English 101 Respond to the prompt, or address another specific topic from the same reading

English 101  Respond to the prompt, or address another specific topic from the same reading



Respond to the prompt, or address another specific topic from the same reading. As a guideline, you should make a total of two posts, around 100 words each (a medium-sized paragraph). Any posts in addition to these can be as long or short as you like. Please make an effort to respond to your classmates when you can.

Prompt: Likely, a few of you have read Swift’s Modest Proposal before.  For those of you who have not, you may wait to post until you have read the ideas of a few of your fellow students.

Swift wrote in the eighteenth century, and he is a brilliant satirist. For this post, first consider what he is actually proposing – what is the purpose of his essay? Of course, the essay is shocking; it is even disturbing. What do you think he is trying to accomplish? What is the effect of the essay? Finally, how do you respond to the essay? Do you think Swift is effective? (If, after reading it at least twice, you still think Swift is advocating cannibalism, re-read the paragraph beginning on page 305 through to the end).

 In about one page (probably between 300 and 350 words typed), respond to the following prompt, or a specific issue you found interesting, about this week's essay. Two goals are especially important for these write-ups: first, that you demonstrate real thoughtfulness about the text which exceeds comprehension and summary -- you must ask yourself questions about the readings and try to answer them; second, that your response demonstrate your familiarity with the text (that is, your response should prove to me that you have done the assigned reading).

Prompt: If you have already read Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal, you might notice a similarity between these two essays. Of course, their subject matter is quite disparate, but they are both writing using a rhetorical strategy called satire. Of course, Judy Brady does not really want a wife – she is making a statement about social norms she perceives in her culture. For this write-up, consider how the use of satire is effective in this essay (or, how it is not effective for you). Does the essay strike you as humorous? Or offensive? What about the way the essay is written changes how you react to it? How would you react differently if her essay were titled something like, “We Need to Change Our Socio-normative Perceptions of Gender Roles”? In other words, I’m asking you to spend a page or so considering how the mode of writing can affect its meaning by changing how we react to its message.

 In about one page (probably between 250 and 350 words typed), respond to the following prompt, or a specific issue you found interesting, about this week's section from the handbook. Two goals are especially important for these write-ups: first, that you demonstrate real thoughtfulness about the text which exceeds comprehension and summary -- you must ask yourself questions about the readings and try to answer them; second, that your response demonstrate your familiarity with the text (that is, your response should prove to me that you have done the assigned reading).

Prompt: I’m going to recycle a prompt from earlier in the course. For this write-up, I would like you to select a specific section (one heading or bold term) from this week’s handbook reading to describe in your own terms. First define the term by describing its function in a sentence. Then consider why it is meaningful, and why mastering it’s function within sentences is important to clear expression (the examples of “corrected” sentences in the handbook may be helpful for ideas here). If you have difficulty writing a whole page on one grammar element, try to come up with some examples of your own which demonstrate how mistakes with this rule/element could lead to confusion.


Submit your third essay here. The essay should be no fewer than three full, double-spaced, typed pages, and can be as long as necessary to adequately respond to the prompt. Work on making your writing clear, concise, and sincere. Give yourself time to edit your writing -- it is difficult to take a work seriously as a reader which the writer has not given the time to edit for typing errors.

For this essay, you will be developing an analysis of an essay of your choice from our textbook, Seagull Reader Essays. You may use any essay you like, with the exception that you should not use an essay which you have already written about in an essay (probably no Lapham, Zinsser, or Lewis here). You should read the essay you choose carefully and thoroughly before brainstorming your essay.

Your essay should accomplish the following goals: (1) provide a brief (two paragraphs at most!) summary of the essay, including its thesis and main supporting points; (2) take a stance on whether you agree or disagree with the main point of the essay; (3) and clearly explain with specific examples what reasons you use to determine whether you agree or disagree with the essay.

Feel free to ask if you have questions. Be sure to give yourself time to outline this essay – these kinds of papers can be relatively easy to put together if you are organized in your thinking, or, contrarily, quite difficult if you try to "wing it."

Specifics: This paper should be no fewer than three full, double-spaced, typed pages (in Times New Roman 12 point font with no additional line spacing). It would be difficult to adequately accomplish the goals of this essay in fewer than three pages. Be sure to include an introduction which clearly defines your purpose in writing, and a conclusion paragraph which summarizes your findings.