1 March 2005
Ex 2-1: Race/Ethnicity Reflection
(2-3 pages) Describe, with appropriate detail, one specific incident in which you realized something important about your own race and/or ethnicity.
Objectives
- Demonstrate your ability to stick to one topic (so that your title, introduction, and conclusion all match).
Focus on one particular incident. Use specific details, including quoted speech. (Puncutate it properly.)
Proofread, producing grammatically perfect writing.
Follow MLA style (title block, page numbers, etc.).
Write a meaningful title.
As I mentioned in class on Feb 22nd, I felt that too many papers submitted for Exercise 1-2 (your analysis of your childhood home) were dry lists of interesting details, rather than a coherent essay, with a thesis (a point to be argued) and supporting points that make a case in favor of the thesis.
If your thesis is "Experience X Changed My Life," then your reader must get to know the "old" you, must be taken through the life-changing experience, and must see the results in the "new" you. Simply stating "I was never the same after that" is dry and ineffective.
Instead of announcing the emotions you underwent ("It made me so mad I could cry"), you should instead aim to generate in your reader the same emotions you experienced.
Instead of telling your reader that your brother will do anything to make you laugh, describe the fountains of milk squirting out of his nose as he cavorts on top of the kitchen table. Quote the exact words he uses, and describe his facial expressions and tone of voice. Make your readers laugh, and you won't have to "tell" them "My brother is so funny." (See my handout, "Show, Don't (Just) Tell").
