Assignment 1: Essay

 

Due Week 4 and worth 100 points

 

Choose one (1) of the three (3) reading selections from the list of topic choices below. The focus is on brief but important primary source material written by important authors. In each case, the subject relates to the problems of certain people who are oppressed or impoverished.  In each topic, a different genre or approach is adopted to help readers see and perhaps address the problem.   Read the selections as identified with each topic below. Write a four-to-five (4-5) paragraph essay (350 words minimum) which analyzes the work following the list of four things “your paper should cover” given just after the topics.

 

 

 

Topic 

 

Reading selection from Samuel Johnson within the current text 21.12 from The Rambler the essay found herehttp://www.johnsonessays.com/the-idler/sufficiency-english-language/. Johnson was the editor of two coffeehouse magazines, The Rambler (1750–52) and The Idler (1758–60), and the author of Dictionary of the English Language, and subject of one of the first biographies by James Boswell. Johnson overcame numerous illnesses and handicaps.

 

 

 

For the reading selection and topic you choose, your paper should cover the following:

 

1. Briefly introduce the writer and the situation that this reading is about.  Identify the genre or nature of the reading. (Who is the author; why did he or she write this piece?)
2. Using specific examples or lines within the reading, suggest the author’s key views and key aims for the reading audience. (Give a 1-2 paragraph summary of ideas)
3. Evaluate the author’s strategy and what you see as the work’s likely effectiveness (or lack of effectiveness) for the target audience.  If there is any known historical result, discuss that. (Look at the writing style and discuss who would read this)
4. Evaluate how the reading impacted you.  Identify any analogous situations today, and also key lessons you get from the reading that could be relevant to one’s professional and personal life. (How did you like this?  How do the ideas relate to situations today?)