Presubmission Workshop

Your presubmission paper is a proposal for a 3-page persuasive paper, on a topic that arises directly from the assigned reading in STW. All those essays have something to do with education, but "Education" itself is too broad a topic.

In the presubmission paper, your goal is to demonstrate that you have done all the work that prepares you to start drafting a paper. At first you may think of this assignment as just a set of random things that you're supposed to do, but I hope you'll come to think of the presubmission assignment as the time when your paper really starts to form for the first time.

My students often tell me that, once they have created a successful presubmission report, the paper almost writes itself.

I expect your presubmission to be about 2 pages long. After I have approved your presubmission paper, you are free to change your topic, your thesis, your sources, etc.  Don't feel that you are locked into this one approach to the paper.

1. Paper Topic and Precise Opinion
A) Topic: The Specific Question your Paper Explores

• "I want to write about eduction" is not a question.
• "I'm going to talk about the function of self-motivation in education" is not a question.
  

The general topic will be education; the more specific topic should be something that arises from the assigned readings, rather than something that arises from knowledge that you have attained independently of the readings.

• Note that the topic should arise directly from your careful study of the assigned readings.
• We have read an essay about how Malcolm X learned to read. If you were to write a paper that focused on how you learned to read, such a paper wouldn't demonstrate your ability to support an argument about Malcom's essay.
• We have read an essay in which Rose praises a great teacher. If you were to write about a teacher who had a big impact on your life, such a paper wouldn't demonstrate your ability to write about Rose's essay.
  
• Possible topics (I'd actually prefer that you not take any of these -- they're just models):
  
• Does Moore's humor help or hinder his ability to make claim X?
• Does Gatto's reference to being ousted by a hostile administration make him more or less credible as a critic of the school system?
• Is Moore (a successful filmmaker and a passionate writer) an example of a bright student who never found a teacher like Rose's Mr. McFarland, or is Moore (a college dropout who advances his opinion using the schoolyard tactics of mockery and name-calling) an example of the mediocre product that flawed school systems like Gatto's have been churning out for decades?
  
• Note that I've phrased the topic as a question.
  
• It's important to pick a question that's worth debating.
  
• If a reasonable person reads the same essays you have read, might they disagree with you on the right answer to this question?
  
• If you can't imagine any human being disagreeing with you on a particular claim, then there's no need to persuade anyone, and the topic isn't worth writing about.

B) Thesis: Your Well-Supported Answer to the Question

• Your thesis is your well-supported answer to a question that has more than one reasonable answers.
  
• Avoid using words that call attention to the act of writing.
• "In this paper, I plan to support the claim that..."
• "While there are many possible answers to question X, it is my opinion that..."
• Just make your point, without making any references to "quotes" or "argument" or "my opinion."
• Moore's flippant description of his decision to drop out of college undermines the credibility he needs in order to present himself as an authority on flaws in America's education system.
• Moore successfully uses humorous anecdotes in order to establish his credibility as a regular guy who knows first-hand how little things can seriously damage a learning environment.

2) Supporting Quotations
Re-read the essay(s) you chose to focus on, and look for specific passages (3-4 would be good, but more are welcome) that support the answer you want to defend. 

Add a few lines (a bulleted list is OK) that explains how these quotations advance your argument. 

Aim for short quotations -- one sentence, or a few words. If you reproduce whole paragraphs, you may be working too hard to repeat the original author's ideas, rather than use individual passages from the original author to help you support your own argument.

• When you write your full draft, you may drop or add quotations as necessary. But at this stage you need to demonstrate that you can support your claims by quoting from specific words that appeared in the assigned readings.
• When you actually write the paper, you are free to introduce your own experiences or other outside sourcres in order to help you make your point, but the primary evidence should come from the assigned readings.

3) Opposing Quotations
Recall that your topic should ask a question that has more than one reasonable answer. In this section, include quotations that support alternative answers.

While overall your paper should come down in favor of one particular answer, if the question you chose is debatable, there ought to be plenty of evidence that a reasonable person might use to support a different answer.

Add a few lines of explanation. Does this opposing evidence force you to explain any contradictions or weaknesses in your argument? Will you have to admit that your claim isn't air-tight? Do you need to revise your thesis, in order to account for these objections? How will you deal with this oppoisng evidence?

4) Opening Paragraph
Draft your thesis paragraph, focusing on your specific argument (omitting padding that says stuff like "There are many ways to look at X.  Some say A, while others say B.  In this paper, I will argue C."  Just focus on your argument.

Although (refer briefly to some opposing evidence), (make your claim), because (reason A, reason B, and reason C).

Feel free to change that model to suit your argument. A paper doesn't need exactly 3 subpoints. You may wish to save the "con" argument for later.  You may need to start with a specific example, so that your thesis statement is the last sentence in your opening paragraph.  Feel free to experiment at this early stage, since your goal is to give me something valuable to assess, so that you can use my assessment to improve.
 
(While completeing the paper is part of another assignment, and not actually part of the presubmission, you should know that my expectiation is that your paper would then continue with well formed paragraphs that explain A, B, and C, and a final conclusion. We'll talk more aobut that later.)