Now that you have just about turned in your writing assignment, I have your next reading assignment ready to go.  All of these essays come from Eating the Dinosaur, and as you are reading them I want you to try and find some common themes that tie them all together.  Because with all of Klosterman's essays, these all deal with different versions of the same thing, and I want you to begin to try and figure out his patterning.  So as you read them, keep each of them in mind as you read the others.  Please read:

"What We Talk about When We Talk about Ralph Sampson"

"Through a Glass, Blindly"

"The Passion of the Garth"

"Ha Ha," he said. "Ha, ha"

These essays will lead up to your next writing assignment, which will be a long paper, the third long paper (worth 25% of your overall grade) of the semester.  

Now that you have had a chance to read the essays leading up to this assignment, I have your next writing prompt ready to go.  This assignment will count as 25% of your overall grade, and will be our second long writing assignment of the semester (second out of three).  This prompt is going to be a little open-ended, and it will be the prompt that, so far, will ask that you think critically about how you are reading as much as what you are reading.  I asked you to find patterns in the essays I assigned a few days ago, patterns that make it clear that Klosterman writes, at the same time, essays that are disconnected but also very connected to the others.  So, the prompt.

In a three-page (at least three pages, it can be longer if you would like) double-spaced (Times New Roman, 12 pt. font, 1" margins all around) essay, I want to you do just that, find the patters.  What do the essays have in common, and taken together, what is the thesis of them?  They are all very similar in design and in scope, so I want you to propose a thesis that will tie all of them together.  What is Klosterman's project here?  What do you think he is trying to say, trying to pose?  What are his larger, more rhetorical questions (think about the kinds of questions I've asked you in the past within your writing assignments.  I'd like you to pose your own rhetorical questions, using Klosterman's essays as guide).  Basically this essay will be a reader's response to the readings that led up to this.  Tie them all together, chart the patterns he uses in them, think back to your readings this semester--what is it that Klosterman is doing, and why is he doing it?  Make some arguments about his own argument(s)--is he doing what you think he is doing in a way that is successful?  Why or why not?  How?  You will need to cite Klosterman throughout your essay and you will need to be very specific--use the essays to help you form your argument.