The Minority Report

As your last major assignment this semester before the analytical essay, this paper will serve as an indicator of your growth as a writer.  I challenge you to put more than the usual work in to this essay to show me (and yourself) what you can accomplish.

The Essay:

This essay has one limitation, the topic of minorities.  Minority means anyone not part of the "power culture" in the United States.  Beyond that, you are free to choose the rhetorical situation of the essay, and I urge you to be creative.  You may choose as your purpose to inform, entertain, or persuade your audience.  You may choose who that appropriate audience is.  You will also choose the context in which your essay will be presented to others.  As I said, I will give you only the topic, and you will clearly choose and write accordingly for the other restrictions on your paper.

Getting Ideas:

We will be doing a number of activities in class to help you develop this essay, but there are other ways to get ideas of what to write about, too:

§  Read and respond to articles in the Mercury Reader in the "Multiculturalism and Diversity" section beginning on page 145.  Your essay may turn out to be a response to one or several of them.

§  Free-write about your interactions and changing perceptions about minorities or about your role as a minority as you have matured.

§  A more creative approach would be to experience life as a minority (perhaps different from your current status) and write about the experience and its implications.  For example:

§  If you are male, spend a "day with the girls."  Shadow females of your own age and compare their lives to your own.

§  If you are Christian, visit a local mosque or synagogue (you may need a friend on the "inside" to help you).  You might also want to do some research on the particular religion before you go.

§  If you are heterosexual, wear something that identifies you as homosexual.  There are plenty of buttons and pins you can wear, or go to a PRIDE meeting on campus.  See how people react to you.

§  If you are white, attend an activity where you are one of the only whites in the room/at the event.

§  If you are right-handed, spend a day doing everything with your left hand.

§  If you are physically abled, rent a wheelchair for the day.  See how difficult it is to manage getting around campus.

§  If you have a home, volunteer at a homeless shelter or soup kitchen.  You might also try to follow the advice in "Dumpster Diving" in your Mercury Reader and respond to it.

§  Or come up with your own way of putting yourself in a minority position and approve it with me. 

Any of the creative ideas become even more complex if you are already a minority in some way.  You might compare the experiences of your temporary and permanent statuses. 

I want to challenge you to do your best critical thinking and writing for this essay, so the more thought you put into it, the more potential it has to be your best work of the semester so far.

The Commentary:

Whatever purpose, audience, and context you choose, you will need to tell me about it in the commentary, along with your process of writing and revision.  Remember that the commentaries serve as discovery writing for your final analytical paper and that the more detailed you are in it, the less work you will have to do later for the portfolio, so make it as specific as you can.