Essay Assignment: Illustration Essay—Prewriting and

Draft

For this assignment, you will work through the prewriting and drafting stages of your
writing process in an illustration/example essay.

Illustration/Example Essay Prompt

Choose one of the following statements and agree or disagree with it in an essay
developed by using multiple and extended examples. The statement you decide on
should concern a topic you care about so that the examples are a means of
communicating an idea; not an end in themselves.

Family

1. In happy families, talk is the main activity.

2. Grandparents relate more closely to grandchildren than to their children.
3. Sooner or later, children take on the personalities of their parents.

Behavior and Personality

1. Rudeness is on the rise.

2. Gestures and facial expressions often communicate what words cannot
say.
3. Our natural surroundings when we are growing up contribute to our
happiness or unhappiness as adults.

Education

1. The best courses are the difficult ones.

 2. Students at schools with enforced dress codes behave better than
students at schools without such codes.

Politics and Social Issues

1. Drug and alcohol addiction does not happen just to “bad” people.

Media and Culture

1. The Internet divides people instead of connecting them.

2. Good art can be ugly.
3. A craze or fad reveals something about the culture it arises in.
4. The best rock musicians treat social and political issues in their songs.

Rules for Living

1. Lying may be justified by the circumstances.

2. Friends are people you can’t always trust.

Writing Your Illustration/Example Essay

Prewriting

STEP 1: To get started writing your essay, first pick at least one of the rewriting
strategies we learned about in the course: brainstorming, rewriting, journaling,
mapping, questioning, sketching. Use your chosen method and gather ideas for your
essay. Write down what you do, as you’ll need to submit evidence of your prewrite.

Drafting

STEP 2: Write a draft of your essay. When drafting your essay:

 1. Develop an enticing title.
2. Use the introduction to pull the reader into your singular experience by
introducing the problematic situation.
3. Avoid addressing the assignment directly. (Don’t write, “I am going to
write about my most significant experience”—this takes the fun out of
reading the work!)
4. Think of things said at the moment this experience started for
you—perhaps use a quote, or an interesting part of the experience that
will grab the reader.
5. Let the essay reflect your own voice. (Is your voice serious? Humorous?
Matter-of-fact?)
6. Try to organize the essay in a way that may capture the reader by
mixing multiple and extended examples, but don’t string the reader
along too much with “next, next, next.”
7. To avoid just telling what happens. SHOW your reader what happened
describing vivid examples and incorporating testimony. Make sure you
take time to reflect on why this experience is significant.

Assignment Instructions

1. Review the grading rubric as listed on this page.

2. Choose a writing prompt as listed above page.
3. Create a prewriting in the style of your choice for the prompt.
4. Develop a draft essay according to the following formatting guidelines:
(Papers submitted that do not meet these formatting requirements will
be returned to you ungraded)
● Minimum of 3 typed, double-spaced pages (about 600–750
words), Times New Roman, 12 pt font size
● MLA formatting (see the MLA Format page as needed)
5. Submit your prewriting and draft as a single file upload.
Requirements

Be sure to:

● Agree or disagree with the prompt statement by using multiple and

extended examples.
● Decide on something you care about so that the narration is a means of
communicating an idea.
● Develop an enticing title.
● Use the introduction to establish the situation the essay will address.
● Avoid addressing the assignment directly. (Don’t write “I am going to
write about…” – this takes the fun out of reading the work!).
● Let the essay reflect your own voice (Is your voice serious? Humorous?
Matter-of-fact?).
● Avoid “telling” your reader about what happened. Instead, “show” what
happens using active verbs and/or concrete and descriptive nouns.

*If you developed your prewriting by hand on paper, scan or take a picture of your
prewriting, load the image onto your computer, and then insert the image on a
separate page after your draft.

Rubric

Grading Rubric: Illustration/Example Essay—Prewriting and Draft

Point
Criteria Rating: Meets Expectation Approaching Expectation
Total: 50
 The paper demonstrates
outstanding or above average
The writer sufficiently defines
idea development
the topic, even though
Ideas demonstrating the illustration of __/10 pts
development is still basic or
an idea, including your own
general.
agreement or disagreement
with the prompt.

The paper demonstrates

outstanding or above average
The writer demonstrates
evidence of supporting the main
sufficient support of the main
Content point. Paragraphs are __/15 pts
point, but could use more
well-developed and clear,
supporting details.
effectively illustrating the
concept.

The organization is clear and The organizational structure

showcases the central theme. is strong enough to move the
Organization __/15 pts
The presentation of information reader through the text
is compelling. without too much confusion.

The writer demonstrates an The writer demonstrates

Word Choice, outstanding word choice sufficient selection of words.
Sentence selection, flow and cadence, The text tends to be more
__/5 pts
Fluency, with well-built sentences and mechanical and contains
Conventions strong grasp of standard writing some errors of standard
conventions. writing conventions.

Attaches a prewrite example

Only partially demonstrate
Prewrite showing forethought in __/5 pts
effective prewriting strategy
developing ideas for the essay.