The One Hour Essay

English 101

Generating (10 minutes of fastwriting) With nearly 100 million users, Facebook is a social phenomenon of sweeping impact. Why?

• Speculate• Tell a personal Facebook story• Narrative of thought (“When I first think of Facebook, I think..And then I

think…) Look for traction on a topic.• Ski glide on a question.• If the writing dies, skip a line and try something else.

Judging (5 minutes) Compose one or more propositions about Facebook that emerged from your fastwriting. (E.g. Active users of Facebook are narcissists and have low self-esteem).

• Slice and dice your proposition with questions (e.g. What do I mean by an “active user?” How might narcissism be related to low self-esteem? What is it about Facebook that encourages people like this? How? Why might this not be true? What evidence do I have from my own experience and observations that confirm this proposition?)

Generating (10 minutes)

Choose a question as a prompt and follow it until the writing dies. Choose another question and follow it until the writing dies

Judging (5 minutes)

• Revise and restate your proposition.

Generating (15 minutes)

• Go online and research your proposition (e.g. Google Scholar)

Judging (15 minutes)

• Compose the lead paragraph (first paragraph or two) of an essay on the subject of Facebook. Title it and submit it on Bb.