Additional Writing Assignments

1. Choose a person outside your immediate family who had a marked effect on your life, either good or bad. Jot down ten details that might show what that person was like: physical appearance, way of talking, habits, or memorable incidents. Then look back at “The Art of Eating Spaghetti” to identify the kinds of detail Baker uses to portray Mr. Fleagle, noting any you might add to your list. Write your paper, including details to help readers experience the person’s impact on you.

2. Recall a place you were fond of—your grandma’s kitchen, a tree house, a library, a locker room, a vacation retreat. What made it different from other places? Why was it important? What do you feel when you remember it? Write a paper that uses specific, concrete details to explain to your audience why this place was memorable. If you have a photograph of the place, look at it to jog your memory, and consider adding it to your paper.

3. Write a paper or a podcast text to recall a familiar ceremony, ritual, or observation, perhaps a holiday, a rite of passage (confirmation, bar or bat mitzvah, college orientation, graduation), a sporting event, a family custom. How did the tradition originate? Who takes part? How has it changed over the years? What does it add to the lives of those who observe it? Share with your audience the importance of the tradition to you.

   63

4. Recall how you learned to read, write, or see how literacy could shape or change your life. What early experiences with reading or writing do you recall? How did these experiences affect you? Were they turning points for you? Write an essay about the major events in your literacy story—your personal account of your experiences learning to read or write—so that your audience understands the impact of those events on you. If you wish, address a specific audience—such as students or a teacher at your old school, a younger relative, your own children (real or future), or a person involved in your experience.

5. Source Assignment. Respond to one of the preceding assignments by supplementing your recollections with information from a source. You might turn to a personal source (family record, photograph, relative’s account) or a published account (newspaper story reporting an event, article about a tradition, essay recalling an experience). Jot down relevant details from your source, or write a brief summary of it. Integrate this information in your essay, and be sure to cite your source.

6. Visual Assignment. Examine the images below. What do you recall about an experience in a similar social, natural, or urban environment? What events took place there? How did you react to those events? What was their importance to you? How did the experience change you, your ideas, or your decisions? Write an essay that briefly recalls your experience and then reflects on its importance or consequences for you. Add your own photo to your text, if you wish.

   

   Gary S. Chapman/Photographer’s Choice/Getty Images.

   64

   

   Veer/Corbis.
   

   Boone Speed/Aurora Photos.