In a draft of about 2 pages (roughly 500 words), convey your relationship to literature and the English language. Bring 2 printed copies to class, and upload your Word document to J-Web in the slot for Ex 1-1a. (That slot will close 30 minutes before class starts.)

Helpful Readings:

• Personal Essays: How to Write Them
  
• Show, Don't (Just) Tell
  
• Crisis vs. Conflict
  
• Step-by-step Instructions for Formatting MLA Papers

Objectives:

• Format pages properly -- 12pt double spaced Times New Roman, following MLA style (title block, header, pagination, etc.).
  
• Demonstrate your committment to English studies by writing grammatically correct, stylistically pleasing, well-organized prose.
  
• Focus on a single theme and develop it with one or two specific, illuminating examples. Avoid a laundry list.

The following is too general -- it looks like a dry list of things that you might turn into an essay, if you had the time.

Every summer, my dog and I would play in the back yard from sunup to sundown. My mother tried everything to get me to come inside, but it never worked. I loved that dog more than anything, and I was crushed when he got cancer and died.

If you want me to feel the emotional attachment between you and the dog, make me feel that I am there in your backyard on one particular, significant day. Quote some of the actual words that your mother used to get you to come inside. Maybe your mother tempts you with chocolate cake, and your dog sees you edging towards the door, but growls and pounces joyfully on you, tumbling you into a ditch.

While we were lying there, a mass of sweat and dirt and fur and hair, I stroked his belly and we watched the sunset. That's when I first noticed the strange lump on his thigh. The next day at the animal hospital I learned what "malignant" meant, and a few weeks later I knew what "terminal" meant.

Intended audience: Undeclared SHU freshmen.

Tips

• Be creative, but not overly flowery. If you write a narrative essay, don't confuse crisis and conflict.
  
• Be informative, but not overly dry. If you write an informative essay, your conclusion should not merely summarize what the reader has just read.
  
• Avoid phrases like "I think" or "It seems to me." Your whole essay represents your viewpiont, so there is no need for such labels.
  
• Avoid phrases like "clearly" or "obviously." If what you're saying really is clear, you don't need to label it as such. If what you're saying really isn't clear, adding a label won't help.
  
• Trim needless words. Instead of "hot and moist," write "sultry." Instead of "The scene I beheld was hard to believe. I stared at the mountains, marveling at how high they were. The longer I tried to comprehend them, the taller they seemed to get, and the more insignificant I felt", try "The mountains loomed impossibly. With each blink, I shrank."
  
• In early papers like this, students often don't find the subject they really want to write about until the bottom of the second page. Once you've found that subject, you should probably cut out the first two pages of fluff, and start over again with your new focus.

Sample prompts:

• What do you hope to gain from an introduction to literary study?
  
• What work of literature has changed your life?
  
• Who is your literary hero -- an author or a fictional character?
  
• What part of literary study fascinates, annoys, or scares you? Make me feel that same emotion.