Personal Essay Prompt-First Draft

Personal Essay Prompt
First Draft

Dear Students,

Since you have already composed your formal outline for your personal essay, you are just on the way to starting your first draft now. Please be aware that you are going to write the Introduction, the Main Body and the Conclusion exactly according to the indication on your outline. In order to bring out what you have thought or prepared smoothly on your paper, please have your outline at hand with you when you are writing, in case you might forget what you would want to provide as your sound reasons for your thesis. Your outline has finished the task of presenting a clear thinking of how to construct the essay. So, now, you will need to create sentences that will fully explain, demonstrate or rather develop your concrete ideas, independent points that are listed in your outline.

**Please do not worry so much about the grammar at this stage of writing your first draft. This is not your final draft yet. In composing your first draft, your task is to finish writing the whole essay with the direction of your outline. You will begin revising and editing your sentences and paragraphs after the first draft is done. **

If you fail to turn in the first draft on time, 10 points will be deducted from your final grade of this assignment.

First Draft-Due at the beginning of class, on Monday, 02/11/08
Ø Length: 3-4 pages
Ø Focusing on ideas and development, rather than grammar
Ø Having the thesis statement clearly and naturally presented in the introduction
Ø Drawing a sound and concise conclusion in the end

Essay Format
Your draft must:
1. be typed and printed, double–spaced and numbered at the right upper corner of each page
2. have one-inch margins on all sides
3. be stapled at the left upper corner
4. use 12-point font size and “Times New Roman” font style
5. include your name, course number, instructor’s name, the date, the assignment type at the left upper corner of the first page.

Example: Mike Lee
Ling 101
Instructor: Qian Zhou
September 17th, 2007
Personal Essay, First Draft





Essay Rubric

Personal Essay
First Draft
Student’s Name: ________________________________________________________________________


Poor
Good
Excellent
Total
Introduction & Conclusion
(8 points)
Introduction and Conclusion are not clear-need more work (1-3 points)
Introduction and Conclusion are quite good but still need some improvement (4-7 points)
Excellent Introduction and Conclusion( 8 points)

Thesis Statement (12 points)
The thesis statement does not exist or is unclear. (1-5 points)
The thesis statement is fine but still needs some clarification or improvement (6-11 points)
Excellent thesis statement (12 points)

Main-body paragraphs
(20 points)
The main body paragraphs are not related to the thesis statement and/or do not carry only one idea each (14 points)
The main-body paragraphs are good but some of them need clarification and/or development (15-19 points)
The main-body paragraphs support the thesis statement. (20 points)

Total (max 40 points)





Additional Comments:










Good luck!
Jane