Cedarville University DigitalCommons@Cedarville Faculty Books 2014 The deI a of an Essay: Reflecting on Rockwell, Contending for Cursive, and 22 Other Compositions Isaac J. Mayeux Cedarville University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/faculty_books Recommended Citation Mayeux, Isaac J., "The deI a of an Essay: Reflecting on Rockwell, Contending for Cursive, and 22 Other Compositions" (2014). Faculty Books. 168. http://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/faculty_books/168 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@Cedarville, a service of the Centennial Library. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Books by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Cedarville. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The deI a of an Essay: Reflecting on Rockwell, Contending for Cursive, and 22 Other Compositions Keywords Cedarville University, compositions Publisher Cedarville University ISBN 9787030000002 This book is available at DigitalCommons@Cedarville: http://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/faculty_books/168 The Idea of an Essay Reflecting on Rockwell, Contending on Cursive, and 22 Other Compositions ISBN: 978-7-030-00000-5 Cedarville University Cedarville, Ohio 45314 Copyright 2014 1 Compiled By the Composition Committee: Dan Clark Melissa Faulkner Heather Hill Cyndi Messer Julie Moore Michelle Wood Nellie Sullivan Edited by: Isaac Mayeux Cover Created by: Roger Gelwicks Special Thanks to: Britt DeWitt, President, English Education Honor’s Society 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 4 INSTRUCTOR BIOGRAPHIES ..................................................................... 5 NARRATIVES/MEMOIRS ........................................................................ 17 DOOR SLAMMED FINGER, DEBORAH OBIELODAN ........................................... 18 OH BOY, KRISTEN LAAMAN ......................................................................... 23 WHEN YOU’RE GONE, CALEB VANDYKE ....................................................... 28 ALWAYS PLAYING KETCHUP, JONATHAN GUMMEL ......................................... 33 MY FIRST SPEECH, KRISTEN SABO ................................................................ 38 UNSTOPPABLE, DYLAN J. MCKEVITT ............................................................ 44 LEARNING TO FAITH, MICHAEL KUHN ........................................................... 50 OBSERVATION/DESCRIPTION ESSAYS .................................................... 56 THE GARDEN, ALISON LOGAN ..................................................................... 57 THE MYSTICAL RIDGE, DYLAN J. MCKEVITT ................................................... 61 BLOWING IN THE WIND, ETHAN LAW ........................................................... 69 ANALYSIS PAPERS .................................................................................. 74 A VISION OF RACISM DIMINISHED, KYLE REILLY ............................................. 75 HUMANIZING THE FUTURE, JESSICA EVANOFF ................................................ 80 A RELATABLE CASE FOR THE ARTS, JULIA EVANOFF ......................................... 85 BRADBURY’S MESSAGE IN FAHRENHEIT 451, MICHELLE TOTH ......................... 91 RESEARCH PAPERS ................................................................................ 94 ON CURSIVE WRITING, KEYBOARDING, AND HANDWRITING: AN ARGUMENT OF EFFICACY, MADISON GRAPES, ELISE PARSONS, AND RUTH TOWNE ................... 95 AN ILLICIT PHENOMENON, AMANDA STABLES.............................................. 108 MEDIEVAL THOUGHT AND THE GOTHIC CATHEDRAL, ANNA SCHOENWALD ...... 119 KATYŃ AND POST-WORLD WAR II POLISH NATIONAL IDENTITY, JOHN BEHNKE 124 FREE YOUR FEET ..................................................................................... 133 A LITERATURE REVIEW OF GENRE, CALVIN J. ANDERSON............................... 144 THE EFFECT OF MUSIC ON CREATIVE WRITING, KELLEY PUGH........................ 153 OKAY, CLASS, TAKE OUT YOUR PHONES, JULIA EVANOFF .............................. 174 THE ROLE OF A PHYSICIAN IN END-OF-LIFE STAGES OF THEIR PATIENTS, DAVID ANSON .................................................................................................. 183 OIL SUPPLY: THE TRUTH, MICHAEL KUHN ................................................... 194 COMPOSITION STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES ................................ 205 GRADING SYSTEM ............................................................................... 206 PLAGIARISM: WHAT IS IT AND HOW TO AVOID IT ............................... 207 LIST OF CAMPUS WRITING RESOURCES ............................................... 208 3 Dear Readers, Welcome to Cedarville University. We are excited to have you in our composition classes. This anthology is meant to serve as a learning tool, and we will use it together over the course of this semester as we engage in the process of writing. Cedarville University values writing. Regardless of your major, writing will be an intrinsic part of your education during your years at Cedarville, as it is a primary means of expressing clear, organized, critical thought. Perhaps more importantly, the writing you will do as part of your academic life will serve as practice for the various writing tasks each of you will complete as part of your chosen professions, as well as preparation for the writing you will do in your various communities, interpersonal relationships, and your daily devotions with God. Cedarville University commits to preparing each of you to be successful writers by requiring a first-year composition course taught by a member of the English, Literature, and Modern Languages Department. As composition instructors, we recognize the excellent writing created in our classes, so we host an annual composition contest for students who completed the course during that year. The anthology you are about to read consists of the winners of that contest for the 2012-2013 academic year. In the following pages, you will find models of university level writing, as well as examples of how to structure, organize, support, and document various genres of essays written for different purposes and with specific audiences in mind. We do not suggest these essays are perfect, as one of the most exciting aspects of writing is that it is a process that includes revision, so a text can always be improved upon or recreated as something different. Each essay begins with an instructor’s note that provides context for the essay and asks questions to prompt further ideas. The instructor’s note is followed by a short biography of the student who wrote the essay to hopefully illustrate that, although these students are now published authors, they are not much different from you, the reader. You should find this encouraging. If these students can write successfully at the university level, then so can you. Sincerely, The Cedarville Composition Instructors 4 Cedarville University’s Department of English, Literature, and Modern Languages Hello from Cedarville University. Thank you for your interest in the Department of English, Literature, and Modern Languages. Our programs produce men and women who communicate effectively and think deeply, cross-culturally, and creatively about the ideas that have shaped and continue to shape our world. Our mission is to challenge students to go beyond expectations. Henry David Thoreau once wrote that we hit only what we aim at and thus ought to aim at something high. We agree — aim high. Who will write the definitive scholarly treatment of Don DeLillo's work? Who will share Christ by teaching English to migrant workers in west Michigan? Where is this generation's C.S. Lewis or Flannery O'Connor? At Cedarville University, we want our students to aspire to such heights. Meet Our Composition Instructors Greg Belliveau Assistant Professor of English Biography Greg Belliveau is a 2008 Christopher Isherwood Recipient. Brady Udall (New York Times Bestselling author of The Lonely Polygamist) has called his work "funny, sad and exuberant; I believe he has the potential to be a major figure in the literary scene." Belliveau is a 2002 Christy 5 Award Finalist for Best First Novel Go Down To Silence (Multnomah: A Division of Random House, 2001) and has written non-fiction: Say to This Mountain: The life of James T. Jeremiah (RBP, 1999). He is currently the Senior Fiction Editor for the literary journal Silk Road. He has an MFA from Pacific University, Oregon, where he worked with Brady Udall, Mike Magnuson, Kellie Wells, and Ben Percy. Education and Credentials • M.F.A. in Fiction from Pacific University • M.A. in English from Kent State University • B.A. in English from Kent State University Interests • Creative Writing: Fiction, Non-Fiction • Screen Writing • All things publishing • Romanticism • Shakespeare • Contemporary Fiction • The Contemporary Art Scene Contact Information • Email: [email protected] 6 Daniel Clark Associate Professor of English Biography Professor Clark teaches courses in composition, advanced grammar, contemporary world literature, film, and the graphic novel. Along with Dr. Andrew Wiseman, Professor Clark developed Cedarville's foreign film series. He also serves as co-sponsor of Alpha Kappa Delta, Cedarville's chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, the International English Honor Society. Before coming to Cedarville, he taught at the University of Maryland