Essay Writing

We're just finishing up a unit on academic essay writing. I would like you to reflect on yourself as an essay writer. To reflect means to look back at your progress.

Your Assignment: You will write one response this week. In the response, you will compare and contrast yourself as an essay writer in September and as an essay writer today. Responses will be detailed, providing strong descriptions within both the comparison and the contrast.

Memoir

We begin a unit on memoir-writing this week. For your response, please write a paragraph (not a sentence, not a few lines: a paragraph) that defines and describes this genre. You may use the mentor texts that I gave you in class as a guide, as well as any other resources you like.

For your comment, find someone who included in their definition and description something that you did not. Identify the "something" and describe why it is important to consider that feature when thinking about writing in the memoir genre.

Personal Essay

This week for your response homework, I would like for you to post your thesis statement and the three body paragraph topic sentences. Please make sure they are labeled so that readers of your post clearly understand which is which. Also, include any struggles or difficulties you're having so that readers can comment back to you with suggestions to help you.

This week for your comment homework, I would like you to offer suggestions to the person that you're commenting back to that will improve their work. This might be revisions or edits to their thesis and/or topic sentences, or maybe your suggestions address the problems the person said she/he is having. Or both.

Issues

We all have something that we believe deeply is true. Something that something has to do with an injustice, or something unfair. Other times, that something has to do with a right, or something we believe all people should have. These beliefs are our issues.

In one paragraph, describe an issue you have taken on as one of your beliefs. I expect responses to be at least five sentences and to include what the issue is and why you feel so strongly about it.

Publishing

Please complete the following and add appropriate details to support your thinking:

One aspect of publishing my writing (turning it in to the teacher) that really makes me nervous is... I think it makes me so nervous because... Something I could do to overcome this discomfort is...

One aspect of publishing my writing with which I already have a comfortable feeling is... I think I'm already comfortable with...because...

More with Personal Narrative

This week, you will have a choice in your response.

For those of you who expressed trouble with "show-don't-tell" in last week's blog, I'd like for you to add dialogue to your text. When you add dialogue, I think you'll find that it helps you recall either what else was said, or what else most likely was said, which will help you to continue in "show-don't-tell." Then, for your response here, write about your experience with adding dialogue and how it helped you and/or where you still feel blocked.

OR, if you feel like you have a section that you'd like to workshop (meaning, get feedback on for improvement), post as your response an excerpt from your personal narrative. Let others know where you feel that it's "not quite there" so that people can give you specific feedback and suggestions for your writing.

If you comment on someone's excerpt, make sure you tell them what you like about it (not just, "That was good.") and/or give them suggestions/strategies for improvement.

Personal Narrative

Please complete the following. Feel free to expand on your ideas.

One challenge I'm having with writing the personal narrative is... One way I'm trying to overcome that challenge is to...