In this course you need to be able to write an essay that relates several key concepts, exploring their connections. This type of writing is very different from making a list of points; it is not like a making a list of bulleted points of fact. Instead, it requires argument and analysis. Nor is it like telling a story, creating a narrative, since there is no particular sequence of events to relate.
Writing this sort of essay should help you to understand what you think. It should help you develop what you think. In other words, in this course, the main point of asking students to write this sort of essay is to deepen their understanding of the issues and concepts. Working with the ideas develops the ideas, reveals confusions that need to be thought through, and makes the ideas stick.
How?
When you read an essay assignment, look for the key concepts. In this essay assignment these are
| modernity |
| existential Big Questions, practical Big Questions |
| Christianity |
| contemporary US culture |
| worldviews (not explicitly mentioned, but hiding in the topics nonetheless) |
where the exact list depends on which topic one is looking at. The entire essay should be centered on the relationship of the key concepts. Nothing else.
Check for which particular relationships between the key concepts you are to explore. For example, are you asked to look for conflict? For connection? The entire essay should be about those relationships. Nothing else.
When you draft an essay, check to make sure every paragraph is about what you discovered in going through the above steps. The paragraphs should each have a point, a distinct role to play in giving your analysis. They should be ordered in a way that builds toward a final resolution of the issues, or an organized summary of your position. (That does not mean you have to end with a summary paragraph.)
Every sentence in a paragraph should contribute to the point of that paragraph. When the point has been made, quit. Don't add a couple of extra sentences at the end, that trail off and confuse the reader about what your point really is.