Where are the Examples?

In this section, you can explore several essays written by past students that exemplify, in one way or another, genre conventions and expectations. These examples are to serve as mentor texts, or models for writing or reading to be studied for effectiveness in achieving a certain rhetorical effect, purpose, argument, stylistic choice, or for how well the model connects with a particular audience. These mentor texts aren’t perfect examples, but reading, reflecting on, and discussing these examples with your teacher or classmates will help you better understand what your readers might expect.

As you read each mentor text, you might consider asking yourself the following questions:

What do I like about this piece? Why?

What do I dislike about this piece or the writer’s approach? Why?

How does this piece meet certain genre conventions or audience expectations I am learning about in class?

How does this piece challenge the genre conventions or audience expectations I am learning about in class?

What would I like to ask my instructor about this example?

Before continuing, please note that these examples are shared to serve as mentor texts and should not be re-used, modified, or shared for any reason other than educational purposes. Please do not use any portions of these texts in your own writing unless you are providing proper attribution via ethical citation practices.

Ready to start reading? Click next to continue to the first example.