I sent this out in e-mail earlier today.
The first draft of essay 2 is due Tuesday. If you are having trouble coming up with ideas, here are some suggestions.
Personally, I like making lists. So one thing to do is take each prompt and make a list of themes from the essays that relate to each prompt.
What obstacles are there to finding a voice (prompt 2)?
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What assets does a person need to be able to find a voice (prompt 1)?
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What effects are there to having a voice (prompt 3)?
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After you have a list of themes for each prompt, list which essays relate to which themes. For instance, if under "what assets does a person need to be able to find a voice" you put "a role model," you could list Walker and Anzaldúa. Devor's concept of "significant other" may fit there, too.
Yet the themes you have listed are probably a bit broad, so you would probably want to go deeper with each theme. One way to do that is to ask the questions I brought up when we discussed revising thesis statements: how, why, and what is the significance. For example, if under "what obstacles are there to finding a voice" you put "language," you could ask how language acts as an obstacle.
Another way to go about this is to start with which essay you got the most out of. Then figure out which of the prompts you think this essay best relates to and formulate an answer to the prompt from there. After that, try to figure out which other essay (or essays) relates to the same theme.
You can bring in essays from the education section if you'd like, but my intent with essay 2 is to get you to engage with the ideas brought up by the texts in the "finding a voice" section.
Obviously, how far you go with all of this is correlated to how actively you've read. Critical reading is the foundation of everything, from writing to test taking.
If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me.
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