I
After reading and discussing Frederick Douglass’s “Learning to Read,” develop a 500 word narrative essay (introduction paragraph building up to a clearly stated thesis, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion paragraph) addressing one of the following general topics. You will need to narrow the topic and make it your own—include concrete examples and details.
You are relating your own experience(s). This assignment is a narrative and is not meant as a general discussion of reading, education, or Douglass. You do not need to mention him in your essay. I expect you to use first person pronouns (but NOT second).
Discuss the importance of reading and how it has affected your own education and life – recall an incident (or incidents) from your childhood that affected you, either positively or negatively, related to reading. You might think of who taught you to read, of sitting on your grandparent’s lap listening to Are You My Mother? for the fifth time in an hour while you tried to read along, or of the struggle you encountered with dyslexia before it was diagnosed.
Discuss the importance of education to you and how it has affected your life, focusing on a specific thing you learned or why you chose your major–recall the time something “clicked” for you in school or the time a particular instructor made an assignment clear and learning became easier. You might reflect on events that led you to choose your major.
Your introduction paragraph will start with an attention-getter, a “hook” to grab your audience’s attention. Follow that with at least three sentences of background which build up to the thesis statement. The thesis statement has to identify your main point and include references to your three supporting ideas, in the order you discuss them in your essay.
The second paragraph will be the first body paragraph. It will start with a topic sentence that covers the main focus of that item of development, followed by at least three sentences that provide concrete examples and develop the idea. That paragraph will end with a conclusion sentence that wraps up that idea and leads to the next body paragraph.
The third paragraph will be the second body paragraph. It will start with a topic sentence that covers the main focus of that item of development, followed by at least three sentences that provide concrete examples and develop the idea. That paragraph will end with a conclusion sentence that wraps up that idea and leads to the next body paragraph.
The fourth paragraph will be the third body paragraph. It will start with a topic sentence that covers the main focus of that item of development, followed by at least three sentences that provide concrete examples and develop the idea. That paragraph will end with a conclusion sentence that wraps up that idea.
The fifth paragraph will be the conclusion which summarizes the whole essay, briefly recapping the ideas developed, focusing on the most important aspect of each supporting idea developed. Do NOT start with the phrase “In conclusion” (it’s boring and overly predicatable). Your opening sentence should provide a general summary (do NOT re-use your thesis) of the material presented. The next three sentences should sum up each of the three ideas covered in the body paragraphs. The final sentence should provide the audience something to consider, perhaps making them think about future applications.
