English 8                    Mrs. McDonald

 

Composition #3          Second Quarter Conferenced Essay

 

Assignment:               A one paragraph personality sketch of a short story character.

 

Topic:                         Choose one of the characters listed below. Brainstorm some personality traits (using adjectives not nouns) which you believe your                                         chosen character possesses. Be sure that you can support the personality trait through something you read about the                                                   character in the story.

 

Kass (from “Mary”)                                                    Mrs. Flowers (from “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”)

Crescent (from “Then He Goes Free”)                       Carol (from “Louisa, Please Come Home”)   

 

TOPIC SENTENCE EXAMPLE: In the short story entitled “Louisa, Please Come Home” by Shirley Jackson, it is evident that Paul’s personality trait of                                    dishonesty leads to Louisa’s rejection by her family.

 

Due Date:                   Rough draft              (B) Thursday, October 20; (A) Friday, October 21

                                    Final Original            Tuesday, 25 October 2005 by All by Break

 

Skill/Concept

   Stressed:                  The ability to describe a character in terms of a personality trait and                       

                                                how that trait is shown through something that occurs in the story.

 

Requirements:           1.Original title. The same rule applies as for your proceeding                                                           

                                                essays. DO NOT use the title of the story or the name of the                                               

                                                character. Catch the reader’s attention & use your imagination.

                                    2.Write a well-developed one paragraph essay describing your chosen                                            

                                                character in terms of her personality trait and how it relates directly                                    

                                                to some event in the story.

                                    3.DO NOT USE contractions or to be verbs.

                                    4.DO USE present tense, third person, correct heading, and correct                                                                        

                                                spelling, punctuation, sentence structure and vocabulary

                                    5.Type or word process the final copy of your original using the MLA style.

                                    6.Double space heading and essay.

                                    7.Essay will be worth 100 points.

                                    8.Essays will be conferenced and revisions will be worth 100 points.