Advanced Reading and Writing D2

Dear all,

And for those of you who wish to write a personal essay for your first assignment, please see the writing task descriptions below and choose Option 1 or Option 2.  Again, I’ll check by tomorrow at 11am to answer any preliminary questions you may have.  The due date for the first draft is Tuesday, July 4, at 1pm.

Option 1 

The Personal Essay: “What It Means to Be a. . . .”

RWG D2

Summer 2006 

            Your audience for this essay is the class.  Your purpose is to write a 2-3 page “self-portrait” (presentation) that tells us who you are and how your hometown or your country has made you who you are.  You’ll need, therefore, to think about the links between geography, culture, language, history, and identity.  For example, a woman who has grown up in Virginia’s
Appalachian Mountains has a very different sense of who she is than a woman who has grown up in the Tidewater region of the state.  Similarly, a man who has grown up in New York City has a very different sense of who he is than a man who grew up in
Alexandria, VA.  These differences in personal identity have to do with place, culture, history, and so on.  The essay’s language should precise, descriptive, and probably informal.  The evidence you use should come primarily from self-examination and examples and anecdotes from personal experience.              This APPLE description gives you an outline for the assignment, but obviously you’ll need to work towards a full portrait of yourself before you begin.  How can you sketch out this “self-portrait”?  Begin by asking yourself questions about personal, cultural, historic, regional, and linguistic characteristics that would realize a more complete and powerful self-portrait.  Perhaps you might compare these personal characteristics with those of someone you know from another city, region, or country.  What do these differences tell you?  How is the place that you come from responsible for these differences?            Good luck. Option 2

The Personal EssayRWG D2Summer 2006 

            Since the primary aim of this class is to help you bcome a more successful writer and reader, it makes sense to begin by taking stock of where you stand as the course begins.  Hence this first writing assignment.  Your audience is the class.  Your purpose is to write a 2-3 page essay (presentation) about yourself as a writer.  The essay’s language should be probably be informal, descriptive, and precise. The evidence for your essay should come primarily from honest and detailed self-examination, though you may also wish to include ideas from our first readings.       This APPLE description gives you an outline for the asignment, but obviously you need to work towards a full portriat of yourself as a writer before you begin.  How can you sketch out this “self-portrait” in the written world?  What questions might you ask yourself (beyond PAPEL) about habits, compulsions, attitudes, failures, and successes that would realize a more complete and powerful self-portrait?  As you consider this assignment, notice how your sense of it changes and takes shape.  If you discover the writing project is not taking shape, as yourself why.  This resistance might lead you to another kind of portrait.