Length: Suggested length 6 pages (double-spaced) in first version, 8 pages in revision.
Due Dates
Prewrite: Session 14 - Bring in the excerpt(s) you will analyze and be prepared to talk about how you may develop this piece. If you are choosing between two excerpts, bring them both in.
First Version: Due before session 16 (at least 6 pages) with cover letter: email to peer review group.
First Version Workshop: Session 17 (Due: Reviews—see Essay 3 Version 1 Peer Review Letters).
Revision: Before session 21 (about 8 pages) with revision cover letter. Bold changes!
Revision Workshop: Session 21 (Due: Reviews—see Essay 3 Version 2 Peer Review Letters).
ASSIGNMENT: Begin this essay project by selecting one or two of the following:
- an excerpt of your own dialogue
- an excerpt of your own dialogue mixed with internal monologue
- an excerpt of your internal monologue
- an excerpt from a dream sequence
- an excerpt from a letter written by you
Your starting point, an excerpt from your mind, sets the basis for building your essay. As a writer, you can develop material from this excerpt as a way to explore personal issues that connect to larger human concerns or specific contemporary social issues. When authors work with this kind of material, they often discover meanings they did not initially recognize. The chosen excerpt can appear anywhere in the essay; it does not have to be in the first paragraph or two, although in some cases that may be the best location for it.
Depending on the focus of your essay, you may need to integrate and cite secondary sources to provide evidence for claims that you make that are outside of your own experience. Feel free to use experimental forms of writing or include drawings that may best communicate your experience. Often a hybrid essay form, which, for example, combines stream-of-consciousness narrative with traditional prose style, works well for this type of essay.
