Essay Instructions
Guidelines: When writing the essay, please observe the following guidelines.
- Limit the length to 500-750 words (which translates to between two and three double-spaced pages).
- Be sure to include an essay title and your name.
- Compose the essay without any assistance, in the form of either other people or outside commentary. Don’t use the web or the library for research. You are, however, permitted to use a dictionary (online or hardback) for words which are unfamiliar to you. And you can use reference tools (online or otherwise) to identify names which you don’t recognize. Your best interests will be served only if the Writing Program can make an honest appraisal of how you write on your own. This will be your first opportunity to put Haverford’s Honor Code into practice.
Assignment: Read Nora Ephron's The Boston Photographs. 
In a clear and concise argument, and using evidence drawn from Nora Ephron's essay, address the decision to publish this photograph: is this "cheap sensationalism" or voyeurism? a responsible record of an actual event? a photograph whose excellence alone justifies publication? What is ethical here? What is not?
Pick the one issue that you believe to be crucial or especially significant here; you are not being asked to answer all of the questions above, but to find one issue that speaks to you and for which you feel you can make an effective argument.
When evaluating your essay, Writing Program faculty will attend to the following criteria:
- Engagement and reasoning: How well do you demonstrate a grasp of the argument while still establishing and supporting your own position?
- Structure and style: Does the organization of your essay help or hinder readers? Is there sufficient control of particular sentences to allow us to follow your reasoning?
Questions?
Debora Sherman
Director of College Writing and Assistant Professor of English dsherman@haverford.edu
370 Lancaster Avenue
Haverford, PA 19041
610-896-4935
Writing Program
610-896-4935
dsherman@haverford.edu