Essay

Essay 1:  The Descriptive Narrative

 

Assignment:  Write an academic essay, using the rhetorical strategies of description, narration and illustration, about an event in your life that will engage readers and that will, at the same time, help them understand the significance of the event. Tell your story dramatically and vividly; keeping in mind the exigence of your point, i.e. what’s the purpose for the story you’re telling?  Why does it or should it matter to your reader?  You must make reference to at least one outside source, and cite it appropriately in the text and on a Works Cited page.

                                                                                      

Formatting:  Your papers should—

 

–Be 3 (full pages) to 4 in length

–Be typewritten, stapled, double spaced, and use 12 point, Times New Roman font

–Contain margins with no more or no less than one inch of space on all four sides

–Be thoughtfully titled

–Adhere to current MLA formatting standards for heading a paper

–Have this prompt attached to the back of each essay draft you submit.

 

Due Dates:

 

–Peer Critique of Essay 1, Thursday September 26

–Essay 1 due, Tuesday October 1

–Essay 1 Revision, to be included in your portfolio

 

Invention and Research:

 

What is the significant event in your life that you’re remembering?  Since it’s significant, it must have impacted you in some way.  If

not you, perhaps it impacted someone else?

 

Planning and drafting:

 

As you look over what you have written about your subject so far, how can you describe it in an interesting, informative way? Are your recollections of the event vivid enough for a reader to picture in his/her mind as clearly as you do?  Are you able to give your audience a front row seat to the event by way of narrating and describing on paper?  Make a plan for your profile, and start drafting it.

 

Critical Reading Guide:

 

What are you draft’s strengths and weaknesses?  Are there key aspects of your subject that seem vague?  Does your work seem to ramble with no shape or point?  Get a classmate, a friend, a writing tutor, or someone else to read and respond in detail to your essay, especially the parts where you are most unsure of yourself.

 

Editing and Proofreading:

 

As you consider your essay again in light of your reader’s comments, how can you improve it?  Do you provide too little information about the event?  Too much?  Does the beginning, middle or end seem weak?  Go through your draft systematically making changes wherever necessary.

 

Revising:

 

Have you checked for errors that are especially likely in narrative/descriptive essays?  For example, have you forgotten to include quotation marks around someone’s exact words?  Have you put commas and periods outside rather than inside closing quotation marks?  Look for and correct these and any other errors. Does your writing require more detail? Better examples? Will the reader be enthusiastic?

 yes