Important Dates

Wednesday, August 31—Discuss guidelines for Essay #1/prewriting in class

Friday, September 2—Work on Essay #1 in computer lab

Wednesday, September 7—Final draft due

Essay Prompt

For this essay, you will be using Robert S. Feldman’s essay, “Why Go to College?” as a starting point to think about your own educational background and literacy experiences. As you can see from Feldman’s essay on pages 31-33, there are many different values that shape why students choose to attend college. Some are in college because of their own individual goals and aspirations; others are simply attending college because of their parents’ wishes. Either way, all of one’s educational experiences up to this point have shaped the kind of person and student you are.

The focus of this first writing assignment is to explore an experience that seems to have been important in shaping the kind of reader and writer you have become or an experience that illustrates the role of literacy in your life. This should be a very specific event in your life that has shaped your thinking (either positively or negatively) about reading, writing, and education in some way. The purpose of the assignment is to relate to your readers (your classmates and me) a story of some specific event or experience in your life in which writing and/or reading figure prominently—a story that might provide some insight into the role literacy plays into your life.

Criteria

A successfully written essay will contain the following elements:

Length of the paper will be two-to-three pages;
Your paper will typed, double-spaced, with correct formatting and heading;
Please try one of the prewriting strategies we went over in class as a way to think about your writing before you start;
It should be clear that you have read carefully and understand Feldman’s essay;
You should reference Feldman’s essay at least once in your writing. When you do so, please include the page number you are referencing in this way: (Feldman 32);
You will need to discuss a very specific experience in your educational background that somehow shaped who you are today;
Think carefully about the audience you are addressing and make that clear through your writing, language, and style;
Your paper should contain a strong thesis or main idea statement;
You will turn in all stages of your writing (brainstorming, rough drafts, final draft, etc.) on September 7 in your folder;
It should be clear that you have made revisions in each stage of your writing. In other words, your rough draft and final draft should not be the same exact paper; and
Use strong grammar, punctuation, and spelling to the best of your ability. Make sure you use a dictionary and your handbook to help you write your paper.