English 101 / Essay Assignment #1

Sources required to complete this assignment:

• “The Color of Family Ties” by Gerstel and Sarkisian
• “Looking for Work” by Gary Soto
• “An Indian Story” by Roger Jack
•  “Aunt Ida Pieces a Quilt” by Melvin Dixon
• Three essays by conservative commentators obtained via research

Writing Prompt

In “The Color of Family Ties,” Naomi Gerstel and Natalia Sarkisian point out that political commentators often complain that minority families are usually nontraditional and dysfunctional while traditional nuclear families (like the one depicted in Norman Rockwell’s Freedom from Fear) are the only ones capable of supportive relationships and strong family connections.

Do some research and find 3 examples of political commentators critical of minority families.  What kinds of criticism do they make about minority families? Next, analyze the three nontraditional minority families depicted in Jack’s essay and Soto’s essay and Dixon’s poem to discover if such families are indeed incapable of supportive relationships and strong family ties. Or do they illustrate the opposite? Which of these three families offers the strongest example of supportive relationships and strong family ties?

Write an essay that discusses your findings.

Essay Guidelines / Your essay must:

Be 5-7 complete pages in length of analytical expository writing (excluding the Works Cited page)

Offer a clear thesis as last sentence of first paragraph

Start subsequent paragraphs with topic sentences

Directly quote at least once from Gerstel and Sarkisian’s essay

Directly quote from the conservative essays obtained through research

Directly quote sufficient textual evidence from Soto’s and Jack’s essay and from Dixon’s poem

Explain how these cited passages work as evidence for your claims

End with a Works Cited page

Adhere to MLA style guidelines

Have minimal or no errors in punctuation and grammar