Essay 1 Addendum

A few more essay ideas to consider:

1. Discuss "coming of age," "loss of innocence," or "rites of passage" in one or two stories we've read. What is involved in this process? What are the results?

2. Using one or more stories, discuss the quote by Gail Sheehy, "Growth demands a temporary surrender of security." Or discuss the quote by Henry David Thoreau, "For a man needs only to be turned around once with his eyes shut in this world to be lost...Not til we are lost...do we begin to find ourselves."

3. Discuss "Our Hurried Children" as it relates to "A&P" or "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been."

4. Discuss different concepts of religion in one or more stories.

5. Consider the theme of the individual vs. society. When do protagonists feel the pressure of the outside world? How do they respond? How does this mirror what Hollis describes as the pattern of "departure, initiation, and return"?

Feel free to use "popular culture" sources (television shows, music, films, video games, board games, toys, etc.) to help you make your argument.


DOCUMENTATION

You must document both your primary source(s) and your secondary sources using MLA Style. See Appendix A (pp. 1468-1509) with specific examples beginning on page 1474. ESSAYS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED WITHOUT PROPER INTERNAL CITATIONS AND A SEPARATE WORKS CITED PAGE.

If you cite a story from Legacies, your works cited entry should look like this:

Hollis, James. "The Heroic Journey." Legacies.
3rd ed. Eds. Jan Zlotnik Schmidt and Carley Rees Bogarad. Boston: Thomson
Wadsworth, 2006. 349-354.

You may use various methods to cite evidence internally. See page 1474 for details. A basic internal citation should look like this:

(Hollis 349)
_________________________________

Don't Forget the Writer's Memo, required with each draft.



Memos must be written in paragraph form and be a minimum of one full page, typed, double spaced. The memo should discuss a wide range of topics related to your writing process. Below are some questions to consider. Be as specific as possible.

1. What do you believe are the strengths of this piece of writing?
2. What aspects could be improved or what ideas could be developed further?
3. What new insight or valuable idea does this essay offer? Isolate the thesis in a single sentence.
4. What did you learn through reading and/or writing?
5. Which parts of the piece did you find the easiest or most difficult to put into words?
6. What did you want to accomplish with this piece?
7. What did you want the audience to understand about you and/or your experience?
8. Which specific writing techniques did you find helpful? (brainstorming, revision, specific diction, sentence variety, parallelism, description, dialogue, elaboration, showing vs. telling, frame device, character development, figurative language, etc.)
9. Were the comments of peer editors helpful? If yes, how? If no, why not?
10. What kind of risks did you take with your writing? That is, what did you try that you hadn’t tried before?
11. What did you think about as you wrote?
12. Did you have any difficulties with the reading? If yes, what methods did you take to help with reading comprehension?
14. If you used research in your writing, what particular problems, if any, did you run into?
15. What have you learned about yourself either as a writer or a person through writing this essay?