Sample: Identity Essay with Annotations

Here is a generic sample essay. It is NOT an example of this essay, just the format of an essay in MLA format. If you cannot see the comments/annotations I have made to help you, click on the red flags and read the comments.

Task:

Write a three page minimum to four page maximum essay responding to the prompt: How does confidence effect college students’ ability to achieve success?  Incorporate quotes from all three of the readings:   "How to Be More Confident," ,  “15 Ways to Boost Your Confidence at College,”, and  “15 Ways to Boost Your Confidence at College,”

1. Decide what you want to say about college students and confidence, then write a clear thesis sentence that answers the prompt and gives an opinion. Do not write in first or second person I or you, write in the more objective, college appropriate third person: college students/their confidence.

2. Find specific supporting evidence from the essays. Do not make broad statements but ones that you can support with quotes.

Purpose:

Learn how to critically read and analyze two essays, in order to write about them on the college level, using parenthetical citations to incorporate the authors' words to support your own opinion. This essay is only 50 points, which is lower than the subsequent essays, so you can make sure you have all of the elements for an essay written in MLA (Modern Language Association) format.

Criteria for Success:

1. Page length is three full pages, not less, and not more than four pages.

2. Free of spelling and grammatical errors. No slang, clichés or curse words.

3. Written in third person voice. Write this to me (your audience), as an observer of college students, using the terms college students, they, their, them only. Do not write in first or second person I or you at all in this essay. Act like you are a reporter, presenting evidence.

4. Minimum of three quotes: one from each of the three assigned readings, cited correctly.

5. In MLA format with header. Works Cited page is not required but you should know how to do it.

6. Thesis and essay answer the prompt and stay focused.

7. Introduction and conclusion paragraphs are brief and the bulk of the essay is the body paragraphs.