Mr. Turner's English



English 11

J. Turner

SELF-DIRECTED ESSAY STUDY

What you find and read yourself, because you are interested in it, is almost always more interesting that what people pick out for you. And if it’s interesting, it’s something you can learn from. This assignment is to find a good essay and use it to generate ideas for topics, styles, and techniques for your own writing.

STEP 1: FIND AN ESSAY

➢ IN THE SCHOOL LIBRARY

o Search the catalogue for “essays”

▪ Search for nonfiction by famous essayists like:

• E.B. White

• Joan Didion

• George Orwell

• Mark Twain

o

o The school magazine rack

➢ IN A BOOKSTORE

o Search their catalogue (if the store has one) for:

▪ The writers listed above

▪ “Essays”, “Collected Essays”, “Short Nonfiction”, “Creative Nonfiction”

o Browse the “nonfiction” shelves looking for:

▪ Collections

▪ Anthologies

▪ Nonfiction books whose chapters might be able to stand alone as an essay (read to discover whether that is the case)

o The magazine racks

▪ Almost all magazines have essays, but here are a few ideas off the top of my head:

• Harper’s Magazine

• The Atlantic Monthly

• The Walrus

• Geist

• The Believer

• Rolling Stone

• Wired

• Scientific American

• The New Yorker

• Vanity Fair

➢ ONLINE

o Googling “essays” won’t get you very far. Try some of these sites:

▪ Salon

▪ The Millions

▪ 3 Quarks Daily

▪ Arts and Letters Daily

▪ Any of the online versions of the magazines listed under “The magazine racks” above

English 11

J. Turner

SELF-DIRECTED ESSAY STUDY

STEP 2: MAKE SURE IT’S A GOOD ESSAY

➢ CHECKLIST #1

1. Is it poetry?

2. Is it a blog post*?

3. Is it fiction?

4. Is it a chapter of a book that doesn’t make sense unless it you read what comes before and after?

5. Is it a list of responses to a bunch of questions that lots of people are answering like: “30 things you didn’t know about me”; or “My 10 favourite books of all time”?

6. Is it less than 500 words long?

7. Is it by more than one person?

If you answered, “Yes,” to ANY of the above questions, it is NOT AN ESSAY. Sorry.

*FAQ: What’s the difference between a blog post and an essay?

o A blog post probably wasn’t rewritten—it is a first draft, thinking out-loud, conversational, series of thoughts

o An essay is polished—someone thought about what they want to say, wrote it down, read it, rewrote it to make it more clear and more pleasing to the ear.

o A blog post rambles from thought to thought, often lacking an ending and an overarching point.

o An essay is the concerted effort to say something and say it well.

FAQ of the FAQ: Isn’t that just saying that an essay is better written than an essay?

o Yes

FAQ of the FAQ of the FAQ: So if a blog post is really well written, could it be an essay then?

o Yes, but it probably wouldn’t be a very good blog post (too long!)

➢ CHECKLIST #2

1. Is clearly meant to make a real point about something?

2. Does it seem like the person paid attention to the style and structure of their sentences?

3. Does it have a unified topic?

4. Can you read it in one sitting?

5. Is it written in prose?

6. Did it pass “Checklist #1”?

If you answered, “Yes,” to ALL of Checklist #2, congratulations, IT’S AN ESSAY.

➢ CHECKLIST #3

1. Do you think the topic is interesting?

2. Do you think it is well-written?

3. Do you understand it?

4. Do you think you could write something on a related topic, or in a similar style?

5. Did it pass “Checklist #2”?

If you answered, “YES,” to ALL of Checklist #3, congratulations, IT’S A GOOD ESSAY!

English 11

J. Turner

SELF-DIRECTED ESSAY STUDY

STEP 3: ANALYZE YOUR CHOSEN ESSAY

|NAME OF ESSAY: |WRITER OF ESSAY: |

|PLACE PUBLISHED: |DATE PUBLISHED: |

|GENERAL TOPIC: |SPECIFIC TOPIC: |

|STYLE*: |GENRE*: |

*FAQ: What are some examples of words that describe style of writing?

abstract

circuitous

cliched

conversational

crisp

descriptive

economical

ellipitical

eloquent

emotional

emphatic

epigrammatic

erudite

euphemistic

florid

formal

fragmented

humorous

informal

intimate

journalistic

literary

meditative

methodical

narrative

objective

obscene

organized

poetic

polemical

rambling

rough

sarcastic

satirical

scholarly

scientific

sensationalistic

simple

succinct

unconventional

vague

verbose

*FAQ: What are some examples of words that describe genre of writing?

Autobiography

Biography

Book introduction

Chart or diagram

Creative nonfiction

Cultural criticism

Diary

Food writing

Guide or manual

Journal

Literary journalism

Memoir

Opinion / Editorial

Travelogue

Review of a (album, musical artist, book, writer, exhibit, artist, film, TV show, performance, report, or restaurant)

1. In a sentence, what is the main idea of the essay?

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2. Copy out your favourite sentence or passage from the essay:

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3. What do you like about this passage?

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4. List 5 essay topics related to this essay that you or your classmates might be able to write on:

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5. What approaches to the writing, in terms of style, form, content, strategy, technique, etc., did the writer use?

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6. Which of the above would you be interested in trying out?

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7. Identify again the genre of writing, and list 5 things a piece of writing of that kind should do in order to be excellent.

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English 11

J. Turner

SELF-DIRECTED ESSAY STUDY

STEP 4: PLAN YOUR ESSAY

|GENRE OF ESSAY: |TOPIC OF ESSAY: |

|PLACE IT COULD BE PUBLISHED: |STYLE: |

|PURPOSE OF ESSAY: |

|MAIN IDEA: |

BRAINSTORMING:

OUTLINING: MY ESSAY WILL INCLUDE PARAGRAPHS ON

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