Starter: Questions? Thoughts? Jokes? Free Advice?
Announcements:
- Democracy rules! Peer critique will be available on Thursday. To avoid tyranny of the majority, the critique will be optional. We are still accepting absentee ballots if you have strong feelings and want your vote counted:)
- Rhetorical Discourse Mini-project: some of you did not complete the self-evaluation/reflection questions and/or upload the project itself. Please rectify this so I can finish grading.
- Please fill out the topic survey, even if you have already talked to me about your ideas.
- Personal conferences will continue on Thursday and Friday. If you haven't met with me yet, please plan on doing so this week.
Some tips on writing your personal essay:
- Express your bias clearly in your essay. It's okay to focus your essay on a broad version of your topic and then hone your rhetorical discourse into a narrower claim. (ie. I write about immigration in general. My rhetoric project was specifically about the concept of sanctuary schools.)
- If you are in the "middle," write your essay from the middle and elaborate on why you see both sides.
- AGAIN: You need not do research for this part!
- Anecdotes and personal stories make the essay more interesting!
- If you don't have many personal stories about the topic itself, perhaps think about your general ideology itself and any stories you might attach to that.
- It is okay to center this essay on VALUES and where they come from.Tie your values to your topic, even if you don't have a ton of experiences to write about.
- This is an essay and typical essay conventions apply. TEA paragraphs still in effect in a personal essay! The whole thing should still be driven by a main idea or thesis.
Please scroll down to yesterday's post and continue to work through the To-DO list!