Essay #2
REFLECTION ESSAY
Here is your assignment for the reflection essay: Choose a person, place, thing, or event that most people would consider insignificant. Write a 2-3 page essay that makes explicit use of description and sensory detail while commenting on the person, place, thing, or event in a thoughtful manner.
Sensory details include vivid imagery and/or attentiveness to smells, tastes, textures, or sounds. It is important to choose a topic that interests you! Don't write about something you find boring as it will show in your work. The purpose of any essay is to engage your imagined readership in some way. You are only writing for me, of course, but as 6: Audience in NFG reminds us, you should always have an imagined readership in mind. For samples of effective reflection essays, refer to Jonathan Safran Foer's "My Life as a Dog" and the essays in 68: Reflections, taking note of subject matter (e.g., what is being written about?) and how the authors of the essays make use of description. These authors employ sensory details to varying degrees. Remember, however: the use of seonsory details should be the dominant component of your essay.
IMPORTANT NOTE: While reflection essays may be written on a wide variety of topics, they should all accomplish the same goal: coming to a greater understanding of a subject by combining descriptive and meditative passages. As it says in NFG, “Reflective essays are our attempt to think something through by writing about it and to share our thinking with others." In its most basic form, the reflection essay describes a person, place, thing, or event and then reflects on how that person, place, thing, or event has allowed you to come to a greater understanding of yourself, society, and/or the human condition.
