Descriptive Paper I

 

                        Date Due:  Feb. 26

                        Workshop:  Feb. 21

                        Length:  3-4 pages

                        Audience: general -- a peer interested in how you made your career choices

                        Auxiliary Reading:  Uncle Tungsten, Oliver Sacks

                        Preparation:  Two Kazin descriptive essays, class discussion and

                                                descriptive exercizes along with Dillard’s ideas on “shaping”

 

 

 

                        Keeping in mind some of Kazin’s tactics and choices, write a descriptive

                        paper that locates a childhood moment that foreshadows the career path

                        you were to take -- or at a minimum, one that reflects your career interests.

                        It could be the diagnosis of a parent’s cancer that caused you to go into

                        medicine.  It could be an idle moment of curiosity (Sacks locates many

                        such moments).  Be sure that details are not random but signal significance

                        please.  Sensory material should also be reflective of the investment in some

                        way.  This should be  as compressed, focused, and clear as possible in

                        terms of the link you see between the past experience and the personal

                        values you possess today (athletic discipline in high school, for example,

                        can be transferred into intellectual/study discipline in college).  Mostly,

                        let Dillard’s ideas about shaping influence your focus and choices.