Who Are You? Where Are You Going?

In the novel Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse portrays a young man who leaves home on a spiritual quest, despite the presumably bright future he would have had if he had stayed in his village. Simlilarly, in Jon Krakauer's story Into the Wild, Chris McCandless chooses the life of a vagabond and adventurer over law school. Not satisfied with the many expectations their families and peers have for them, both young men decide instead to follow their own paths, asserting all along that enlightenment can only be gained through experience.

In today's world, many young people grow up with the expectation that they will go to college immediately after high school. Many, however, are choosing to defer entrance to college for a year or more, often against the objections of their parents and peers. Some students question whether college is even the right choice for them.

The following assignment is designed to help you think about your own path. Follow the directions and guidelines below.
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Life After High School

Your task is to write a document based persuasive essay in which you formulate a position on the following questions:

• Is a college education the only path to success in today's world?
  
  
• For those who choose college, is it necessary and/or beneficial to attend college immediately after high school?

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You must read the following articles before developing a position, and then you must support your position using references from at least four sources:

• What's the Matter with College...read this article first
• College Essay Contest Blog
...these are students responses to the article above
• More Are Taking a Rain Check on College
...this article, along with the three listed below, examines the idea of taking a break between high school and college
• Gap Year
• Taking a Gap Year
• More Delay College Entrance
• Eight College Seniors Face the Future
...the college experience and the transition to the "real world" from the point of view of eight college graduates

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I encourage you to take a creative approach to writing your essay. Read the following articles for suggestions and approaches to writing a good persuasive essay:

• How to Write a Persuasive Essay
• How to Write Pro-Con Essay
• Incorporate Smiley Face Tricks to achieve a strong voice
• You may also download the standard persuasive essay model to help you structure your writing.

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Evaluation: You will be evaluated by the Expository Writing rubric with the following guidelines as additional criteria. Points will be deducted for errors in the listed target areas. You must:

• State a clear position on both questions
• Support position using specific references from at least four sources
• properly incorporate quotations - target area = no "dropped quotes" (5 points)
  
• Use MLA in-text citations and include a Works Cited (5 points)
  
• Use language that's appropriate to purpose and audience
• Use proper spelling, grammar, paragraphing, and mechanics - target areas = pronoun/antecedent agreement, clear pronoun references, no "I" or "you" (5 points each)
• 500 - 750 words
• Include a title
• write a reflection (10 points)
• submit both the essay and reflection to turnitin

Typed rough draft due for peer editing due: 12/19/07
Final draft and reflection - hard copy and submitted to turnitin (10 points) due: 1/3/08