Monday, October 7th, 2013--7:30 pm

Greetings,

Below you will find:

1. Out of Class Essay Assignment #2, distributed and discussed in class today.
2. Packet #3, due to be read next week.
3. Reminders about In-Class Essay #1 for this Wednesday.

English 20, Fall 2013---C. Fraga

Date assigned: Monday, October 7

Rough draft (optional): due no later than Monday, October 28 (please submit as a Word document via e-mail)

Final draft due: Monday, November 4

Details:

1. MLA format

2. At least 5 outside sources on your Works Cited page. If you utilize personal interviews, at LEAST two of the four sources CANNOT be interviews. The best place to start is the home page of the Sacramento State Library. By this time in your college career, you should be very familiar with the AMAZING databases available to you, just a click away!

3. Please, no Wikipedia or encyclopedias as primary sources

4. No formulaic, 5 paragraph essay

OUT OF CLASS ESSAY ASSIGNMENT #2

Among many things, the series Breaking Bad focuses on the family entity and what happens when something quite extraordinary occurs—how do members of the family cope, adjust, and/or “deal” with the event/situation? (In the case of this series, obviously it is Walter’s cancer that is the ‘event’).

I am not referring to the everyday “bumps in the road” that occur for all families. Instead, I am asking you to consider the family unit when faced with an especially challenging situation. These situations could include but are not limited to:

• death

• birth

• infidelity

• serious injury

• dementia

• serious illness

• divorce

• unemployment

• new employment

• moving to a new home/state/area/country

• the return of a war veteran

• moving BACK home after initially moving OUT

• alcoholism

• drug abuse

Select ONE situation that you are most interested in exploring. You will conduct research (and possibly personal interviews) in order to write an essay that offers the reader a brief background on the topic and makes an assertion about what elements impact a family in the most challenging of ways and supports it logically and interestingly.

Your thesis might read something like this:

When a family member develops dementia, the challenges are often devastating, yet the disease definitely impacts family members more than the dementia patient.

Or…

When a couple divorces, it most certainly impacts the children still living at home; however, it is the older children who have already moved away that are most affected by the split.

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PACKET #3 ASSIGNMENT
(both items are TED Talk videos. The second one listed will be the subject for the Writing Response on Wednesday, 10/16. The first one listed will be discussed on Monday, 10/14.)

1. "Abraham Verghese: A Doctor's Touch" --TED TALKS
http://www.ted.com/talks/abraham_verghese_a_doctor_s_touch.htm

2. "The Conscience  of Television:--TED TALKS
http://www.ted.com/talks/lauren_zalaznick.html

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REMINDERS FOR IN-CLASS ESSAY ON WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9TH

1. Bring a blue or green book to class along with a few pens (no pencils, please). The size of the blue or green book does not matter.

2. The essay is open notes/open Viewer's Journal, etc.

3.  Try to remember to skip every other line. Also, I have no problem with you writing on the backside of the pages.

4.  Please focus your response only on the first five episodes of Season 1.

5. Refer to the series at least once, preferably towards the beginning of your essay. Titles of television programs are typed in italics and underlines when written out.

6.  Be sure to take at least the first 5-10 minutes to plan your essay BEFORE you begin writing.