Wednesday, February 18, 2015--6 pm

Greetings,

Below you will find information about In Class Essay #1, taking place on Monday.

Topic:
The prompt will focus on the first four episodes of Breaking Bad. You may refer to your Viewer's Journal and any other notes you may jot down over the weekend in preparation. YOU MAY NOT ACCESS AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE. If you type your Viewer's Journal, then you will need to print out a hard copy and bring it to class. This is a fairness issue. Some students who were not prepared for the pop quiz on Monday, the 16th,  referred to online sources during the quiz. I did not realize that was going on until it was too late. So again, it's a fairness issue. If you have any concerns about this requirement for Monday's essay, please email me.

Specifically, the prompt will focus on priorities. All of us have a list of priorities, things that are most important to us, during our lives. (everyone's lists vary--items could include: earning a certain salary; being a focused, positive parent; getting out of debt; traveling to Africa; etc.) Of course, as we grow and mature, that list of priorities very often changes, based on life experiences. Some priorities shift in position, some disappear completely. Think about the characters in Breaking Bad--specifically: Walter, Sr., Skyler, Hank, Marie and Jesse. If you were to "guess" what their list of life priorities might be at this time in their lives, what would you say? And why?

Details:

• bring a blue or green book to class 
• bring at least two pens (no pencils, please)
• skip every other line (if you forget, don't worry)
• when writing in response to a film, book, television series, etc. be sure to mention the name of the film, book, or series at least once in your essay. When writing, titles of television shows are underlined.
• do not write using the five paragraph formulaic pattern. It is far too limiting for college level writing
• do not be concerned about spelling or mechanical/sentence errors. You will not be evaluated on those issues. You will be evaluated on how well you support your assertion/thesis. I do not grade as strictly as I do for out of class essays. In other words, if you earn 90 out of 100 on an in class essay, you would earn at least 10-15 points lower if you wrote the same response for an out of class essay assignment.
• you will have at least 60 minutes to complete this in class assignment.