Parnassus
"The Essay"
I want to become familiar with what you think are your best out-of-class style
and production, so I do not want to demand an exact replica of what I think
a good essay is. I here remind you that the parameters I gave you are as follows:
a. You must read a short history of the period.
b. You must read six noted short prose works written by different authors
during your period including at least two essays, one sermon, two speeches,
and an exchange of four letters.
c. You must read six additional essays written by one author during the period.
d. You must read one long work of fiction or other prose from the period such
as a biography or novel.
e. You must examine an artist of the period and be able to introduce and show
one his/her works. (See the Artist List) (Use Power Point or an image generation
program and the classroom monitor or projector rather than a print out - save
images as JPEG)
f. Your expository paper must explain the flavor and writing style of the
period as evidenced by the work read in items a through e. Cite specific examples
for each work using an accepted footnote form. Include a bibliography of each
work read
When you write your essay, in some sense you should strive to mention each
work you have read in some significant way, but not as a linear report to
me. Rather write about the works as a way to weave the meaning you found in
the period into the style and tone of the era to produce a texture that resembles
the look of what it was you saw. Try to present similarities you found. Show
(not tell) what the ideas present in the period did for the people who lived
then. Illustrate how their troubles and challenges showed up in the writing
of the time and in the various forms or genres (essays and fiction). Imagine
yourself as building a house of the period: what is its foundation (beliefs),
its structure (ideas), its arrangement (genres), its decoration (writers'
styles), and its furnishings (characters and themes). Write about all these
or as many as you can.
Some things I do not want to see. 1). I care about you, but I do not care
about your opinion of a writer who has been dead for a century or more. Please
don't tell me if you like or do not like a writer; that is beside the point.
2). I have already read many of these works; so do not summarize the history,
novel, essays or much else. Work with the style, tone, ideas, characters,
themes and meaning of the pieces as building blocks of exposition but do not
summarize, or summarize in very short form only when needed for clarification.
Assume the reader knows the work. 3). Most of the writers are well known people
or can be known by reading an encyclopedia article. Do not be a biographer.
If an occurrence in a writer's life affected his/her ideas, then I want you
to tie it in with the discussion of the idea, but the discussion of a life
(date and place of birth et cetera) is not the topic of the paper. It should,
then, be kept to a minimum.
The length of the paper is arbitrary. Write as much as you like. All writing
must be typewritten in TIMES NEW ROMAN font (such as this), using 12-point
font, single-spaced. Paragraphs are to be indented five spaces. Observe accepted
American spelling and word meaning (Spell check your work before printing.
It saves having to do it when I find even one spell check error). Underline
or italicize all book titles. Construct a bibliography on separate pages and
staple it at the end of the paper. Use quotations to illustrate your points
and GIVE CREDIT by footnoting EACH one. Generally, each paper should have
an introduction, a main body of discussion and a conclusion. Anything less
than four pages will be returned for revision. Think deeply.
I give you several prohibitions, not to hogtie you but to make you better
writers. DO NOT USE "a lot" meaning many or much; the verb got or
any form thereof (gotten, get); the pronoun "you" meaning "a
person" or "one;" the construction "In Fame by Louise
Bertrand, she says . . ." instead write In Fame, Louise Bertrand tells;
the word "talk" regarding books which tell but do not talk; contractions
of any kind such as don't, I'll, can't or others; write them out as do not,
I will, cannot. DO NOT MISTAKE their for there, whole for hole, too for to
or two, affect for effect, then for than, accept for except. Check your essay
for all these prohibitions before you submit it.
In Advanced Placement we are exploring ideas, style, tone, meaning, diction,
characterization, form of expression (rhetoric) and theme. If you confine
yourselves to writing, as best you can at this time, to these topics IN LIGHT
OF what you have learned about the period, its writers and writing, you will
do well.
One more thing should be said. I know many of you are just, or not even, sixteen
right now. Not too long ago you left childhood. You are not quite adults yet.
But you are bright - a light shines from within you and into you, and you
respond to both sensitively and boldly. I want to challenge you to think in
ways that no one has quite done before, but I do not want to remove the security
of those thoughts you have depended on to get yourself this far. You will
have successes in this class - most of you will pass the AP exam with 3's
or 4's; just finishing the course will be a success as well. You will all
write a longer, deeper and more thoughtful paper than you ever have before.
You will find yourself making decisions on issues that the "greatest"
minds in ancient and modern history have considered difficult. You will read
some of the most highly crafted, and crafty, prose ever published in English
and you will be brought to the verge of tears by some of what these writers
tell you. You will anger others and be angry at what they say. You will change
your mind, maybe three times. You will become closer to each of the people
in the class, like it or not. All this is success. The only failure is that
of isolation. If you cut yourself off from or distance yourself from the class,
the work, the reading, the drudgery, the fun and laughs, the interaction of
ideas and personalities - of those in the class and of those found in the
reading - the challenge of working fast and hard, the push to get better than
you are at the outset, then you fail. All of us will do this too, only at
times. My advice -I do not follow it in my writing -is keep it short. If you
have to fall away, come back soon. So as you make the final intellectual transitions
from childhood and adolescence to a fuller adulthood, take your successes
and failures in stride. Appreciate yourself; I know I will appreciate you,
your efforts, your smarts, your talents, and your expression of your growth.
Now, write a wonderful essay!
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