Essay I

Essay I: The Exploratory Essay
Education: What's Worth Knowing?

Date	Homework Due	In-Class Work
Day 2 9/8	Read pp. 43-45 in The Presence of Others. Then write a story, capturing an experience of yours, in which you discover something about what education is for or perhaps what it should be for. Include detail to make the story dramatize/show, not just tell, what you want the reader to understand (about 2 pages, typed). ### E-ail me your story. Read through syllabus on line. Be prepared for quiz on it.	How do you recognize where readers need detail to experience what you want them to? How can you read your stories for themes, the wellspring for ideas in Essay I? Read one or two of your classmates' stories for the themes around what education is for. What does it mean to expand upon a theme? Do in-class focused freewriting to expand upon your theme and how others' themes or stories relate to it.
Day 3 9/12	First, read Chapter 1 in A Reader's Guide. In the margins of the Guide or in a Word document, identify the reading techniques that you already use, that you've tried but discarded, and that look useful and would like to try. Read Hart's "How to Get a College Education" (126 in Presence). Write a 1-2 page response to whatever you have a strong reaction to in Hart's essay; then e-mail it to me with a subject heading ("Hart response").	Review diagnostic essay and reading test. Begin Writing Log. How do we read? Write reflection on what you did when you read the Hart essay. Review placement-test essay (Schlesinger). Discuss Hart's ideas. How do you make entries in a double-entry journal? Entering homework in Learning Space.
Day 4 9/14	Read Chapter 4 in the Guide. You don't have to read it word for word, but you should underline key concepts and be prepared to apply them to the Rose essay. Read Rose's essay (Presence 105). First, using 2-3 sentences, summarize what you see as the main idea in Learning Space. Then, put a double-entry journal response into LearningSpace if you can; otherwise, e-mail it to me. Underline phrases that you like. Notice where you have questions or identify an issue.	Discuss Rose. How can you articulate the main idea? How do you find a real issue/question, one that you want to write your essay about, by examining your story and/or your double-entry journal? How do you do a part-whole analysis?
Day 5 9/15	Finish main idea for Rose started in class and e-mail me. Read Steele's essay (72). Summarize it in a few sentences and then put a double-entry journal response into LearningSpace. Underline phrases that you like. Notice where you have questions or identify an issue.	What evidence could you look at that could help you explore your issue/question? How can you read published essays to explore your issue? How do you "meditate" in writing? Start discussing Steele, if time.
Day 6 9/19	Read Spayde and enter double-entry journal into Learning Space. Underline phrases that you like. Notice where you have questions or identify an issue (optional). Read Chapter 12d and do part-whole analysis of Spayde essay. Write up one story or observation that connects to your issue/question (see "Know/Don't Know" chart) and write a meditation on its significance for your question.	Continue discussion of Steele. Tell your story of reading Spayde. Share story/meditations and work on doing more meditating, more close reading. What is a good thesis (main idea)? What do all the pieces you've written add up to? What does an introduction do?
Day 7 9/21	1. Send me your revised summary of the Spayde essay by e-mail. 2. Write up another story or observation that connects to your issue/question (see "Know/Don't Know" chart) and write a meditation on its significance for your question. 3. From one of the essays we've read so far (or from any essay you're familiar with), pick an introduction that you particularly like and explain why you like it. 4. Plan your first draft of Essay I. Enter #2 and #4 into Learning Space.	Share story/meditations and work on doing more meditating, more close reading. How can you tell the story of your essay (identifying and connecting the parts)? What is a metatext? Revise plans in class and begin first draft.
Day 8 9/22	First draft of Essay I, with metatext. Submit in LearningSpace. Follow MLA format (pp. 120-121 in Bedford Handbook). Set up an appointment with me sometime before the final draft is due 9/28.	How can you be an effective peer reviewer? How can revising lead to a deeper, more engaging idea? How can you reorganize based on a new idea?
Day 9 9/26	Second draft of Essay I, with new metatext. Submit in Learning Space. See The Bedford Handbook's useful section on global revision (pp. 42-45, 48-53; also, compare rough draft on pp.67-70 with the global revisions on pp. 71-72).	How can you revise for the reader? As needed, enrich detail where needed and add language to guide the reader from part to part. (See The Bedford Handbook's "Paragraph-Level Transitions" on pp. 105-106.) Do some editorial work based on Writing Logs, your own sentences, and your underlined phrases from the essays in The Presence of Others.
Day 10 9/28	Final draft of Essay I, with new metatext. Submit in Learning Space, plus printout. Bring Bedford Handbook. Get a head start on reading the Brandt and Didion essays in The Presence of Others.