Essay One Instructions (will be discussed in class on 4/6)

English 151

Essay One

Skills involved:

·      Narration

·      Description

·      Paragraph Development

·      Paragraph Focus

This essay assignment is a modified version of what appears in Chapter One of How to Write Anything: In a 800-1000 word essay, narrate your experiences about a place—from the past or present—that show why this environment is an important part of your life.  You can introduce readers to characters you met there, thoughts or emotions the place evokes, or incidents that occurred in this setting.

Based on the two assignments you’ve completed so far, you should have 1) selected a place you want to write about, and 2) discovered a great deal of information about your place.

Your biggest challenge now is to select the most interesting and meaningful aspects of the place and/or story and use your specific example skills to develop two paragraphs into an entire essay.

The most important rhetorical skill needed for this assignment is the use of original and specific detail.  Work to identify the things that make your place unique; don’t just fill your pages with generic and obvious statements.  Consider the following examples:   

·   “A visitor to New York city can sample foods from around the world.”  This sentence, while true, is far too vague and doesn’t tell readers anything they don’t already know.

·   “New York is home to thousands of restaurants, serving everything from pizza, to sushi, to Indian food.”  This sentence is more specific, but it still states the obvious.   

·   “New York’s Chinatown has more than 200 restaurants, where you will find tastes from all over China: Cantonese, Szechuan, Shanghai, and Suzhou, as well as Vietnamese and Malaysian cooking.”  This sentence provides new and specific information.

Notice that the previous sentence limits its focus to Chinese cooking.  It doesn’t mention Greek, Italian, Indian, or Middle Eastern foods whatsoever.  You will need to similarly limit the focus of your essay.  One thousand words is simply not enough space to sufficiently explore a place’s history, people, architecture, traditions, economy, citizens, restaurants, and arts. (Note: just because my example focuses on an entire neighborhood doesn't mean you can't write about a more specific place.  For example, you might write about your cousin's treehouse or your grandmother's closet.)

This essay is due at the beginning of class on Wednesday, April 13.  Format and other mechanical guidelines will be discussed on Monday.

I am available to answer questions and to provide feedback on rough drafts.  Don’t hesitate to contact me.