Transcript The Personal Essay and Storyselling

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ENC 1101, Freshman
Composition I
Paper #1
The Personal Essay and Storyselling
Really? You want
me to write about
me ? ! ! ! Why
would I belong in
the essay?
Requirements for Paper #1
(Storyselling)
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Your first essay must use storyselling.
Storyselling (a marketing term) =
recounting a specific experience and
then explaining what you learned so
that your readers change their future
behavior.
You will do 100 points of prewriting
for the essay.
The final draft will be worth another
100 points.
The Course Description
on the Syllabus:
Our primary focus will be the
personal essay, the production of
which will allow each student to
develop an authentic and
interesting writing “voice.”
Why do I need an
“interesting” and
“authentic” writing
voice?
Academic writing
gets you to please
teachers.
Don’t you know
the difference
between their
and there yet?
Teachers, though, are
a really small percentage
of readers.
All Readers
Teachers
Other
readers
Your other readers will
finish your writing only if
you first get their
attention and then offer
them value, a reason to
continue reading.
So you must be
interesting and authentic
if you want people to
read until they reach the
end of whatever you have
written.
So what is a
personal essay,
and how do I
develop an
authentic voice?
Use first-person pronouns in
a personal essay.

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First person = I, me, my, mine, myself
(singular) or we, us, our, ours,
ourselves (plural).
Use personal experience to support
what you say. Write about people you
know, things you’ve experienced, places
you’ve been.
No one wants to hear about people or
things in general—really!
Personal essays are
shared, so keep in mind
that you are not the
audience for your work—
your readers are.
Yeah, but some
of my English
teachers said
never to write
about myself—
never ever to
use I in an
essay!
They were
wrong!!!
I’m an interesting
person, so writing
about me and my
experiences should
be fun!
Develop an authentic voice
when you write.

Many essay topics will be vague and
general. Your job is to transform those
topics so that you write an interesting
essay.
• Narrow the topic as much as possible.
• Cover one thing well instead of many
things superficially.
• Anticipate what your classmates will write
or what your readers expect, and then
choose a different approach.
Narrowing a Topic
Topic: A place that minors should avoid
unsupervised 12-year-olds
malls
My nephew Maurice
The Florida Mall
An Award-Winning Thesis
Statement
The Florida Mall is the
wrong place for my twelveyear-old nephew Maurice to
spend time because he
foolishly blows all of his
allowance, hangs out with
friends who shoplift, and
eats too much junk at the
food court.
Can you
show me
some
student
samples?
Topic: A time in history
that you would like to visit
A student writes: I would
love to return to November 1993
to stop the conception of my
younger sister Tonya.
Topic: A time in history
that you would like to visit
A student writes: People
should travel to the prehistoric
era so that they can see the
dinosaurs, learn to make fire,
and see an unpolluted
environment.
Topic: A time in history
that you would like to visit
A student writes: I would
love to visit ancient Greece to
meet Socrates, the 1770s to see
the American Revolution, and
the 1960s to hang with the
hippies.
Topic: A good place to
shop for bargains
A student writes: I have
found many free outfits in my
brother’s bedroom closet—I just
have to make sure that he’s left
for work before the “shopping”
begins!
Topic: A good place to
shop for bargains
A student writes: I save my
family money by shopping at the
Dollar Store, Kmart, and WalMart.
Topic: A good place to
shop for bargains
A student writes: The
restroom shelves at school are
the best place to “purchase”
textbooks. The selection is
limited, but the prices are a steal!
Topic: A reason to live or
not to live to 100 years old
A student writes: Old people
smell bad, look like shriveled
prunes, and hold up traffic by
driving too slowly. No one in their
right mind would want to live to
be 100.
Topic: A reason to live or
not to live to 100 years old
A student writes: Knowing
that my spoiled, ungrateful son
Kenny will have to change my
soiled, stinky diaper is the most
important reason I want to last
until I am 100 years old.
Topic: A reason to live or
not to live to 100 years old
A student writes: If I live past 90,
I worry about bad health. I don’t want
my bones to break like twigs, my
lungs to wheeze when I breathe, or
my friends to scream so that my bad
ears can hear what they are saying.
Your first essay must
tell a specific story
that sells (convinces)
your reader to think,
behave, try, or buy as
you recommend.
Topics for Paper #1
 Write a thesis statement (just one or
two sentences) for each topic below:
• A cleaning product that does or does not
perform as advertised
• The best restaurant to visit on a special
occasion
• A problem in my community that needs to
be fixed
• A college or high school class that taught
me more than I expected
Writing Advice
 Review Writing Tip 1 for advice on
writing a good thesis statement.
 See the syllabus for the format
guidelines!
So how should I
organize the
essay?
Know your organization options.
 To meet the 500-word minimum requirement,
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many students write a five-paragraph
essay.
The five-paragraph essays is a form, like a
sonnet or a haiku, like a Big Mac or an Oreo
cookie.
No professional writer uses the fiveparagraph format.
The format is, however, an appropriate
organization strategy for some college
papers, including essays in this class.
The Five-Paragraph Essay
Introduction
The most important sentence is the
thesis statement: Because of A,
B, and C, X is so.
Body
paragraphs,
one for each
restriction in
the thesis
statement
Conclusion
All about Point A from the thesis
statement
All about Point B from the thesis
statement
All about Point C from the thesis
statement
This paragraph must do more
than restate the thesis statement.
Whether you have five
paragraphs—or seven or
four —every essay has an
introduction, a body, and
a conclusion —or the
beginning, the middle,
and the end.
A good introduction does these
things:
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Contains at least 5 to 8 sentences.
Has a clear and correct thesis statement.
[Read Writing Tip 1.]
Uses an appropriate strategy to interest
the reader. [Read Writing Tip 2.]
Makes a good first impression. [Read
Writing Tip 5.]
Your homework includes
writing two different
introductions that lead up
to the same thesis
statement. Label which
strategies from Writing
Tip 2 you used, like this …
Good body paragraphs do
these things:
 Address the thesis statement. [Read
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Writing Tip 3.]
Contain specific detail and concrete
language. [Read Writing Tip 4.]
Interest the reader with information that is
fresh and unique.
Use personal experience rather than
vague, boring generalizations.
Follow this formula for a
foolproof conclusion:
 Write a sentence that briefly restates the
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main idea of your essay.
Write a sentence that summarizes the
first body paragraph.
Write a sentence that summarizes the
next body paragraph—and then the one
after it, etc.
Cleverly, humorously, or thoughtfully
conclude the essay.
So how
will you
grade my
essay?
Know the scoring method.
 Essays will receive an objective grade
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calculated with a score sheet.
Every student will be evaluated in the
same manner and in the same
areas.
For the maximum number of points,
always read the score sheet carefully and
know what you must do!
What do you want
to see in the
essay so that it
gets the highest
possible grade?
Know the four areas that
the score sheet will
evaluate.
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Organization
Coherence
Support
Sentence Correctness
To evaluate the
organization, ask yourself
these questions:
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Do I understand the topic?
Have I kept the topic singular?
Does my essay remain on topic?
To evaluate the coherence,
ask yourself these
questions:
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Have I used transitions between
paragraphs and between sentences
so that my ideas flow?
Have I used correct transitions?
Have I avoided using the same transition
over and over in an annoying and
repetitive manner?
Transitions are like road signs
that tell your reader where to
turn.
Ack!!! Where do I
turn? Where’s my
exit? Which way do I
go? Where the
bejeebus am I !?!
To evaluate the support, ask
yourself these questions:
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Is my support appropriate for a general
audience?
Have I used plenty of concrete language
that puts specific pictures into my grader’s
head?
Is my support personal? Have I avoided
writing about people and things in
general?
To evaluate the sentence
correctness, ask yourself
these questions:
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Are there any major errors making the
essay look bad?
•
•
•
•
Fragments
Comma splices or fused sentences
Subject-verb agreement problems
Verb tense errors
How many less serious errors are there?
So how
many
sentence
errors are
allowed?
Five?
Twentythree?
Fifty?
Having more than
ten sentence
errors in the first
two paragraphs
means the essay
starts at a low C!
Like
Olympic
judges,
the score
sheet
does not
count all
four areas
equally.
Organization and
coherence—easy
things to control—are
not as impressive as
good support and
correct sentences.
Let me make
sure that I
have heard all
of this
correctly!
Lecture 1 Review
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Essays in ENC 1101 must demonstrate your unique
writing voice.
Narrowing the topic effectively and using first
person are the most important steps to success.
Writing a five-paragraph essay will satisfy your
reader. More important than the number of paragraphs
is that the essay has a strong introduction, body,
and conclusion.
Your essay must sell the reader an idea, behavior,
product, service, action, etc.
Everyone’s essay will be evaluated with the same
score sheet.
These are the four areas of evaluation:
organization, coherence, support, and
sentence correctness.
I can do
this, and
I can
prove it!
Evaluation:
The Storyselling Essay
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Using what you have learned from the
handouts and lecture, write your
storyselling essay.
Your goal is to demonstrate an authentic
writing voice while you tell a story from
your life.
You must write a rough draft [in class]
and a final draft [out of class].
For the final draft, be sure to follow the
format guidelines on your syllabus!
The END.