Tuesday, October 4, 2011--830 am

Greetings,
below you will find the out of class essay #2 assignment we discussed in class on Monday.

Also, a few reminders, etc. about the in class essay #1 for tomorrow:
1. Remember to bring a blue or green book to class
2. I mentioned in class that the prompt will only focus on Walter White, Sr but in fact you will have your choice of main characters to focus on. I had forgotten that I changed the prompt slightly during the summer class.

Later today I will post some information you will need to print for class next week


English 20, Fall 2011---Sections 14 & 16---C. Fraga

Date assigned: Monday, October 3
Rough draft (optional): due no later than Monday October 31
Final draft due: Monday, November 7
(you have five weeks to research and write this essay)
Details:
1. MLA format
2. At least 4 outside sources on your Works Cited page
3. Please, no Wikipedia
4. No formulaic, 5 paragraph essay

OUT OF CLASS ESSAY ASSIGNMENT #2
Among many things, the series Breaking Bad focuses on the family entity and what happens when something quite extraordinary occurs—how do members of the family cope, adjust, and/or “deal” with the event/situation? (In the case of this series, obviously it is Walter’s cancer that is the ‘event’).

I am not referring to the everyday bumps in the road that occur for all families. Instead, I am asking you to consider the family unit when faced with an especially challenging situation. These situations could include but are not limited to:
• death
• birth
• infidelity
• serious injury
• dementia
• serious illness
• divorce
• unemployment
• new employment
• moving to a new home/state/area/country
• the return of a war veteran
• moving BACK home after initially moving OUT
• alcoholism
• drug abuse

Select ONE situation that you are most interested in exploring. You will conduct research (and possibly personal interviews, if possible) in order to write an essay that offers the reader background on the topic and makes an assertion about what elements impact a family in the most challenging of ways and supports it logically and interestingly.

Your thesis might read something like this:

When a family member develops dementia, the challenges are often devastating, yet the disease definitely impacts family members more than the dementia patient.

Or…

When a couple divorces, it most certainly impacts the children still living at home; however, it is the older children who have already moved away that are most affected by the split.