Essay #2 Assignment
October 3, 2006
Paper #2: Portrait of a person: Writing about “someone else”
3-5 pp.
(Examples: Brothers and Keepers, A Place to Stand (by Julie Lindquist), Nickel and Dimed)
Various approaches include: a profile, an interview, a story of your interactions/relationship, or a retelling of the other person’s experience(s) through your words (and, potentially, her/his own).
Keep in mind the difficulty involved in maintaining accuracy in your depictions of others. These are your fallible human perceptions of another human being. Try to recapture the power of lived experience and/or the power of the human spirit/personality through the language that you choose to use. For many writers this means slowing down the narration of the piece so that the reader can vicariously experience this person s/he doesn’t know. Remember the subject at hand should be meaningful, prompting you to think about yourself, the person you are writing about, and the place you each hold in the world. How have the experiences and contexts of this person’s life affected who s/he is? The essay should explore, in a sustained way, the culture, influences, values, experiences, etc. that make this person who s/he is. This piece might also capture the influence this person has had upon you, but that should not be the center of the piece (refer to the texts we’ve read in class for an illustration of this).
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October 3, 2006 at 7:26 pm
I just realized that my first essay fits this one perfectly and after seeing what other people wrote in class, doesn’t fit the first one at all. I guess I’ll write the first one again, on a new topic.
October 4, 2006 at 7:37 am
That works for me.
October 9, 2006 at 2:32 pm
I don’t understand what we are supposed to do! When is this due?
October 9, 2006 at 7:10 pm
Its due thursday…right? Thats what the Syllabus says anyway.
October 9, 2006 at 9:30 pm
Yes, you’re right. All due dates are on the syllabus and/or google calendar.