English

“This I Believe” Essay Instructions and Guidelines

If you have been keeping up with the assignments, you now have read six “This I

Believe” essays about education, three written by teachers and three written by

students. You have also evaluated these essays, identifying the thesis statements and

topic sentences and examining the types and quality of the supporting evidence. Now,

it is time to write your own “This I Believe” essay.

Assignment:

Your assignment for this essay is to write a “This I Believe” essay of your own. Like the

sample “This I Believe” essays you have read, your belief must relate to the broad

topic of education. This gives you considerable leeway in choosing a topic. However,

if your belief is not related to education, then you will have to rewrite your essay in

order to earn a passing grade.

For your reference, here are the links to the essays we have read thus far:

Essays by Teachers:

1. “My Students Are Writers, Even When They Don’t Realize It”

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/89380/

2. “I Don’t Give Grades. No Teacher Should”

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/6702/

3. “A Taste of Success”

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/52984/

4. “To Matter”

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/55102/

5. “I Believe in Adult Education”

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/42670/

6. “Educational Second Chances”

https://thisibelieve.org/essay/102040/

Essays by Students:

1. “Abolishing the SAT”

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/84858/

2. “Admittance to a Better Life”

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/12782/

3. “Music Education Is Vital”

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/63240/

4. “Education First – Because It Lasts”

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/111669/

5. “I Believe in Education”

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/53539/

6. “Music Education and Music Performance Is the Right of All Citizens”

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/28570/

7. “My Education Set Me Free”

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/66600/

8. “The Importance of a Liberal Education”

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/15654/

You may use one of the above beliefs as a “jumping off point” for your own essay, but

you cannot merely copy the ideas set forth in the sample essays. You must formulate

your own points of discussion and use examples from your own experience. Preferably,

you will choose an original belief as the topic for your essay.

If you would like to read more sample essays, you can log on to thisibelieve.org, hover

over the word “explore,” and then click “browse by theme.”

You should now see a long list of themes. Click on “education and knowledge” to see a

list of essays that address these themes.

Be advised that these essays address “education and knowledge” to varying degrees. In

other words, some of the essays directly address the issue of education, and some are

only loosely- related to the topic.

Requirements:

• Your belief must relate to the broad topic of education.

• The essay’s assigned length is 1,000−1,200 words.

• You must adhere to the formatting guidelines set forth in most recent edition of The

MLA Handbook. Be sure that all margins measure 1 inch and that you use the Times

New Roman 12-point font. You should also follow MLA formatting guidelines

regarding the page heading, running header, page numbering, etc.

• You are not required to use secondary sources for this essay. However, if

you choose to use secondary sources, you must properly cite them, both in the text

of the essay and on the Works Cited page.

Good luck! I look forward to reading your essays.