Guidelines and Suggestions for your Publishable Piece of Writing

1) It must be nonfiction.
2) It must be more specific than general in its focus. For example, it would not be okay to write "The Story of My Life," but it would be okay to write about a particularly important time in your life or a particularly important incident in your life. Similarly, it would not be okay to write "An Essay on Why Smoking Is Bad." On the other hand, it would be okay to write an essay about a friend who smokes.
In general, avoid big topics that everyone knows about already anyway; choose smaller, focused topics that you have special knowledge about from your own experience.
3) If your topic requires research, please let me know the titles or website addresses of the sources you plan to use for your research no later than Tuesday, July 17. If research poses a problem, choose a topic that does not require research.
4) Some suggestions for topics:
* Now that you've written about "An Injury," write about "A Victory"--over a problem, over an
enemy, over a weakness, over an opponent in a contest or game, over an obstacle or trial.
* Now that you've compared and contrasted two important people in your life, compare and
contrast two important books you've read, or movies you've seen, or classes you've taken.
As with any compare/contrast essay, use the comparison to illuminate the most essential or
important qualities of each item you're comparing.

Please remember to complete an outline or web chart, along with two paragraphs, for your homework due this Tuesday, in addition to the assigned reading and questions/comments (through Chapter 18).
Feel free to email me with any questions you have about the Published Piece assignment or anything else related to the class, at mikej@california.com.

See you in class!
Mr. Jones