Extra Credit
HUMOROUS GUIDE TO YOUR HOME TOWN OR SCHOOL
(possible 2 points)
Length: minimum 300 words
Consult: student models
Although
this assignment represents a challenge in observing, recognizing, and selecting
appropriate details for your purposes, it specifically constitutes an
assignment in controlling tone in writing.
Depending on your personality and the material you have to work with,
the humorous tone you might adopt for your "guide" could be, for
example, whimsical, affectionately comic, ironic, satiric, sarcastic, heavily
sarcastic, or bitter. For example, if
you adopt a satiric tone, your approach could be to "warn" or
"prepare" newcomers about your town or your school. You might present your "guide" in
the form of a "survival manual" or a comic travelogue. It is important, however, that you seek a
format which reflects your personal sense of humor.
In humorous
writing, you have the freedom to use a full range of diction, including
slang. The key to successful humor
writing, however, is consistency. Do
not shift from a whimsical to a wildly sarcastic tone or from slang to formal
diction. Try to maintain the same tone and diction level throughout the essay.
In addition, strive for vivid specifics and logical organization. Try to group related details into
paragraphs.
1) A Humorous Guide for Newcomers to Your Home Town
Seek a logical plan for grouping the "wonders" (or best-forgotten) features of your town. You might divide your essay, for example, into separate paragraphs describing the "exciting" tourist sites, the "fine" restaurants, the "stimulating" cultural offerings, the "excellent" recreational facilities, the "hot" night life, and/or the "exclusive" shops. On the other hand, you might logically divide your essay into separate paragraphs which describe the "delights" of your home town for children, teenagers, and adults. Do you have a playground built on a landfill or a movie theater which shows only Kung Fu films? What do you find comic or exasperating about life in Your town?
2) A Humorous Guide to Your School (high school or
college)
A "survival"
manual for students entering your school for the first time could divide logically
into paragraphs describing which teachers to take, where to "hang out"
on campus, what clothes to wear, and what to say.
You could also divide a guide to your school into paragraphs which
satirically treat the academics, social life, physical plant, and lunch.
Maybe you want to "prepare" new students to "fit in"
to the different school cliques by explaining how to dress and talk. Thus you might divide your paper into How to Be Popular, Preppie,
or Eccentric or How to Be an "A," a "B," or a "D"
Student.