Essay 2 Requirements
 

1.    Explores how being a member in a particular group (e.g., gender, race, class, sexual orientation) may affect one's attitude toward the American Dream and/or one's ability to achieve it.  Part of this exploration will include reading and thinking about two pieces on the subject, one from Speculations and one discovered on your own.

2.    Has an idea that is complex and intriguing in some way. 

3.    Has an introduction that pulls readers into your question/issue and gives them a general but clear sense of what will follow.

4.    Has stories and observations that help explain this idea, combined with sections in which you reveal your thinking about the idea. 

5.    Leads the reader through the parts of the essay in a way that the reader sees where you're headed and gives the reader a sense of having arrived somewhere by the conclusion.

6.    Conveys a sense of your writer's voice--without being too informal and "talky."  That is, the style of the essay has a certain enlivening energy to it.

7.    Follows MLA format, 3-4 pages long, with metatext, submitted to Learning Space and submitted as a printed copy.

Although there are several requirements for this essay, there is really just one that is fundamental:  You need to figure out, with your classmates' and my assistance, how to write about the American Dream and gender/race/class/etc. in a way that gets both you and the reader engaged in an idea and that pulls the reader into a journey of your thinking.