First Essay Assignment: Expressive

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Back to English Composition I syllabus, fall 1999

First Essay Assignment: Expressive
Draft Due: Wednesday, Oct. 6 (bring printout and file on disk to class; do not wait to print until you come to class); you may also wish to post the draft as a message to the forum
Revised draft due Wednesday, Oct. 13
Second revision due Wednesday, Oct. 27
Assignment:
Tell the story of an event you’ve experienced that has helped to shape you, or of a person you’ve known who has influenced you, or of something important you’ve observed.
In expressive writing, writers recreate in words some special part of their lives. You must make the recreation so vivid that readers can see and feel what the writer saw and felt. Don’t just “tell” us what happened: you have to “show” us what happened and let us be there in the scene when it happened. Use dialogue, description, employing plenty of specific details and concrete images to paint the picture of that event for us. You will use facts, not fiction, but you will tell a story in this essay, preferably with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Select a day that made a difference in your life or that in some other way is important or memorable. Make us see what you saw, hear what you heard, smell what you smelled, taste what you tasted, and feel what you felt. You can’t make us do this by telling us how to feel. You have to earn our attention by making us experience the event with you.
Because it is important that you be comfortable sharing this essay with the class, I want you to select an event or person in your life that you are willing to let others read about. Do not write about something that you need to keep private. Save that for a journal entry or an extra credit paper just for me to read.
Consider the following as you brainstorm and draft your paper:
1. Select an event that will have significance for you and that you think readers will be interested in, but one that you are comfortable discussing with others.
2. Think about the scope of the event and the length of the paper: do you have enough material to write about? Too much? Can you shape the event into an effective narrative essay (put the picture into a coherent frame)?
3. Many things that have happened to you have also happened to other people. If your topic is common, what angle can you take in writing about it to keep your story from being boring? Was your experience in any way different from most people’s experience of a similar event?
4. What is the main focus, impression or implied point you want your essay to suggest? Do all of your scenes, details, and images support this focus or overall impression of the event?
5. Do you have a clear sense of the plot of your story? Present the events in a clear sequence while at the same time compressing where necessary and organizing the plot so that the most important moment is highlighted. If necessary, use flashback, but don’t rely on flashback too much (it can disrupt readers too much, especially in a short essay like this.)
6. What parts of the actual story should you leave out in order to create a more effective narrative in the essay? Be sure to omit these or to compress them. Don’t let the background overwhelm the foreground.
7. What parts of the actual story should receive the most attention in your essay? Be sure to present those parts as detailed scenes: foreground these important scenes as key moments in your story. Probably two to four of these scenes can make your paper.
For this and for the second essay (reflective), you may wish to read pp. 66-72 in RAW for some tips.