Paper One: Identity Analysis

Length: Approximate minimum of 1600 words, or five pages double spaced in 11 or 12 point Times New Roman or Ariel.

Overview:
In a well-organized essay, discuss an aspect of your identity and the impact it has on your life.

Background
For all that we talk about, obsess about, and generally dissect identity, identity itself can be a slippery, multi-faceted thing.  In this room, for example, I am a teacher, and that is my primary identity.  However, in certain discussions, other aspects of my identity will come to the fore.  I am, as will become evident in the next paper, a total geek, a comic book fan, and a pop culture aficionado; I'm a woman, which is pretty much never irrelevant; I'm on the upper end of Generation X; I'm in a long-term relationship; I'm a moderate sports fan who doesn't care all that much for basketball; I'm the second of four children, and significantly older than my two younger siblings; I'm the sister and sister-in-law of Marines currently serving overseas; I'm adopted...and that's not getting into things like religion, sexual orientation, and political leanings.  Which I'm not getting into on accounta I'm the teacher.

Identity is often an interesting mix of self-selection and social construction.  Some aspects of identity, like gender and ethnicity, are imposed upon us, either by biology or social norms.  Others are self-selecting, by our beliefs, activities, and interests.  Some affect all areas of our lives, others only a few.  Some come with great social acceptance and even valorization, some with stigma.  Sometimes the different aspects of our identity work together harmoniously (being a woman and a teacher meshes pretty darned well), sometimes they do not (being a woman who's a fan of superhero comics...not so much).

Assignment
Your job in this paper is to choose one aspect of your identity and explore it in a way that illuminates not only you, but that identity for your readers.  In other words, I shouldn't just learn about you when I read this paper, but should also get some insight into what it means to be...(insert here).

So what do I mean by "aspect of identity?"  Well, there are the big ones, of course: gender, race/ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, nationality.  And while you're free to go with those, for the purposes of writing a focused, specific paper, it might be easier to be a bit more specific.  Of the big ones, religion and sexual orientation are probably the most manageable on this scale, and even then, you'd be pushing it.

Other things you might consider are significant interests and activities (sports, either as a fan or an athlete, or even being a fan of a particular team; being into a particular book or movie genre, like science fiction or mysteries or horror; being seriously involved in something like horses, or Scouts, or volunteer work), things related to your family (being the oldest/youngest/middle/only girl or boy, being a child of divorced parents, or having lost a parent, being a single parent, being divorced yourself, being married, being in a interracial marriage) or family background (being a first-generation American, having grown up on a family farm), careers past or present.  I will ask that you clear your topic with me.

Once you've chosen that, you will want to begin exploring the following:

• What is the history of that facet of your identity?  This should not comprise your whole paper, but only a paragraph or two.
• How does that identity relate to other facets of your identity (gender, religion, other interests)?
• What are the benefits and other positive aspects/results of that part of your identity?  What do you gain from it?
• What are the costs, drawbacks, or other negative aspects of that part of your identity?  What do you lose by it?
• What are things you wish people knew about that aspect of your identity?

You may answer some or all of these questions in your paper, but remember that the idea is to give insight to your reader.

Grading Criteria:

• Does the paper say something interesting and insightful about identity?
• Is the aspect of your identity explored in analytical ways?
• Are points supported with specific and relevant examples?
• Are the points arranged in a clear and coherent manner?
• Are mechanical errors rare?