EXPLORATORY ESSAY ASSIGNMENT

ENGLISH 103 – Summer 2022

Instructions
• You must pick your topic from the list of “Possible Essay Topics” below.
• Remember: This is an exploratory essay – you are not meant to put forward a
clear thesis or have a focused argument. Instead, use this opportunity to explore
a question and see what comes of it.
• Your language may be informal. You are not required to write in formal essay
structure. Your writing must, however, be generally clear and grammatical so that
you can communicate your ideas successfully.
• Essays are DUE by Friday, May 27 (before 11:59pm PST)

Formal requirements
• Write a 2-3 page (approx. 250 double-spaced words per page) response. If you
want to write more than 3 pages, feel free – there is no penalty for going over the
recommended word count.
• Submit the essay as a Word Document. Papers must be submitted through the
eLearn assignment portal to be accepted.
• If you would like to include images or other media, you may. These other
elements will not count toward your word count.
• DO NOT base your essay on outside research. Do not bring in outside sources
(apart from the related assigned texts) unless there is an idea you would like to
explore, very briefly, as part of your own thinking. This is not a research paper.
• Your papers will make at least some reference to related texts from our assigned
reading list. Whenever you reference a text (or any idea that did not come from
your own brain), you must be in the habit of citing your source. All paraphrasing
and quotation must therefore include an in-text citation and a corresponding
entry on your Works Cited page. See the CapU MLA guide for citation
requirements.
• See the “Exploratory Essay Assignment Template” included on eLearn. (The file
is named: YOUR NAME_ENGL 103_Exploratory Essay_Summer 2022.docx)
Possible Essay Topics

1. Many of the writers we are reading this term use the first-person perspective in
their poetry, prose, or reporting. Briefly compare the use of the first person in
two of the texts we have come across, and consider how the stakes, the sense of
responsibility, or the meaning of the work is impacted, depending on the genre
and perhaps the intended audience. Keep in mind: this is not a question of what
people find “interesting,” and it is not a “good or bad,” or a “better or worse”
kind of question. Setting up a binary can cut off the conversation too quickly. I
am asking you to consider why they might have chosen their approach for that
specific genre or that occasion, and what the effect is – I want you to play around
with ideas of what this choice of perspective does. You will write your own
response using the first-person perspective. As you do so, build on what you
have gleaned from these other writers to explore your own ideas about and
relationship to first-person writing. How do you feel about using it in your
writing? Why?

2. In Week 1, we explored different answers to the (sometimes stated, sometimes

only implied) question: “Why Write?” To get you thinking on the topic, consider
the following: When the authors and poets we have read so far think of “writing,”
what do you think they each imagine? For whom, or for what, might they be
writing? Building on examples from the assigned texts, explore different
potential answers to this question. Think about what the question means to you.
Follow in the footsteps of George Orwell and Joan Didion. What will your
“Why I Write” essay talk about? Explore.

3. In Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner uses food – which is, for her, a kind of
emotional trigger – to help her feel her way through, unpack, and articulate her
relationship with her mother and with parts of herself, including her cultural and
racial identities. Zauner is not the first writer to feel a connection between food
and memory. Revisit Zaunder’s text and use your own experience to help you
think through hers, as well. For this essay, you must do the following: Pick a food
that has some significance for you. Eat it. Write about it. Talk through the
experience in detail. Explore your relationship to the food and to the ideas,
memories, or identities that get wrapped up in the process.

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 4. Dillard’s “Total Eclipse,” Woolf’s first chapter of Mrs. Dalloway, Cole’s excerpt
from Open City, and Butler’s story “This is Earl Sandt” (as well as the livestream
recordings made of his writing process) all, in some sense, speak to experiences
of shared looking, or some sort of communal experience. These experiences are
at once shared and unique to each person. They are each alone in a crowd, in
other words. Sometimes, the isolation is heightened (and sometimes it is
softened) by the fact that others are having their own parallel experiences at the
same time. Like World Wars and previous pandemics, the COVID-19 pandemic
is often characterized by a strange balance of together but separate,
communal yet isolated. Explore this tension and some of these ideas. I do not
expect you to have read all the texts yet, but if you choose this topic, I strongly
recommend you read or get a sense of some of the Week 5 texts. It would be
productive if you could reference some part of the reading to help you explain
your ideas, and they will help spur different angles and approaches for your own
writing.

5. If you have an alternate idea in mind – one inspired by or connected in some way
to the texts we are reading – you must propose it to Alison no later than the
Thursday, May 26 class meeting. DO NOT go forward with an alternate topic
without my approval, or you will risk getting a zero on the assignment!

How To Do WELL:
• Start with something specific and tangible. Have a clear object or passage in
mind and see where it takes you. Avoid leaning on the vague or the abstract.
Whenever you can, try to write from and about that specific word, phrase, image,
example, texture, moment, or thing. If you bring in a passage or an example, try
to unpack and explain it. If you speak only in generalizing terms and focus on
only wide, hypothetical, or vague concepts, your paper will not be successful.
• For this paper, your language does not have to be formal or even fully academic.
It should, however, be clear and readable. Your purpose in this paper is to
process, explore, and communicate an idea through the act of writing. This kind
of writing-as-thinking allows you to explore your own writing style, but for the
sake of clarity you must still pay some attention to word choice, punctuation, and
sentence structure. If you break those rules, have a reason for doing so.

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 • Try to follow the idea and see where it leads, rather than making up your mind
in advance, putting forward a set claim, and then sticking to it. This is NOT an
argumentative essay. Here, your task is to try out ideas, and to explore through
writing. Try to wrap your paper up in a few concluding lines, but you do not have
to develop a full or formal conclusion.
• If you reference an outside source (and any time you reference our assigned
texts, whether paraphrasing or using direct quotation) you MUST cite the
sources both as in-text citations and in a Works Cited page.

Evaluation Criteria

A-level papers
• Deal with at least one or two specific and tangible examples or details; explore
that idea (and related ideas) in a thoughtful and interesting way.
• Call attention to the process of exploring the idea through the act of writing and
reflection.
• Refer to at least one relevant assigned text as part of the discussion. When they
bring in an example, the introduce it, put it in context, unpack the example, and
explain how it relates to their own train of thought.
• Have a clear voice and are free of grammatical errors.
• Include citations and a corresponding Works Cited entry for any references or
quotations.
B-level papers
• Deal with some specific ideas or tangible example or detail, and they explore
that idea (and related ideas) in a thoughtful and interesting way.
• Reference at least one relevant assigned text as part of the discussion. These
examples might be treated in a passing or uneven manner, but they do relate in
some relevant way to the topic at hand.
• Are clear and mostly free of significant grammatical errors.
• Include citations and a corresponding Works Cited entry for any references or
quotations.
C-level papers
• Are vague in reference to the subject matter; speak mostly in general terms
and/or rely too heavily on quotation and outside ideas.

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 • Explore the essay question (and related ideas) in a way that does not move much
past a surface reading.
• Reference one relevant assigned text as part of the discussion. These examples
might be treated in a passing or uneven manner, but they do relate in some
relevant way to the topic at hand.
• Consistent issues with grammar or clarity.
• Might not include adequate citations and the corresponding Works Cited entry
for any references or quotations.
D-level papers (and lower)
• Are vague in reference to the subject matter and/or rely too heavily on quotation
and outside ideas.
• Explore the essay question (and related ideas) in a way that significantly misreads
the text or fails to move past a surface reading.
• Makes no (or only superficial or inadequate) reference to course material as part
of the discussion.
• Consistent and significant issues with grammar or clarity.
• Inadequate attention to citations and Works Cited entry.