I don’t know.

Is your essay an essay?

I don’t know.

What is an Essay?

Okay. I'll try:What does it look

like?What does it

contain?How many

paragraphs?Who told you/taught

you this?Have you received

conflicting info on how to write an essay?

Do you agree/disagree with these teachings?

How much practice have you had in writing essays?

More personal questions.Who is the audience for your essay?

Paragraph5 elements of a

paragraphT_____ S_______SD1 + FEEDSD2 + FEEDSD3 + FEEDC_______ S_________

5 elements of an essay

T______ S________BP1 (Add more

FEED)BP2 (Add more

FEED)BP3 (Add more

FEED)C_______________

How does an essay differ from other types of writing?

Essay

Professor reading Boring-Writing

What makes boring writing?Professor reading Beautiful-Writing

Quotations will follow from his essay, but read the essay, because, to be honest, I will provide a mere FRACTION of the interesting stuff that he talks about. Click on the link in Pasport that I titled, “Is your essay an essay?”

I will now begin his quotations.

Thank you for your patience.

Paul Graham, "The Age of the Essay"

“An essay is supposed to be a search for truth. It would be suspicious if it didn’t meander.”

Cool Quotation 1: Truth

An essay is like a river.“I’d much rather read an essay that went off in an unexpected but interesting direction than one that plodded along a prescribed course.”

Did I mention this is the first powerpoint I created? (Cool Quotation 2: A River)

He says that essays should surprise us. He talks a lot about this, and he speaks quite eloquently.

Read the essay.

Quotation 3: Surprise

What "surprise" looks-like in a picture. But if you were to write about it, you wouldn't have a picture. Then what would you do to show surprise? (Let's chat about it this semester.)

Half 'n HalfHe says that half of

essay writing is thinking a LOT about what you write, before you write and as you write and after you write.

He says that the other half is becoming a ferret. I will now find a picture of a ferret.

A ferret

He says to be an assiduous ferret.Assiduous:

Constant, unrelenting

Constant in application or effort; working diligently at a task; persevering; industrious; attentive

Ferret:

A domesticated, usually red-eyed, albinic variety of the polecat, used in Europe for driving rabbits and rats from their burrows

To search out, discover, or bring to the light

“It’s a good idea to have a habit of asking questions, especially questions beginning with Why. But not in the random way that three year olds ask why.”

Ask about things that seem WRONG.I do that.But sometimes it gets me in trouble.

He says to question.

“Above all, make a habit of paying attention to things you’re not supposed to, either because they’re ‘inappropriate,” or not important, or not what you’re supposed to be working on. If you’re curious about something, trust your instincts.”

Disobedience. (My email quotation)

“I write down things that surprise me in notebooks. I never actually get around to reading them and using what I’ve written, but I do tend to reproduce the same thoughts later. So the main value of notebooks may be what writing down what leaves in your head.”

Notebooking.

“If there’s one piece of advice I would give about writing essays, it would be: don’t do as you’re told. Don’t believe what you’re supposed to. Don’t write essays readers expect; one learns nothing from what one expects.”

“AND DON’T WRITE THE WAY THEY TAUGHT YOU TO IN SCHOOL.”

?!?!?!

His LastWords on Writing:

My last words: Until we meet again, be like the ferret.

Look around you carefully.Use your senses to detect stuff that doesn’t

“feel right.”Eavesdrop, everywhere.Get a little notebook and “notebook.”Take a day and be silent. Just listen.Look, listen, eavesdrop because it’s all going-

into Your Writing.Read writers. You pick up their techniques.

Steal them.

How?

A determination to know The Truth: Your Own and Others.

A determination to know yourself, at any cost.

That’s it. That’s at the core of every writer’s heart.

Develop……