Length: approximately 800-1200 words (6-8 paragraphs)

I. TOPIC

            Write a strong essay that focuses on a selected quote from one of the following assigned argumentative readings: Emerson’s Self-Reliance; Thoreau’s Where I Lived, and What I Lived For; King’s Three Ways of Meeting Oppression; or Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. You may choose any specific quotation from these readings, including these famous passages:

1.  “Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist … [but] for non-conformity the world whips you with its displeasure.” —from Emerson’s Self-Reliance
2. “What I must do, is all that concerns me, not what the people think.” —from Emerson’s Self-Reliance
3. “Misunderstood! It is a right fool’s word. Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.” —from Emerson’s Self-Reliance  
4. “Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand.” —from Thoreau’s Where I Lived, and What I Lived For
5. “Children, who play life, discern its true law and relations more clearly than men, who fail to live it worthily, but who think that they are wiser by experience, that is, by failure.” — from Thoreau’s Where I Lived, and What I Lived For
6. “The oppressed resign themselves to their doom. They tacitly adjust themselves to oppression, and thereby become conditioned to it.” —from King’s Three Ways of Meeting Oppression
7. “Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.” —from King’s Three Ways of Meeting Oppression
8. The “problem will not be solved by running away. He cannot listen to the glib suggestion of those who urge him to migrate en masse to other sections of the country.” — from King’s Three Ways of Meeting Oppression
9. “I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity and human happiness consists—I wish to persuade women to endeavour to acquire strength, both of mind and body.” —from Wollestonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
10. “Some women govern their husbands without degrading themselves, because intellect will always govern.” —from Wollestonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

After the chosen quotation is presented in your introductory paragraph, then explain what it means and phrase an argument or thesis as to why you either agree (or disagree) with the author’s words in context; next, describe in sufficient detail either one sustained personal experience or a series of experiences (one per body paragraph) concerning the quotation. Again, this is a “writing with a thesis” essay.

II. DIRECTIONS

Begin your essay by mentioning the quotation itself, the author, and the writing that it comes from, then explain to what extent you agree with it. Phrase your argument and how your ideas on the quote clearly relate to a personal experience or observation. In discussing your experience (or experiences), be vivid, specific, descriptive, and original. Write an expanded conclusion. Stylistically, emphasize clarity and efficiency, but also employ stylistic variety, use strong verbs, and incorporate distinctive wording. Submit a third or fourth draft (not a first), for final assessment. 

III. GUIDELINES

Use MLA formatting, citing further the primary source both textually and parenthetically, with both a Work Cited and in-text parentheticals, when necessary.

Start DateJul 25, 2020 5:00 AMDue DateAug 7, 2020 11:59 PM