Archetype essay

Mythic Archetype Essay
English 12
OReilly
Use your tasty mythic archetype paragraph and expand it into an essay. Please do not exceed two
pages.
Opening paragraph
5 points_______Add background at the beginning. Let’s make the background anywhere from
1-4 lines. Background is general information—information that is general knowledge and
therefore requires no citing—that orients the reader, lets him know what the essay is about. Fully
introduce both Carol Pearson and her website, The Heroes Within, and also the archetype quiz which
is on the website, Avidtran.
Mention that you took the test and what the results were.
Example Background:
On the website, The Heroes Within, author Carol Pearson outlines twelve archetypes, the
underlying personality traits which can predominate in one’s personality. After taking the
archetype test on the website Avidtran, which determined which archetype is dominant in my
personality, I have to say, I disagree with the test's conclusion.
5 points_______ Use your paragraph topic sentence as your thesis, either a power statement, a
FANBOYS sentence, or a complex sentence.
5 points_______ Add a plan. The plan briefly outlines for the reader what you will be writing
about.
Thesis: My mythic archetype as defined by the test, the warrior, does correspond to my
personality in two very significant ways. Plan: I fit the archetype in that I can set boundaries and
achieve goals.
OR combine the plan with the thesis in one sentence:
My mythic archetype as defined by the test, the warrior, does correspond to my personality in
that I can set boundaries and achieve goals.
2 Body Paragraphs
5 points______Use your key ideas (yellows) from your paragraph to become the topic sentences
of your body paragraphs.
15 points _______ Keep your examples, explanations, and evidence (reds) from your paragraph
and add a few more. Once again, this is where you get creative: add very vivid vignettes,
dialogues, and stories from your life to make your evidence come alive.
10 points________ In each body paragraph, properly cite the text, see your MLA Quickie
Reference for how to integrate quotes.
Example topic sentence (yellow) integrating and citing a quote:
The warrior archetype is depicted as a person who can "set and achieve goals, overcome
obstacles, and persist in difficult times" (Pearson); however, I have never felt very effective in
that area.
Then refute in your reds.
Conclusion:
5 points______ Use your concluding sentence from your paragraph and add a few more
concluding sentences. Restate your main ideas with a different twist.
Works Cited and Bibliography
10 points_____Your Works Cited must have at least three sources that you actually cite in your
paper. Probably the three cites will be Avidran, Heroes Within, and Changing Minds, the three
websites you originally used to write your paragraph. Find them at :
http://avidtran.tripod.com/archetype.html
http://www.herowithin.com/arch101.html
http://changingminds.org/disciplines/storytelling/characters/pearson_archetypes.htm
Use Knight Cite and your MLA Quickie Reference form to properly format and cite:
http://www.calvin.edu/library/knightcite/
5 points______Your Bibliography must include at least one other website or text that you
research about mythology or archetypes. You could use your Parallel Myths text.

How to fix your archetype essay

The Archetype Essay Re-write

English 12

OReilly

OK you guys...many of you messed up on your Works Cited. That is not a big surprise. Very few of my students have mastered how to do a Works Cited and Bibliography on the first attempt.

So now, it's hardball time! You must all fix your flippin' essays, and this time get it right.

1) Watch me create your Works Cited and follow my every move with interest and alacrity—Be patient, listen, calm down. LEARN IT!!!

2)________ Re-construct your Works Cited (and Bibliography too if it is garbage)

3) ________Check your paper; every time you quote, check the following:

If it is the first time you use a source COMPLETELY introduce it. State if it is from a text—use the word text—or a website. State who the author is and if it is an article. Here are some examples:

Author Dixie Chixie in her online article "Dissin' the Prez," states that...

In the text, I Am a Cow, author Moocheese Hereford comments that.....

On the website Chasing the Impossible Dream, in an article titled "Cheese and Immortality," the author asserts that.....

The next time you use a source, if it is already introduced, simply quote it or paraphrase your information and follow with a parenthesis containing the first words of the Works Cited entry.

As an example: Look below at the Works Cited entry

"Pearson's Heroic Archetypes." ChangingMinds.Org N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Oct. 2009

.

What are the first words that make sense? That's right: "Pearson's Heroic Archetype." So put those words in the parenthesis after your quote. Since it is an article, put it in quotes. If it were a website or text, you would write it in italics within your parenthesis. If it were an author's name, you would merely write the author's last name.

________Fix any other errors I have noted on your paper. Highlight your changes ON BOTH THE FINAL DRAFT AND THE FIRST DRAFT. Staple with final draft on top and this rubric on the top.

Sample Mythic Essay

Dian Student
Teacher OReilly
English 12
Date Period

Oh, Oh, Oh...It's Magic

On the website, The Heroes Within, author Carol Pearson outlines twelve archetypes, the underlying personality traits which predominate in one’s personality. After taking the archetype test on the website Avidtran, which determines which archetype is dominant in my personality, I have to say, I agree with the test's conclusion. As defined by the test, my mythic archetype, the magician, does correspond to my personality in two very significant ways. I fit the archetype in that I can tell stories and transform my world.
The Magician archetype "has the power of naming" (Pearson); this is the power to re-tell or re-create an experience to give it new meaning. I do have the desire to continually relate the stories from my life, to somehow make what I have experienced more understandable. For instance, I would like to talk about what I did today. It was a simple day, but quite a lovely one. It is fall, and so the air was warm and rich with the sense that summer has ended. It is nostalgic, sweetly nostalgic to know that winter is coming. It reminds me that I am fifty three and in the autumn of my life, and all day, as I made an effort to let the sun fall on my face to get the last little bit of October sun, I kept thinking of the shortness of life. And Michael and I hiked to this silly pioneer day on the top of a mountain in New Almaden. There were many long boring speeches about what used to be on that site: a mine, a map house, cows grazing, a school house. But now there is nothing but ruins, dry grass, and shrubs. I didn't listen to the speeches. I was staring at the long thumbs on a very old man. His thumbs were so long, I wanted to ask him if he had loved to hitchhike in his youth. His thumbs were delicate, like fingers. I longed to look at his toes to see if they were so lovely. And I stared at a girl with Down's Syndrome. I stared and stared, but she had no notion of my staring. She did not have those perceptions. She ate with rectitude, concentration, and passion throughout the entire affair. I noticed her parents were quite old to be parents of so young a girl, and I wondered if her mother had an ultra sound and knew she was having a Downs Syndrome child. I wondered who would care for the girl after they died. We hiked down the mountain afterward with a Mexican couple, so I got to practice my Spanish, and given the opportunity to speak the truth in her own tongue, the woman, struggling in her Payless heels on that rocky trail, admitted that, despite the opportunidades aqui, she would rather be in Mexico where it was warmer, the food was better, and she didn't have to make rent. She didn't want to get old in this country. I wondered at how lucky I was to have this warm day, a nice boyfriend, sane and moral children. And I wondered how I would die. It was a beautiful, but short day, a short day because it is fall. Summer is over. As I write this, I see that I transformed my day into a meditation on the brevity of life.
"Magicians move into altered states, and then explore these realities," declares Pearson on her website The Heroes Within, and I too have explored different modes of being. I have the idea that if I live as cleanly as possible in my food, exercise, and habits, my state of mind will continue to evolve to a more ecstatic place. Sometimes I include Yoga or meditation to my regimen. Playing music or creating art also changes my frame of mind. I sometimes go through phases where I get up early and write down my dreams. It opens up my mind. Life becomes crisper, more vivid, funnier. During a time in my life when I was practicing the discipline of rising early and writing I had an unusual experience: it was Thanksgiving and I had a delicious meal with my family. Then I went home and read a very lush fairy tale to my children. As I ws reading, I became aware that the story and the illustrations were extremely lyrical, poetic, and exquisite. After the story, I played with my children. They were about five or six and quite hyper, but I had infinite patience and love for them. We played and tumbled on the floor, laughing, tickling, singing, and they went to bed with no effort. I just sang them to sleep. My mood became increasingly jubilant, yet relaxed. I began to get a sense that everything around me was energy, particles, and reality seemed to be in tiny swirling pieces, like a Van Gogh painting, but more particulate. My husband described his Phd Physics thesis to me: how laser beams hit micron sized particles and cause them to spin, and I could see it in my mind's eye, and I understood the math. It was visionary, and I peaked in the early hours of morning when I felt like I was melting in the colors swirling around me. I asked my brother, punk that he is, if he had slipped some LSD into my tea, but he denied it and looked at me like I was crazy. The feeling from that day and night has never completely left me. I always know there's got to be another world.
The website Changing Minds claims that "the Magician's quest is not to 'do magic' but to transform or change something or someone in some way." Yes, I see my life as an energetic river, and I constantly seek to "transform reality" as a way to keep moving forward, and that appears to be the role of the magician archetype ("Pearson'e Heroic Archetype"). I always feel I am on the verge of another reality.

The Nice Glossary: What works in Your Writing

The Nice Glossary


NAC/NCR




A set of acronyms defining what works in your writing


Nice Abstract Concept: Creative, a different way of thinking. You had an idea

NAL


Nice ALliteration: So Sweet the sound of first letters softly synchopating.

NE


Nice Ending: A Resolution, a denouement. I wasn't left hanging. Or if I was, it worked

NDT


Nice Detail: A correctly chosen word or phrase can paint an entire picture.

ND


Nice Dialogue: Dialogue can capture a situation or an idea. Funny, typical, to the point lines...they bring writing alive: "Here's looking at yah, kid."

NF


Nice Funny: Thank you. I laughed.

NI


Nice Imagery: The trees, yellow silver in the falling light. The wind smells of fall and apples. The summer feels like life never ends. The slanted light of fall reminds us that we all die, but somehow, like ripened apples, the taste of fall is sweet.

NN


Nice names: Dimsdale is dim. Chillingworth is scary (chilly) Romeo is romantic. Names mean something

NO


Nice Opening; A good opening says a lot. It's the first impression. Make it tasty.

NOn


Nice Onemonapeia: Doink, whoosh, ribbit, boing,

NP


Nice Phrasing: You turned a phrase. The words caught in a lovely congruence.

NPT


Nice Plot Turn: This is not boring. The plot is interesting, and the story is going somewhere. Good pacing.

NPer


Nice Personification: The wind knows you are a good writer, and the sun loves your writing. The stones sing your songs. The trees whisper your words.

NV


Nice Voice: Perhaps the most abstract yet powerful element to effective writing. Your particular style and stamp, your personality, your very soul's passion coming through in your writing.