Open the John Muir Essays document in your Google drive folder and create a new heading.
Essay 3 – Difficult Job
Purpose – Exposition & Narration & Self-Analysis
- To explain an experience with a difficult job
- To tell the story of a difficult job
- To analyze what you learned from the difficult job
Audience – Your classmates and myself who may not know much about your job.
Format – 5 paragraph essay
| Paragraph 1 – Introduction |
Introduce John and describe his hard work on the family farm. Include at least one specific quote. Make a statement connecting one of John’s difficult jobs to your own difficult work experience.
| Paragraph 2 – Job background |
Provide background on your difficult job. What was the job? Who did you work for/with? When did you work? Where? Why were you doing the job? Describe and explain the job using as many specific details as possible.
| Paragraph 3 – The difficult experience |
Tell a story about the most difficult moment or part of the job. Use sensory images (sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch) to make your story vivid to the reader. Include as many details as possible, including dialogue if you talked with anyone. Describe how you felt and what caused you to feel the way that you did during each part of the work experience.
| Paragraph 4 – What you learned about yourself |
Describe what the difficult job taught you about yourself. Did it reveal any new or hidden qualities that you were unaware of before? Did it strengthen or weaken any qualities that you already knew you had? What lessons did you learn from the job? Did anything about the job surprise you? Be as specific and detailed as possible, giving examples of what you learned and how you learned it.
| Paragraph 5 - Conclusion |
Review the connection between your difficult job and John’s difficult jobs on the farm. Explain how they were similar and how they were different. Summarize what the difficult job taught you about yourself and what you learned from it.
Evaluation –
- Organization – you followed directions and have at least 5 paragraphs that are well developed with a topic sentence and details.
- Original story – you shared a story from your own personal experience. You wrote sincerely.
- Support – you used at least one appropriate quote to illustrate one of Muir’s difficult jobs on the farm & many descriptive details to describe your own difficult work experience.
- MLA style – internal citation, proper heading, double spaced, etc.
- You have at least 500 words.
- See the rubric for more specific evaluation criteria.