Semester Writing Assignment

Develop the topic into a well-organized essay, following the guidelines below. Correct spelling and grammar will be considered during grading. Part of your grade will depend upon including four block quotes from Franklin’s Autobiography. If you do not include the 4 required block quotes to support your position, your paper will lose one letter grade. Be sure to answer all parts of the question.  A block quote is typically several sentences long.

Students will generally compose the essay inside their word processor and then COPY and PASTE (using CONTROL V) the text into the space provided below. The essay should be a minimum of three double-spaced pages long. This assignment is limited to one submission.  There are no opportunities to rewrite and resubmit.

Finally, DO NOT copy material from another source and paste it into this essay response box, representing it as your own work. Doing this will cause a grade of 0, and it is not difficult for instructors to detect.

The Autobiography of Ben Franklin

Relying on material from the The Autobiography of Ben Franklin (especially Chapters 8 and 9), click link below 

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/20203

thoroughly answer the following questions:

Section 1: Describe how Benjamin Franklin established the public library in Philadelphia. What was the effect of this library on Franklin?  What was the effect of the library on his community?

Section 2: Explain Franklin’s quest for moral perfection. What process did he use?  Be specific.  How successful was he?  Which virtues did he find the most challenging to maintain?  Providing some detail, what was meant by his saying, “a speckled ax is best?”  Name one virtue that Franklin omitted from his pursuit of perfection that you feel should have been included.

Section 3: Was Franklin a religious man? Why, or why not? Provide specific evidence from the autobiography to support your conclusions.

Section 4:  A critic one said, “Franklin was a shameless self-promoter with numerous achievements, almost all of which were accomplished primarily to gain fame for himself, along with bragging rights. Moreover, he was blindly idealistic, and did not concern himself with Americans of less success or economic means.”  In a single paragraph, defend or refute this accusation.

*****Include at least four direct, multi-sentence block quotes from the Autobiography to support your position.  Be sure to put your citation for these quotations in parentheses and in all caps. For example, your citation might look like this:

“She assisted me cheerfully in my business, . . . .” (FRANKLIN, P. 119) or, if there is no page number, (FRANKLIN, Chapter 6).

Do not use resources that are not provided by this course.