Essay One – Personal Essay in Response to Reading s

Essay One– Personal Essay in Response to Readings

Assignment Guidelines

For this first essay assignment, you will be writing a personal essay. This essay will

further discuss and develop your personal responses to the Week One reading that you posted in the discussion forum.

Length:3-4 pages, in correct MLA format:

•

On first page only, flush left, single spaced:

oYour Name

oMy Name

oCourse

oEssay # Draft or Final

oDate of Submission

•Title, centered, 12 pt font, no bold, quotes, underline or italics

•Double-space the text of your paper, and use either Calibri or Times New Roman font

. The font size should be 12 pt.

•Leave only one space after periods or other punctuation marks (unless otherwise instructed by your instructor).

•Set the margins of your document to 1 inch on all sides.

•Indent the first line of paragraphs one half-inch from the left margin. MLA recommends that you use the Tab key as opposed to pushing the Space Bar five times.

•No extra spaces between paragraphs

•Create a header that numbers all pages consecutively in the upper right-

hand corner, one-half inch from the top and flush with the right margin. (Omit the number on your first page.)

Topic:

Before you can develop your topic, you need to examine other views on the subject

. Please read these articles, and include quotes from them, as well as “Aggression: the Impact of Media Violence” in your response

https://www.apa.org/about/policy/media.aspx

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/25/opinion/sunday/does-media-violence-lead-to-the-real-thing.html?_r=0

http://www.massgeneral.org/children/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=3929

When you quote the articles, you need only include attributions (Title, author, source) rather than formal citations since we are all using the same articles.

You do not need to include other sources! This isn’t a research paper –it is a personal response that you are supporting with evidence. Ultimately, you will choose what you want to write about. Look at your discussion responses, your notes and the additional notes you will take on the articles listed in this assignment. Then start planning:

I. Introduction

Avoid starting the essay by writing, “when I read the article, I felt...” You will need to be more specific. So your introduction should begin with a brief summary of the “Aggression...” article. Always assume your reader hasn't read what you have. Then you need to transition from the summary to your thesis. Do this by focusing the reader on the aspect of

the article you wish to discuss. Make a strong statement about the topic. DO NOT write anything remotely close to, “In this essay/paper I will...” or “This essay/paper will...” It takes the focus off the topic when you tell the reader what you are going to do in the essay. It also clues me in that you may not know exactly what you want to say about the topic.

II. Body

Plan your paragraphs carefully. Write topic sentences that express the topic of the paragraph and the point you will make.

III. Conclusion

End the essay in a meaningful way. Circle back to your introduction and develop what you started there. Or offer solutions, a call to action, or a thoughtful statement. This website offers an exceptional guide to writing response essays:

http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/reaction.html