Volume 2 (2004)

We are pleased to present Volume II of ESSAI, The College of DuPage Anthology of Academic Writing Across the Curriculum. Volume II continues to celebrate and acclaim the good writing done by COD students in eleven disciplines during the 2003-2004 academic year: Literature, Composition, Biology, Chemistry, History, Criminal Justice, Sociology, Anthropology, Philosophy, Earth Science, and Humanities. As in the first volume, a variety of genres was chosen to attest to students’ learning as articulated in writing. They include personal essays, expository writing, literary criticism, research projects, formal reports, and arguments.

We believe readers will find much to admire in the writing that follows. If you are a student, you will find models for your own writing because you will know the kind of writing assignments that other students in other courses are engaged in and because preceding each selection is the instructor’s description of the assignment. We hope that this volume will also add to our enriching dialogue – among instructors as well as between instructors and students – about writing as a vital part of the academic experience at College of DuPage.

It has become our editorial tradition to give a few brief words on the anthology name and the selection rubric: first, the name ESSAI derives from Michel de Montaigne who is credited to have created a new literary genre called essays in the sixteenth century and to whom we owe our tradition of college essay writing. However, reflecting our philosophy of the writing across the curriculum at all levels of learning, we resonated back to Montaigne’s seminal design in which “essais” meant trials and attempts, “a weighing” of issues at hand (from the Latin exagium), and all that accrued from its synonymous mental exercises. Thus, ESSAI was chosen to signify students’ minds hard at work in various academic interests, tasks, and settings, while witnessing the laudable results of their writerly efforts and integrity.

The following is the rubric we have applied in making the selections. Papers are deemed exemplary if they:

• Are completed according to assignments’ purposes.
• Have mechanics, grammar, and other technical points in place.
• Are imaginative, creative, logical, and risk-taking with respect to assignments’ purposes.
• Exhibit clarity of writing with respect to purposes.
• Follow the disciplinary format.
• Include relevant literature reviews where required.
• Demonstrate analytical abilities.
• Generate interest.

Join with us in congratulating these student writers. And look forward to the third volume of ESSAI in 2006.