ENC 1101

Dr. Wainwright

Photo Essay Assignment

ASSIGNMENT: This assignment asks you to write a 4-paragraph, approximately 600-750 word essay, organized according to the following instructions. We will work on this assignment in several drafts in the EEC classroom. Bring to class each section or draft of the work as assigned as these drafts will count toward your final grade.

Bring a photograph to class, preferably yourself as a younger person. It is easier to fulfill the assignment if you bring a group photograph of some activity, a colored photo not black and white.

PARAGRAPH 1: Describe everything that you see in the photo in as much detail as possible. Use colors and effective adjectives to describe the people, setting, background, objects, scenery, etc. Write this paragraph in the third person as if you did not know the people or setting and were describing the photo to someone else who did not know them. Here you will write objectively and descriptively.

PARAGRAPH 2: Write a NARRATIVE in which you tell what is going on. Here you will use 1^st person point of view and actually name the people, setting, events. You will include all the information that is normally found in a “personal interest” journalism story, making sure you include who, what, where, when, and why. A narrative is writing in chronological order from beginning to end. (On Christmas Day 1985, my mom and dad, Joe and Joan Smith, drove me and my brothers and sisters to Anytown, New Hampshire, to spend Christmas at the Alpine Inn Snow Lodge. This photograph shows us gathering at the family style restaurant after we had spent a day skiing. We younger children had been given our own instruction on the small slope reserved for children, while my mom & dad had the afternoon to themselves on the more advanced slope nick-named “Old Baldy.” At supper . . . . . . . . . )

PARAGRAPH 3: ASSOCIATE the photo: what other (family) occasion does it remind you of—or what story, novel, tv show. Are there people in the photograph whom you no longer see or know? Can you remember other occasions spent with them. As a teenager did you take a similar trip? Are the boys you played Little League with the same ones you went on your class trip with? Associate and write a paragraph beginning with: This photo reminds me of _______________________. You will fill in the blank with something other than the event that took place in the photo.

PARAGRAPH 4: Decide on one key idea for the photograph, one stance or position you want to persuade the reader about. Was this a happy time? a sad time? When you see the photo today does it bring back good memories? bad memories? Begin this paragraph with a sentence like this: This photo makes me very sad when I see it today, 15 years later, because

1._________________________

2.__________________________

3._________________________

Provide 3 supporting examples for the position you have chosen to take.