For Essay 3, you will take a walk in the vicinity of City Tech and write about overlapping New Yorks.
Many of our texts this semester depict how New York can be viewed as an ever-changing global city, with relics from different eras and different communities co-existing or edging each other out. To observe these overlapping New Yorks, walk for approximately 15 minutes away from City Tech. On your walk, look for places where you see different New Yorks overlapping in close proximity. In an essay of approximately 600-900 words, write about one instance in which you observe an overlapping of different New Yorks—such juxtapositions include old and new, residential and commercial, historic and replaceable, natural and man-made, constructed and under-construction, well maintained and in disrepair, celebrated and forgotten, etc. Choose one location as the topic for your essay. Record your path, and photograph a few instances of the overlap in your location to include in your assignment.
In your essay, you will:
- Chart your course (tell your process for arriving there so that someone else can get there, too!)
- Describe what you see at your location in detail, You might also describe how your photographs frame or capture your subject
- Compare the two elements of the juxtaposition
- Explain why have you chosen this subject in particular—what about it is striking to you?
- Tell the story that your subject tells you
- Use two quotations or references to our texts from this semester either to support what you write or to engage their ideas with your subject and your interpretation of it
- Consider what you want to know more about, since this essay can be the basis of your research project
To get started, take the walk. After you choose your location, write a process-description blog post in which you explain step-by-step the path to your chosen location, which you can include in your essay. You might include photographs or a map in your blog post.
Due Dates:
10/19: Location choice and Process description due on blog by the start of class
10/31: Draft due in class—bring a copy with you!
11/7: Essay due on dropbox.com by the start of class
In writing this essay, you will
- learn to use the word juxtaposition correctly;
- learn to note similarities and differences between class readings and personal experiences;
- learn to write descriptively about your observations and opinions;
- learn to write comparatively about things you see and about differing viewpoints;
- further develop your ability to quote from and respond to our assigned readings;
- gain expertise in citing quotations parenthetically according to MLA format;
- express your ideas and style with clear, grammatically correct prose.
