Final Essay and Project

Important Dates:

 1) e-mail a draft of at least two (2) complete pages by May 4^th, 11a.m. for class workshop in Week 14.

 2) Final Draft of Essay 3, due: Thursday, May 14^th

 

Essay Prompt:

 General Info First!

After reading the memoir and dissecting the journey of Beah, and after finding our own texts to compare and contrast Beah’s story with, we are now transitioning to artistic inquiry.

We have been inquiring the entire semester, first in reflecting on a significant event in our lives, then in researching the journeys of Diaspora, and now we go from those experiences to pursue creating both a piece of writing and a piece of art that answers a question of human nature (explained more specifically below).

Specific Subject Matter!

What is love? What is hate? What is poetry? What is loss? What is death? What is murder? What is music? What is Chicago? What is NYC?  What is silence? What is violence? What is faith? What is language? What is…? 

The above questions are possible inquiries one might have about human nature after our semesters’ readings. They are also questions we might have asked ourselves time and again – naturally curious beings that we are. As writers, as artists, as citizens of a society…

these are questions that face us daily, and in our final essay of the semester, you are to explore a one-word concept (such as “love” or “hate”) in both a 3-4 pages essay AND a companion visual piece of art that reflects upon the ideas in your written essay.

You are to explore this one-word concept from your own personal understanding of the word, and do not need to use the texts as support or evidence. You may if you feel ALWG helps, but you are NOT required to use the text as other than inspiration for your topic.

Once you choose your word, you are to use the modes of persuasion – emotion (pathos), reasoning (logos), character/authority (ethos) – to create a well-developed artistic definition of that word.

Requirements:

 1) Essay portion (100 points): 3-4 pages, double-spaced, 12 pt font 

2) Visual Media (100 points):

Final Project/Visual Presentation: Along with the final of the 3 essays, you will be expected to create a companion-piece media that you will present to the class in the last weeks of the course. What is meant by “companion-piece media”? Well, the media part refers to making something physical, something artistic that communicates an idea inspired by course readings and discussions. This piece goes along with the Inquiry Essay and is the visual response to the inquiry explored in this final essay. 

 

Pre-writing Exercises:

I. To help get you started, fill in the following sentence with one-word concepts inspired from our readings and experiences during the semester:

“What does __________ mean?”

-       Make a list of words that you are interested in or thought of from the past semester. There should be many! From that list, choose the one word that you would really like to define in Essay 3.

 

II. Using your reading as inspiration

1) Discuss first paragraphs Chapter 20 of A Long Way Gone – reality v. dream

2) We will also dissect p. 212 and parts of Chapter 21 – important dates

 

-       After re-reading and discussing as a class the above excerpts, let’s borrow Beah’s first sentence from Chapter 20, replacd Beah’s words with the word you are choosing to define in Essay 3 and with where your basic definition comes from:

“My conception of _______________ came from ________________.”

-       After completing the sentence, keep going! Write a paragraph with the sentence as your topic sentence, using detail and example.

 

 

 

Reminder for Thursday, 4/23

Dear Students, here are some reminders for the next couple of weeks:

1. Remember that Essay 2 is due by 7pm by e-mail on Thursday, April 23rd.

2. Also, that we don't have class, but instead are assigned to finish the memoir, and to do the blogger responses seen in the last two posts if you have missed class. 

3. A very important reminder:  Those students missing class and missing a majority of assignments will get an e-mail from the Student Advocates fairly soon. For those still trying to pass the course, I suggest getting in contact by e-mail....

4. Our final essay, as Oasis indicates, will be an "inquiry into human nature inspired by Beah's journey." But, rather than the inquiry being about Beah's journey, his story is a jumping off point into the issue inspired by your reading.

Sincerely,

Chris 

Blogger 6, due Tuesday April 28th

Blogger Response #6 (15 points): Inquiry into Human Nature

Due: by class, Tuesday, April 28th

After finally finishing A Long Way Gone, and having discussed it and used it to inspire various kinds of our own writing…

What impression does the text leave you with about humanity? What does Beah’s say about the human journey to you – and what is it about his story that says this to you? What inspiration can you take from Beah’s work towards your own work?

Discuss the final chapters of Beah’s journey in one to two paragraphs.  At the end of your response, provide some “inquiry” question that you want to explore: a question on human nature that you will creatively and critically want to pursue answering.

Blog Post #5, for Tuesday, April 21st:

Blog Post #5 (40 points): Integrating Relevant Academic Sources

Answer all of the following in a post, by class on Tuesday, April 21th:

- What claims are you making on the texts? What is your thesis on the two texts?
o Include both texts in thesis statement (main claim)
o Include in that thesis statement the theme that you see in both texts…

- What questions are you exploring in your research based on the main claim?

- What academic articles – besides two tales– are you using to support topic?

o If you haven’t: Find and read articles that describe behavior you’re discussing in comparing two tales of Diaspora.
o Look for articles in disciplines such as Psychology, Sociology, History, Science…

o Explain what idea in the article is useful and to be used in Essay 2 – pick out a relevant quote and clarify how it relates to your two comparative texts.

Purdue's OWL website: For The Want-improving Writer

Students:

As we continue on our brief research comparative essays, here is a website that supplements what we're going over in class in the next weeks -- integrating our source material effectively into our writing:

Click HERE to go to OWL's site.

Not only is this particular section helpful, but the website is loaded with lots of strategies and explanations for different rhetorical considerations/ writing issues.

Ethos, Pathos, Logos

Click on the following link to help aid in your understanding of the three modes of persuasion.

Blog Response #4 for April 2

Blog Response #4 (15 pts):

1) Name chapters 17, 18 and 19

2) Along with providing a name for each chapter, give a minimum 5-7 sentence explanation for each chapter name. In that explanation, provide specifics. Use names, places, specific actions.

DUE: by class-time on April 2nd. For those wanting to hand in a copy of blog instead of maintaining blog, this is fine. But response is still due at beginning of class this Thursday.