Thursday / Friday 5 / 6 January

Class began with a discussion of metaphors for life; then we wrote metaphors for ourselves.

The writers analyzed a personal essay called "Burning in Heaven".

Mr. Zartler offered 5 rules for good personal essays:
Find a Lead (unexpected -- but not outrageous)
Say something; "I like puppies," is NOT something.
Provide INSIGHT into yourself or into your world view (which is insight into you)
Reveal something, but NOT that you steal from the blind (show a conviction or a core belief.)
Close; have an end, but don't repeat. Leave an image.

We reviewed a number of ledes.

Finally, writers highlighted the strong lines, and vivid images in their draft(s).

These lines became the prompt for or the skeleton of their next draft.

Tuesday / Wednesday 3 / 4 January 2012

Class began on Tuesday with creating personal time lines for the future. The timeline was used as a prompt; what does this timeline of dreams show about me as a person? This activity culminated in creating a checklist of things to do in order to achieve the goals.

The next part of class was a review of the qualities of good personal essays. The following due dates were established for personal essays: Rough drafts due Thursday and Friday 5/6 January, 2012.

Final drafts due 11/ 12 January, 2012. Writers will write one 250-500 word essay from the list of Common Application Questions, or two (2) 150 word essays from the OSAC Application list.