Dr. Sigler

Essay Topic:

Write a 4- to 5-page typed, double-spaced essay on one of the following topics. Organize your thoughts around a central theme, and maintain that focus throughout the essay. Make sure you support and develop your ideas thoroughly with appropriate evidence from the literature/film. Don't leave the evidence to speak for itself; you must explain and show how the evidence supports your own assertions. Make sure you properly document your sources using MLA format. Try to develop a sense of originality in your voice and style, which will provide momentum for your essay.

Many of the readings on our syllabus, up to and including Smoke Signals, reveal the important role of an older relative (parent, grandparent, aunt) in a person's life. The speakers/characters often attempt to come to terms with this relative to (re)gain a sense of their own heritage. Think about what specifically "heritage" means and what aspect of heritage is being sought by the speaker/character through this process. Some of the pieces also lament one's heritage­either because a speaker/character has been cut off from his or her heritage or because it is somehow a painful heritage. Think about what EXACTLY is being lamented by the speaker/character.

• Write an essay that discusses one writer who connects with or embraces his or her heritage and one writer who has difficulty with this connection. Be specific about what "heritage" means to each writer and what causes the imperfect connection. Finally, consider what effect that imperfect connection has on the latter writer.

• Write an essay about two writers who explore the experience of belonging (or trying to belong) to a family culture and another culture outside the family. For example, even if a family culture is the product of three or more generations, it still may contain values that were different from those of school or work (e.g. conflict over what is good taste, whom to date or socialize with, how to dress/eat/walk/talk). What are the relationships between the family and the non-family cultures to which the characters belong? How do these cultures work together, test one another, and/or come into conflict?

• This essay requires that you use relevant quotes from two sources to support your argument. Both sources must be selected from among the stories, poems, essays or film that we have read and discussed.

• An introduction with thesis will be due 10/12. A complete, word-processed rough draft of this essay will be due at the beginning of class on 10/17 for an editing workshop. This draft, along with the editing sheet you get back from your reader and the other Prewriting for this assignment, will be due with the final version of the essay on Tuesday 10/19. (No late drafts or prewriting can be accepted.) The final version of your essay must be word-processed, double-spaced, and printed in "best" quality using a standard 12-point font and 1-inch margins. Please underline your thesis statement. (See 1B policy sheet for further information about assignments.)