Thursday, October 31st, 2013--4:30 pm

Hello,

and happy Halloween.

There will be no class tomorrow, Friday, November 1st.
Please use the extra time wisely.
The Unwanted must be completed by Monday.

Have a safe weekend.

Monday, October 28th, 2013--8:15 pm

Hello,

a couple of things....

1. please remember to bring your copy of Full Body Burden to class on Wednesday.

2. I have read 11 of the out of class essay #2 assignments that were submitted today. I will not reveal what section I am working on now, but I am beyond shocked at the quality, or lack of quality, I am finding. Out of the 11 essays, only two are passing. The other nine are F's. (????)

I am a bit speechless so I suppose I will end this entry for now.

See you Wednesday.

Second posting for Friday, October 25th, 2013--2:45 pm

Greetings,
below you will find a copy of the evaluation checklist I will be utilizing when I read and score your out of class essay #2. You may find it helpful to refer to as you complete the final editing and proofreading of your essay.

NAME_______________________________________________________ENG 1A, section____

Evaluation of Out of Class Essay # 2—THE RESEARCH PAPER

How to Read this Evaluation: This evaluation is divided into two sections: Content and Organization and MLA Documentation. The overall strengths of the essay are noted first. Problem/errors in each of the two categories will be checked if applicable. Please note that all items checked will be marked directly ON your essay at least once. However, ALL errors are not marked. If you choose to revise, you will need to take this into consideration.

Strengths Found in this Essay:

Content and Organization—worth 100 points--_______(points earned)

Problems that Impact Readability:

_____sentence structure (comma splices; run on sentences; fragments; punctuation errors; tense shifts; misspelling; issues with capitalization)

_____wordiness

_____repetitiveness

_____lack of sentence variety and length

_____flat, uninteresting vocabulary

_____lack of sufficient development

_____weak or non-existent transitions between paragraphs

_____uses “you” and “your”

_____too many main ideas in one paragraph

_____thesis statement is not underlined

_____thesis statement is not an assertion and is not debatable or opinionated

_____unacceptable errors found (number found:_________) THESE WILL BE CIRCLED.

_____other issues:

MLA Research Documentation—worth 100 points--_______( points earned)

_____notecards out of order                           _____incorrect set-up of essay

_____bibliography cards out of order           _____missing a title or title not in

                                                                                                MLA format

_____problems on Works Cited page                        __________lack of academic sources

_____problems with in-text citations

_____too many direct quotations—not enough paraphrasing

_____missing page numbers or pages numbered incorrectly

_____other issues:

Total Score Earned:____________(200 points possible)

Friday, October 25th, 2013--7:15 am

Good morning!

A few things....
first, a huge thank you to those students in section 81 who attended the play last evening!
And a special thank you to those who were kind enough to let me know that you would be unable to attend. I completely understand that "life things" come up that prevent us from activities.

*************

Important! Please arrive to class on Monday with the research essay already assembled and in the envelope. Do not wait until you arrive to class to organize. Thank you! :)

On the outside of your sealed envelope, you need only to write your name and section number. 

*************

PACKET #6 ASSIGNMENT--Q & C due--for Wednesday, October 30th

"Hidden City" by Ian Frazier
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/10/28/131028fa_fact_frazier

Tuesday, October 22, 2013--9 am

Greetings,

Below you will find the following:

1. A document ("How to Critically Read an Essay") for you to print out and bring to class tomorrow, Wednesday, October 23

2. Details about Full Body Burden's author, Kristen Iverson, and her visit to our campus.

3. Details about Thursday evening's date at the theatre (FOR SECTION 81 STUDENTS ONLY)

**************************

English 1A-- College Composition I

C. Fraga

How to Critically Read an Essay

Educated adults exist in a delusional state, thinking we can read.

In a most basic sense, we can.

However, odds are, some of us cannot read, at least not as well as we would like.

Too many college students are capable of only some types of reading and that becomes painfully clear when they read a difficult text and must respond critically about it.

Intelligence and a keen memory are excellent traits and most students have learned to read in a certain way that is only useful for extracting information. Thus, students are often fairly well skilled in providing summary.

However, the act of reading to extract information and to read critically are vastly different!

The current educational system in American primary schools (and many colleges) heavily emphasizes the first type of reading and de-emphasizes the latter.

In many ways, THIS MAKES SENSE.

Reading to extract information allows a student to absorb the raw materials of factual information as quickly as possible. It is a type of reading we all must engage in frequently.  However, each type of reading calls for different mental habits. If we do not learn to adjust from one type of reading to another when necessary, we cripple our intellectual abilities to read critically.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN READING TO EXTRACT INFORMATION AND READING CRITICALLY.

1. They have different goals.  When students read to extract information, usually they seek facts and presume the source is accurate.  No argument is required.  On the other hand, when students read critically, they try to determine the quality of the argument.  The reader must be open-minded and skeptical all at once, constantly adjusting the degree of personal belief in relation to the quality of the essay’s argument.
2. They require different types of discipline.  If students read to learn raw data, the most efficient way to learn is repetition.  If students read critically, the most effective technique may be to break the essay up into logical subdivisions and analyze each section’s argument, to restate the argument in other words, and then to expand upon or question the findings.
3. They require different mental activity.  If a student reads to gain information, a certain degree of absorption, memorization and passivity is necessary. If a student is engaged in reading critically, that student must be active!!! He or she must be prepared to pre-read the essay, then read it closely for content, and re-read it if it isn’t clear how the author is reaching the conclusion in the argument. 
4. They create different results.  Passive reading to absorb information can create a student who (if not precisely well read) has read a great many books. It creates what many call “book-smarts.”  However, critical reading involves original, innovative thinking.
5. They differ in the degree of understanding they require.  Reading for information is more basic, and reading critically is the more advanced of the two because only critical reading equates with full understanding.

ULTIMATELY, WHAT WE WANT IS THE CONSCIOUS CONTROL OF OUR READING SKILLS, SO WE CAN MOVE BACK AND FORTH AMIDST THE VARIOUS TYPES OF READING.

FIVE GENERAL STAGES OF READING

1.      Pre-Reading—examining the text and preparing to read it effectively (5 minutes)

2.      Interpretive Reading—understanding what the author argues, what the author concludes, and exactly how he or she reached that conclusion.

3.      Critical Reading—questioning, examining and expanding upon what the author says with your own arguments.  Skeptical reading does not mean doubting everything you read.

4.      Synoptic Reading—putting the author’s argument in a larger context by considering a synopsis of that reading or argument in conjunction with synopses of other readings or arguments.

5.      Post-Reading—ensuring that you won’t forget your new insights.

********************

AUTHOR KRISTEN IVERSON ON CAMPUS!

WHEN???

Tuesday, November 12, 7 pm

University Union Ballroom

Also!

For Learning Communities only...

A Q and C Discussion with the Author

Wednesday, November 13, 10 am

University Union Ballroom

******************************************

FOR SECTION 81 STUDENTS ONLY

Thursday, October 24th

Almost, Maine

Let's meet in the lobby (or outside if we are unable to enter without a ticket first) of the Playwright's Theatre, which is located in Shasta Hall, on campus.

Please be there by 7:45 pm

Free parking for theatre goers in Lot 2, starting 45 minutes prior to the show and ending 45 minutes after the show.

• 
  

Sunday, October 20th, 2013--3:15 pm

Greetings,

please bring to class tomorrow, Monday, October 21st:

1. Rules of Thumb
2. small sticky notes

OTHER THINGS:

1.  PACKET 5 ASSIGNMENT (2 items)--due Friday (don't forget, this requires a Q & C)

"Boots to Books: The Rough Road from Combat to College"
(This is an approximately 14 minute video and a short article)
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=8c310eacfeb08aba2e7f1e29411543e9

"For Many Returning Veterans, Home is Where the Trouble is"
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/03/opinion/03mon4.html


2. Reminder: The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood must be read in full by Monday, November November 4th.

3. Reminder:  Out of class essay  #2 is due on Monday, October 28th. Review carefully your notes on how to submit your final draft. (I received only seven rough drafts for this assignment. This is highly unusual and has me a little concerned that maybe some of you are falling behind. The semester really moves quickly now; we are halfway through.)

Thursday, October 17th, 2013--8:30 pm

Greetings,

Again, have a wonderful and safe weekend.
No class tomorrow, as if you would forget! :)

Also, those who are submitting an optional rough draft tomorrow for essay 2, the deadline for you to e-mail me a copy is at midnight.

Wednesday, October 16th--9 pm

Greetings,

As I mentioned to the 9 am and 11 am classes today, I will be unable to hold classes this Friday, October 18th. I have an all day meeting in the bay area that I thought I could "skip" but it is becoming not as possible to do at this point.

So...
NO CLASS THIS FRIDAY.
ALL THREE SECTIONS ARE CANCELLED: SECTIONS 2, 4 AND 81.

If you are planning to submit a rough draft for out of class essay #2, please EMAIL me your draft as an attachment in Word. I will make comments on your draft and email it back to you over the weekend.

See you Monday!
Be safe and have a most wonderful weekend.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013--6:15 pm

Hello,

FOR ALL SECTIONS:

Please be sure to bring Full Body Burden to class on Wednesday and Friday this week.

FOR SECTION 81 ONLY:

Please be sure to bring the two readings on the family meal to class on Wednesday.

OTHER REMINDERS:

• The due date for submitting a revision of out of class essay #1 has passed. (It was Monday)
• If you plan on submitting a rough draft for out of class essay #2, it is due by this Friday

Saturday, October 12, 2013--11:15 pm

Greetings...

As you know, the third and last quiz on Rules of Thumb is Monday!

If you refer to your Rules of Thumb, quiz 2, the very last item, worth 40 points, asked you to take the information I gave and put it in MLA format as it would appear on the Works Cited page. Most of you earned all 40 points. You simply had to look up how to correctly arrange the information. There will be ten of these on the quiz. For example, one of the citations may be something like this:

A book titled At the Zoo. It is written by Alice Button and was published in Boston by Peter Pan Publishing Company in 1978.

The correct answer would be:

Button, Alice. At the Zoo. Boston: Peter Pan Publishing Company, 1978. Print.

Obviously you will need your Rules of Thumb book to complete the quiz.

THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS ONLY FOR SECTION 81 STUDENTS:

Please bring your copy of Full Body Burden to class on Monday, along with Rules of Thumb. Besides for the Rules of Thumb quiz 3, there will be a very short quiz on Full Body Burden, chapters 1-3. If you have read these chapters, it should take you about five minutes to complete. 

Also, for Wednesday, be sure to bring the two readings on the family meal, Packet 4, from last week. Group Exercise 2 will take place on Wednesday.

Tuesday, October 8th--4:20 pm

Greetings,

the earlier website I posted for "The Magic of the Family Mean" apparently requires a subscription in order to view. It has not previously been so. However, I have posted the reading below for your convenience.

The Magic of the Family Meal--by Nancy Gibbs

Close your eyes and picture Family Dinner. June Cleaver is in an apron and pearls, Ward in a sweater and tie. The napkins are linen, the children are scrubbed, steam rises from the green-bean casserole, and even the dog listens intently to what is being said. This is where the tribe comes to transmit wisdom, embed expectations, confess, conspire, forgive, repair. The idealized version is as close to a regular worship service, with its litanies and lessons and blessings, as a family gets outside a sanctuary.

That ideal runs so strong and so deep in our culture and psyche that when experts talk about the value of family dinners, they may leave aside the clutter of contradictions. Just because we eat together does not mean we eat right: Domino's alone delivers a million pizzas on an average day. Just because we are sitting together doesn't mean we have anything to say: children bicker and fidget and daydream; parents stew over the remains of the day. Often the richest conversations, the moments of genuine intimacy, take place somewhere else, in the car, say, on the way back from soccer at dusk, when the low light and lack of eye contact allow secrets to surface.Yet for all that, there is something about a shared meal--not some holiday blowout, not once in a while but regularly, reliably--that anchors a family even on nights when the food is fast and the talk cheap and everyone has someplace else they'd rather be. And on those evenings when the mood is right and the family lingers, caught up in an idea or an argument explored in a shared safe place where no one is stupid or shy or ashamed, you get a glimpse of the power of this habit and why social scientists say such communion acts as a kind of vaccine, protecting kids from all manner of harm.

n fact, it's the experts in adolescent development who wax most emphatic about the value of family meals, for it's in the teenage years that this daily investment pays some of its biggest dividends. Studies show that the more often families eat together, the less likely kids are to smoke, drink, do drugs, get depressed, develop eating disorders and consider suicide, and the more likely they are to do well in school, delay having sex, eat their vegetables, learn big words and know which fork to use. "If it were just about food, we would squirt it into their mouths with a tube," says Robin Fox, an anthropologist who teaches at Rutgers University in New Jersey, about the mysterious way that family dinner engraves our souls. "A meal is about civilizing children. It's about teaching them to be a member of their culture."

The most probing study of family eating patterns was published last year by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University and reflects nearly a decade's worth of data gathering. The researchers found essentially that family dinner gets better with practice; the less often a family eats together, the worse the experience is likely to be, the less healthy the food and the more meager the talk. Among those who eat together three or fewer times a week, 45% say the TV is on during meals (as opposed to 37% of all households), and nearly one-third say there isn't much conversation. Such kids are also more than twice as likely as those who have frequent family meals to say there is a great deal of tension among family members, and they are much less likely to think their parents are proud of them.

The older that kids are, the more they may need this protected time together, but the less likely they are to get it. Although a majority of 12- year-olds in the CASA study said they had dinner with a parent seven nights a week, only a quarter of 17-year-olds did. Researchers have found all kinds of intriguing educational and ethnic patterns. The families with the least educated parents, for example, eat together the most; parents with less than a high school education share more meals with their kids than do parents with high school diplomas or college degrees. That may end upacting as a generational corrective; kids who eat most often with their parents are 40% more likely to say they get mainly A's and B's in school than kids who have two or fewer family dinners a week. Foreign-born kids are much more likely to eat with their parents. When researchers looked at ethnic and racial breakdowns, they found that more than half of Hispanic teens ate with a parent at least six times a week, in contrast to 40% of black teens and 39% of whites.

Back in the really olden days, dinner was seldom a ceremonial event for U.S. families. Only the very wealthy had a separate dining room. For most, meals were informal, a kind of rolling refueling; often only the men sat down. Not until the mid--19th century did the day acquire its middle-class rhythms and rituals; a proper dining room became a Victorian aspiration. When children were 8 or 9, they were allowed to join the adults at the table for instruction in proper etiquette. By the turn of the century, restaurants had appeared to cater to clerical workers, and in time, eating out became a recreational sport. Family dinner in the Norman Rockwell mode had taken hold by the 1950s: Mom cooked, Dad carved, son cleared, daughter did the dishes.

All kinds of social and economic and technological factors then conspired to shred that tidy picture to the point that the frequency of family dining fell about a third over the next 30 years. With both parents working and the kids shuttling between sports practices or attached to their screens at home, finding a time for everyone to sit around the same table, eating the same food and listening to one another, became a quaint kind of luxury. Meanwhile, the message embedded in the microwave was that time spent standing in front of a stove was time wasted.

But something precious was lost, anthropologist Fox argues, when cooking came to be cast as drudgery and meals as discretionary. "Making food is a sacred event," he says. "It's so absolutely central--far more central than sex. You can keep a population going by having sex once a year, but you have to eat three times a day." Food comes so easily to us now, he says, that we have lost a sense of its significance. When we had to grow the corn and fight off predators, meals included a serving of gratitude. "It's like the American Indians. When they killed a deer, they said a prayer over it," says Fox. "That is civilization. It is an act of politeness over food. Fast food has killed this. We have reduced eating to sitting alone and shoveling it in. There is no ceremony in it."

Or at least there wasn't for many families until researchers in the 1980s began looking at the data and doing all kinds of regression analyses that showed how a shared pot roast could contribute to kids' success and health. What the studies could not prove was what is cause and what is effect. Researchers speculate that maybe kids who eat a lot of family meals have less unsupervised time and thus less chance to get into trouble. Families who make meals a priority also tend to spend more time on reading for pleasure and homework. A whole basket of values and habits, of which a common mealtime is only one, may work together to ground kids. But it's a bellwether, and baby boomers who won't listen to their instincts will often listen to the experts: the 2005 CASA study found that the number of adolescents eating with their family most nights has increased 23% since 1998.

That rise may also reflect a deliberate public-education campaign, including public-service announcements on TV Land and Nick at Nite that are designed to convince families that it's worth some inconvenience or compromise to make meals together a priority. The enemies here are laziness and leniency: "We're talking about a contemporary style of parenting, particularly in the middle class, that is overindulgent of children," argues William Doherty, a professor of family social science at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis and author of The Intentional Family: Simple Rituals to Strengthen Family Ties. "It treats them as customers who need to be pleased." By that, he means the willingness of parents to let dinner be an individual improvisation--no routine, no rules, leave the television on, everyone eats what they want, teenagers take a plate to their room so they can keep texting their friends.

The food-court mentality--Johnny eats a burrito, Dad has a burger, and Mom picks pasta--comes at a cost. Little humans often resist new tastes; they need some nudging away from the salt and fat and toward the fruits and fiber. A study in the Archives of Family Medicine found that more family meals tends to mean less soda and fried food and far more fruits and vegetables.

Beyond promoting balance and variety in kids' diets, meals together send the message that citizenship in a family entails certain standards beyond individual whims. This is where a family builds its identity and culture. Legends are passed down, jokes rendered, eventually the wider world examined through the lens of a family's values. In addition, younger kids pick up vocabulary and a sense of how conversation is structured. They hear how a problem is solved, learn to listen to other people's concerns and respect their tastes. "A meal is about sharing," says Doherty. "I see this trend where parents are preparing different meals for each kid, and it takes away from that. The sharing is the compromise. Not everyone gets their ideal menu every night."

Doherty heard from a YMCA camp counselor about the number of kids who arrive with a list of foods they won't eat and who require basic instruction from counselors on how to share a meal. "They have to teach them how to pass food around and serve each other. The kids have to learn how to eat what's there. And they have to learn how to remain seated until everyone else is done." The University of Kansas and Michigan State offer students coaching on how to handle a business lunch, including what to do about food they don't like ("Eat it anyway") and how to pass the salt and pepper ("They're married. They never take separate vacations").

When parents say their older kids are too busy or resistant to come to the table the way they did when they were 7, the dinner evangelists produce evidence to the contrary. The CASA study found that a majority of teens who ate three or fewer meals a week with their families wished they did so more often. Parents sometimes seem a little too eager to be rejected by their teenage sons and daughters, suggests Miriam Weinstein, a freelance journalist who wrote The Surprising Power of Family Meals. "We've sold ourselves on the idea that teenagers are obviously sick of their families, that they're bonded to their peer group," she says. "We've taken it to an extreme. We've taken it to mean that a teenager has no need for his family. And that's just not true." She scolds parents who blame their kids for undermining mealtime when the adults are co-conspirators. "It's become a badge of honor to say, 'I have no time. I am so busy,'" she says. "But we make a lot of choices, and we have a lot more discretion than we give ourselves credit for," she says. Parents may be undervaluing themselves when they conclude that sending kids off to every conceivable extracurricular activity is a better use of time than an hour spent around a table, just talking to Mom and Dad.

The family-meal crusaders offer lots of advice to parents seeking to recenter their household on the dinner table. Groups like Ready, Set, Relax!, based in Ridgewood, N.J., have dispensed hundreds of kits to towns from Kentucky to California, coaching communities on how to fight overscheduling and carve out family downtime. More schools are offering basic cooking instruction. It turns out that when kids help prepare a meal, they are much more likely to eat it, and it's a useful skill that seems to build self-esteem. Research on family meals does not explore whether it makes a difference if dinner is with two parents or one or even whether the meal needs to be dinner. For families whose schedules make evenings together a challenge, breakfast or lunch may have the same value. So pull up some chairs. Lose the TV. Let the phone go unanswered. And see where the moment takes you.

Monday, October 7, 2013--8 pm

Greetings!

1. If you plan to revise Out of Class Essay #1, the first revision is due next Monday, October 14th. Remember, you can only revise ONE of the three Out of Class Essays. Also, you must make the decision within a week of receiving the graded essay back. YOU CAN REVISE THAT ONE ESSAY AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WISH--THERE IS NO DUE DATE AFTER THE FIRST ONE, WHICH IS ALWAYS A WEEK AFTER YOU RECEIVE IT BACK.

2.  I noticed that in each section of 1A today, there were students without the Rules of Thumb text. I am not sure why; the quiz was listed on your syllabus, I reminded you about it last Friday, and I also reminded you in a blog entry. If you do not have the text due to financial reasons, you should have made arrangements with me to borrow a copy or to request that I make you copies of the pages. Of course, you also could use your class phone list. This is the second of three Rules of Thumb quizzes; if you still do not have the text, I am confused as to why I do not know about it.

SUMMARY:

• KEEP CURRENT WITH THE CLASS BY FOLLOWING THE SYLLABUS AND READING AHEAD.
• READ THE BLOG! :)

3. The following is for Section 81, Learning Community, students ONLY.

--remember, we are meeting for class on Friday at the Student Union's Information Desk. 11 am sharp!

--a quick change of times for the play we will be attending on Thursday, October 24th, on campus. The play begins at 8 pm, NOT 6:30 pm

Sunday, October 6th--6 pm

Hello,

Below you will find a copy of the Out of Class Essay Assignment #2 which was distributed and discussed last Friday, October 4th.

Also, a reminder: please arrive to class tomorrow with your topic chosen for Out of Class Essay #2.
And...bring your Rules of Thumb textbook, of course!

We will NOT have time, unfortunately, to discuss Montana 1948 tomorrow; however, please bring the novel to class on Wednesday and Friday.

English 1A, Fall 2013---C. Fraga

Date assigned: Friday, October 4

Rough draft (optional): due no later than Friday, October 18

Final draft due: Monday, October 28

*You have a little over three weeks (which includes three weekends) to research, write, and edit this essay before submitting.

Details:

1. MLA format; typed & double spaced; Times New Roman font

2. At least 4 outside sources on your Works Cited page

3. Please, no Wikipedia

4. No formulaic, 5 paragraph essay

5. Underline thesis statement

6. Everything you need to know about how to document research in MLA format as well as how to conduct research can be found in your Rules of Thumb textbook. Of course, I will be going over MLA details in class as well.

7. Utilize the bibliography and note card system I will teach and follow the instructions for submitting the final draft. (These instructions will be written on the board during class on Friday, October 4)

8. This essay is worth 200 points: 100 points for content and organization and 100 points for sentence structure, grammar, etc.

OUT OF CLASS ESSAY ASSIGNMENT #2

Course theme: the significance of home

Every family, at some point, must face something extraordinary and/or challenging that impacts the family entity. How do members of the family cope, adjust, and/or “deal” with the event/situation?

I am not referring to the everyday “bumps in the road” that occur for all families. Instead, I am asking you to consider the family unit when faced with an especially challenging situation. These situations could include but are not limited to:

• death

• birth

• infidelity

• serious injury

• dementia

• serious illness

• divorce

• unemployment

• new employment

• moving to a new home/state/area/country

• the return of a war veteran

• moving BACK home after initially moving OUT

• alcoholism

• drug abuse

Select ONE situation that you are most interested in exploring. You will conduct research (and possibly personal interviews, if possible) in order to write an essay that offers the reader background on the topic and makes an assertion about what elements of a particular situation impact a family in the most challenging of ways and supports it logically and interestingly. Your essay should include A MINIMUM of four distinct challenges.

Your thesis might read something like this:

When a family member develops dementia, the challenges are often devastating, yet the disease definitely impacts family members more than the dementia patient.

Or…

When a couple divorces, it most certainly impacts the children still living at home; however, it is the older children who have already moved away that are most affected by the split.

Thursday, October 3, 2013--8:45 pm

Hello,

Reminder, always bring to class any book or reading packet that is due to be read on that day. For example, tomorrow, you will obviously want to bring Montana 1948 to class.

Also, below is the assignment for Packet 4, due to be read next Wednesday.

PACKET #4

"The Magic of the Family Meal"
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1200760,00.html

"Family Dinner: Treasured Tradition or Bygone Ideal?"
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/02/26/172897660/family-dinner-treasured-tradition-or-bygone-ideal

Tuesday, October 1st--6:30 pm

Greetings,
Just a quick reminder to remember to underline your thesis statement in your Out of Class Essay #1, due tomorrow.

Also, I apologize for not posting the assignment here on the day I assigned it.

English 1A, Fall 2013, Sections 2, 4 and 81-Instructor: C. Fraga

Out of Class Essay Assignment #1--100 points possible

Assigned:  Wednesday, Sept. 18

Rough Draft Due (optional): no later than Friday, Sept. 27

Final Draft Due:  Wednesday, October 2

Reminders:

·      Please underline your thesis statement.

·      If you submit a rough draft, please attach it to your final draft when you submit on October 2.

·      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.

·      Your essay must be double-spaced and in Times New Roman, 12 point font.

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 in 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. Not impossible, but challenging.