Second Essay

Guidelines and instructions

Basics

• Follow the topic instructions below.
• Essays should be wordprocessed or typed and double spaced with reasonably sized margins and fonts. Format the essay so that it is readable and don'’t forget to number your pages.
• There are no set page numbers, but assuming standard formatting, 3-5 pages seems like a reasonable guide.
• Be sure to clearly identify the source of quotes and specific pieces of information. When using course material, a brief citation, such as an author'’s name and a page number, will be fine. You are not expected to do outside reading for these assignments, but should you choose to use additional reading in your essay, you should provide a complete source citation. See the Guide to citing and documenting sources section of my Student Resources page for help.

Getting help

• Start with the note below on "Writing Academic Essays".
• You can visit the campus Writing Center for assistance.
• Online, check out the Kansas University Writing Guide for advice about academic essays.
• I will answer quick questions via e-mail or IM, but for more in-depth help, please come to office hours or make an appointment.

Topic

• Write an essay that discusses how your perspective on one or more of the course themes/keywords - place, landscape, mobility - has changed through the first five weeks of the term.
• Your essay should feature at least two direct quotes from each book read and discussed so far, which would be all of Oates and part of Solnit. You may reference Satrapi as well, but that is not required.
• The selected quotes should be relevant to showing how your perspective on your chosen theme or themes has changed.
• Your essay should also include at least one paragraph reflecting on how and when your thinking about place, landscape, and/or mobility began to change. Was it because of something said in class? Was it while you were reading? Was it while you were doing something unrelated to class? Was it a series of different moments that eventually 'clicked' together into a new thought? Think through how you've learned to think differently.
• Don't forget to take a moment to remind yourself of what place, landscape, and mobility mean in this class before beginning work on your paper.

Evaluation

These essays will be graded on how clearly you articulate how your thinking on place, landscape, and/or mobility has changed, and on how effectively you demonstrate what you've learned through your selected passages from each book. Your answer should show a clear understanding of not only the relevant readings, but also our discussions. Finally, I will be looking at formatting and writing quality as outlined above and in the note that follows. Scores will reflect an overall assessment of the quality of a paper.

This essay is worth twenty (20) points.

Writing academic essays

1. Writing an academic essay entails critical analysis and interpretation of thoughts, ideas, and information.
2. An academic essay is not:
   • A personal reflection on how you feel about something. You may write about your emotional reactions to class material, but you should relate those feelings to how you think about place, landscape, and/or mobility
   • A book review. Whether you think a book or the class is good, bad, fun, boring, fascinating, silly, etc. is something that you will need to set aside to write the paper. Find a way to engage with class content despite your opinions as to the quality of the texts or discussions.
3. The basic structure of an essay looks like this:
   • An introduction that establishes a thesis or central argument. In this case, you should have a simple statement of how your thinking about one or more of the class themes has changed.
   • A body that develops the reasoning behind the thesis. Here, your main task is to show how your thinking has changed. This means first showing what your thinking was before starting the course and then using class material to trace the development of your thinking since the beginning of the term. This is also where you should include your paragraph(s) reflecting on how and when your thinking began to change.
   • A conclusion that brings closure to the thesis. Think about the significance of your current thinking about place, landscape, and/or mobility. What difference does this make to how you see the world?
4. An academic essay should be coherent. This is particularly important if you choose to write about more than one keyword. If you choose do that, you will need to relate your selected themes to each other at some point in the paper.
5. Use of I is fine, but remember that these papers are not about you as a person; they are about your thoughts, ideas, and interpretations of class material.
6. Use precise language. For example, write "United States" instead of "we". Similarly, avoid overusing adverbs, like "really" or "very", and superlatives, like "excellent" or "great", for emphasis. In an academic context, such words can make your writing less persuasive as they can appear to be covering up a lack of substance.
7. Papers should always be carefully composed and edited for style and mechanics. Useful hint: never turn in a first draft (unless that is the assignment). Reading your own work is necessary not only for catching typos, etc., but also for refining your thesis and clarifying your thoughts.

Due date: You should contact me by W 10/28 to schedule a due date for your paper. You may schedule any date between 11/02 and 11/11. However, I will only schedule eight (8) papers for due dates that fall after 11/09.

You may receive an extension after setting a due date, but I may not accept a paper for full credit if you ask for the extension after the original due date has passed. No extensions will be granted for after 11/18 regardless of when you contact me to request additional time.