Write with the faith that your ideas can positively affect the world around you.

This essay needs to be no less than four pages long, typed and double-spaced. There is no maximum page length, but try to keep it under six pages. Anything more than that might be a sign that you’re struggling with focus, conciseness, or both.
Even though you’ll be using ideas and concepts generated by other people (i.e., stuff from Duckworth and the two documentaries), I don’t want you to worry about documenting or citing your sources for this assignment. Instead, focus your effort (time+focus) on the techniques associated with paraphrasing and quoting source material. In other words, I want to see you applying (and perfecting!) Unit 1: Writing Concepts Review and Unit 2: Writing Concepts Review in this essay.
As with Essay 1, I want you to be very mindful that you’re saying true things. Do not misrepresent the views of others or describe what happens (in the films) inaccurately.
In this essay, you need to take a clear position. Even though both Caldwell’s and Honnold’s versions of success might, in your view, have strengths and weaknesses, it is absolutely vital that you ultimately make a tough choice and determine that X is better than Y. Then, you’ll need to explain why, in your considered judgment, X is better than Y. Do not write a four page essay that boils down to “Everyone can believe what they want” or the shoulder shrug emoji! (See below.)
The Rhetorical Situation for this Essay
This is very, very important. As you develop this piece of writing, imagine the following situation: You are a regular columnist for The Valley Forge, RVC’s student newspaper. Each month, the editors of The Valley Forge give you a lot of space to share with its readers (students, faculty, and staff at RVC) your wisdom regarding how to be successful in college. All of the columns that you write ultimately touch on that basic topic–how to be successful in college.
In this month’s column, you’re going to explore different ways to solve a problem or challenge successfully. These approaches are illustrated in The Dawn Wall and Free Solo, and your job ultimately is to try to explain to your readers why one approach is better than the other. You get to decide which approach is “right,” and you get to decide what the “criteria” for being “right” happens to be. A big challenge here, then, is to establish those criteria and discuss them in the essay convincingly.
Another challenge involves identifying what your readers know and don’t know. Your baseline posture as a writer should almost always be that your readers don’t know what you know. In this case, don’t assume that they’ve seen the documentaries. If you’re using some of Duckworth’s ideas about “grit” in this piece, don’t assume your readers know anything about those concepts. Your job (always!) is to explain to your readers what they need to know (i.e., provide context!) so that your bigger points land effectively.
Perhaps the biggest, most important challenge here, then, involves you writing from a position of authority. All too often, students don’t write from a position of authority. They’re a little timid. A little meek. They don’t write with conviction. That’s because the rhetorical situation for most student writing almost demands meekness–I know my teacher knows more about this than I do, I’m just a student.
In this rhetorical situation, though, you ARE the expert. The editors of The Valley Forge have given you this platform because you have smart, wise things to say. Your readers come to your column each month because your wisdom helps them think about things they haven’t thought of before or helps them consider things in ways that haven’t occurred to them yet. For this paper, I want you to dampen the voice in your head that says, “I’m just a student” and remind yourself, “I’m the writer here.” Write with authority. Write with conviction. Write with the faith that your ideas can positively affect the world around you.

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