Definition through comparison
Assignment: write an essay defining who you are finding your edges.
Wait a minute. Don’t rush off and blather generalities.
Try this: you are what you do. That’s right. You are what you do. Look at your actions, the moves people see you doing and the acts you perform, however common. Don’t hyper-conceptualize where the kind of person you are fits. Look at specifics.
When we do things, we make ourselves into somebody. We make ourselves. Look at that. And you- we all ? do things privately because we don?t want others to look. What are you proud to show? What are you still working on? What do you know you?ll never do?
Who we are is always in relation to who other people are. This essay expects you to look at how others want to be seen, how they think they?re seen. Do they gauge their image correctly, or do you have a better sense of who they are because they?re so wrong about themselves? Among those others are three authors in our Rinehart book this quarter- Annie Dillard, Maxine Hong- Kingston, and tony Morrison- who, what, do they come across as?
Your essay is to tell a reader about those elements shaping who you are, holding the ?edges? of you in place, forming the ?key features? of you. Find that sense of yourself in your world. They?ve reached beyond ?themselves? to explain themselves to us you d the same
Details:
a) Five pages/5, 12-17 paragraphs worked ?through in edited, revised stages evidenced along with final draft
b) Start this with ?subjective? description. The ?intro? should be about one paragraph long and end with statement of value?- a thesis ? which provides a reason for the essay to continue its development of ideas, for the essay to hold itself in focus.
c) As a first step toward?citation? awareness, place in ? text citations [ = (name, page/paragraph)] beside quotations or paraphrases you use from the book authors. Refer to at least two of the authors, at least twice each.