Paper #1: The Human Conversation, due Thursday, Feb.9th (revised date)

English 1213

Paper #1: Human Conversations

INTRO: For your first paper, I want you to focus on the idea of writing a ‘conversation,’ which means a paper that brings in other voices than your own. Instead of writing a paper that says “I think this, and I think that, and I also think this,” I want you to introduce other people’s ideas and thoughts, and explain why they’re significant before you weigh in with your own ideas. Good writing is always writing that responds to a conversation and shows us why things matter. If you find yourself unable to explain the importance of a topic or idea, you’ve simply left out too much of the conversation. How to find the conversation? Find who else is talking about it, and let them discuss it.

PROMPT: Find THREE people in the book who share the same basic conversation. This could be a conversation about education, having a family, losing a job, finding happiness, losing hope, falling in love, etc. They don’t all have to talk about it the same way, or even agree with each other, but it should be clear from your paper that they’re each talking about the same basic thing. Introduce each person by briefly describing them and then quote something significant of what they bring to the conversation. Explain how each one adds or seems to respond to the other, and what we learn from hearing these three people share their discussions with the audience.

OUTLINE: Your INTRODUCTION should open “in the middle” (we’ll discuss that in class) with one of the ‘humans’ in the book, using their story or picture to introduce the topic. The rest of the paper should be their discussions and your responses to them (what makes them significant, why they’re important/interesting, etc.). Your CONCLUSION should explain why this, to you, is one of the most important conversations we can have as human beings. What do you, personally, learn from this conversation that others can benefit from?

INTRODUCING A SOURCE (an example):

On page 213 of Humans of New York, we see an intense-looking young man staring at the camera with blue eyes and a blue-green hoodie. It’s clearly winter in the photo, as we see snow in the background and barren trees. The man is photographed in the act of talking to the photographer, and tells him that “You have to network and create opportunities, but I’m not really good at that because I get nervous and overly quiet in social situations” (Stanton). This is important because…

REQUIREMENTS:

·       Use three people from the book in your discussion

·       Be sure to briefly describe each person and QUOTE from their stories (you don’t have to quote the entire story, esp. if it’s long)

·       Cite all quotations according to MLA format (author and/or page number)

·       The paper should have a clear Introduction, Discussion, and Conclusion

·       Be sure to include a Works Cited entry with our book

·       Due Thursday, February 9 [We WILL have class on this day, but there won't be any other work due]