English 200W
An occasional paper is an essay in response to an occasion. Occasional papers don’t require research and won’t necessarily relate to writing, literacy or school but it can if this is what’s on your mind. What you write about is up to you. You’ll write and read aloud to the class three occasional papers—personal essays you write in response to any “occasion” that inspires you this semester.
An occasional paper is all about your own exigence (reason for writing)—whatever happens to you, or around you, or somewhere else this semester that makes you write. The idea is that you write, and share with a live audience, a piece that means something to you, in the moment. (The rhetorical term for this is kairos, or “right timing.”) For instance, if I was writing an occasional paper right now, I might decide to write about what it’s like to teach online, during COVID and in the context of ongoing police brutality and state violence. Or I might write about my relationship with my parents, who have very different political views than I do. Or I might write about how I wish I had more time to watch movies or being amazed at the way people can craft a good video to put out in the world. I might write about something going on in my neighborhood. All of those things are on my mind right now and any of them would work as the topic for an occasional paper.
Your audience (me and the class) will listen, possibly respond, and definitely thank you for sharing, but not critique your occasional papers.
This assignment is designed to do the following: 1) Give everyone a chance to write about something personal and/or on a topic of your choice, to help you make connections between your own life and the course; 2) allow you to write for and read to an audience—reading aloud brings lessons of audience home; 3) give you a chance to write without concern for a grade or surface-level correctness. The paper must be written in advance, but no one will know if you have spelled words in a standard way or used paragraphs or headings—the grade you earn will be for simply reading the paper aloud, and you’ll get full credit (5% of your overall grade for each paper) if you write and share three occasional papers that meet these straightforward expectations:
1) Write around 3-5 minutes’ worth of essay, 6 at the outside. A double-spaced page typically takes about 2 minutes to read, so that’s 1.5 to 3 double-spaced pages if you’d rather imagine it/count that way, or about 450-900 words.)
2) Read your essay out loud to the class. Be sure when reading your essay that you do not race or mumble through it–we all want to hear it! This is good training for future public readings of your work.
Due date(s)
Occasional Paper Window 1: 2/6-2/20
Occasional Paper Window 2: 2/27-3/20
Occasional Paper Window 3: 3/27-5/1
