The First Post

Today's post offers a preview of the assignment I'll hand out on Monday.  It will be due on Friday, and I wanted you to have a chance to think about it over the week-end.  Over the week-end I hope to update the blog to include an overview of what we've done since the start of school.  But for now, here's what you need:

SELF-DEFINITION PAPER

This assignment serves the two-fold purpose of helping me see your uniqueness as an individual among my 90-plus seniors (and 60 or so juniors!) as well as providing an opportunity for you to begin defining yourself in ways that could lead to ideas for your personal essay.

Before starting to write (and not to hand in for this assignment):

In preparation for the actual writing task, you will need to produce at least a draft of a resume of your high school activities.  Careful formatting and exact categories don’t matter at this point, but you DO need to have a full accounting of what you’ve done in high school:  GPA/test scores, selected classes, activities (sports, ASB, band, choir, drama, school clubs, etc.), volunteer experience, and relevant outside things like club sports, community activities, whatever special honors you’ve received or offices you have held, and work experience or summer internships.

How fully does this describe you? What else should we know? Now think about how accurately, fairly, insightfully, partially, or poorly this resume actually is in revealing the “true you”—the person you feel yourself to be—and in helping others to understand what makes you tick. Your job in the Self-Definition paper is to hone in on and develop the most essential material and to provide fuller and better information about something important that the “paper trail” doesn’t cover. 

SO—Now you will write a more explanatory “Self-Definition” containing two parts.  Each part should have 200-250 words.

The first part—Expand or explain something important that DOES exist on a paper resume or a filled in chart of all the categories a college application might ask about.  Whatever you discuss here should be something that readers of your resume would notice right off as being something you’ve done.  You can explain why it’s important, how you got into it, how it has affected you (hopefully for the better!), or anything else.  What you say is up to you, but this section must spin off of something that’s on the list of high school accomplishments and activities. This section discusses “the most essential YOU” part of your resume.

The second part—However, no list of what you’ve done can capture everything important about you.  Find something that wouldn’t be listed on a resume (or is just barely there).  The choice is yours, and depends on your actual life, but the point here is to continue the process of “defining” yourself by something else that’s an important part of your life. And although these papers will not be officially shared with classmates, the idea is to discuss something that is both true a positive part of the person you are.  In sum, the second part develops something significant about an aspect of your experience or interests that is not sufficiently reflected by information on the resume.

What the final product should look like (special formatting—this is not an MLA paper):

• CENTER your name at the top, creatively enhanced as you wish (and no other heading!)
• Give your own creative title to each part; make it relevant to the specific content of each section
• Center the separate titles for each section
• Double-space throughout
• Use a 12-point font of your choice, reasonably standard but not necessarily Times New Roman

Turning it in: 

• Print out one hard copy to hand in
• Submit an electronic copy to www.turnitin.com (we’ll be setting that up next week)

Due date:      Friday, Sept. 18