• Exploring your name (Option A)
• Describing the place you call home (Option B)
• Considering the significance of an event (Option C)

The task:

Your challenge in this essay to create a polished essay (4 to 6 pages, typed and double-spaced with standard margins) that describes what your name means to you and how it has shaped you into the person you are.

Organizational strategies:

You may want to use narration to explain the history of how you came to be named or description to communicate a concrete picture of how your name has affected you. Or you may want to compare the person you are to the person for whom you were named.

The audience:

Your classmates and your instructors

The tone:

You probably will find it comfortable to adapt a first-person voice in this essay; try for a friendly tone expressed in language your university audience will find interesting and appropriate.

Helps:

• For an example of an essay that uses narration to make a point about a name, you'll want to read "I Am Lola" by SUU student Heather Santini.
• Check this website's sections on narrating and describing
• See the "Narrating"(573) and "Describing" (589)sections in your St. Martin's Guide.
• Try the Name Warm-up Exercise included in this section.

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Name Warm-up

Adapted by Jeanne Clark from
an assignment by Elaine Ryan,
English Journal, January 1990

• First step:

  Interview family members to find out as much as possible about the origin of your name. As you take notes, get as much detail as possible. For instance, if your mom named you after a famous figure from history, ask her why. If your dad named you after his uncle, find out what qualities that person had that your dad hoped you might develop, or ask your dad to tell you a story about that person.

• Second step:

  Do some internet or library. Your name might come from mythology, tribes, places, animals, admired virtues, or mispronunciations of foreign names and phrases. Your name might have different spellings in different languages, or in accordance with your gender. Your name may have changed throughout history. Find out as much as you can. What country does your name come from? Ask your parents and grandparents for stories about how family names gave been changed in spelling or pronunciation or traded for new ones.

• Third step:

  Think of what some of the symbols or images for your name might be. For instance, if your name means "warrior," your symbol might be a spear. See how many images--word pictures--or symbols you can think of for your name. Think about what number of color symbolizes your name. What music? What food?

• Fourth step:

  Think about how you are like or unlike the original meaning of your name. Maybe you are supposed to be like your Uncle Gilbert, but you're anything but like him. Maybe your name means "gentle" but you see yourself as fierce.

• Fifth step:

  Think about how you feel about your name. Do people mispronounce it? What do they say? Do you like your nickname better? The one your friends gave you, or your pet name at home? Have you ever thought about trying out a new name? How do you think changing your name would change your life?

• Last step:

  Highlight the sections of your notes that seem most interesting. In a paragraph, explain which information seemed most interesting or useful to you and what point you think you might want your essay to convey.

Research helps:

Search the world wide web using this search word: names for babies. (Be sure to include the period for best results.)

Or try these links:

• Name origins
• Naming the baby in Utah

A few suggested books are:

• Browder, Sue. The New Age Baby Name Book; The West, The East, and the Third World. New York: Warners, 1974.

• Lansky, Bruce, and Vicki Lansky. The Best Baby Name Book in the Whole World. Deephaven, MN: Meadowbrook,1983.

• Meltzer, Milton. A Book About Names. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell. 1984.

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Describing the place that you call home

Go to description warm-up

The task:

Your challenge in this essay to create a polished essay (4 to 6 pages, typed and double-spaced with standard margins)  that (1) offers a concrete description of a place you know well (your residence, neighborhood, or town) and (2) makes it clear why that place is significant to you

Your classmates and your instructors

You may find it comfortable to adapt a first-person voice in this essay; try for a friendly tone expressed in language your university audience will find interesting and appropriate.

• See this website's sections on describing.
• See the "Describing" (page 589) section in your St. Martin's Guide
• Try the warm-up exercise included in this section.

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Description Warm-up Exercise

Here's one way of approaching this assignment:

1. Quickly list at least 10 places where you spend a lot of time or visit as often as you can.
   
2. Circle the one that you'd like to write about today.
   
3. If possible visit the site physically. If not place yourself there mentally. Then sit quietly, recording everything you SEE, HEAR, SMELL, TASTE and FEEL (both physically and emotionally.)
   
4. Quickly draft your description, being sure to write in concrete detail about the most significant aspects of the place.
   
5. Set the draft aside.
   
6. As your next writing session begins, reread your draft and then quickly write a few sentences about what you want your readers to understand about the place.
   
7. Now rewrite, emphasizing the details that will help convey your central idea to your readers and deleting those that don't seem to add to the dominant impression.
   
8. Send your draft to your listserv to find out how your readers are reacting to your writing at this stage in its development.
   
9. After you read your group's comments, fill out notes for revision, rewrite, and prepare your manuscript for submission to the instructor.

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Considering the meaning of an event

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The task:

Your challenge in this essay to create a polished  (4 to 6 pages, typed and double-spaced with standard margins) narrative (story) essay that (1) reveals a points (2) about an event that nudged you into adulthood or caused you to feel like an outsider.

Your classmates and your instructors

You may find it comfortable to adapt a first-person voice in this essay; try for a friendly tone expressed in language your university audience will find interesting and appropriate. However, you may want to adapt a third-person voice by becoming a named character in you essay to give yourself and your reader a more objective view of the events you describe.

See the "Narrating" section (page 573) in your St. Martin's Guide to Writing.

Try the warm-up exercise included in this section.

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Narration Warm-up Exercise

Write a list that represents the major stages or or memorable events of your life. For example, such a line might look like this:


Age 5	Moved to Utah
Age 12	Uncle died
Age 15	Started high school
Age 16	Fell in love
Age 17	Graduated from high school

Circle the event that most changed the way you think about life or other people or the way you conduct yourself .

E-mail your listserv group with a brief summary of the event and why it was important in your life.

Make journal notes in response to the St. Martin's prompts pages 51-55.

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Last update 12/12/2001