Welcome to a new school year! This writing experience is an opportunity to better understand yourself through deep personal examination while also building meaningful connections with your classmates. Writing Guidelines We invite you to contribute to this project by writing and submitting your own statement of personal belief. We understand how challenging this is—it requires such intimacy that no one else can do it for you. To guide you through this process, we offer these suggestions: Tell a story about you: Be specific. Take your belief out of the ether and ground it in the events of your life. Consider moments when belief was formed or tested or changed. Think of your own experience, work, and family, and tell of the things you know that no one else does. Your story need not be heart-warming or gut-wrenching—it can even be funny—but it should be real. Make sure your story ties to the essence of your daily life philosophy and the shaping of your beliefs. Be brief: Your statement should be between 500 and 600 words. That’s about three minutes when read aloud at your natural pace. Name your belief: If you can’t name it in a sentence or two, your essay might not be about belief. Also, rather than writing a list, consider focusing on one core belief, because three minutes is a very short time. Be positive: Please avoid preaching or editorializing. Tell us what you do believe, not what you don’t believe. Avoid speaking in the editorial “we.” Make your essay about you; speak in the first person. Be personal: Write in words and phrases that are comfortable for you to speak. We recommend you read your essay aloud to yourself several times, and each time edit it and simplify it until you find the words, tone, and story that truly echo your belief and the way you speak. For this project, we are also guided by the original This I Believe series and the producers’ invitation to those who wrote essays in the 1950s. Their advice holds up well and we are abiding by it. Please consider it carefully in writing your piece. Copyright 2005-2015 by This I Believe, Inc. Important Information: • Essay Due Date: Thursday, Sept. 10th • Turnitin.com Information: Submissions are expected by 8AM. o Period 2—Class ID: 10396839 / Password: Stallions o Period 6—Class ID: 10396834 / Password: Stallions • Extra Credit Opportunity: Record your essay and email the attachment. These will be made accessible through School Loop. Composing an Effective Lead Sometimes getting started is the hardest part for writers. It’s challenging to create a powerful hook to get any reader’s attention. The lead is the doorway through which a writer welcomes and orients readers to the idea. Some students find it easier to postpone the writing of the lead itself until AFTER the body of the essay had been written. Think about it, it’s hard to introduce something that doesn’t yet exist! J If you’re struggling with selecting your belief, use these questions as a springboard to uncover some of your, perhaps hidden, values. 1. 2. From where is your family? Does it matter to your identity? 3. Do you share the same political beliefs as your parents? 4. How much of who you are is influenced by your family? By your friends? 5. What is your opinion of your community? 6. What makes a family? 7. What are some of your biggest pet peeves? What really irritates you? 8. Do you attend religious services? Do you want to go? Why or why not? 9. Are some forms of art more important than others? 10. What makes you unique? What are you good at? Why is that important? 11. What are your future aspirations? Why is that? 12. What are some of the challenges you have overcome? What helped you through? 13. What makes you angry? Defeated? Hopeful? 14. What’s your most vivid memory? What makes it stand out? DO NOT BEGIN THE ESSAY WITH THE STATEMENT “THIS I BELIEVE”! When you are ready to compose the introduction, try using at least two of the following strategies. Then you can choose the better opening with the help of a friend, family member, or teacher. • Question: When was the last time you went without eating? (Notice, not a yes/no question). • Quotation: (from someone famous or from someone significant in your life) “Be careful!” were the last words my father said to me each time I left the house. • Strong Statement: (that your essay will either support or dispute)“If you eat enough cabbage, you’ll never get cancer.” • Metaphor: “The starlings in my back garden are the small boys in the playground, impressing each other with their new-found swear words. The crows all belong to the same biker gang. You need to know their secret sign to join their club.” • Description: (of a person or setting) “Michael once mowed the lawns around Municipal Hall wearing a frilly apron, high heels, and nylons with a pillow stuffed under his sweater so he looked pregnant. And it wasn’t even Halloween.” Tips to Add Audience Appeal 1. Be sure your essay is about you and the events in your life. Readers want to know what you know, feel what you feel, and understand exactly where you are coming from. 2. While the idea for the essay must be personal, make the frame big enough to allow your readers to find parallels between your experience and theirs. Five readers the opportunity to say, “Ah! Yes, I’ve never been there or done that, but I can relate to what the author is talking about.” Even if readers have never been on a mission trip to Africa, the effective writer must draw in an audience to show a more universal implication of a very personal experience or belief. 3. If you are writing about a small personal occurrence, put your idea in a context that gives the reader insight to both the small moment and the wider perspective. Think of you essay as a camera lens. You might start by describing a fine detail (a specific moment in the narrative), then open s up the lens to take in the wide view (the general/’global backdrop), then close the piece by narrowing back to the fine detail. 4. Use details to draw the reader in. Be specific and avoid using abstract expressions and phrases such as “the best day of my life” or “I’d never known greater grief” to describe emotions of love or loss. Make the emotions real and immediate by noting specifics and details that draw the reader into your own personal experience. 5. Employ all the sense to convey your ideas to the reader: sight, sound, taste, touch, and hearing. 6. Make sure that beyond all the idea development, your readers can summarize the main idea that you believe. You should not have to hit the readers over the head with a summary statement such as “What I am trying to say…” or “What I really mean is…” In fact, such a closing is almost insulting or an indication that you have danced around the belief without making it crystal clear. You must aim to leave the readers clear and satisfied—whether they agree or what you believe or not. Sometimes a brief echo of the opening is the most satisfying clincher (drop the mic moment) to bring a personal essay full circle.
