Personal Essay

Essay #1 – Personal Narrative Essay

What’s in this document?

1. Background/purpose of Essay #1

2. Potential topics for Essay #1

3. Requirements for Essay #1

4. Grading standards for Essay #1

Background/purpose

Now that you have read about (and viewed) the role of food in other people’s lives, it’s your turn to tell your own story! For this essay, you will be discussing the meaning of a specific food, food memory, or a food event in your own life and how it has affected you.

Topics (choose ONE)

1. Write an essay in which you describe/explain the role that food plays in a celebration, ceremony, or tradition that is common to your family. This may include describing foods that are important to your family during certain holidays, weddings, funerals or even weekly traditions, such as Sunday dinner at grandmom’s house.

2. Write an essay in which you reflect on a food or meal that is important to your race, culture, or ethnicity. This may include describing a certain ethnic/cultural dish or a traditional/ritualistic food custom.

3. Write an essay in which you reflect on a distinct food memory and its significance in your life. This may include describing your first dinner date, food you created with family or friends, or the ice cream sundae you made after your first break up.

4. Write an essay in which you reflect on the relationship between your food preferences and your identity. Do your food choices express something about your identity or aspects of it? Explain.

Requirements

· This essay is a personal narrative (meaning, you can use the first person “I”), but you must have an explicit or implied THESIS /main idea (think back to all of our readings: even though they were personal essays, they still had an explicit or implied main idea that they were trying to get across to the reader, and the narrative itself supported or developed that thesis/main idea.). Sample thesis: Eating sushi for the first time was a pivotal experience in my life because it not only showed my independence as an eater, but it also showed my willingness to separate from what was considered “normal” in my family.

· This essay must follow the conventions of good writing and will be graded on the basis of these conventions: organization, development (support/details), focus, clarity, and grammatical correctness.

· This essay must have the standard elements of an essay: introduction/thesis, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Your introduction/thesis should focus or set up the theme of the essay by showing the personal meaning of your food story. Then, each body paragraph should be as descriptive as possible, should stay on one topic at a time, and should always aim to develop the thesis. The conclusion should provide the reader with some insight about how your food story illustrates the significance of food in general and its significance in people’s lives.

· This essay must be 3 pages minimum in length.

· This essay must be written in proper MLA format . See page 512 in AWR for a sample essay written in MLA format.

· This essay must be an original work of your own and not plagiarized in any way.

· This essay does not require you to use class readings or outside sources in the essay itself. However, if you do, you must cite those sources correctly in MLA format . See pages 458-512 in AWR for information on in-text citations and Works Cited pages.

· Make sure to look over the Essay #1 Grading Standards found on the next page

· See course syllabus for due date.

Grading Standards for Essay #1

A-Range Essays:

· Follow ALL instructions as outlined on the Essay #1 instruction document, including formatting the essay in proper MLA format, meeting page length requirement, and adequately addressing the essay prompt

· Have an introduction /thesis that clearly and effectively states or strongly implies the significance of the specific food, food memory, or food event to be discussed in the essay; intro contains detailed, varied (not repetitive), logical, organized, focused, and interesting sentences

· Have paragraphs that contain focused sentences (addressing only one topic/issue/moment at a time) that support the main idea of the essay; no (0) paragraphs are unfocused or off topic of the main idea

· Have paragraphs that contain well-organized sentences written with clear connections and transitions (sentence-to-sentence AND paragraph-to-paragraph); no (0) paragraphs are disorganized or lack clear connections between sentences or between paragraphs

· Have paragraphs that are well-developed with specific (not vague), relevant (to the main idea), important (no “fluff” or unnecessary words/phrases), and varied (not repetitive) details; no (0) paragraphs lack development

· Have an thoughtful, organized, detailed, and focused conclusion that brings the essay to a rational and complete end and analyzes the larger picture of the meaning of food in general (i.e. how does your story represent the significance of food in people’s lives?)

· Use the appropriate tone and point of view for the purpose of the paper and the intended audience, including no slang unless appropriate for the assignment, no “conversational” words/sentences unless appropriate for the assignment, and the proper point of view (first person, second person, or third person point of view) depending on essay assignment

· Have very few grammatical, mechanical, and/or spelling errors. If there are small errors, they DO NOT AT ALL impede the meaning or understanding of the essay

B/C-Range Essays:

· Follow most of the instructions as outlined on the Essay #1 directions document; somewhat meets proper MLA format, closely meets page length requirement (within a ½ page), and closely addresses the essay prompt; no more than one (1) missed instruction

· Have an introduction/thesis that fairly states or strongly implies the significance of the specific food, food memory, or food event; intro is fairly organized, focused, interesting, novel, and detailed

· Have paragraphs that are fairly focused and support the thesis; no more than one (1) paragraph that lacks focus and/or doesn’t support the thesis

· Have paragraphs that are fairly organized; no more than one (1) paragraph that lacks organization, transitions, or flow between sentences and between paragraphs

· Have paragraphs that are fairly developed with specific, varied, and relevant details; no more than one (1) paragraph that lacks specific, varied, and relevant details

· Have a fairly thoughtful conclusion that may somewhat bring the essay to a rational and complete end; conclusion may lack some analysis, organization, focus, or interesting information (not repetitive)

· Has a fairly appropriate tone and point of view for the purpose of the paper and the intended audience; essay may lack a solid point of view or use some inappropriate/informal language

· Have some grammatical, mechanical, and/or spelling errors; the errors may impede some of the meaning or understanding of parts of the essay

D/F-Range Essays:

· Have not followed most or all of instructions as outlined on the Essay #1 instruction document; two (2) or more missed instructions

· Are missing an introduction/thesis altogether or have an introduction/thesis that does not state or strongly imply the significance of the specific food, food memory, or food event; or intro is confusing, lacks a main idea, or is generally poorly written (organization, focus, details)

· Have two (2) or more paragraphs that are not properly focused

· Have two (2) or more paragraphs that are disorganized

· Have two (2) or more paragraphs that are not developed with specific, relevant, and varied details

· Are missing a conclusion altogether or is off topic or have a conclusion that is unrelated to the main idea, boring, repetitive, not at all insightful, or generally poorly written

· Have many grammatical, mechanical, and/or spelling errors. These errors impede the meaning or understanding in many parts of the essay

· Are plagiarized