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.