27 Aug 2008 [ Prev | Next ]

Ex 1-1: Personal Statement

"Writing, the Internet, and I."

Write a personal essay (2-3 pages) that makes a single, specific point about how online writing has affected your life.

Bring an electronic copy to class; I will show you how to submit it to turnitin.com. (In the future, you will submit exercises online before class, not during class.)

Sample Prompts

Use these prompts as an aid to brainstorming; please do not supply a brief, stand-alone answer to each question on the list. Instead, tell me a story that focuses on, and develops, one specific event or main idea.

  • Do you remember the first time you used a word processor? Sent an e-mail or text message?
  • Have online social-networking websites had an unusually strong influence on your life, for good or ill?
  • Trolls... sock puppets... flame wars... do these terms mean anything to you?
  • How sensible is it when youths act as if adults will never find out about what they put on their profile pages? How sensible is it when adults take everything online so darn seriously?
  • Your parents probably thought portable cassette players were cool. Your teachers probably still think e-mail is cool. What are the features of MySpace, or Facebook, or Twitter, that will make people 10 years from now cringe when they look back on them?

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2 Comments

Dave said:

Is that 2-3 pages double or single space?

Good question... that's double-spaced, which would make it about 500-750 words.

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