English 102 D02
Paper #3
April 4, 2022
Rough draft due date: online, May 2, Monday, 1:25pm
Final draft due date: online, May 6, Friday, 2:15pm
Length: at least 600 words (but you may have more if you wish)
Format: a personal letter (see Easy Writer or any other standard handbook)
Assignment: Compose a letter to either (1) your future grandchild or (2) a future social scientist (your choice). The date for this letter is May 2, 2072. (Presume that you are already 68-70 years old and are writing this letter in 2072.) The subjects for this letter are your personal memories of the Covid-19 pandemic during both your spring 2021 semester (whether it occurred here at SJU or at your high school during your senior year) and your spring 2022 semester here at SJU. The substantial portion of this essay will not be argumentative but autobiographical.
Your account must include a complete narrative of two Coronavirus-related events that actually happened to you—one from your 2021 semester and one from your 2022 semester. Ideally, these incidents should be personally significant and took place during a short space of time (an hour or so, for instance). Detail, organization, and honesty are paramount in telling your story. Use real names and places, if appropriate. You may also recreate dialogue to describe the event as vividly as possible. The bulk of your letter should be this narrative.
End your letter with an extended discussion of one specific life principle you learned from comparing your experiences in 2021 and 2022 that you want your grandchild or the social scientist to take away from reading your letter. Although it is a poem, use the format in Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” as a
model: Keats first tells the story he saw in the urn and then concludes with the principle he discovered from the experience—the reciprocal relationship between truth and beauty.
Additional Instructions
There will be no voice restrictions for this last paper (I, you, we, etc., are now allowed); however, I still expect the essay to be grammatically and compositionally perfect. Pay particular attention to proper paragraphing, which will be heavily factored into grading—review Easy Writer if necessary. Again, use a proper format for a personal letter.