Q Discovery Writing Prompt for Assignment Two “Tell a Good Story” This week we learned that you need to carry an idea all the way through a talk or essay. Each part of the essay needs to somehow relate to that idea. For this week’s Discovery writing, you should do some organizational work to discover your throughline. Map your journey in this space. Instead of stream-of-conscious writing, use some sort of outline structure to show how you will move from one story to the next and explain how each part of your journey will relate to your overall idea. You can do this one of two ways: 1. You can begin to outline your narrative to find out how the larger story should unfold and use this as a way to discover your idea. After you discover your idea, you will need to go back and rework your outline to show each step of the journey (smaller stories) and how they connect with your idea. 2. You can start with a clear idea and then create an outline that shows your journey through the larger story, connecting each smaller story to the main idea. In the end, you should have a clear idea stated at the top of your thread, with an outline of each part of your essay. These parts should be comprised of a story and the idea expressed. Here’s an example from Tan Le’s story: Idea: Resilience is built through discomfort and not retreating from adversity • Grandfather’s death story: retreated in the face of adversity • Tan Le and family’s escape story: retreat not an option • Tan Le and family’s immigrant suburb story: resolve to succeed in the face of adversity • Tan Le’s professional story: resolve to accept success authentically and when uncomfortable • Grandmother’s death story: embraced discomfort and didn’t retreat in the face of adversity—succeeded Your idea and journey will look different of course and it may need more bullet points, but follow this model to show how you will write the essay. You may also want to write a rough draft of your essay, then come back and create the bullet points to see if your essay needs reorganization, then revise the essay. Whatever works for you as long as the info is here!