***PLEASE READ ALL OF THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY*****
we have focused on arguments and evidence. As a result, logic has been at the center of our studies, and we have practiced being skeptical, in the best sense of the word. We have studied induction and deduction, fallacies and rhetorical strategies, and the three kinds of appealsrational, ethical, and emotional. We have analyzed both form and content of essays, and looked at how different writers have approached the same subjects.
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Now you will be encouraged to use these same techniques in a less argumentative way to write an essay on a topic of your choice.
Title your essay with some variation of On [Something] or Of [Something], as many good essayists have done (for example, On Going Home, On Boxing, About Symbol, On Keeping a Notebook, Of Revenge, just to name a few). The selected readings from the Reader section of the textbook are also good examples of this kind of writing.
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This essay is not meant to demonstrate your understanding of others ideas, although you are free to show such understanding, to reference other writing if it helps to elucidate yours. Rather, it is to discuss, to theorize, to opine. Think of it as a chance to tell the world what you thinkabout anything.
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Choose something you have a genuine interest in, something fun or funky or weird if you like. Use your own voice: it can be academic, satirical, irreverent, spiritual, socially conscious, goofy, or angry.
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As A Brief History notes, often essays represent thinking more than thought, so it is all right to be somewhat tentative in your assertions and development. However, you do need to have a thesis statement, encapsulating your central idea, and there does need to be some sense of organization and rhetorical strategy. Above all, however, try to write with some measure of enthusiasm for your subject, and joy in the language if possible. Try to write something you would enjoy reading.
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Possible topics (just to get you started thinking; there is no restriction on what you may choose): Ants, books, cheating (at cards, relationships, diets?), dogs, eggs, failure, ghosts, heroism, illness, jury duty, King Kong, lollipops, motorcycles, nepotism, overheard remarks, pastries . . .
Brainstorm some ideas of your own.
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