgment on. The resulting essay you write will have as its concrete support quotes from the sources you have read. It can also include your own personal experience and observation. It should be developed as an argument as explained above. Because a term paper is generally longer than most essays, an outline will undoubtedly be helpful in organizing and presenting your information clearly and completely.
My responsibility is to teach you how to cite sources in your text properly and how to reference them in your List of Works Cited. For this reason I require that you use at least 5 different sources and I do not allow you to cite paraphrased material. Other teachers may want you to cite paraphrased material, especially facts or figures you glean from elsewhere, but since this is an easier task than citing direct quotes, and since my job is to teach you how to cite quotes, I must insist that you use direct quotes. We in English and Humanities use the MLA formatting for research papers. I have some links which will help you under Research Assignments.
