MICROTHEME ESSAY ASSIGNMENT

MICROTHEME ESSAY ASSIGNMENT

The microtheme essay assignment is best defined as a two-page, double-spaced commentary—at least 750 words in length—whose objective is to provoke and promote student dialogue. As such, it affords students yet another opportunity to obtain targeted feedback. Similar in format to students’ responses to the questions they encounter in the textbook, Reader’s Choice, the microtheme essay has also been used to good effect in the course “Reading & Writing Effectively.”

In carrying out this assignment, you are asked (A) to make a specific observation about the article under scrutiny, (B) to further develop that observation by describing your emotional and/or intellectual responses to it, (C) to speculate as to why you may have responded in those ways, and (D) to identify any literary issues relevant to this assignment that you would like to explore.

To help you fulfil this assignment, please consult the compositional options laid out in Reader’s Choice, as discused in class. Microthemes will be graded on a rubric of one to five: five is awarded as the highest grade for a submission of error-free quality and one, for the least satisfactory submission (e.g., for lack of coherence, flawed grammar, and/or failure to comply with APA formatting).

For this assignment, students should quote only from the textbook and include a bibliography. A list of sample topics appear below.

Topic is:
In “Potty-Mouthed and Proud of It” (pp. 443-446), Russell Smith challenges the value of censoring so-called “bad language” on television and in other media. In response to Smith’s essay, argue for, or against, censorship in the media