My COVID19 Narrative: Four Months in the Contact Zone

The COVID19 global pandemic has been a life-altering event for all of us. As I write this, we’re still in the middle of it and the future seems uncertain. One thing is clear–the world has been changed by these events. With this last essay assignment in ENGL& 102 (perhaps the last English class essay you will ever take), I’m giving you as chance to take stock, reflect, remember, and try to make sense of these recent experiences that have forced us all to “re-see the world.”

The essay you write to this assignment might take the form of a narrative, a story. It might be a more traditional thesis/examples essay. It might be a braided story like “Our Secret.” It could be a process analysis essay that describes, step by step, the changes that happened around us as the days and weeks went by. Perhaps you want to make us of Mary Louise Pratt’s concept of “the contact zone” and examine this pandemic as an asymetrical confrontation. Perhaps you want to provide us 13 ways of looking at the pandemic, ala Jenny Price. Or you might invent an organizing ideas of your own.

The Assignment
Write an essay that describes what the past three months of this world health crisis has been like for you and for those around you. How has it changed your thinking about yourself? your life? your relationship to the world around you? How have you been forced/allowed to “re-see the world” by your experiences?

Getting Started
As you begin to tell this personal story, write about things that are most clear to you or that feel easiest to write about. You can worry about the order of things later.
You may find it useful to make use of our writers’ projects. Pratt’s concept of the “contact zone” while thinking about this topic. One definition of such a zone is where forces of unequal power come together. What happens when this happens? Which entity gives way? What consequences flow from such a contact? Might thinking of the dynamics of the pandemic as a “contact zone” be helpful when writing this essay? What 13 different perspectives might you take to examine this situation? How might this world-wide phenomenon look from these different perspectives? Somewhat similarly, you might adopt Griffin’s braided tale structure, but you may be tired of even thinking of “Our Secret” at this point! Still, the structure is there for you to make use of.
One way to start this essay would be to just start writing. Give yourself 20 minutes of uninterrupted freewriting time–see what was on the top of your mind regarding this topic. You’re not writing the essay yet, you’re just making preparations.
As always when contemplating an essay’s thesis, a writer can stay close and specific and go large and wide. Will the main point of your essay say something about your specific experiences or do you want to make a larger statement about this situation? Express an opinion and make sure that the rest of your illustrates and explores and supports that opinion,
Some questions your essay might attempt to answer:
How is your life different now?
What has surprised you most about this experience?
What have you learned about yourself from this experience?
What do you miss most of your pre-COVID19 life?
How have the new realities changed your relationships with those around you?
Grading Criteria
1. (10 points) Does the essay meet the requirements of the essay, including being turned in by assignment deadline?

2. (25 points) Does the essay have a clear and supporte thesis?

3. (25 points) Is the essay organized in an effecteve way?

4. (25 points) Does the essay touch on our theme of “re-seeing the world” in a meaningful way?

5. (15 points) Is the essay edited carefully and formatted according to MLA guidelines?