Coaching paper
This first essay is an opportunity for me to begin the coaching relationship with you. Every student has strengths and weaknesses, and it is my job to encourage the strengths and minimize (and eliminate, when possible) the weaknesses.
Since every student is unique, that job is complicated, and it is one that really can't be done in a lecture setting. So, you will write an essay for me to read, and I will respond with notes about what you are doing right and what you can improve. This essay will be 1,200 words long (minimum length) in MLA format, and it will earn up to 100 points.
Every student will earn 100 points on this essay unless there are violations of the grammar and usage rules that are covered in the first eight pages of The Source of (Nearly) All Wisdom, which you will find on the Canvas page under Resources. For every goof, points will be deducted: 2 points for the first iteration of an error; 1 additional point for each reiteration. In short, use those first eight pages as a checklist and spend a lot of time proofing your paper. There is no reason in the world that you should earn fewer than 100 points.
This paper will be turned in two ways: on line on Canvas through the turnitin.com portal (we'll cover this in class) AND in a hard copy in your file folder before class begins.
Late papers are due exactly seven after the due date and will incur a 25% penalty before I begin reading the paper; they also will receive no commentary from me. In short, don't be late
PROMPT: Read Frederick Douglass's "Learning to Read" on page 24 of the anthology .
You have two choices:
1. Write your own experience of learning to read and write (though be careful of the "I" in this case -- you may want to write this as a 3rd person nrrative: "As a young boy, Jeremy . . ."
OR
2. Respond to Douglass's essay by commenting on his situation, his attitude, or somethign similar.