English 101—Dr. Koch (Bob)

PAPER #1

Write a profile of the person you interviewed in class. Try to make it interesting.

Items you might consider including in your essay:

1. A description, including appearance, clothing, gestures, way of speaking.

2. The person’s job, hobbies, interests.

3. The person’s relationships with family members.

4. The person’s desires, hopes, goals and plans. What motivates this person?

5. The person’s values and beliefs.

6. The problems the person faces.

7. Your own reactions to the person and what he or she says.

You don’t necessarily have to cover all these points. If you find out something interesting about the person, try to learn more about it and make that the centerpiece of your essay. See if you can’t make all the details add up to something.

Other ideas:

1. Tell an interesting story about the person.

2. Develop examples to illustrate points you make about the person.

3. Compare the person to some significant individual in the person’s life.

4. Explain why the person has made some decision, is committing to something, or wants to achieve some goal.

The paper should be at least 500 words. It should be typed or word-processed and double-spaced. Please leave at least a one-inch margin for my comments.

Your paper will be graded as follows:

35% on development.

Have you written a clear thesis that you can develop well?

Have you discussed all the points your audience will expect you to discuss?

Have you elaborated on your main points by providing adequate details?

Have you used appropriate methods of development for each paragraph?

Are you sure that everything in the essay supports the thesis?

Have you reasoned well?

Does one idea lead naturally to the next?

15% on organization.

Do you have a good introduction, containing your thesis, and a satisfying conclusion?

Have you divided your materials logically into paragraphs?

Have you written unified paragraphs?

Have you made the topic of each paragraph clear by writing a topic sentence or by other means?

50% on grammar and style.

Have you written any sentence fragments or comma splices?

Does your paper contain any subject-verb agreement errors?

Have you achieved variety in vocabulary and sentence structure?

Have you selected the words that best express your thoughts?

Have you avoided verbosity and redundancy?

The questions above cover the main points but not everything that might affect your grade.

Late papers will receive reduced grades, as described in the syllabus.