Instruction
For this paper, you will use the example of Kristen Iversen to write an essay telling the story of a neighborhood with which you are familiar. In order to tell an effective story, you will need to focus on an emblematic conflict or contradiction and how this conflict has been resolved (or not).
Possible strategies: observe a contrast. For example, perhaps the neighborhood you choose to write about is, like Iversen’s, a bucolic paradise – but filled with plutonium. Or perhaps it is struggling economically but very close knit, or wealthy but struggling with high rates of addiction or depression.
You can also choose a different kind of conflict to describe, so long as your focus is the neighborhood – the place and the community. You could tell the story of the effect of the I-70 construction project on the Elyria-Swansea neighborhood, for example, or the struggles of residents along C470 to cope with the widening project there.
The important elements of this piece are strong analysis, vivid detail, and a sense of narrative arc. You will need to make accurate and sensitive generalizations from specific individual stories and reactions while avoiding cliché.
Structure:
In the opening paragraph, clearly identify the neighborhood and the conflict. You could paint a picture with words to hook the reader and invest them in the story you’re about to tell. In the following paragraphs, use vivid description to support your analysis. End the essay by presenting some kind of resolution about the conflict.