Essay Assignment: I used to believe....

There's a hole in my jeans I only wanted to fade.
I've been ripping out seams
somebody else made tonight.

-Melissa Etheridge

Default topic:

• Ghost story or alien abduction ("I used to believe and now I don't....." or visa versa.

Note: Student sample essays included in your coursepack are formatted using single spacing to save paper. Your essays should be double-spaced.

Note:

For each essay, the completed worksheet (with my comments) must be stapled to the end of your essay when you hand it in.

Nasta

ESSAY #1 - Write about an experience which changed a belief

4-6 pages, double-spaced, stapled, with title, page numbers and a correct heading

Your first writing assignment requires that you write a personal narrative essay which tells the story of an experience from your life which led you to change your perspective on something. Identify a belief you hold which has changed as a result of the knowledge gained from an experience you've had.

In considering the content of your essay, you'll want to think first of all about the "belief" you are examining. A belief is value-based, meaning that it represents the action or actions you believe to be correct based on a value (or values) you hold. Our values change as we grow and learn, and consequently so do our beliefs.

Your essay, specifically the story you tell, should demonstrate an understanding of the public implications of our private lives. You must state your belief in a public way, so that your essay reads not as self-exploration, but as an exploration of how the values you believe in should direct the choices made by a reader. To that extent, you are using narrative to be persuasive.

In choosing your topic, keep in mind the following:

• A change in belief is not a change from wrong to right. It is simply that: a change.

• Coming to recognize a stereotype is not the same as revising a belief. Understanding the inaccuracy of stereotypes is part of learning and personal growth.

• A belief is not the same as a lesson. A belief is a deeply held idea you have about the way the world is, or should be, ordered. A lesson is more concerned with behavior; a belief is connected to a value.

• A belief is not the same as a preference, which is simply that, a liking for something over something else, which is neither guided or dictated by values.

• Your original belief and your new belief must both be reasonable and defensible.

Once you have thought about the content of your essay, you'll need to construct it carefully and creatively. Think about form and style. Think about the creative elements we've discussed in class: image, narrative and character. Your essay must contain a strong example of each of these elements of a powerful and effective personal essay:

• Narrative - A clearly defined story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. This story must take place in a well described setting, there must be a character acting in the story, and there must be an event or action toward which the story moves.

• Image - A captured moment in time which is static. There can be movement within an image, but no movement through time or space. It is a photograph created with words; an opportunity to stop and highlight sensory details, most specifically visual description, although other senses can be used to give an image energy and memorability.

• Character - Your essay must contain one clearly described and memorable character besides the narrator (you). There must be at least one other person (or animal) in your essay that a reader gets to know well.

A personal essay is essentially a story from your life out of which you make meaning for the benefit of readers who don't know you. What makes a good story? Think about characters and scenes and description. Think about how you are using time. Can you start with a scene from your narrative, and then explain it? Can you start at the end of the story and flash back? Can you identify the moments in the story which have the most drama, or are most crucial to a reader's understanding of the change in the narrator, and highlight them in the writing?
The success of your essay will depend on your ability to illustrate your experience clearly and creatively, and the degree to which you are able to convince us of how you felt before, and how you feel now. Think of a reader who asks "Why?" Why did you once believe one thing-- what in your experience, training and history led you to hold that belief-- and what happened to you which led to a change in your perspective? You will need to convince us that the experience about which you write really was important and compelling enough to provoke a change in your belief system.

Avoid clichés and over-generalizations.

Keep the following in mind as you compose your essay. A successful essay will thoroughly and logically complete these statements:

• I used to believe........ (old belief)
• I believed this because......... (why? what is the source of this belief? Be very specific, with examples.)
• Then THIS happened.......... (narrative)
• Now I believe.......... (internal logic. Does it make sense that your experience led you to this new belief?)

Note: For this, and every, essay you write for EN121, the completed worksheet (with my comments) must be stapled to the end of your essay when you hand it in.

Nasta

Essay #1 Worksheet:

1) I used to believe.... (describe your old belief here)

2) I believed this because.... (the source of the old belief. Be specific-family, media, religion, education-but give specific examples of how this belief was transmitted to you.)

3) Then THIS happened.... (the experience - narrative, anecdote, story-which caused your belief to change)

4) Now I believe.... (describe the new belief)

5) Describe one character besides yourself who will appear in your essay.

6) Describe a setting where some action or event takes place.

7) Describe one moving, crucial or memorable image important to your story.

Attachment:- Essay-Assignment.rar