Immigrant’s Experiences

The class did well on the First Analytical Essay. This week we have our second 750-word essay, but this time it will be based on your answers to the questions about another one of the readings in the book, this one on the topic of an immigrant’s experience.

Your essay this week will be a response to Firoozeh Dumas’s article on how she was treated when she immigrated to the United States, as a result of her foreign name. It starts on p. 257 in Intersections.

Be sure to follow the directions carefully so that you will get the maximum amount of points.

DIRECTIONS:

First, preview the article by reading the top of page 257 in Intersections, the first paragraph, all of the information in the margins, and each bolded word.
Then go back and follow the directions in “As You Read” on page 257 as you read through Firoozeh Dumas’s story.
Now you are ready to start writing! Open a new file, either Microsoft Word or any file that you can save as a PDF file.
Format

1. Write your name in the top left-hand corner, first name then family name with no commas and no period.

2. Write the assignment name directly below your name, on the second line: Second Analytical Essay (with no period).

3. A few lines below the assignment name, plan to write a title for your paper. You can come back and do this after you write the paper if you like, and when you do, make sure to center it.

4. Set your paper to automatically double space.

5. Use 12-point Times New Roman or a similar font.

6. Make sure you have 1-inch margins and that the color of the font is black, not gray.

Content

1. If you wish, you can postpone writing the introduction until after you finish the rest of the paper. This strategy works well for many students, but if you prefer to come up with a topic sentence, or thesis, and write the introduction first, that’s fine too.

2. Now answer the Before You Read questions on page 257, from your own experience, but remember to write them in paragraph form, one after another, not as a numbered list.

3. Below that, write the answers to the five Mapping the Reading questions on pages 260-261, again as a paragraph.

4. Then answer the five questions in Discussing and Thinking Critically, in another paragraph, or maybe several paragraphs. If you really don’t know the story of your own name, maybe you can ask someone in your family about it–OR you can write about the name of someone else in your family if you prefer.

5. After that, check how many words you have. You might already have 750 words–that’s great!–but whether you do or not, there are still a few more required steps.

6. Now write an introduction. A traditional introduction tells about the topic and why it’s important, maybe previews, or mentions, the main points that are coming in your essay, or in some way makes the topic seem interesting to the reader. This is where you should tell the author’s name, brief background, and the title of her story.

7. The last part of your paper is the conclusion. You can choose to use one or more of the following strategies, or you can come up with your own conclusion. Some strategies:

–tell why this topic is important

–make a recommendation, give advice

–predict the future of this issue (look to the future)

–restate the main idea from the introduction using different wording

–tell a lesson that can be learned from this topic

–or whatever makes the paper feel finished.

8. If you don’t have at least 750 words, go back and expand on (write more about) any of the answers you wish.

9. Now go back and make sure that each section flows smoothly to the next section. You might have to use some transition words or sentences, adjust the style, etc., but the important thing is to make it feel like one complete essay, not a bunch of separate answers, which is how it started out.

10. When you finish that, check again to see if you have at least 750 words, and if not, add more information, maybe add a quote and talk about it, or write more about your personal experience, etc.

11. Finally, check it the best you can and correct any errors you find. Pay special attention to the word “you,” which means the reader, not people in general. Instead, you can say “people, they,” etc. Also check that you are not trying to connect sentences with just a comma alone.

12. Finally, run the Readability Statistics, make sure your Flesch-Kincaid score is over 7.0 and that your word count is at least 750, and paste this information including the word count at the bottom of your essay.

13. When you have done the best job you can, submit your assignment as a PDF or Word file. This assignment is worth 150 points.