Structuring Information

How will you structure your "Lost & Found" essay?

Gathering Ideas

The next posts will have two distinct purposes and will focus on answering two specific questions: "What should I write about?" and "How should I structure this information?"

First, we'll discuss what you "should" write about.  The general essay topic is "Lost and Found," which is a broad category that could be approached in any number of ways, so you will want to brainstorm to decide on your angle, your specific approach to the general topic.

As with one of the earlier posts, consider which rhetorical modes you may use: argument, narration, description, definition, exemplification, compare/contrast, cause/effect, division and classification, and process analysis.

Read pages 55-91 in Telling True Stories; these sections will help you sharpen your thoughts and prepare you for the essay itself.

For this entry, answer the following questions:

1.  Which rhetorical modes will you use?  How will you use them?  For example, if you plan on using narration, what story will you tell?

2.  Pages 66-74 in Telling True Stories focus on profiles.  Who could you profile as part of your essay?

3.  Pages 74-85 in Telling True Stories focus on using first-person introspection.  How could you incorporate your own experiences into your essay?

4.  Pages 86-88 in Telling True Stories focus on using history.  How could you incoporate historical events and people into your essay?

5.  Finally, and most importantly, what will be the "angle" for your essay?  In other words, what will be the unique perspective and approach you will bring to the general (and ambiguous) category/theme of "Lost and Found"?

Brainstorming: Interviews & Multiple Perspectives

One mark of insightful writing is the ability to examine a subject from multiple perspectives and points-of-view, which --understandably-- can be difficult, since we are so used to seeing the world through our own eyes (with our own biases, prejudices, and ways of "seeing"). 

This post will consist of two parts.

First, post a question that relates to the idea of "lost and found."  This question should be specific enough to lead to interesting responses, but not so specific that someone may not be able to answer it.  For example, you could ask, "When have you felt physically lost and not known where you were, literally?"

Second, you will respond to one of your fellow classmates' questions.  For example, if I were to answer the above question, I might write a short paragraph on the time I tried to take a shortcut when I was driving home at 3:00 in the morning and got lost in the middle of an orange grove.  

Complete your questions by Tuesday, and answer the questions by Thursday.

Finding Good Topics

Your photography essay functioned as an objective, academic analysis.  Your last essay will be much different; this one will be a subjective, personal essay in which you explore the general category of "lost and found."  How you approach this theme will be completely up to you.  Do you want to bring in personal experience?  Do you want to avoid personal experience and instead focus on historical examples?  Do you want to bring in psychology, criminal justice, or literature?  These are all possibilities.

To get you started, read "Finding Good Topics" on pages 20-24 in our text "Telling True Stories."  Then read the story "Aftershocks" about the recent earthquake in Nepal.  For this blog post, answer one of those questions from the text.

For example, you could answer "Where is there ambiguity in a big story?" and then explain how and why Michael Edison Hayden uses ambiguity in his story.