9^th Grade English Name:_____________________

Night, by Elie Wiesel

Take-Home Writing Assignment

For this assignment, you will write about ONE of the following topic choices:

A. Write about an important issue, in your experience of society and politics, anywhere in the world. The topic should be something that is important to you, and that you think should be important to others. It should be an important, true story that should be made known more widely. It must be something you feel is important. It may be a local issue, something national, or something international. This is not a research assignment; not one word of your take-home essay may be written by anyone other than you. No quotes, from the internet or anywhere else. You will be graded on the logic, coherence, and thoughtfulness of your ideas and arguments.

B. Interview an adult close to you about a topic of society or politics this person feels is important and should be communicated to others, or an important true story that others should know. This may be related to any topic, local, national, or international. It must be something that your interviewee feels is extremely important. Your essay will take the form of a report of your conversation with your interviewee, NOT a Q & A format. You should try to convey your interviewee’s passion and commitment to the issue. You will include direct and indirect quotes from the interview in your essay, but no research beyond that. You will be graded on dramatically conveying another person’s passion and ideas.

C. Write an autobiographical account, about an incident in your life that has great value and meaning for you, and from which you learned something important. Write about the incident as a short memoir, as Night is a memoir. Of course, your account will be one incident, not a short book. You will be graded on your “storytelling ability” (use of details and arrangement of events) as well as making a point or lesson from the event.

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Length: I don’t want to give an exact maximum or minimum. However, I believe you can do a good job on this assignment in 3-5 typed, double-spaced pages.

Criteria: In addition to the criteria listed in the topics above, I will grade on seriousness of purpose; writing style (paragraphing and structure, as well as effective style and details); spelling, grammar, and mechanics; neatness of typing and layout. Read your own essay before I do, please. If it’s all one long paragraph, or full of typographical errors, or contains incomplete and run-on sentences, you should edit until it is as perfect as you can make it.

Extras: A cover page, illustrations, photographs, etc., are not necessary, although you may include them if you wish. Neatness and serious count.

Due: The completed, neat, final draft is due to me in printed form (not electronic) on Monday, May 7^th.

Ideas: Here is a list of ideas mainly for Topics A and B, although possibly also related to the “lessons learned” part of Topic B: Human Rights, Poverty, AIDS, Global Warming, Terrorism, War, Nuclear Weapons, Bullying, Free Speech, Homelessness, Ageism, Sexism, Racism, Right to Privacy, Abortion, Death Penalty, Alcohol, Drugs, Immigration, Smoking, Youth Rights, Animal Rights, Gay Rights, Women’s Rights, Euthanasia, Overpopulation, the Environment, Religious Freedom, Violence, Media, Smoking, etc., etc., etc.