Paper #2: Self-Help or Semantics (due Thursday by 5pm)

For your second paper, I want you to consider the conversation we’ve been having in class over the past 3 essays (and the one to come): writing guides to a specialized activity/event or to a specific identity.  Each of these authors is trying to initiate you into a complex experience that has its own rules, customs, beliefs, pitfalls, and language.  Now I want you to enter this conversation by writing an essay over one of the following:

·         A “how-to” guide to some activity you have experienced or are knowledgeable about

·         A “definition” essay where you define yourself as the member of a specific group or identity

Consider how the previous essays have addressed this: Koeppel compiled the advice of experts on how to survive a 35,000 foot fall; Eighner discussed the complex rules of dumpster diving; Mairs defined her identity as a “cripple,” and in our fourth essay, Tan will explore the difficulties of being Chinese-American and speaking what many consider “broken English.”  Your essay should be modeled on one or more of these, as you attempt to help us see a world we haven’t experienced and might never experience.  The goal of writing is to respond to a conversation, so your paper is a response to on-going conversation about this topic, how you fit into it, and what others can learn from it.

The Role of the Naysayer: You must introduce a naysayer(s) into your paper that offers other ways of looking at your activity or your identity.  For example, Koeppel offers conflicting theories of how to survive a terrible free-fall, whereas Mairs offers more polite names for her disease—“handicapped,” “differently abled”—which she rejects.  In your essay, I want you to consider how other people’s opinions and advice might argue with yours, and how you can respond to this in helping people see your point of view.  You need at least 2 outside sources on your subject/identity that can be used to offer other perspectives than yours, that you can either use to suggest alternatives or disagree with. 

Some ideas for this paper could include, but are not limited to: a guide to surviving high school, being a specific ethnic group, being a specific regional group (Redneck, etc.), playing a specific sport, learning a musical instrument, being a mother/father, surviving an addiction, being in a relationship/ marriage, doing a specific job (from working at Braum’s to something more specialized, like being a vet’s assistant),being a gamer (or some other sub-group), or having a difficult family relationship (divorce, a parent/sibling in prison, a death in the family), etc.  In each of these, consider how other people might view you or the activity in question; how might they disagree with your ideas and advice, and how can your response to this form the basis of your essay? 

REQUIREMENTS: at least 4 pages, double spaced; 2 outside sources (quoted/cited following MLA format); due on Thursday, Oct.2^nd by 5pm.  Late papers lose 10 points a day until Sunday at 5pm; after that you get a zero and cannot use this paper in your portfolio.