Regarding your first paper, here's a list of goals:
1. Decide which kind of paper you wish to write:
a. A descriptive essay, describing a person, place, house, garden, or other scenic location. This should be organized mainly by space: far to near, up to down, from one room to another, in an orderly climax of importance:
"It seemed to me as a child that Father was born with a scowl on his face. No matter how cheerful the occasion, he never managed a smile on his face . . . As he turned out the lights he kissed me tenderly on the forehead and whispered, 'Goodnight, Princess.'"
Here the description is of a person's father; the orderly arrangement is from a focus on the father's rough personality to the sweetness within him (following the ellipsis: . . . , which here represents the missing part of the essay).
b. Narration. This is organized by time: early to late; past to future; present-past (as with movie flashbacks). This essay narrates a period of time: early spring; early morning; late evening; a lonely or spooky midnight; childhood; a painful moment; a happy moment; a holiday; a decade (the '90s). This too should be organized logically; the logic is always YOURS (the writer's), but there must be logic, with some kind of climax (from lesser to greater importance): obviously a narration of a birth climaxes with the birth of a baby (more important than the would-be father chain smoking in the hospital waiting room, or the married couple racing to the hospital, etc.); the narration of a marriage proposal climaxes with the lover asking his beloved to marry him, after a long meal at a romantic restaurant, etc.
c. An expository essay can focus on an action: fishing for salmon; moving into a new house; a walk in the countryside; a meal at a restaurant.
d. An argument may focus for or against capital punishment or higher tuition with supporting reasons. Again, organization is important: from less important to more important, from first to last, from past to present ("In the past we burned witches at the stake; later the guillotine was considered less painful, followed by the electric chair. But does that mean we have advanced in our humanity?")
e. A review discusses, analyzes and evaluates a work of art (movie, poem, CD, etc.). Again: find an orderly arrangement.
f. Confessional essay: confessing a strength or weakness one has or any peculiarity of character: "Curse me. Insult me. Make me an outcast of humanity. Tell me I am mad. But I cannot stand the sight of babies. Nor do I have the slightest wish to kiss them or hold them." And so on.
In any essay, brainstorming for details is important, as we learned in the first semester. Ideas have to be discovered.
Finally, you should seek out a model, either on the internet or on the library shelves. This is easy to do. If you think you want to write on cooking (an action), then of course search out cooking sites; with a little effort, soon you'll find an adequate essay on preparing a meal.
In all cases, remember never to lift even a single phrase from your source. To be safe, always staple your source to your original. There's nothing wrong however with directly copying your source, but only as an exercise, identified as such.
For next week, bring your chosen model to class as well as your chosen subject for your future essay and explain how you plan to model your own essay on your source text, or what you learned from it.
Don't neglect vocabulary. Every essay you write needs an adequate vocabulary. For example, if you plan to write on cooking your favorite fish, you need to know the words for pots, special knives, cooking utensils, etc.
Any questions, feel free to contact me.
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