This essay should present a combination of philosophical and narrative writing—you’ll need to explain the concept as it relates to your own experience, and also discuss how your experience this semester has caused you to think about, meditate on, or rethink your understanding of this concept.

 

This is a complex essay, and therefore it’ll be a complicated writing process.  You’ll need to think about your experience this semester, and really consider how that experience has challenged or surprised you in various ways.  You may need to consider some unpleasant occurrences and events; you may need to look inside yourself to find some events or thoughts that make you uncomfortable.  That’s perfectly fine—sometimes it’s necessary.  The central goal of this essay is not to make you uncomfortable, but to encourage you to reflect on your experience during this first year, and write about how it’s influenced your thinking in a specific conceptual context such as love, friendship, faith or belief, strength and endurance, integrity, personal success, race, sex and sexuality, success, honesty, personal character, etc.

 

You should feel free to write about any topic you desire, provided you’re comfortable with your workshop group and me reading the draft. 

 

As your peer group and I read this essay, we want to know a few things specifically.  You need not define or articulate your responses to these questions directly, but we should have a very clear sense of the answers to these questions by the time we finish the essay.

 

·         What’s the primary concept under consideration here?

·         How did / do you define this concept?  Did that definition change in any way as a result of your experiences this semester?

·         Specifically, what happened this semester to cause you to reflect on your understanding of this concept?  How did those experiences challenge or refine your understanding of this concept?  Was this a single event or a series of events that occurred over time?

·         How has this new or refined understanding of the concept changed the way you think about yourself, your college experiences, your goals, or your personal character?

·         Do you think your behavior, attitude, or life choices will change in any way as a result of this new or refined understanding?