Description:
Here is your first big paper for WALC. Everything that you have been learning and doing for the past seven weeks—the themes, lessons, writing exercises, discussions, field trips, etc.—have been geared towards enabling you to complete this assignment. You will complete a nine to ten-page paper about your journey in WALC so far using N. Scott Mommaday’s novel, The Way to Rainy Mountain as a model. Like TWTRM your paper will have three voices: mythical, historical, and personal. We have been practicing how to write in these three voices all semester so you should be able to write in this format. It will also have an introduction and an epilogue just like the novel. The following prompt describes what your paper should do: Describe the journey you have taken in WALC so far and explain how it has affected your sense of place.

Requirements/Grading:
Passing grades and high scores will be given only to the papers that fulfill the following requirements: Your paper must be at least nine-pages long, typed in twelve-point font, and double-spaced. It must follow the format detailed below and we must see equal evidence of what you have learned in all three WALC classes. Your paper must have a thesis, or central idea and work as a whole to effectively address the essay prompt above.

Format:
Please use this format as your guide. As long as you work hard with honest effort, and follow the outline we have given you, successfully completing this assignment and getting a passing or excellent grade should be entirely within your capabilities.

Goal:
Tell the journey you have taken in WALC so far and explain how it has affected your sense of place.

Introduction:
Write a brief synopsis of your journey so far. Briefly explain what your sense of place was before the journey. What were the most significant places or stops during the journey? Briefly describe what happened at those places that made them so significant. Briefly explain what your sense of place is like now.

Body:
The body of your essay will have three sections and each section will have three voices. Choose three specific junctions or places in your journey. They can be any place (Balboa, the Headlands, McLaren Park, the Roundhouse, the Beach at Lake Tahoe, our campfire, a specific classroom, etc.) as long as all three together tell one continuing story. You will tell the story of each place in the three voices we have been practicing all year (remember our inventive modeling practice?).

1. Mythical—create or imagine a myth/story that happens in the place you have chosen and uses something or several things you have learned as a lesson or theme. This lesson or theme should be something that affected your sense of place.
   
2. Historical—write a straight narrative of how you learned lessons at this junction or made connections to lessons learned in class (the place that you are writing about can be the classroom or Balboa itself) at this junction that deepened your own sense of place. Remember, we are looking for evidence of what you have learned in all three WALC classes.
   
3. Personal—write a descriptive personal memory or something that you experienced wholly on your own at this junction that deepened your own sense of place. In this voice, it is especially important to show not tell. Don’t tell us about it, just take your writing to that moment and as best you can relive it in your own words.

Epilogue:
So your sense of place was affected. What now? What is different in the way you live your life? The way you think? The direction your life is taking? How has your journey been similar to Mommaday’s, Fools Crow’s, or McCandless’s?

Extra Credit:
Include an illustration for each section of your paper.

Remember:
The way to make this paper work is to dig deep and be honest, personal, and introspective when you write it. Try to capture the feeling and mood found in The Way to Rainy Mountain. Relive your journey in words. Good luck!