ENG 101
Gordon
“This I Believe” Project 2014
Reading and dialoguing about belief
Please read the following short essays linked here. Choose one that resonates—and if none of these do
it for you, feel free to browse the site until you come up with an essay that does. Print that essay out
and respond to the following:
1. Summarize the essay’s main point of belief in one sentence.
2. Discuss how the essay creates an authentic voice—and how, based on that authentic voice, you
understand the intended audience of the essay.
3. What type of description—objective or subjective—do you feel is most dominant in this piece?
Provide examples. How does the description help support the author’s main point?
4. Finally, what is the communal relevance of the essay?
The seven I’ve bookmarked are linked below.
“The Imperfect Traces Left By Human Hands”
“The Myth of Manhood”
“Teacher”
“Discomfort”
“Bus Chick’s Manifesto”
“Be Cool to the Pizza Dude”
“Saying Thanks to My Ghosts”
Wait a sec . . . is this the part where you tell me I’m going to
have to write an essay? *headdesk*
Seven short essays—seven very different perspectives on life. These seven essays represent the gamut
of personal philosophies illustrated by NPR’s “This I Believe,” a program which styles itself as “a public
dialogue about belief—one essay at a time.” It’s a dialogue you’re going to be part of over the next few
weeks as you write your own short essay about belief.
You’ll be taking this essay through several steps in an effort to illustrate the entirety of the writing
process. Please note that, with the exception of invention/prewriting, all of these steps will be
completed electronically through Turnitin.com.
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Invention/prewriting: notecard
Drafting: submit electronically to "This I Believe" paper Revision 1 by September 3rd at midnight
Revision: via PeerMark on September 4th
Final draft: submit electronically to "This I Believe" paper by September 8th at 7:40 A.M.
Submission to NPR’s “This I Believe” by September 30th (automatic 100% for anyone whose
essay gets picked up by NPR for its on-air feature!)
THIS IS A LONG-TERM ASSIGNMENT!
Essentially, you’re going to take this puppy from your first jumbled LOL-speak rough draft to a nuanced,
insightful statement of belief that can hold its own on an international stage, culminating with its
publication on the NPR “This I Believe” website.
And, if it helps, I wrote one too—exactly what you’ll be doing, not just so I’d have some “street cred”
with you as a writing teacher, but because I believe in the importance of the project. Here’s mine.
The bit with the writing
To begin with, here’s your assignment for invention & prewriting:
PART 1: Recall your prewriting and idea generating ideas we went through in class (journaling,
matrixing, etc.)
PART 2: Think back to the in-class notecard exercise we did that completed the phrase “I believe.”
Using either this belief or another one you hold, choose one of these strategies and prewrite for the
“This I Believe” prompt. Bring your prewriting in to class on Thursday, along with the essay you chose to
read and annotate.
PART 3: Write a rough draft of your essay using the material generated by your prewriting. You’ll
submit this to the This I Believe Paper REVISION folder on or before September 3rd. You should follow
the guidelines on the “This I Believe” website in terms of word count and voice, but remember also that
you’ll need 5 of the following elements underlined, highlighted and labeled in your final uploaded draft:
assonance, metaphor, simile, personification, synesthesia, pataphor, synecdoche, oxymoron,
alliteration, loose sentence, periodic sentence, appositive, imagery. Please note that you will turn in a
clean copy AFTER your essay is scored to NPR’s “This I Believe”—no underlining, highlighting, etc.
And hey, enjoy yourselves. How often do you get the chance to write a nonstandard essay on
something that actually matters for once?