November 2009 Archives

Choose a paragraph from the first half of the semester, and demonstrate your developing skill as a writer by arguing an opposing view. Include specific references and/or (very brief) quotations from your chosen assignment. Use a blueprint that briefly summarizes the best points in favor of the claim you are now opposing.

I've pushed the due date back to Tuesday, Nov 24.

This is 3-4 page essay -- a little longer than your Papers 1 through 3. I don't mind if you include some of the same points that you included in your latest ILP revision, but this is a different assignment, with different goals.

It's time to start looking back and assessing your accomplishments.

Like any essay, you should come up with a thesis statement that makes a specific, debatable claim, and you should back up your claim with evidence (in the form of very brief, direct quotations from your work, reading assignments, the comments I leave on your papers, etc.).

I'll evaluate this on your ability to:

1) Write a coherent, well-organized essay that does not look like a series of separate mini-papers that simply answer my prompts, and that applies what you learned about showing with specific examples, reducing wordiness, and proper grammar and punctuation

2) Present a clear thesis paragraph that includes a topic, precise opinion on the topic, and the "blueprint" (which presents your main points in the order in which you will explore them in the rest of your paper). The title, the thesis statement, and the conclusion should match, but the conclusion should not merely repeat the thesis statement.

3) Defend a non-obvious point by making specific reference to what you learned from your MyCompLab pre-test, quoting brief passages from your own work and also referring to your MyCompLab post-test.

4) Defend a non-obvious point by making specific reference to other ways in which the course helped you to learn, again by quoting brief passages from your own work

In class.

In a 200-word paragraph, make a specific point about something you learned about the writing process.

Note that I am not asking for you to summarize rules for when to use a comma, or why to write "should have" instead of "should of". I'm actually looking for your ability to write about one of the big-picture issues -- argumentation, organization, opposing viewpoints, etc.

Quote from one or several of your early submissions, and one or several of your later submissions, in order to SHOW evidence of progress.

A personal essay, about 2 pages long, in which you make and support a point about your progress towards the goals you have articulated in your ILP. My goal for this project is to see where you are at this phase the semester, so that I can guide you towards using this reflection to craft your Final Self-Reflection Essay.

I am not looking for a list of answers to questions, so please don't just answer my questions in the order I give them... but among the things you might think about are: What part of your ILP has helped you the most? What do you need to focus on most for the rest of the term? What part of your own progress has surprised you the most (good or bad)? Perhaps instead you want to write about a follow-up to a face-to-face conversation we've had, or something else that will help me meet your needs as a student in these last weeks of the course.

Remember all the lessons we've covered in class about going in depth with vivid showing, rather than listing a whole lot of points in an undeveloped list or timeline. Don't feel the need to write a few lines about every single goal you've mentioned in your ILP. This isn't a revision of your ILP, it's a reflection on the whole process of coming up with the ILP and tracking your own accomplishments.

Make a non-obvious, debatable point, backed up with evidence. While it's not necessary to do the kind of emotional storytelling "SHOWING" that I asked you to at the very beginning of term, note that all writing is more persuasive when it includes vivid details.

For this paragraph, I'm leaving the topic fairly open, but I want to encourage you to explore an argument by opposing it.

You may write yet another counter-argument to a claim you made in P8 or P9. You may use this paragraph to oppose an argument you made in Paper 3. You may oppose an argument you made in your most recent ILP draft. You may oppose an argument you read in a peer's paper.

Just be sure not to fall into the "some people say" problem. Tie your observations to a specific incident. You may refer, for example, to something somebody said in class (about the liberal arts, the difference between high school and college, etc.), or something you read while reviewing a peer's paper.

Sign up for an individual conference.