Referencing the assigned readings and using TWO of the articles as in-text references, your task is to write an essay between 4 -5 pages.
You are required to show your abilities to summarize and integrate multiple essays with the purpose of connecting the major points of the essays to your own experiences with language. We read six articles by authors who discover the power of language in one form or another.
For example:
Malcolm X describes, in his essay “Homemade Education,” how his lack of understanding of many words found in books made him feel frustrated and how learning them empowered him by opening a new world for him.
In her essay “Spanish Lessons,” Christine Marin discusses how she came to find many of her voices, both Spanish and English, how they “contributed to the formation of self and identity,” and how she learned the different power of both languages.
You will:
Introduce, integrate and summarize the main ideas of at least two articles in your FIRST introductory paragraph that leads to your THESIS, which will be about how YOUR experience and the authors’ experiences relate (no other outside sources are used).
DO NOT just have entire chunks of the essay as summary; it must integrated with your own experience.
Compare them with your own language experience, integrating references to the articles/authors INTO your ideas and thoughts using paraphrasing and quoting; be sure to correctly cite ALL references to the articles/authors using MLA in-text citations.
DO NOT use large, block quotes; use short or even partial quotes or paraphrasing instead.
What are the similarities and differences between their experiences and yours?
In order to complete the assignment successfully, you must summarize your chosen essays precisely and make clear connections between the authors’ experiences and your own, providing sufficient, relevant details.
Here is a Sample Template of the Language Perspective Essay.
Download and READ this PowerPoint: Things to Avoid in Essay Writing
Components
The essay should have the following basic components – here is a general idea of how to organize the Language Perspective Essay:
A title that informs the reader and provides a hint of your thesis.
Intro paragraph:
Engaging hook without announcing the intention (DO NOT SAY: “In this essay I will…”).
Introduce the name of first author, “title of article” smoothly with a brief one sentence summary of the article.
Name of second author, “title of article” with a brief one sentence summary of the article.
Your language experience.
Thesis statement that provides the SINGLE CONTROLLING IDEA of the paper about your experience and those of the authors.
Each PIE body paragraph: (as many as necessary to cover your ideas: more ideas = more paragraphs).
Topic sentence = your idea/experience
Supporting evidence (quotes/paraphrasing) with correct in-text citations
Discussion/analysis of the author and your experience (as many sentences as necessary)
Transition statement to the NEXT paragraph (make sure there is flow!)
Conclusion:
Wraps up the essay; revisits the thesis without repeating it.
Does not introduce new ideas.
Works Cited List – You must correctly cite all paraphrasing/summary/quoting both in the body of the paper (in-text), and include a correctly formatted MLA Works Cited List; any papers submitted without a WCL will receive an automatic 0.
Articles
Here are the Language Perspective Essay articles used as the basis for the essay. You must use at least TWO as references and supporting evidence.
You will be writing responses to the Critical Thinking Questions and participating in the Discussion Boards about each article in the Weekly Modules area.
“A Homemade Education” “A Homemade Education” – Alternative Formats – Malcolm X – and video
“The Story of My Life”- “The Story of My Life”- – Alternative Formats Helen Keller – and video
“Coming Into Language” – Jimmy Santiago Baca – and more…
Interview with Baca
Baca reading: “Healing Earthquakes” poem
NPR: listen to “Poetry Behind Bars: The Lines That Save Lives — Sometimes Literally”
Baca’s poem: “Immigrants In Our Own Land”
“Living with Dyslexia” – Gareth Cook
” Spanish Lessons” Spanish Lessons” – Alternative Formats – Christine Marin
“Are We Different People in Different Languages?” – Ana Menendez – Literary Hub
“The Language of Silence” – pages below – by Maxine Hong Kingston – and a video
Maxine Hong Kingston pg 1-2.pdf Maxine Hong Kingston pg 1-2.pdf – Alternative Formats
Maxine Hong Kingston pg 2 -3.pdf Maxine Hong Kingston pg 2 -3.pdf – Alternative Formats
Maxine Hong Kingston p 4 .pdf Maxine Hong Kingston p 4 .pdf – Alternative Formats
Formatting Essays in MLA Style:
The formatting should be a 12 point legible font – Arial preferred.
Indent five spaces for each new paragraph, but do not put extra spaces between paragraphs.
Double-space the header area: your name, etc. in the upper left corner of only the first page (don’t put your name on every page):
Your Name
English 101
Prof. Ziff
Date
Language Perspective Essay
The Informative TITLE Goes in the Center of the Page
Capitalized Correctly, with the Same Size Font andneither Bold nor Underlined.
Grading Scale:
90 – 100 = A
80 – 89 = B
70 – 79 = C
60 – 69 = D
Lower than 60 = F
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