Saturday, October 29, 2011

Assignment: Expository Essay

Sweeney's seemingly spiritual journey eventually leads to atheism
















In her monologue, Letting Go of God, comedienne Julia Sweeney recounts her journey from devout believer to staunch atheist. After some time exploring her own Christian faith, as well as other belief systems, Sweeney concludes that there is no God:

"Eventually I said goodbye to God, and I imagined him as this old man, this old broken-down man, more like an older version of the God on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. But if you looked closely, you could even recognize the Jesus from the poster in my high school bedroom...but older, much, much older, with long, gray and white hair, and lots of lines on his face. An old hippie who still smoked. And at one time he seemed so all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-protective. But now, he just seemed a little stinky.

And I could just see him sitting on the suitcases near the front door of my house, and I went to him and I said 'I'm sorry, God. It's not you. It's...it's me. It's just...I don't think you exist. I mean, God, look at it this way: It's really because I take you so seriously that I can't bring myself to believe in you. I mean, if it's any consolation, it's sort of a sign of respect. So...sit here for a while if you want to. You can stay a little while if you need to. There's no big hurry.' And slowly, over the course of several weeks, he just disappeared."

In a concise essay, identify three turning points in Sweeney's journey toward a belief in atheism. For instance, what were some keys events that pushed her further from her her long-held faith? Who were the people that influenced her budding beliefs and what was their impact? What were the defining moments in her path toward godlessness?

Requirements:

  • MLA format, including parenthetical citation*
  • 3-page minimum
  • Include a works cited page 
  *Cite according to player timer (hour:minute:second); Example: (Sweeney 02:12:12)

The best papers will:
  • Stay within the parameters of the prompt
  • Have a concise thesis
  • Clearly support their thesis with solid evidence and a logical structure
  • Properly cite evidence using MLA's paranthetical citation method
  • Conclude with a summation of your points
  • Be in proper MLA Style

Due: Draft 1We 11.2 (Bring two copies); Final draft—Due at any point between this week and the final day of class, Mo 12.5

7 comments:

  1. Can I cite the book that comes with the CD instead? I don't want to play back through every track when I could just flip through my highlights.

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  2. I suppose so, though show me what that would look like.

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  3. Example: "An eye, an eye is very complex." (Sweeny, 71)

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  4. Can I cite it by disc, track, and the time in that track? Looking at it most media players don't really show the complete time of whole album, rather just the time of the current track.

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  5. @Sonny: Ok
    @Klonai: Do the best you can with what you have.

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  6. do we have class tomorrow? and is the essay due tomorrow because the website says thursday and i never received an e-mail about the upcoming classes

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  7. @Briana: Yes, there will be class. I emailed you at whatever email you have in MySJSU. Don't worry about it, though. I can explain it all tomorrow. All you need is two copies of your paper/

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