TJ Puckett, Fall 2012, English 101A – Essay #1
Length:
750-850 words
Format:
Put your name, my name, the course number, and the due date in the upper
left corner of the first page of the essay. All essays should be typed,
double-spaced, and should have one-inch margins.
Summary Homework (on Blackboard): 9/14 (note: this is a Friday; due by noon)
Rough Draft of Summary Due (2 copies): 9/18 at the start of class
Prewriting (homework on Blackboard): 9/18
Rough Draft Due (3 copies): 9/20 at the start of class
Final Draft Due: 9/25 at the start of class
Your first essay will focus on Chapter 2 of The Geography of Bliss. You will be writing one
paper with two parts: (1) a summary and (2) a response.
Summary: The first part of your paper is a summary of Chapter 2 of The Geography of Bliss. A
summary uses your own words to give a brief, neutral overview of the main points of another
piece of writing. Your summary gives your reader an overall understanding of the text. When
summarizing Chapter 2, make sure you are writing for an audience that has not read the book.
Before you focus on the chapter, you will first need to introduce the book to your readers and
give them an idea of what the book is about. Then introduce and explain Chapter 2. Chapter 2
does contain some of Weiner’s own experience, so you will need to give a brief explanation of
what events take place in the chapter. But you’ll also need to make sure you explain some of the
most-important ideas that the chapter raises about happiness. Your summary should be at least
250 words but no more than 300 words. (Don’t go into too much detail. You want to focus on
main ideas, not specific examples.)
Response: After you have summarized Chapter 2, write a response (500-550 words) to the
chapter by focusing on the following topic:
In Chapter 2 of The Geography of Bliss, Weiner describes going to a beautiful hilltop in Zurich
to take in the view. He enjoys the view but finds that he is impatient to move on, even though he
has nowhere else to be. So he forces himself to sit on the hilltop for twenty minutes. “I fidget the
entire time,” he says. “It practically kills me.” Go alone to a public park or some place where
you might encounter beautiful views/scenery and try to replicate Weiner’s experiment. Sit there
for twenty minutes – without a book or a magazine or a cell phone or an iPod (or any other
electronic device). Just sit and see what happens.
You will then write your response, using both the book and your experience to develop your
ideas. In your response, compare your experience to Weiner’s, and relate your experience to
what Weiner says about impatience and boredom. You can think about the following questions
to get you started: How was your experience similar to/different than Weiner’s? According to
Weiner, “Boredom, a certain kind of boredom, is really impatience.” He quotes the British
philosopher Bertrand Russell, who said, “A certain amount of boredom is . . . essential to a
happy life.” How does this quotation (or any other ideas from the book) help you understand
your experience? Was impatience a part of your experience? Do you think that, in general,
Americans (unlike the Swiss) are impatient with boredom? In what ways might this explain the
fact that, according to studies, Americans are less happy than the Swiss? What do you think
about the idea that boredom may be necessary for a happy life?
Note: These questions are meant to get you thinking about the book and the topic. You will not
necessarily answer all of these questions in your response. I don’t want your response to be a
string of answers to questions; you should have a focused, thoughtful, developed response.
Evaluation of your essay: The total length of your paper should be 750-850 words. I will
evaluate your essay based primarily on these four things:
(1) Your summary should reflect not only your understanding of the chapter but also
your understanding of the concept of summary. Your summary should give your
reader a clear, general understanding of the chapter. It should be in your own words.
Follow the basic C.A.B.I.N. “rules” we discussed in class.
(2) Your response should reflect that you’ve thought about what you read. While we
won’t discuss thesis statements for this essay, it is important that your response stays
focused on the assigned topic. You aren’t responding to the entire chapter but instead
to the topic of the relationship between patience and boredom that Weiner raises in
the chapter. Remember that I am looking for essays that are thought provoking,
interesting, specific, and unique. Tell me something new about the book that I
haven’t already thought of and that we haven’t talked about in class. If you do this, I
will view your essay more favorably than “boring” writing that falls neatly into a
formula.
(3) Your use of quotations to support your ideas! In your response, you need to make
sure you use at least 3-4 quotations from the text to help develop, support, and
illustrate your ideas. You are not writing a personal narrative of your experience.
Instead, you are comparing your experience with the book and trying to use your
experience to think more in depth about the ideas Weiner raises in this chapter.
Therefore, your ideas should be grounded both in the text and in your experience.
However, at the same time you want to make sure that your own ideas dominate your
response.
(4) The overall writing quality (this includes the clarity of your writing, proofreading,
formatting, etc). I am not looking for perfection, but sloppy, confusing, or carelessseeming writing is problematic.