Paper 1 Presubmission
Paper 1 is a research paper (6-8 pages) that uses evidence from our assigned readings and outside scholarship (including peer-reviewed academic articles, but optionally also including essays, fiction, and other intellectually significant material) to defend a non-obvious claim about the history of the book, as seen through oral and/or manuscript culture.
Update:
Feel free to use this space to float ideas.Due today:
- Topic
- Thesis statement (with topic, a precise but non-obvious opinion, and a blueprint for the paper)
- Quotations supporting your thesis
- Quotations supporting alternate or opposing arguments
- Preliminary conclusion
- MLA-style Works Cited list
I can give very useful feedback on about 3 pages.
Please don't write out the whole paper first, then "look for quotes" to support the opinion you reached before you did any research.
At this stage, you should still have an open mind about your research question, and you should be willing to change your thesis based on the information you find.
So, rather than setting out to prove Socrates wrong, try thinking about what social forces in the era of Socrates may have prepared Socrates to hold a particular opinion, and what social forces that emerged after Socrates have emerged that work against claims or arguments that, in the era of Socrates, may have seemed sound.
Upload to Turnitin.com.
Can we get some specific details on what this paper is about? Does it have to relate to what we've covered so far? Or can it be about digital culture? What are some possible topics (for those of us who can't think of anything)?
I would like you to cover oral/manuscript for Paper 1. You're welcome to introduce print as well, but I'd like to save the digital for Paper 2, after we've read the associated readings.
Every reading in Writing Materials includes study questions, some more specific than others. Do you see a connection between the defense of speech given by Socrates, the praise of scribes offered by Trithemius, and the defense of books offered by Birkerts? Did you read anything that you disagreed with, that you'd be able to back up with evidence?
So are those the questions you want answered in Paper 1? Like is that our topic? or is it just an example
That's just an example -- you can choose your own topic, but I'll be happy to help you narrow it down.
Is the "presubmission" a draft of the complete paper? Or is just our thesis?
I'm having trouble with just coming up with a topic. If it were the thesis that would be great.
Is technology as communication, the evolution of it a vague topic?
All I'm saying is I'm praying that this is just a thesis and a few pages due for today. =)
Spring break, where are you?
what specifically is to be handed in today?
is it just the introduction and thesis, or the beginning of the paper?
so this is basically the same thing you wanted for our Writing About Lit papers?
Stormy, rather than writing the few pages I'd rather see you collecting quotes from your sources. Just assemble the quotes... the thesis paragraph, the quotes, and a preliminary conclusion will be enough.
You don't have to include every quote that you plan to use in your paper, and you can change your mind later... I just want to make sure that your thesis depends on research, rather than having you write out the whole paper first and then "searching for quotes" to support the opinion you held even before you did any research.
Yes, Dani, this is very similar to what we did in EL237.
Kayla, the presubmission report is the six items I describe in the box. I'm not actually asking for the whole paper.
Jeremy, yes, that topic is a bit vague -- you could write several books on that topic.
Rachel, would you like to e-mail your ideas to me, or jot then down here?
so say we provide 3 or 4 quotes opposing/supprting and the theisis-that it what is handed in today?
I could give you useful feedback on 3 or 4 pro quotes, 3 or 4 con quotes, and the full thesis paragraph... I'd like more than just the thesis statement -- the thesis paragraph should also introduce each of your supporting points and make some gesture towards your conclusion.
If I had just 3 quotes and a thesis statement, I'm not sure my comments would be very productive.
I would like to tell you all a little story. It is called Microsoft Word screw me over. From 2:30-5 I worked on this paper. I had 5 pages of quotes. Then at 7, my computer crashed. I had saved my work, but not emailed it to myself. It is (:40 and I have to do the whole thing over again. I am so angry it hurts to breath. A warning to all: I will most certainly be in a bad mood tomorrow, so give me a break.
Computers suck.
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/LeslieRodriguez/024842.html