Teacher: Mr. Reddish
Classes: 8th Grade Language Arts (Academic & Honors)
Date Assigned: Tuesday, September 9, 2014
**Note: Honors will differentiate in academic expectations and advanced grading.
UNIT #1 ESSAY ASSIGNMENT
Assignment Prompt / Directions:
The Merriam-Webster dictionary (2014) defines personality as the complex of characteristics
that distinguishes an individual and the totality of an individual’s behavioral / emotional
characteristics. You have read excerpts from two memoirs focused on setting / environmental
changes that affected a person’s personality.
These excerpts are from:
*The Latehomecomer by Kao Kalia Yang (pgs. 53-66 of class textbook)
*Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Frederick Douglass
(Chapters 1-10 / pgs. 1-125 of class novel)
Consider how the writer in each excerpt reacts to the incidences / experiences that occur, and
write an essay in which you analyze how each writer’s thoughts and actions reveal aspects of his
or her personality. Both writers come to major realizations at the end of the excerpts. Within
your essay writing, be sure to effectively identify and analyze these realizations in collaboration
with the rest of your formal analysis.
You do not need to compare and contrast the writers from the texts. You may consider each one
separately. Be sure to include evidence from each excerpt to support your analysis and
understanding.
Standards Assessed:
*RL1 / RI1: Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text
says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
*RL2 / RI2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the
course of the text (characters, setting, plot, objective summary, etc.).
*W1: Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
Essay Specifics / Requirements (“The Big 10”):
1. Your essay must be typed using 12 pt. font Times New Roman and properly double-spaced
(2.0). You should have 1 inch margins all around.
2. The essay must be the student’s own / original work. Academic honesty is expected and
plagiarism will receive the appropriate consequences.
3. You should have a minimum of 2 pages with a maximum of 4 pages (not including the Works
Cited page). Your well-developed essay should exhibit a clear introduction, sufficient body, and
clear conclusion. The title of the essay should be included and of your own original creation.
4. MLA formatting must be followed (internal citations, headers, etc.) as instructed in class. You
must have headers, right-aligned, with your last name and page number (ex: Smith 1).
5. The first line of each paragraph must be indented (press TAB button once only).
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6. You must have a separate last page which will be your Works Cited page, formatted correctly
(appropriately numbered header, title of Works Cited, alphabetical order, and hanging
indention).
7. You may not have more than 2 direct quotes and quotes must be placed in quotation marks.
Textual evidence should be properly included as a paraphrase with correct MLA internal
citations. No “naked quotes / paraphrases”! All evidence should be effectively analyzed.
8. Your essay should not contain any first or second person language (I, me, us, you, your, etc.).
9. Your essay should be well-organized and be free of plagiarism.
10. Your essay should be virtually error free of all grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors.
It should be very clear that your essay was efficiently edited and revised before final submission
to your teacher.
Grading:
This essay will count 3x in PowerSchool. As this assignment holds significant weight, be sure to
give your absolute best effort.
Important Dates:
Original Draft:
-A completed original essay draft is due with you to class on Wednesday,
September 17, 2014. This can be neatly hand-written, but it is suggested
that your draft be typed. We will use this draft for peer-editing and conferencing.
Essay Peer-Editing and Student-Teacher Editing / Q&A Conferences:
-Students will peer edit each other’s essays on both Wednesday, September 17
and Thursday, September 18, 2014. You will need a copy of your essay on both
days. Each student will receive a 2 ½ minute conference with the teacher on one
of these days. You should be prepared to present any issues or questions that you
have in writing the essay during this allotted time with the teacher. You are also
encouraged to speak with the teacher during other available times before the essay
is due if you have additional questions, comments, and / or concerns.
Final Essay Due Thursday, September 25, 2014:
-You must submit your final, typed essay online via your my.hrw.com account,
unless otherwise instructed by the teacher. The window for submitting
finalized essays will open on Tuesday, September 23, 2014 at 7:00 A.M. and
close on Wednesday, October 1, 2014 at 11:00 P.M. In order for your essay to be
considered on-time, it must be submitted by 11:00 P.M. on Thursday, September
25, 2014. Submission after this date and time will result in a 10% grade reduction
for each day it is late.
Example of Direct Quote:
“He firmly stood waiting for an answer that would never come” (Douglass 54).
Example of Paraphrase:
His family dreamed of the time when they could stop living with silver spoons in their mouths and
become an adequate part of the society that longed for their expertise (Yang 57).
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Example of First Page:
Smith 1
Susanna Smith
Mr. Reddish
2nd Period
Eighth Grade Language Arts
25 September 2014
A Battle of the Soul: Changes with Kao and Frederick
The essay begins here…
Example of Last Page:
Smith 4
Works Cited
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. Austin, TX: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston. 1997. Print.
Yang, Kao K. from The Latehomecomer. Georgia Collections. Grade 8 ed. Orlando: Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt. 2015. 53-66. Print.
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