English Assignment | Online Assignment

Ok. Stay with me here. And read this a few times, more than a few times. So you’ll be able to fully grasp it. This is your final paper, worth 25% of your overall grade. It will be a story, completely created by you, about anything at all. I want you to see the value of language, as I have stressed all semester, so this is the kind of assignment that makes you think of language very, very carefully. Like a surgeon (as it should be). There is only one rule, really, but it’s a VERY specific rule. Remember, you can write about literally ANYTHING, but you MUST follow this rule. Your story will have EXACTLY 52 sentences in it. Now, these sentences will be structured. Here’s how.

There are 26 letters in the alphabet, right? Ok, yes. Let’s start with that. Your first sentence will have one word. And it will begin with the letter A. Any word. As long as it begins with A. Your second sentence will have two words. The first letter of the first word will start with A, your second word will start with B. Your third sentence will have three words, the first word will start with A, second word with B, third word with C. Your fourth sentence will have four words, first word will start with A, second word with B, third word with C, fourth word with D. ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE ALPHABET, ending with Z. Your sentences will subsequently increase from 1 to 26 words, using the letters of the alphabet in order to dictate how you tell the story. Then…you will be reverse. You’ll start with Z, then go backward. So basically you’ll up and back through the alphabet to use each letter forward and backward, and your first and last sentence in your story will both be one word long. Your 26th and 27th sentences will each have 26 words in them; but your 27th sentence will start with Z and your 26th sentence will end with Z. So forward, then backward through the alphabet.

And this story MUST BE a story that is you know, a story that makes sense. It shouldn’t read as a study in a kind of word math. It should just be a regular story (with this one rule).

I’m basically asking you to do what all your English teachers before me (likely) THINK English SHOULD be, but when taken to this extreme becomes what English CAN BE. This is the most fun assignment I ever give–you’ll see. I LOVE LOVE LOVE reading them

No sources required