Essay #3, What Matters MostSubmit Assignment

English 11 2, College Composition 2 Fall 20 20 , Kristin Vogt Essay # 3, What Matters In this Life? Rough draft due: Wednes day , 12 /2, before class starts . Submit an electronic copy to a discussion board for peer editing by a partner. I will create “groups” and you may enroll yourself with a partner or I will place you in a pair. Each group will have a discussion board where you may submit your essay and the editing worksheet you complete for your partner. Submission to Canvas is optional, only if y ou would like my ungraded feedback. In that case, you must submit to Canvas by midnight. Final draft d ue: Mon day , 12 /14 , at the end of the final exam period. The assignment will not be open for submission after the exam period, so you will not be able to submit your final late. Length: about 3-4 pages ( 900 - 1200 words) Value: 175 points –a rubric is posted to Canvas Submission: Upload an MS Word (.doc or .docx) or .rtf document to Canvas . No paper copy is required. Format: MLA formatting for college essays. Introduction : Knowing what matters to you — what you think are the most important things in life, the things that make our existence in this world valuable and worthwhile — is an important first step in creating a satisfying life for yourself and becoming a good world citizen , employee, friend, and family member . An important second step is being able to articulate your values. This topic is actually an essay su bgenre with many famous contributors, and you can find plenty of examples of essays that answer this or similar questions. Some significant examples include the Stanford MBA application question, NPR’s long -running “This I Believe” feature (no longer acti ve); and the “Laws of Life” essay competition s sponsored by various service organizations . This assignment gives you the opportunity to take part in this conversation and to offer your own contribution to th e discussion by asking you to think about your values and priorities — what matters to you — and to explain those things in writing to an audience of your peers, friends, and even strangers who would be interested to hear your thoughts on this question. English 11 2, Fall 20 20 , Kristin Vogt Essay # 3, What Matters? Page 2 Assi gnment : Compose an essay about three to four pages long (900 -1200 words) in which you explain what is most important to you and why. You may choose to write about one, two, or three things that you think are essential to making life worthwhile. As you describe what is important to you, and why, you should also explain what that has meant to you in terms of the choices you make in your life. How do these values and priorities help guide your decisions, and do they impose any restrictions or costs on you? And if so, why do you continue to abide by them? Compose your essay to give as full a view as possible of what matters to you, why, and how it affects your life. You must include some examples from your own experience, and you may also include examples you have heard from friends and family . You must interview at least one person who is at least 20 years older than you and discuss this question with them. If you are forty years old or more, you may, as an alternative, interview at least one pe rson who is at 20 years younger than you. The point is to hear and understand the thoughts of someone from a different generation about this question and compare them to your own. You will need to summarize this person’s view and provide your own respons e to it in your essay. You should also find at least one high quality , publicly available outside source to help you develop and support your position . This may be a published article, a TED talk or other video, or a relevant podcast or other audio rec ording . Some sources to consider include NPR’s archive of “This I Believe” essays, articles in respected and respectable journals and magazines like The New Yorker, Salon, and The Atlantic and serious mainstream newspapers like the Washington Post and th e New York Times. You may use two of this type of source , but this essay should be mainly your own thinking, so check with me before using more than two. Commercial blogs and websites that provide low -quality content as click bait to generate advertising revenue are not appropriate sources to use. Fiction (text, oral, video, or film) , even high -quality literature, is also not an appropriate source of evide nce, since it is really evidence of what the author has created , not necessarily of what is true in the world. In addition to examples demonstrating why your values are so important, you should also include at least one contra -example that shows what hap pens when the thing you value is missing or given a low priority in life . This can be from your own experience, an interview, or a publicly available outside source. Your essay should include the following: • An effective introduction that includes a vivid hook and a clear and strong thesis statement English 11 2, Fall 20 20 , Kristin Vogt Essay # 3, What Matters? Page 3 • Unified and coherent body paragraphs that develop your thesis • Relevant and specific details that support your thesis, including examples from your personal experie nce and knowledge, at least one publicly available outside source (written or recorded), and one personal interview • Your own reasoning and evidence • A conclusion that synthesizes and shows the significance of your thesis and makes a good final impression • Proper grammar and style , including MLA format for in -text citations and Works Cited (you must include your interview in your Works Cited and properly cite it in the text) Points to keep in mind while you are planning and writing this essay: • Audience : Your audience is fairly general and would include your friends, fellow students, family members, teachers, and o thers who are interested in the subject of the essay. Think of writing this as an editorial for a newspaper or magazine , or in respo nse to an application question, or as a submission for an essay -writing contest on the question. (And in fact, I will collect some of the best to use as samples for future classes.) • Purpose s: This essay has a somewhat complex set of overlapping purposes. The first is to demonstrate that you have thought through your personal values and priorities, an d can identify and describe what is truly important to you and why . Another is to make those values and priorities clear and under - stand able to others. You may want to try to persuade your a udience of the merits of your thinking by making a strong case for the importance of your ideals. And of course, you will gain a better understanding of your self and your own life through writing this essay. In that regard, the more you put in, the more you will get out. • Organization and Style : This is a thesis -driven essay in which you state your position in the introduction, and then develo p, explain, an d support your stated position with evidence consisting of examples and reasoning . Your essay should be written in a college -level academic style , with proper MLA format , including in -text citations and W orks Cited .