Goal
This essay assignment provides you with an opportunity to learn and practice outside
research skills and effectively weave outside voices into your own writing. You will also
continue to practice critical thinking, analytical, and narrative/descriptive skills, and
focus on how exploratory writing can generate a question or problem-driven essay rather
than an argument-driven essay.

Assignment
Using Adam Gopnik’s “Bumping Into Mr. Ravioli” as a model, write a narrative essay that uses research to
explore a question(s) that you are curious about and represent an intellectual journey. Just as Gopnik uses
his interactions with his daughter as a narrative grounding, your essay should include some kind of narrative
moment(s) from your own life as launching points for exploration and questioning. Then use the research
techniques we will discuss in class to investigate these questions and dive into the complexities of your topic.
Your essay need not have any clear-cut answers to the questions you explore, nor need it
have an argument or “thesis statement” to guide its direction. You should begin with a
puzzle or problem that interests you and take the reader along an intellectual journey
with you that includes research, critical analysis, and reflection. The topic you choose
should be one that you are intellectually invested in, have some kind of personal
connection to, and should be complex enough to merit a paper of this length.
For example, I am a huge fan of comic books, and enjoy reading the adventures of many
of my favorite super-heroes. After some research, reflection, and thorough critical
thinking, I could begin to get at “bigger” or “deeper” questions, such as why super-
heroes appeal to us, the value of comics as an art form, or even issues of sexism within
super-hero comics.
Specifications
The essay will be no fewer than five full, double-spaced pages (12-point Times New
Roman Font, with one-inch margins on all sides). This is an absolute MINIMUM.
Anything less will be penalized, and I highly encourage you to write more than
this. You will find and quote from at least five credible outside sources (no
Wikipedia!) using a balance of quoting, summarizing, and paraphrasing. You will also
include an MLA-formatted works cited page at the end of your paper.
Grading
An “A” essay will take creative risks, hold the reader’s interest, and attempt to deeply
explore complex questions and issues

English Department Grading Standards (a reminder)
A “C” level grade (70-79%) denotes average college-level writing and achievement. The essay is a
competent response to the assignment: it meets, to some degree, all the assignment requirements, and
demonstrates that the author has put significant time and effort into communicating his/her ideas to
his/her targeted audience. It has a thesis, presents some support, and moves from point to point in an
orderly fashion; sentence-level errors do not significantly prevent comprehension. Essays that do not
meet these criteria will not earn a “C.”
A “B” level grade (80-90%) highlights a strong example of college writing and thinking. In addition to
meeting the “C” level requirements, such an essay goes further in some way(s): it demonstrates some
insight into the “gray areas” of the topic, provides original or very thorough support that is tightly woven
into the overall argument, reads smoothly at both the sentence and paragraph levels, and/or exhibits a
personal “voice” or style. It has few sentence-level errors.
An “A” level grade (90-100%) marks an essay that is a delight for the reader. Even more than in a “B”
essay, its author anticipates and responds to possible reader questions, uses a wide range of supporting
evidence, engages the reader in a provocative conversation, provides unexpected insights, and/or uses
language with care and facility.
“D” and “F” level essays do not meet the basic expectations of this assignment.

A list of 2-3 potential sources in MLA Format (do your best; consult sec.27 of In Conversation, and Purdue OWL (Links to an external site.)) These do not need to be the sources you end up using in the final paper; you are likely to find better ones as you continue researching, but I want to see that you’ve started gathering information