In class we will do a personal inventory under the auspices of Tennyson's words, "We are a part of all that we have met."
From the information on the personal inventory, choose a topic.
We will exercise to learn how to narrow a topic.
The writing assignment (due in hard copy Monday, November 10th at the beginning of class):
Write in 500 words or less a personal essay which does any or all of the following:
1. Defines the abstract self through concrete details to a well educated adult audience (college admissions counselors)
2. Entertains, instructs, explains, reflects or ponders about you as the person you are.
3. Shows relationships and patterns in your life emphasizing the causes and effects of those causes in your life.
4. Explains a difficult concept through comparison or analogy.
5. Intellectually explain a position you hold.
**** In addition, you must do the following rhetorical
work:
Use epanalepsis once, use anaphora and epistrophe once each,
use parallel structure and antithesis twice.
Choose from the following and use three: alliteration, assonance, apposition,
climax, anastrophe, parenthesis or ellipsis.
Use no more than THREE "to be" verbs (am, is, are,
was, were, be, being, been) and USE inventive, strong and expressive
ACTION verbs instead of plain, weak and dull ones!
Underline and identifiy, by naming the device inside [square brackets] immediately
after the example. ****
The assignment must be printed in the standard class format.
This essay will form the basis of your 'college essay' all of which will
be posted to our class compact disc to be published by the end of the year.
It is not a rough draft but will require editing, rewriting and republishing
before we are through. Do your best work.
Many thanks to Christopher Baldwin, San Deigo Schools.
