my-personal-essay-a-30-2007-draft-2.doc 

1. Students were given another class to develop their essays. Some are well into writing their essays while others are still tweaking their outlines to get on the right track. As the value in this assignment lies more with learning the process, I am sure everyone is benefiting from the it, but some need to learn to work regardless of location or environment. Working at home may be more of a treat but, as your departmental exam will be written in this same type of environment and written by hand under pressure, they need to learn to work through their discomforts. It’ll come eventually.
2. I gave students a handout including two essays I wrote last night, two versions of the same essay, to give them something concrete to compare to or use as a guide. Of course, after I printed it for them and handed it out, I played with them more and made some changes, but that is the editing process for you.

Here’s a little treat for the Grade twelves after we had a short discussion about the word “inconceivable” used in The Princess Bride.