November 19, 2009 Archives

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

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.