Please put your essay & syllabus form in the basket. When the bell rings, start a new page headed with today’s date. Answer this question: What skills, knowledge, abilities, etc. do you have that will help you and your classmates succeed in this class?

Your Critical Friend

Today’s Menu Introduction Essay due Expectations and Goals Housekeeping: Late policy, notecards, etc. What is an essay? Types of essays How do we persuade? “Two ways of Seeing a River” Homework: read chpt. 1 of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Topic Preview Narration Description Process Definition Division/Classification Compare/Contrast Cause and Effect

Some Essay Topics Narration Ex: "My uncle was a Vietnam War veteran who died in the war; I would like to see the Memorial." Description Ex: "I would visit the FDR Memorial to see the cascading waterfalls, the bold engravings, and the amazing sculptures." Process Ex: "To decide on what to visit, I would first buy a guide to the Washington D.C. area; I would mark the pages for the places I would like to visit. Next, I would research them further on the Internet before making my final decisions." http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=598

Some More Essay Topics Definition Ex: "The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is less museum and more memorial, as evidenced by its dedication to the memory of all the innocents who were killed in Nazi Germany's attempt to create a "pure" race." Division / Classification (as explained in Silva Rhetoricae) This "topic is very closely related to the topic of Definition, but differs in that it is not attempting to classify something by placing it as a species within a genus." This topic focuses on "describing a whole and its constituent parts, or the parts that make up a whole." Ex: "The Museum of Natural History is the best museum to visit because it has sections dedicated to Dinosaurs, a whole new area for Mammals with lots of stuffed examples, and has the best cafeteria in the entire Smithsonian system." http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=598

Even More Essay Topics Compare / Contrast Ex: "The Lincoln Memorial's Greek style is less appealing to me than the garden feeling inspired by the FDR Memorial, with its open style and rushing water." Cause and Effect Ex: "I want to visit the Vietnam War Memorial because it was built as both a monument to the soldiers' sacrifice as well as a testament to the severe cost of the war, reflecting without bias the tensions surrounding the conflict in an effort to bring reconciliation and healing." http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=598