Also, I want to give you an audience for each Guided Writing exercise. For "Farewell to Summer": Your favorite magazine has approached you to write an essay on "Farewell to ______" because it knows you are an expert on it. You might want to focus on a month or a season, or perhaps even a place that you know intimately and think you can describe in detail.
For "Camping Out": Because your "Farewell" essay was such a success, the monthly magazine Live Right Teens! (which you've never heard of) has contacted you to write an essay on how to do something wrong, and how to do it right--going on vacation, looking for a job, fishing, or whatever.
If these assignments are not clear, don't hesitate to get in touch with me.
In most classes, we also discussed the "impermissible errors." Sometime this weekend, these will be posted in the column to the right in the "Assignments and Syllabus" section.
Have a good weekend!
Addendum (9/21): Some students have asked about the length of the guided writing exercise. Rather than length, think in terms of the time you spend on it. I don't expect you to spend more than about ninety minutes on your homework. Some of you may need more time, others may be able to complete everything in forty-five minutes to an hour. With this particular assignment, I think most of you could finish reading both essays and do the vocabulary exercise within half-an-hour, which leaves you an hour to do the guided writing exercise.
