Writing Topics for Conferences and Tutorials

Instructions:

1. Select one of the four composition topics below and bring your completed response to your tutoring appointment.  --OR--  Select one of the shortwrite topics listed farther down on this page.  --OR--  Select one of the writing topics found at the end of each chapter in the 20C grammar textbook, Writing Clearly.
2. Give yourself approximately 30 minutes to write a short composition.  If you want this to serve as a practice exam, write 3 pages in 1.5 hours.
   
3. Write a minimum of one full page but no more than two pages.
4. Use a dictionary and your class notes.
5. Write as well as you can and edit carefully.  Check for correctness, organization, and comprehensibility. 
6. Make an appointment with your instructor or with a writing tutor, to go over your work.

COMPOSITION #1:

Reading  
In the article “The Joy of Old,” Charles Rembar, a lawyer, tries to convince the reader that the best age to be is “Old.”  He cites such advantages as half fares on buses and trains, special treatment, extra time to do things you enjoy, and added wisdom.

The thing to do about middle age is to skip it.  Middle age is signaled by larger belt size and muscles turned to pudding.  Youth, a larval stage revered by advertisers who use it as a selling tool, ends unexpectedly too soon.  The best course is to go directly to Old.  Not elderly.  Not senior.  Old.

Old—assuming reasonably good health—has many advantages.  Our language tells us this.  No one ever speaks about younger and wiser heads.

Topic  
Write a short essay in which you describe what you think the best age to be is: a child, an adolescent, a teenager, a young adult, a middle aged person, an elderly person, or an old person.  To develop your essay include details from Charles Rembar’s passage, your observations of others, and specific examples from your own experience.

COMPOSITION #2:

Reading 
In interviewing people for his book Working, Studs Terkel with Eric Nesterenko, a professional hockey player who had the following thoughts on what is important in choosing a profession.

I have doubts about what I do.  I’m not that sure of myself.  It doesn’t seem clear to me at times.  I’m a man playing at a boy’s game.  Is this a valid reason for making money?  Then I turn around and think of a job.  I’ve tried to be a stockbroker…[but] I’m not good at persuading people to buy things they don’t want to buy.  I’m just not interested in the power of money.  I found that out.  That’s the way one keeps score—the amount of money you earned…I’ve worked construction and I liked that best of all…I was interested in seeing how a big building goes up—and working with my hands…A stockbroker has more status…[but] the real status is what my peers think of me and what I think of myself.

Topic 
Write a short essay in which you analyze the factors that motivate one to choose a particular profession.  To develop your essay include details from Studs Terkel’s passage, your observations of others, and specific examples from your own experience.

COMPOSITION #3:

Reading 
In the article “How to Succeed in Asia” from the Los Angeles Times, Teresa Watanabe describes differing styles of communication

For 15 years, UCI professor of marketing and international business John Graham has studied American business practices and compared them to those in Asia.  His findings: Americans tend to be too blabby, too impatient, and too informal for Asian tastes.  For instance, he claims that “Americans can’t stand silence, so they often fail to give sufficient time to formulate answers or even to finish sentences.”  Also, “Americans look at their watches too often,” and they “actually can upset Asians” with their desire to remain informal, using first names and ignoring ritual.

Topic 
Write a short essay in which you analyze divergent conversational styles and the results of these differing styles.  To develop your essay include details from the passage by Teresa Watanabe, your observations of others, and specific examples from your own experience. 
 

COMPOSITION #4:

Reading 
In the following passage Josephine Robinson discusses the reason behind our beliefs.

Few of us take the pains to study the origin of our cherished convictions.  We like to continue to believe what we have been accustomed to accept as true.  We can readily give what seem to us “good” reasons for being a Catholic or a Mason, a Republican or a Democrat.  But the “real” reasons are usually on quite a different plane.

The “real” reasons for our beliefs are concealed from ourselves as well as from others.  As we grow up we simply adopt the ideas presented to us in regard to such matters as religion, property, business, our country and politics.  We unconsciously absorb them from our environment.  They are persistently whispered in our ears by the group in which we happen to live.

Topic 
Write a short essay in which you describe a belief that has been absorbed from the environment, unconsciously and without question, but that would be difficult to explain logically.  Analyze how this belief was acquired.  To develop your essay include details from Josephine Robinson’s passage, your observations of others, and specific examples from your own experience. 

PRACTICE SHORTWRITES

Instructions:

TOPICS: