Writing Homework Help

Thus far, we have focused primarily on the Reading Process.  Now, it’s time to transition to the Writing Process.  We will be working on Project 1 for the next two weeks.  We will take this first essay step-by-step and review all parts of the writing process.  If you are well-versed in writing academic essays then great — this will be a chance for you to polish your skills!  And if you are new to academic writing or it’s been a while, then have no fear — we will be breaking down this essay step by step.

Project #1: Illustration Essay

• What shapes my identity?
• How do others shape my identity?
• What is a community?
• What does it mean to be a member of a community?
• What communities do I belong to, and how have these communities shaped my identity? 
• How is my community inclusive, and also exclusive?
• What does it mean to be outside a community, to be other? 
• Why is a community important? 

Unit 1 Texts

• My America: Immigrant and Refugee Writers Today by various authors
• “The Danger of a Single Story” by Chimamanda Adichie (TED Talk)
• “There is More to the Nuclear Family, Even Now” by Mandy Len Catron (article, Atlantic Magazine)
• “Alone” by Maya Angelou (poem)
• “If They Should Come for Us” by Fatimah Asghar (poem)
• “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula Le Guin (allegorical short story)

Project 1 Guidelines

Project 1 is an illustration essay.  To ILLUSTRATE is to use vivid examples to support your main point. In a written essay, examples will often serve to illustrate a general statement (in this case, your thesis)

Based on our Unit 1 texts and your own personal and social context, provide a comprehensive and nuanced definition of what “community” means to you and then illustrate it with vivid examples.  Your definition of community will serve as your thesis statement.  You will then support your argument with insightful claims and supporting evidence.  This is not a research essay.  Your evidence should consist of your own vivid personal examples and wisely chosen quotations from at least one (1) of our Unit 1 texts.  At the end of the essay, include a Works Cited page (the Works Cited page is not included in the page count).

Consider the different strategies and examples that our Unit 1 writers (particularly Adichie and Catron) use to illustrate their arguments.  Use their texts as models of writers using vivid examples to illustrate and support their thesis.