A3: Researched Personal Essay
Composition I by Tiffani Tijerina and Magnus Florini is licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 International
Composition I by Tiffani Tijerina and Magnus Florini is licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 International
For your first assignment, you examined your personal identity and digital literacy. For the second assignment, you performed a critical rhetorical analysis of visual and auditory cultural texts. For this third assignment, you will synthesize these two skills by combining lived experience (memoir) with empirical research and objective reporting.
Rather than writing a traditional, dry research report or a purely subjective personal narrative, you will write a researched personal essay in the tradition of contemporary creative nonfiction. You will use a personal connection to a social, systemic, or community issue as your narrative anchor, but the core of your essay will be a critical, evidence-based analysis of solutions that have already been implemented or proposed by others.
Important constraint: Your goal is not to invent a brand-new solution to a complex social problem. Your task is to research, contextualize, and analyze the history, efficacy, and limitations or existing efforts.
Length/Scope: Approximately 1,500 - 1,800 words
Sources: Minimum 5 credible sources (at least 2 academic/scholarly sources)
Rough Draft & Peer Review Deliverables/Submissions:
Post your rough draft of the researched personal essay to the designated discussion board in Blackboard as either an uploaded .docx file or a link to a Google Doc. Make sure the permissions are set to allow viewing by anyone with the link (not editing).
Post your two peer reviews as responses to your classmates on the discussion board. Choose classmates who have not already received two peer reviews.
Final Draft Deliverables/Submissions:
Submit the researched personal essay final draft to the designated assignment folder in Blackboard as a .docx file or a Google Doc link. Make sure the permissions are set to allow commenting by anyone with the link. This will allow Tiffani to provide direct feedback on the document as needed.
The Personal Context: Begin with a vivid narrative introduction establishing your personal connection to a specific, tangible community or social issue (e.g., local food insecurity, youth mental health access, environmental justic, digital divide, public transit infrastructure, educational inequality, etc.)
The Bridge: Smoothly transition from your lived experience to the broader systemic reality.
The Thesis Claim: End your introduction with an analytical thesis statement that evaluates the effectiveness and limitations of specific existing solutions.
Establish the scale and underlying causes of the problem using credible research, empirical data, or historical background.
Define who is most affected by this issue, moving beyond local observations to regional or national statistics.
Analyze at least two distinct, concrete attempts by organizations, local governments, non-profits, or grassroots movements to solve this issue. For each solution, examine:
The Mechanism: Who implemented it, when, and through what strategy?
The Efficacy: Using published studies, expert commentary, or reporting, did it achieve its intended outcome? Why or why not?
Unintended Consequences & Limitations: What hidden costs, systemic barriers, or trade-offs emerged?
Synthesize your research findings without simply repeating your main points.
Refuse quick, easy fixes. Reflect on what studying these attempts reveals about the complexity of structural change.
End with a thoughtful reflection on how your personal understanding of this community issue evolved through academic research.
As you draft and edit, ensure your final text demonstrates mastery of the grammar and mechanics we've been studying throughout the semester.
Signal Phrase Variety & Quotation Integration: Introduce source material using precise signal verbs (e.g., argues, illustrates, counters, demonstrates) and punctuate quotes correctly. Avoid "Quote dropping".
Active Voice & Strong Verbs: Keep passive voice under 10% across your body paragraphs. Convert weak phrasal verbs into precise action verbs.
Parallel Structure: Ensure items in series, comparative claims, and lists follow parallel grammatical structures.
Conciseness & Wordiness: Edit out redundancies expletive constructions ("there is/are"), and conversational fluff.
Post your rough draft of the researched personal essay on the designated discussion board by the rough draft deadline. Then, choose two classmates who have not already received two reviews.
Peer review is not about line-editing or simply saying "good job!" It is a collaborative space where you act as a critical audience for your classmate's draft. Your goal is to help your classmate determine whether their essay effectively balances personal narrative with rigorous source-based analysis, whether their evaluation of solutions is grounded in research rather than opinion, and where their essay can be strengthened before final submission.
Thesis & Personal Narrative Anchor:
Thesis Evaluation: Identify the writer's thesis. Does it clearly evaluate the effectiveness and limitations of existing solutions to their chosen issue? If the thesis only states that a problem exists or proposed a brand-new fix, suggest how the writer can refine it into an analytical claim about existing efforts.
Personal Anchor & Transition: Does the author establish a compelling personal connection to the social or community problem in their introduction? Point out where they transition from personal observation to objective research; does this shift feel natural or abrupt?
Solution & Research Integration:
Scope & Existing Attempts: Does the writer analyze at least two distinct, concrete solutions implemented by others (e.g., non-profits, governments, community leaders)? Point out the strongest analysis of a solution, and identify one area where the explanation feels too brief or descriptive.
Evidence & Synthesis: Does the writer use specific evidence from their sources (statistics, expert commentary, case studies) to show why those solutions succeeded or failed? Identify one place where the essay relies too much on personal opinion and needs more researched support.
Source Mechanics: Are sources introduced smoothly using signal phrases, and are MLA/APA in-text citations present after borrowed facts and quotes? Remind the writer if any citations or signal phrases are missing.
Structure, Scope, & Reflection:
Problem vs. Solution Balance: Is there a section of the essay that spends too much time detailing the history or scale of the problem rather than evaluating solutions? Highlight or list the paragraphs that need more focus on solution analysis.
Conclusion & Reflection: Does the conclusion synthesize what the research reveals about the difficulty of addressing this issue without offering quick, easy fixes? Does it include a thoughtful reflection on how the writer's understanding evolved through research?
Peer Reviewer Summary:
What are the two best elements of this draft? (e.g., a vivid narrative opening, strong synthesis of scholarly evidence, a compelling critique of a specific solution)
What are the two most important changes the writer should focus on making before turning in the final draft?