Wells
Writing Assignment #1 My Writing Autobiography
For this paper, you will explore the writing you’ve done in the past, your strengths and weaknesses as a writer, and the writer that you are becoming.
Length: 500-750 words
Format: MLA Style, typed, double-spaced
Style: Expository Essay: introduction, body, and conclusion
Audience: Instructor, peers
Purpose: To connect to yourself as a writer
Due dates: Prewriting assignments ~ see Module
Draft #1 (submit to assignment folder; upload to Peer Review
Discussion topic for an evaluation by your peers) ~ middle of Week 2
Draft #2 (submit to assignment folder) ~ Sunday, September 13 ~
Final Draft (submit to assignment folder) ~ Sunday, December 13
Step 1: Prewriting
Reading and Discussion:
To begin to think about your own writing, let’s think about and discuss the ways in which writing affects our lives and progress in goals and aspirations:
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Writing influences the ways we think.
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Examples: encouraging us to be creative as well as organized and logical in our thinking. Generating ideas in sentences, paragraphs and essays and connecting them in logical ways.
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Writing contributes to the ways we learn.
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Examples: taking notes in class, writing in the margins of our books, writing in a journal, writing essays of various kinds.
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Writing fosters personal development.
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Examples: reflecting on personal experiences, writing about a controversial issue, writing about stories.
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Writing promotes success in college and at work.
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Examples: demonstrating your knowledge of the material and concepts, writing persuasive letters, writing effect email messages, formal letters, and reports.
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Freewriting: complete the following exercises to provide yourself and your peers with current examples of your writing:
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Practice freewriting and describe the process you followed the last time you wrote something that took time and effort. Use the following questions to help you recall what you did, but feel free to write about any other aspects of your writing process that you remember.
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What initially led you to write? Who were you writing for, and what was the purpose of your writing?
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What kinds of think and planning did you do, if any, before you began writing the first draft?
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If you discussed your ideas and plans with someone, how did discussing them help you? If you had someone read your draft, how did getting a response help?
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If you rewrite, moved, added, or cut anything in your first draft, describe what you changed.
Brainstorming
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Brainstorm a list of all the writing you’ve done in the past several years. Then, next to each of these items, write down what was easy and what was hard about these writing tasks. This prewriting step will be submitted to the assignment folder.
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Using this annotated list, create a map of both your weaknesses (what was harder) and your strengths (what was easier) when it comes to writing. Examples of strengths and weaknesses: organization, ideas, expression, description, storytelling, punctuation, grammar, focus, timeliness, creativity, etc.
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Using the outline (last page of your assignment document), begin to outline your essay.
Step 2: Drafting
Developing Your Thesis Statement: A Simile
You will begin with the simile or metaphor that you created that expresses your experience with writing. It is this simile or metaphor that shows the main idea of “dominant impression” you have developed about yourself as a writer. Use the examples and details that you’ve written in the prewriting exercises to help you support this dominant impression.
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Read about similes and metaphors on pp. 189-190 of the Handbook and complete Exercise A on the bottom of p. 190.
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Read the following quotes to see how writers use similes and metaphors to describe the processes and products of writing.
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A simile makes a comparison using like or as
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A metaphor makes a direct comparison.
“Writing is like exploring…as an explorer makes maps of the country he has explored, so a writer’s works are maps of the country he has explored.”
-Lawrence Osgood
“Writing is a manual labor of the mind: a job, like laying pipe.”
-John Gregory Dunne
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Write at least two similes or metaphors to express your own experience with writing. For example, if you love to write, you would use comparisons to positive things or ideas. On the other hand, if you don’t like to write, you might compare it to something that is tough or tricky or time-consuming. Or finally, perhaps you have mixed feelings: you could use a comparison to something that has its ups and downs. After the simile, add a semicolon and a statement about what the simile means.
Example: Writing is like going to the dentist; sometimes it’s easy and just a cleaning, and other times, the pain is hard to take.
Writing is like…
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Writing is like…
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Writing is like…
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Writing Your Introduction: see pp. 29-30 in the Handbook and pp. 82-86 in RW for examples.
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Lead into your thesis statement (your simile) in one of the following ways: with a quotation (see the quotes that you’ve discussed (on p. 4 of this document), an example or story, a surprising fact or idea, a strong opinion or position, or a question.
Writing the Body of the Essay: see pp. 68-71 RW for primary and secondary support examples.
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Now that you have an introduction and thesis statement, continue writing your essay by adding writing your body paragraphs. Each body paragraph includes the following:
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Topic sentence
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Primary Support points
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Secondary Support details
Body paragraph #1: Weaknesses and details from writing that you’ve done in the past.
Body paragraph #2: Strengths and details from the writing you’ve done in the past.
Writing Your Conclusion: see pp. 31-32 in the Handbook and pp. 82-86 in RW for examples
Writing Your Draft Essay: see example essay and checklist on pp. 88-89.
Quotations About Writing: Discussing what the experts say!
Read the following quotations from well-known, published writers and create a discussion thread to discuss them with your peers. Follow the instructions under the Discussion topic “Quotations by Famous Writers.”
“Some of the things that happen to use in life seem to have no meaning, but when you write them down, you find meanings for them…”
-Maxine Hong Kingston
“The mere process of writing is one of the most powerful tools we have for clarifying our own thinking. I am never as clear about any matter as when I have just finished writing about it.”
-James Van Allen
“Writing is the act of saying I, of imposing oneself upon other people, of saying listen to me, see it my way, change your mind.
-Joan Didion
“The aim of school is to produce citizens who are able to communicate with each other, to defend points of view, and to criticize…”
-Albert Shanker
“Learning to write well takes time and much effort, but it can be done.”
-Margaret Mead
“Read, read, read…Just like the carpenter who words as an apprentice and studies the master. Read!”
-William Faulkner
“You have to work problems out for yourself on paper. Put the stuff down and read it—to see if it works.”
-Joyce Cary
“You know when you think about writing a book, you think it is overwhelming. But, actually you break it down into tiny little tasks any moron could do.”
-Annie Dillard
“It’s a matter of piling a little piece here and a little piece there, fitting them together, going on to the next part, then going back and gradually shaping the whole piece into something….You don’t rely on inspiration—I don’t anyway, and I don’t think most writers do.
-Dave Barry
My Writing Autobiography Outline
Introduction: create an atmosphere for the reader; lead into thesis statement
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Simile:________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________
Body Paragraph #1: Weaknesses
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Body Paragraph #2: Strengths
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Conclusion:
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