University Laboratory High School
Urbana, IL

Fall 2017

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Writing Day: Tuesday, September 29

Five minute quick-write:


How do you feel about your name?








If your personal essay is already under way with a topic or direction you feel excited about, write for the rest of the period, developing your ideas and beginning to or continuing to shape an essay.

If you are still having trouble deciding on a direction to take in your essay or a way to focus in on a topic, consider Phillip Lopate’s observation that one important path toward engaging your audience is to understand that your story can “serve to elucidate a more widespread human trait and make readers feel a little less lonely and freakish.”  Consider a moment, a period, or an experience in your life where you felt “lonely and freakish,” and consider how you might draw on that. What made you feel less that way? Or, if you’re still in the midst of feeling that way, what are your thoughts on why you feel this way and how you might overcome that? And/or, what can you take from that experience, whether it is in your past or in your present?


With that in mind, expand on the “How do you feel about your name?” prompt, revisit the “Have you ever or do you feel ‘split at the root’?” prompt, or begin to work on some particular path that the contemplation of “lonely and freakish” leads you down.


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