English Discussion

Again, you’ll likely be able to use all of most of the rhetorical modes we’ve examined so far (narration, description, and process) to help you with this paper.

Comparison/contrast papers are wonderful because they more or less automatically organize themselves, provided you’ve made an informal list outline for your paper.  You will either organize via the point-by-point method (as in the Tannen essay) or subject-by subject (as in the Twain, Catton, and Britt pieces).

Again this time, I want you to find three stylistic techniques that you don’t like from any essay(s) in this section and then purposefully avoid using those techniques in your paper.

At the end of your essay, simply tell me specifically what techniques you avoided.

Again, before you turn this paper in, you must email it to any two other people in the class.  They are to read your essay and answer the following questions:

1)  Is this essay organized according to the point-by-point or the subject-by-subject method?  Do you find this effective, or might the other method be more efficacious?

2)  Are the transitions effective between each point or subject?  Where could they be made even better?

3)  Is the paper weighted evenly between the points or subjects?  That is, does one need to be discussed in more detail?  Which one(s) do you end up wanting to hear more about?

4)  As usual, the ending needs to answer the question, “What did I discover about this topic, about the resonance between myself and this topic, by writing this essay?’  Does the author do it here?  Is it effective?  How could it be better?

5)  Is there a proliferation of vague, subjective abstractions, such as “good,” “great,” ‘cool,” “wonderful,” “things,” etc.?  Where is this most noticeable?

As usual, you will attach (not simply paste in) these two critiques to the paper when you send it to me.

(I know that Paper #3 is due this week, but I wanted to get you started on #4 so that next week won’t be a logjam for you.)

You have a choice between item c) under “Suggestions for Sustained Writing” on page 202 (and ignore the last sentence of this item: there is no need to do research for this paper), item b) at the top of 217, or item a) in the middle of 222.  As usual, your essay should be from 600-700 words long and should contain an introduction (replete with an underlined thesis statement), a body, and a conclusion, which will offer discovery to the reader.  Your ending again will answer the question, “What did I learn about the relationship between myself and this topic by writing my essay?”