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.