ESSAY 2: Kenyon Commencement Speech Essay INSTRUCTOR NAME: Alia Stearns COURSE: English 101 CONTEXT FOR ASSIGNMENT:

Often, students who have become numb to the classroom environment arrive, sit in a chair or desk, and leave without ever engaging in their college classes. For these students, there is the chance that they will never engage. They may go on to live a detached adult life, arriving at important events and following the path set for them by number of forces with no more care or commitment than they used for their education. But, they will not be inherently bad people or failures. They are no different than a great number of people plodding through life. However, as Foster Wallace voices in Kenyon Commencement Speech, those who participate in enabling students to attain a degree will wring their hands and furrow their brows at such a thought. In order to fight against this, many instructors create a series of rules for classroom behavior. But, do these rules better enable students learning to think or do they inhibit that growth? DESCRIPTION OF ASSIGNMENT: Your task is to create an engaging and thoughtful essay of 3-5 double-spaced pages. You will either be arguing for or against the following statement: Strict college classroom policies enable students to achieve the true value of education described in David Foster Wallaces Kenyon Commencement Speech. Your task will be to explain to the reader firstly what Wallace exemplifies as the freedom that comes from a college education. Then, you will need to supports the ways in which rigid class policies either do or do not enable students to achieve that level of awareness.

AUDIENCE FOR ASSIGNMENT: Your audience for this essay is this class. Think of this assignment as a way to help us get to know you a little bit better by learning something about how education has shaped you. PROCESS: Read Kenyon Commencement Speech o If you would like to hear Foster Wallace read it, you can do so here: http://youtu.be/vET9cvlGJQw Write a summary Read the assignment Draft a thesis Using that thesis, create an outline for the paper you will write Revise your outline Use the outline to draft your paper Submit your draft for peer review Use peer commentary to revise Edit for surface errors and mechanics LOGISTICS: Due date:

o Outline with Thesis: 5/1/2013 o Rough Draft: 5/6/2013 o Final Draft: 5/9/2013 Length of assignment: 3-5 pages Point Breakdown: o Thesis and Outline 3.75% of overall grade o Rough Draft (on time and peer reviewed) 3.75% of overall grade o Revised Draft 7.5% of overall grade Format: MLA Citations: MLA Sources: Kenyon Commencement Speech

GRADING: These are the questions I will ask when assigning you a grade: Specific focus: Are you dealing specifically with the assignment given? Vivid presentation: Details can make your analysis come to life. Show the reader examples/support with specific, concrete details; help them to experience your material. Strong analysis: Do not just tell stories or give us details for no reason; show the reader how and why these things illustrate/support your main focus. (Constantly ask yourself: so what?) An engaging and informative organizational plan: It should be clear that you have a plan for building your essay that your ideas are in a particular order for a reason and that you are working to use transitions to guide the reader from one idea to the next. Style and conventions: Is the essay free from error? Are the sentences varied and stylistically pleasing?