Author Topic: Personal Essays and you  (Read 5296 times)

EUOL

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Personal Essays and you
« on: February 02, 2004, 08:58:50 PM »
So, in my English 115 class, I have to teach my students how to write a 'personal essay.'  What is a personal essay you ask?  Well, it's an introspective look at the self, mediated by a specific narrative used to express one's individuality while at the same time bridging the gap to the reader and heightening the unity of everyone's common humanity.  

And it is something that is INSANELY difficult to explain to freshmen.  

What is the English department thinking?  I understand that they want to teach the students to better express themselves, but this medium is just too difficult to cover in a three-week unit.  The personal essay is a very rich and complex genre, and my students are absolutely butchering it.  The worst part is, I can't find any way to teach them to do otherwise.

If you can't tell, I've been grading papers this afternoon...
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"Technically, I don't even have a brain."--Fellfrosch

GorgonlaVacaTremendo

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Re: Personal Essays and you
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2004, 09:03:55 PM »
Someone had to get it right... You can't have a bunch of kids who can't learn the material in the alotted amount of time.  As for your english department, I have a gnome problem I could share with them...
"Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other 'sins' are invented nonsense."
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The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers

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Re: Personal Essays and you
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2004, 09:14:41 PM »
speaking as someone with no experience teaching this:

I'd start with a personal narrative. Have them do one or two pages on that. Then have them do a personal narrative with self editorial interjected. then add in that they have to connect to someone with it.

The biggest problem, as I see it, is they need immediate feedback if they're going to do multiple essays, which means you ahve to act VERY fast to give them all comments.

Well, sucks to be you.

GorgonlaVacaTremendo

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Re: Personal Essays and you
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2004, 09:27:20 PM »
Ehlers, that actually sounds like it would work!  :o

This coming from someone not to far from the age group your probably trying to teach it to too...

But, of coarse, that may not be what the department wants taught...
"Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other 'sins' are invented nonsense."
Robert Heinlein

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little."
Edmund Burke

www.kinasemovestheaudio.com for a good time!

EUOL

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Re: Personal Essays and you
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2004, 09:27:58 PM »
SE:  That's a good suggestion.  In fact, that's exactly the way I approach the unit.

The problem is, once they write a narrative, they really have problems including an essay portion.  Almost every paper I get is a personal narrative, not a personal essay.  However, they're even poor narratives because the students try to interject meaning that just doesn't fit with the story they're trying to tell.

If they do include some sort of theme or essay, it invariably turns into soap-boxing--and many just tell a story, then add a neat, Sunday-school-style moral at the end.

Gorgon:  Yes, some few do (thankfully) get it.  However, I can't really justify giving the rest of them D's and C's just because the material is generally over their heads.  Personal essays are just hard to do right--I don't even know if I could do it.  
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"Technically, I don't even have a brain."--Fellfrosch

GorgonlaVacaTremendo

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Re: Personal Essays and you
« Reply #5 on: February 02, 2004, 09:30:06 PM »
I haven't tried to do it or anything, but it doesn't sound to difficult.  However it would require no slacking, which I, personally, would have an enormous problem accomplishing, especially in lit...
"Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other 'sins' are invented nonsense."
Robert Heinlein

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little."
Edmund Burke

www.kinasemovestheaudio.com for a good time!

EUOL

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Re: Personal Essays and you
« Reply #6 on: February 02, 2004, 09:32:24 PM »
lol.  I think you hit on something pretty lucid there, Gorgon.  The people in my Freshman Comp class aren't English majors.  It's a GE (general education), which means it's a required class.  They don't really want to be in it, so there's no real reason for them to invest a lot of effort into learning a complex compositional form.
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The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers

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Re: Personal Essays and you
« Reply #7 on: February 02, 2004, 09:33:19 PM »
I've done... er... well... one that I can think of. Good one anyway. I used to do one a week for teh Dream Forge. And then there was my "piece of writing" from high school. A lot of that could have been refined.

EUOL, speaking of the "sunday school" moral, do you think that's why they have such a problem? I've heard a million talks, some even by GA's that do the same. They include a story because it's neat, and then force it to fit into the theme. (I've even done it).

GorgonlaVacaTremendo

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Re: Personal Essays and you
« Reply #8 on: February 02, 2004, 09:34:44 PM »
Well, we also live in America, you know, the land of the free and lazy... Ringing any bells?

Maybe it's just me living in Michigan, the statistically laziest and fattest region of the world...
"Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other 'sins' are invented nonsense."
Robert Heinlein

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little."
Edmund Burke

www.kinasemovestheaudio.com for a good time!

EUOL

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Re: Personal Essays and you
« Reply #9 on: February 02, 2004, 09:41:23 PM »
SE:  Yeah, I think that's a big part of it.  If I weren't teaching at the Y, then I don't think I'd have as many students try and package a neat, moralistic ending on the back of their essays.  I talk to them about it in class, but I swear they just ignore the advice.  To them, a story isn't complete unless you explain what you learned, and how you're a much better person now.  I'll confront them about it when they have me read drafts, and they'll admit that the problems they've addressed haven't really been solved as neatly as the essay implies, but they have real difficulty cutting off the preachy endings.
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"Technically, I don't even have a brain."--Fellfrosch

GorgonlaVacaTremendo

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Re: Personal Essays and you
« Reply #10 on: February 02, 2004, 09:47:08 PM »
I had to write an essay like that last year... it ws really annoying.

I saw a lot of those problems in my peers work.  And a little in my own.  Especially because I wasn't a better person because of my scenerio.  In fact, I can't remember a single scenerio which I did become a better person... Maybe there's a problem...
"Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other 'sins' are invented nonsense."
Robert Heinlein

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little."
Edmund Burke

www.kinasemovestheaudio.com for a good time!

The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers

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Re: Personal Essays and you
« Reply #11 on: February 02, 2004, 09:49:05 PM »
see, that's the point. it's not necessarily supposed to teach a moral lesson like a fable by Aesop. It's supposed to be a little more philosophical. Be an insight not just into YOUR soul, but the nature of humanity.

EUOL

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Re: Personal Essays and you
« Reply #12 on: February 02, 2004, 09:52:45 PM »
See!  Billy Idol gets it!  Why can't my students get it too?
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"Technically, I don't even have a brain."--Fellfrosch

GorgonlaVacaTremendo

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Re: Personal Essays and you
« Reply #13 on: February 02, 2004, 09:54:17 PM »
Yes, I see... a little... I just wont go into anything literature based... ever...
"Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other 'sins' are invented nonsense."
Robert Heinlein

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little."
Edmund Burke

www.kinasemovestheaudio.com for a good time!

The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers

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Re: Personal Essays and you
« Reply #14 on: February 02, 2004, 10:02:17 PM »
Now I'm Billy Idol? Or the Wonder Cow is Billy Idol?