Personal Essay Assignment

This essay of six-typed pages will examine some aspect of your experience and reflect upon its meaning. This is an open-ended assignment, meaning that, if you so choose, you may pursue the direction your heart and intellect propose -- though I would like you to consult with me about your choices before you are well launched.

Or, if you work better with structure, use this as a starting point: Your essay will include the following:

* a recollection or memory recounted in detail;

* a profile/description of some person important to you (or you could write about a category of people you regularly see -- shopkeepers in your neighborhood, members of a group you're part of, shoppers at the mall);

* an image that has stuck with you over the years; some moment that has a strange or mysterious power.

Naturally, you are not limited to these three topics. You may recount more than one memory, or image. Or you may recount other aspects of your life that don't fit under these categories.

Your essay must then reflect on what these observations reveal about your life, its themes and meanings. What do you learn about yourself and your world through your observations. But this is only to go part of the way: what do you know about life itself, not only your own but the life that we all lead, as a result of your investigations?  To pretend that you learn nothing, to refuse the challenge, that is, is not an option.


Technical Details:
Due date: Monday, March 18
Specifications: the usual (12 point type, Times New Roman, 1-inch margins)