Essay 1
First draft due Friday, January 16
Final draft due Friday, January 23
4-6 pages, typed and double-spaced
For this assignment you will write a personal narrative in which you tell a story about a problem that you have encountered with regard to work, migration, or both. We will brainstorm possible topics in class. For the purposes of this assignment, migration is not only migration across national borders. You might think of migration as any movement that would require you to adapt to a new context, such as moving to a new neighborhood or a new school.
You should select a problem that you can frame in terms that are not strictly personal. In other words, you should select a problem that others share, and you should frame your solution as one that would involve not only a change in your own behavior but also a social change.
Your essay will probably have a two-part structure. In the first part you introduce the problem and trace the developments that lead to the problem. In the second part you trace the development of solutions or the ways in which you have been able to cope with the problem.
In your essay you should aim to narrate specific events that happened at specific times. You can describe repeated events and periods of time, but the focus of your essay should be singular events that were a part of a sequence of events.
Note that procrastination and time management will not be acceptable problems for you to write about. If your essay involves procrastination or time management issues then you should think of problems around procrastination and time management as symptoms rather than problems in themselves.
The essay will abide, when possible, with the essay-grading rubric for EWRT1A. Some points on the rubric are not readily applicable to personal narratives.