September 14, 2010 Archives

Upload to Turnitin.com by noon.

Write a personal essay, 2-3 pages (about 500-750 words) long, on a topic of your choice. Your goal is to demonstrate that you can write in depth on a single, specific topic.

Criteria (full rubric to be posted shortly)

20%  Format (length and MLA style)
20%  Accuracy (punctuation and words)
20%  Clarity (phrases and sentences)
20%  Organization (paragraphs and transitions)
20%  Ideas (focus, creativity, depth)

For further details, please consult the assigned chapters in the SF Writer.

Show, Don't (Just) Tell
Rather than giving a list of the kinds of emotions you experienced or the kinds of events that usually happen, focus on one specific event. While I'm not absolutely requiring your whole essay to describe only events that happened within a particular 24-hour time period, I am asking that you focus on a single specific event, and make me feel as if you are bringing me along with you to that event, rather than simply listing what happened,

Personal Essays: How to Write Them
I won't grade you on how much you loved your deceased family member, how wonderfully you played in the big game, or how narrowly you escaped death.  I want you to use a personal story to practice your ability to focus on one specific incident -- even a routine happening -- and tell it in an engaging way. Your essay should generate, in me, the emotions that you experienced on a noteworthy occasion, but "noteworthy" does not have to mean life-threatening or life-changing..