+1 862 207 3288 We Southerners have a sense of place, and a sense of place gives you a sense of self. (Cokie Roberts, news analyst)
My quest to encounter the glories of Africa’s past would be a journey of discovery, for readers and viewers, of course, but for me as well. (Henry Louis Gates Jr.)
INTRODUCTION
On our journeys of personal growth and self-discovery, we are shaped by the places we visit and inhabit such as homes, schools, spiritual sites, historic places,
museums and galleries, graveyards, and natural settings just to name a few. As news analyst Cokie Roberts says, “a sense of place gives you a sense of self.”
Essay #3 is based on a place of interest to you and your personal response to that place. Journey to a Houston area site take notes, collect a brochure or print a
website associated with the place, make your fundamental decisions (purpose, audience, tone/persona, strategies, tentative thesis, and optional rough draft/scratch
outline), determine your organization, and write an essay that will engage an HCCS student body eager to explore and learn about the diverse sites in and around
Houston. The audience is also interested in your personal reaction to the site.
Essay #3 is also your mid-term essay. As a mid-term, it is a combination of Essay #1 (Memory and Memoir) and Essay #2 (Exploration and Exposition). Your essay is part
memoir (in that you will be looking back on your visit and expressing a tone) AND part expository (in that you will be informing and explaining.)
In your essay you first want to give the reader a “sense of place,” perhaps even tap into the “soul” of the place, its genius loci, or what you perceive to be “the
distinctive atmosphere or pervading spirit of the place” (American Heritage Dictionary). However, this essay is also about your personal response to that place, your
“sense of self” in the place. How does the site impact you?
This writing project creates expectations as you consider the questions: What place will I select to visit? Why do I want to go there? What do I gain from travel? What
do I hope to discover? What will I learn?
After you have made your visit, you will confront other questions: What have I learned? Was my initial perspective changed? Has my visit been scholarly/academic or
personal? In any way did my visit transform into a pilgrimage? Does my visit in any way become an extended metaphor for something larger? Was my journey in any way
symbolic? (Note how the leather straps function in Henry Louis Gates’ essay “Rope Burn.”)
WRITING ASSIGNMENT
Write an in-class essay between 500 and 750 words about your visit to a Houston area site.
On your planning page, make notes about your (1) purposes, (2) audience, (3) tone(s), (4) strategy(ies), and (5) a tentative thesis. You might also want to write a
scratch outline.
Your purposes are to reflect, express, inform and explain.
Assume that the audience is our class (“a supportive community of writers”). You might expand your notion of audience by considering publication in our school
newspaper The Egalitarian. Assume that your audience has not visited your particular site.
Select a tone (or tones) appropriate for your attitude about your visit to the place. Your tone might be one of respect and awe, humor, even sorrow. You might
experience a change in tone as you make your journey to and through your site.
In addition to selecting your purposes, audience and tone, you want to decide on what strategies will best help you accomplish your purposes. Your essay will be part
narrative (but may not necessarily include rising action, conflict, and climax). Instead, your essay might be narrative in the sense that you take your readers step by
step through the site you visit. However, if you encounter a conflict at the site, you might want to use that in your essay and include a climactic moment and
resolution (if you experience a resolution).
You definitely want to include description so the readers can experience the “sense place” that you experienced. Use imagery, strong diction, and figurative language.
Give examples of what you see. Let examples illustrate the point you are making about the site. You might also want to include definitions, and comparisons/contrasts.
As part of your content, zero in on one specific feature of the site that engaged your interest. This “feature” could be something that you see, such as a painting,
photograph, tombstone, or piece of clothing you might find in a museum. Or it could be something intangible such as the silence you find at the Rothko Chapel. Or the
cold air in the Houston Holocaust museum.
One half of your essay should be devoted to that feature. You could be like SuzAnne Cole in “Walking into Horror” by devoting the second half of your essay on the
specific feature or you could be like Sylvia Herrera in “Whose Story?” and discuss the feature throughout your essay.
Draft a custom-designed thesis linked to your writing purposes, one that is appropriate for your particular site visit and your experience there. Consider the sample
thesis sentences in the three essays you read for this unit.
One hallmark of the sample essays we will read in this unit is a strong, personal style or writer’s voice or persona. Carefully consider the elements of style: diction
(imagery, figurative language, word choice), sentence variety, tone, and selection of details in our sample essays.
