Assignment: This 4 to 6-page essay will require you to choose one meaningful word to you. It can be a word, for which you are already very familiar, or a new word you learned recently; however, it must be a content word rather than a function word (i.e. content words are nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and full verbs, whereas function words are prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, particles and auxiliary verbs). In this academic, thesis driven essay, you should, in exactly the order you see below:
Step 1: carefully define what the word is and its part of speech (which could be included in the definition)
Step 2: explain why the word is meaningful to you, including how and why you interpret the word the way you do
Step 3: argue why it’s a significant word in our language today
Step 4: illustrate how the word has changed over time (i.e. sick used to mean “physically ill,” now it has evolved into “cool” or “awesome”)
Step 5: describe in detail how this word could potentially affect other people who hear it, or are called it
Step 6: describe how the word affects you on a personal level.
Consider these questions as you construct your work:
- Why did you decide to choose this word?
- Most words change in their definition over time; to what extent has this word you’ve chosen changed? Has it changed very much? Very little? In what way?
- Do you wish to argue that the word’s meaning should be changed?
- Do you have a significant personal experience with this word? Did hearing this word, or being called this word, make you feel great? Happy? Enthusiastic? Offended? Sad? Angry?
Ultimately, the essay should concern itself with the word’s meaning to you and how you perceive its impact on other people, not what the dictionary or other people perceive it to be. You must, however, cite the dictionary to define the word in contrast to how you define it, and at least two other academic sources (you may not use Wikipedia).
Objectives: Please address these in your paper in the following order:
- demonstrate your expertise in structuring paragraphs in the statement, support, example method
- effectively use the rhetorical tools of definition, cause and effect, and argument and persuasion to clearly express your thoughts
- illuminate the exigence (or important purpose) of your topic
- produce writing that contains vivid details, significance, and evidence that supports claims that you make (i.e. what do you want a reader to learn from what you’ve written based on a combination of facts and opinions?)
- exhibit critical thinking skills that prove you’ve carefully reflected on the topic