“I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.” ― Oscar Wilde

Upon retirement in 1571, Michel de Montaigne spent his time in the French countryside reading and writing, where he claimed to be merely “essaying” – which in French means trying – a kind of exploratory, unresolved thinking on the page. Montaigne suggested that in writing about himself, he was also “undertaking a study, the subject of which is man.” Essays traffic in ideas, asking questions, and explaining thinking in order to help the reader become equally enthralled.

This paper is a true essay in the classical sense that the writer should discover, articulate and express personal insights as they intersect with and circle around a specific topic or moment experienced in RWS 305W or your SDSU life. Writing consultant Katherine Bomer in her publication “The Journey is Everything” states “The kind of writing I am arguing for in this book: prose pieces that are personal, lyrical, literary, descriptive, reflective, narrative, expository, philosophical, political, spiritual…all of the above.” Your goal? To craft an essay that has room for everything – essays linger, arouse, question, travel, contradict, reveal and expose the mind.

Successful essays will:

• Be personal. Narrate you’re your own story/experience in first person, cultivate voice
• Set up the text, context and approach in a way that allows you to enter the conversation
• Use at least one class idea/moment as a “touchstone” – a foundation for your inquiry
• Explore the larger contextual elements (moment in history, geography, age, situation…)
• Possess a controlling idea, but also be creative, organic, logical – not formulaic
• Be honest and accurate – identify and name your ideas, places, moments, setting
• Possess a thoughtful, creative conclusion – good essay have striking beginnings and endings
• Include quoted credible sources (writers, current voices, critics, peers…)
• Use an epigraph to creatively contextualize your contribution to the conversation (see Wilde quote)

Length: 5-6 pages long, MLA format & works cited page minimum of three outside, quality sources

Audience: Your intended audience is up to you; it could be other RWS305W students (current or incoming), your

professor or any demographic you envision would benefit from your content.

Purpose: To grow through the act of writing, to pour yourself onto the page and write an essay you are proud of, to tell a story and play with words in a way that is engaging – to essay.

Topic: The field is wide open! The foundation for your topic could be one dynamic idea from a journal writing experience, one beautiful line from a reading, one random insight from lecture, or the intersection of all of these in a drunken conversation with your roommate. You must follow your own curiosity and thinking while essaying; search your journal entries for inspired moments or use ideas from class content to jumpstart your inquiry. Consider how your observations and experiences in this class connect with your interests/field, challenge your values, or expand your understanding. You might go big (and reflect on your entire college experience) or go small (and analyze your growth in a mere 10 journal entries); the scope is up to you.

1. Be confident in your topic

2. Begin researching and deciding on what voices, sources to quote

3. Explore your own thinking and personal relationship to your topic (use “I”)

4. Plan how you will guide your target reader through your organized ideas to reveal your thinking and a way of understanding the greater meaning in context

5. Craft an intentional, striking introduction

6. Know if you need to talk to me about your topic or any unclear aspect of this project

7. Check the prompt for all requirements including epigraph and MLA citing

I attached the journals I wrote in class.

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