I had a fair share of trouble in my college during times when my instructor would assign us essays on such complicated topics that would drive me nuts. No matter how much I googled or how much I tried looking for some good and reliable source I would always give up. So in the end, it would always be the hard way writing so many drafts until a proper essay was written. During my time in college, I had to take two composition courses which were ENGL 1301 and ENGL 1302. I am sure the names are gonna differ for your English course if you compare it with mine but the gist remains the same i.e. you won't get out without good essays. It is funny how there are thousands of websites on the internet that tells you how to write good essays in every way possible but the topics for which our essays are assigned are never up there.
To be honest I received a B in my first composition class and a perfect A on the second one which I am extremely proud of. The first time the essays got the better of me and on the second one, I absolutely aced my essays. It had been a long time since I haven't posted anything on my blog so I will be getting back by starting a little series of essays which I was asked to write on my composition classes. These essays are going to be extremely helpful for you and as always they are copyrighted and you would fall into plagiarism if you copied these and get an F in most cases. So let this be just an example and more of a guide for you to ace your essay.
This particular essay was written as a Discourse Community Analysis (DCA) Essay and it was also my first essay for composition first. My professor was very strict on having to use logos, ethos and pathos and the way it had to be written. I am also including the response towards my essay by him so you guys have an idea on how it was graded. I don't remember the exact prompt but it looked something like this, "Write a paper to me and your classmates about a time when you successfully joined a discourse community. Show us how you learned to make logos, ethos and pathos appeals which were specific to the community." Spoilers alert, I got A minus for this paper.
A Community That Matters – Red Cross
My lunch break was just over and was the turn for my social studies class. With a full appetite, I was feeling quite lazy and was not in a great mood to attend the Social studies class because it was always boring and I could never get why all those historical dates and events mattered. Luckily something caught my attention, I saw a notice that there was a general body meeting of the Red Cross circle of my school that day and those interested to join it could attend it. I thought I would rather go to this meeting instead of attending my boring class. That day I found out that I didn’t know most of the things about the Red Cross circle, how valuable the society was and a ton of amazing things it did to make this world a better place. Being in a community which cared for the wellness of every individual in need and irrespective of the differences, organized a broad range of programs, constantly indulge in social activities and develop leadership skills in a person seemed fitting to me. I had always wanted to do something that actually made a difference in the society, so I signed up the form with a strong motive to come prepared for my selection the next day. To my surprise I was selected and as I stepped outside the room before I knew I was a part of the red cross discourse community, a community that I believed mattered.
I stepped into the Red Cross circle as a member. It was not easy to get into the community because most of us think being a Red Cross volunteer is like being a member of the circle which isn’t the truth. To get into the circle first, you need to understand its fundamentals by attending a general body meeting. There you know what Red Cross is and all the awesome things it does to make the world a better place. Then you go to the selection stage where the existing members of the circle will interview you about your interest in joining the community. They expect you to demonstrate your knowledge and reasons why this group seemed fitting to you. After the selection when you are officially the part of the community, there are certain codes that you are expected to follow as long as you are in the community such as mutual respect, understanding, being unselfish and accepting your mistakes. To be a real member of the Red Cross circle I had to wipe away my nervousness when talking with new people in the community, listen to the instructions correctly and express my views and ideas about the discussion. There is a hierarchy of positions in the circle with the president at the top and the member being the lowest and everyone is expected to do their works accordingly. Sometimes I used to feel intimidated when working as a team with members that I didn’t know and during programs, the circle conducted because I was completely new to this. I used to talk personally with every member of the community and time and again ask for help without hesitation because others were more than willing to help me adjust to the community which ultimately helped remove those inconveniences.
The real challenges come when you have been in the Red Cross circle for a while. It’s not enough to just get selected because members are often critiqued by others out of the circle for not being able to live by the high standards of the organization. Even though you may want to do social works you are still in school, so you need to keep up with your studies as well as contribute to the growth of the circle. After adjusting for the group and taking part in simple events, I participated in some big ones. Compared to other members of the group I was good with my studies, so I had no restrictions and had greater time to spend on the circle of which I took great advantage of participating in a lot of district-level seminars and training. I went to the Cancer seminar conducted by the Cancer hospital only once in a couple of years, attended first aid training and frequently volunteered for the relief programs representing my school. I was never late for any of my meetings and always worked hard in both small as well as big events and rarely committed mistakes. My contributions were recognized by everyone in the circle as well as by my teachers and advisors and were eventually promoted from member to vice-president step by step. The more I took part in such events and programs the more I became a confident person. I left placing my ego in front, thus my want to help others in need grew. My leadership skills took a drastic boost, and soon everyone respected me, and I was established as a credible member.
Red Cross is a non-profit organization, and the circle was run by individuals who chose to help others out of their own will. There were moments when it felt it just wasn’t worth all our work and time when our activities were not seen. For instance, many of the seniors graduating who were leaving the circle were not acknowledged by the school despite their efforts which made me feel very bad. But the team always found a way to cheer up by looking at the motto of the organization which is not to be selfish and to expects the least from others so our job is to do right and rest will follow. There was this moment in my time as a member of the Red Cross circle which I shall never forget. I was newly promoted to the Vice president and in one of our meeting we were discussing how the circle had never grown drastically ever since it was created. The services and programs were pretty much the same, so the team felt if we could do something that would help the circle grow drastically we would be considered as an enormous success and as it happened all of a sudden, a new member gave an idea to go big and buy an ambulance for the circle. Now, this was a big step because economic issues would prevail and not everybody was willing to take the risk. But if we could manage it then the services would have increased exponentially. We took a vote, and the result was affirmative which caused a lot of distress in the circle. Despite the risk, we trusted each other, and so we began working hard on the advertising programs, and everybody tried their best to spread out the information on every possible platform. I visited a couple of schools and explained to them our situation and asked for help. The result was beyond our expectations as we could raise funds for the ambulance. Even while handling the money there were a lot of problems because sometimes the transactions would be confusing and sometimes people didn’t provide us the amount they first agreed to. There were times when we thought our goal won’t come right but we didn’t give hope and as a team kept worked hard and at the end when it was a success the joy I felt was literally overwhelming. As a team, we had come through so much despite our difference and still managed to do a lot which was considered pretty good for a bunch of teenagers. Here I learned what it felt to tackle difficulties and also how it felt to achieve something as a team and both of those were overwhelming.
I was a part of the red cross circle until recently when I graduated school and came to the US for higher education. This discourse community was an integral part of my life which was a vital element for the development of my personality. It has helped me to become a better version of myself. An important thing to me being successful in this discourse community is that I really enjoyed it as well as all the obstacles it came with. It was not easy, but as time passed, I developed skills and memories within the community that I know I will carry with me for the rest of my life even if I am no longer a part of the community, it still matters.
My Instructors' Response
He responded that it was a really nice work I did with my essay because it was crisp and clear. He was able to understand my essay crystal clear evidently because of the choice of the group. He did felt it was shorter than what he had expected it to be but despite that whatever content I had did help me out against my length of the essay. For the next time, he suggested me to add a couple of pages more. He specifically praised the ending of my essay because of the way they did an astounding job on giving examples and with some analysis on why it matters which matched the title as well. While I didn't get the same kind of response for the beginning paragraphs because they relied heavily on description and suggested if I had kept the same amount of detail as I did on my later paragraphs it would have been better and I would have been able to match the length of my essay as well. Overall he really enjoyed the essay from the smart introduction to the well-crafted illustration of the ambulance and said it was well done and that I should be proud of it. He was eager for my next essay as well after reading this one.
That was all for today do let me know your thoughts on the comments section below and I will be glad to reply you back. Stay tuned for the upcoming essay which should be out in a day or two because I already have a good format of it with me.
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