English 1302-Dr. Rowe
Formal Essay #1: Thoughtful Individual Response
1. Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love” (MLM 721-30) will be
the subject of this essay assignment. Thoughtfully and reflectively compare your own experience
and observations of others to this work in some focused way.
2. You could write about one of the four main characters who reminds you of someone you
know, or even of yourself. You could focus on the ironic, wherein one level of understanding
undercuts or opposes another level of understanding. You could put forward your own definition
of love and relate textual examples, and examples drawn from your own experience, to that
definition.
3. Your essay should contain and discuss specific references to the selected text in the form of
paraphrase, quotation, and (brief) summary. However, avoid long summaries, or worst of all,
only summarizing on this assignment.
4. While your discussion should make the context of your specific references clear, also make use
of parenthetical references to paragraph numbers. Include a Work Cited page at the end, even
though you may have only one entry in this case. Our reader is an anthology, of course. When
citing a work from an anthology, I would like you to insert the date the specific work was
originally published between the title of that specific work and the title of the anthology.
6. Length: 750-1250 words. I prefer 12.5 Times New Roman font.
7. Audience considerations: Think of your reader as a serious, reflective person, but who may not
necessarily have the same background or be of the same age as you. He or she has perhaps read
the text in question, but it’s been a while and his or her memory might be a little foggy. Include
your colleagues in the class, as well as your teacher, in your audience, but imagine the possibility
that the reader may not necessarily be a member of our class or know who you are.
8. Each body paragraph should focus on one specific main point and develop that point fully in a
detailed way.
9. Connections and transitions between paragraphs and between sentences should be smooth and
clear.
10. Your introductory paragraph should be focused and get the reader’s positive attention. Your
concluding paragraph should pull together the views that you have laid out and neither be abrupt
or wander onto a new subject.
Your title should not be simply a repetition of the title of the work you are discussing. Also, a
title usually is not a complete sentence.
Be consistent with tense. Mnemonic: for the past relative to the textual present, use past perfect:
Mel recounts how hard he had worked, “like fuck,” as he puts it, to save the lives of the older
couple whose relationship impresses him so much (par. 77).
See syllabus schedule for due dates.