Reflections Project

This essay will allow you to circle back to the type of writing you did at the beginning of the semester, but it asks you to draw on knowledge you have gained this semester about yourself, your writing, and your role as a University student and scholar. You will begin, as you did with Essay One, by writing an in-class essay in response to one of the following prompts.

English 100 and Beyond:

Reflect on your idea of writing after one semester of university schooling. This essay can take various forms. You can connect the writing you’ve done in English 100 to writing you’ve done in other classes – did something you learned in 100 come up in other classes? Alternatively, you can compare what you’ve learned about writing in English 100 with what you’ve learned about writing in high school (or in other college-level courses you are currently taking). If you decide to incorporate both ideas into your reflections project, please make sure that they fit together under one thesis statement.

More Than Words:

If you choose this option, your project will have two components. First, you will reflect on some aspect of writing (or making a logical argument) through a visual medium, such as a website, a video, a photographic essay or collage. These visual “texts” can be found in other sources, like the internet, magazines, or newspapers; or, they can be “texts” that you create yourself. And second, you will turn in a 2-page paper in which you explain the role of some aspect of writing in your project. As you write your essay, you might take the following into consideration: how do you distinguish between “writing” and “text,” and have these terms changed for you at some point throughout the semester? What are the differences or challenges that you face in making an argument in both written and visual forms? Feel free to be as creative as you like.

Propose Your Own Assignment:

Imagine yourself a few years down the line as a teacher of freshman composition. In planning your course calendar, you intend to give your students the opportunity to write several different kinds of essays, including autobiographical, analytical essays, as well as a major research project. Yet there are many other kinds of writing that are missing from the syllabus – including interviews and interview write-ups, analyses of literary works and cultural objects, weekly diaries, responses to specific questions or statistics, etc. For this essay, develop an original idea for a writing assignment that you think your students will benefit from and enjoy. In your paper, explain what kind of writing your assignment is meant to develop – personal, academic, technical, creative, etc. Which specific skill is your assignment designed to strengthen? What kind of source material, if any, will you be distributing to your students to help them do the assignment? For additional ideas, page through Easy Access.

Guidelines:

Your final draft should be at minimum 2 full pages in length.

In class writing –Monday, November 26th

Draft 1 – Monday, December 3rd for peer review

Draft 2 – Friday, December 7^th due to me

If you would like feedback from me before submitting it in your Final Portfolio, please come see me in office hours.

Oral Presentation Schedule

Monday 11-5
Peer Review of Oral Presentation

Wednesday 11-7
Peter
Marie
Justin
Royce
JD

Friday 11-9
Cate
Ozair
Danielle
Liz
Breann

Monday 11-12
Tom
Kelsey
Max
Dan
Chelsea

Wednesday 11-14
Abby
Kalyn
Shalissa
Lauren

Friday 11-16
First draft of Research Paper due.
Peer Review of Research Paper.

Research Paper

Research Paper

In this essay, you will begin to think about your role as a member of the university community. As you see yourself moving towards a position on the topic, you should try to document that movement. What arguments or positions are convincing, and why? Your ultimate goal, though, is not to win a debate but to join a scholarly conversation and to use writing as a way of coming to know.

In your paper, you should do the following:

· Clearly articulate a research question (which may or may not be the initial question you posed in the “Research Question” Assignment);

· Show how you have responded to or answered this question through a thesis statement that communicates your position;

· Support your position with evidence that you have gathered and synthesized;

· Introduce and respond to positions that are different from yours, and include rebuttal when necessary;

· Show a constant concern for clear and cohesive organization, which includes writing paragraphs with identifiable topic sentences and transitional sentences;

· Display a solid grasp of MLA citation style and include a Works Cited page; and

· Begin to develop a consistent voice and style.

Guidelines

The final paper must be 8 pages, though you are free to write a longer paper. Please follow the formatting guidelines outlined on your syllabus in the section titled "Guidelines for Typewritten Work." Refer to Easy Access MLA citation and formatting styles. Be sure to include a writer's memo with this assignment.

Tips on the Writing Process

Although the purpose of this paper is to gain some facility with the research process, that process is always unstable. Do not be surprised if you find your position on the topic shifting as you write, or if—when you are close to the end of your paper—you feel more in the middle regarding your topic.

Many writers find it helpful to write the body of the paper before they write the introduction and thesis, so that they are not so committed to a position in the beginning that they have trouble moving away from it later when they find new evidence or shift away from their original position. You might want to draft your paper with a loose introduction and working thesis (or wait to develop a thesis until later in the drafting process), and keep an open mind to your evidence as you work through it.

A final tip: a great way to organize a paper is to write a solid draft first and then construct a "reverse outline," which is a fancy way of saying that you make an outline after your write the paper. This outline need not be extensive. Jot down your working thesis, write a number for each paragraph in your paper, and then next to each number, either write out your topic sentences/main points or briefly sketch them. This method helps you to see whether your paragraphs are ordered logically. Can you explain why you've put each paragraph next to the one that comes before and after it, for instance? This process also helps you to make sure that each paragraph has a main point that the sentences in that paragraph support. In your final draft, each paragraph should have a topic sentence that a) announces the paragraph's main point, and b) relates back to your working thesis and helps your paper along in some way. Your topic sentences will generally be the first sentence of each paragraph and will often function as transitional sentences as well. This may seem like a big role for one sentence, but in time, the process of writing topic sentences will seem more natural. Whether you decide to create a reverse outline or not, be sure that your paper has a clear focus, and that it persuades the reader of its main point in an organized manner.

Oral Presentation: Research Narrative

The Research Narrative is the next-to-last step in English 100’s research sequence. It is the only step that takes the form of an Oral Presentation. The purpose of the assignment is to share your experience as a researcher with your classmates and with me and to tell the story of your search so far. The goal is to practice thinking and talking, not only about the topic of your paper but also about the process of research itself.

You will now move beyond the questions you posed in your Research Question, Proposal and Annotated Bibliography and begin to think about where you are in the research process and what you need to do next. This assignment, in other words, should help you establish what you have learned in your research and what is still unknown or unclear to you. It should help you answer the question: where are you heading as you begin the last part of this process? It is therefore an opportunity for you to honor not only your progress but also the complexity, uncertainty, and even frustration of research.

Your narrative should take the form of a well-planned and well-rehearsed oral presentation to your class. It will still require a good bit of writing, however, especially in the form of notes and outline. You may use these written documents in delivering your presentation, but please do not simply read from a prepared speech. The presentation should be about 8 minutes long: no less than 6 minutes, and no more than 10. Other students will be presenting on the same day you do, and I will keep close track of time, so please rehearse your presentation and keep to these time limits. (Just to give you an idea of length, an 8-minute oral presentation usually corresponds to about 4 pages of writing, typed and double-spaced.) Be prepared to answer questions after you speak.

Even though this assignment is an oral presentation, it will still be considered part of your final writing portfolio. For that reason, I may ask you to turn in your notes, outline, or some other piece of writing (a self-evaluation, for example) from this assignment.

Guidelines: PowerPoint is not permitted for the oral presentation; however, you can use the dry erase board in the classroom and print handouts for any information you want to convey to the class. Please be sure to make your presentation clear and concise. Make sure that the main purpose of your research is clear.

General Tips:

· Use eye contact with your classmates.

· Have verbal flags or markers so your classmates and I know where you’re headed in your presentation.

· Feel free to repeat ideas in order to convey them clearly. In other words, the repetition you avoid in your written drafts can now be used effectively and sparingly in your presentations.

· Essentially, we want to know what you’ve been up to in your research these past weeks. We want to know how your project has transformed from a few ideas to a focused topic. Don’t forget to convey this in an organized and polished manner.

· Practice before you present. I will take note of presentations that are too long or too short. It’s my personal pet peeve, and many professionals consider going over time as disrespectful to your fellow classmates.

Annotated Bibliography

Due at your conference in Week 9 (October 28^th)

In an Annotated Bibliography, a writer annotates sources that she or he has collected. What is annotation? This is the process of briefly summarizing, analyzing, and/or evaluating sources that you have read. You are compiling an Annotated Bibliography that will contain information on all of the sources you have collected for your research paper. Each source will have its own one or two paragraph-long entry in the Annotated Bibliography.

Since the purpose of this annotated bibliography is to help you manage your sources, you may want to include quotations, page number citations, and other information that will help you when you begin to write your research paper. When you begin writing your research paper, for instance, you do not want to have to dig for important quotations and page numbers. Having important quotations archived in an Annotated Bibliography as a step in the research paper writing process. Once you have read your sources and annotated them, it is easier for you to make connections among sources.

In building your Annotated Bibliography, you will use the Writing Center’s handout on Writing Annotated Bibliographies as well as the information we will discuss in class.

Requirements: Your bibliography should contain 7-10 sources. One of your sources must be a book, and 3 must be academic journal articles. Once you go beyond 4 sources, you may use sources from the “free web.” Please use MLA format throughout the bibliography, and follow the formatting guidelines on the Writing Center’s Annotated Bibliography handout. As mentioned above, each annotation should be one or two double-spaced paragraphs long. Be sure to include a writer’s memo with this assignment.

Research Proposal

Due Friday, October 26th

In the Research Question assignment, you began a dialogue with yourself and others about your topic of interest. This enabled you to begin finding relevant information and helped you to craft a research question that can be meaningfully answered with the resources at your disposal. Now you have a revised research question that can organize and direct the rest of your writing, and you’ve developed an initial understanding of the literature being written about your topic. You are now ready to write a formal research proposal. A research proposal is a plan for research that articulates a concise research question, indicates why that question is important and to whom it is important, briefly describes the literature you plan to use for your research, and even suggests possible answers (hypotheses) to your question. Keep in mind that a research proposal is forward-looking and should provide direction for your research.

The proposal should have the following parts:

1. An introduction describing to whom your research is important, ending with the articulation of your question;

2. A middle section suggestion a trajectory of your paper and a plan for proceeding with your research, listing possible sources you will use; and

3. A conclusion in which you articulate possible answers (hypotheses) to your question.

As with the Research Question assignment, The Craft of Research can be helpful here. Remember how the central “formula” there worked:

I am trying to learn about/working on/studying ________________

Because I want to find out who/what/when/where/whether/why/how ______________

In order to help my reader understand how/why/whether _________________.

Guideline: The proposal should be about 1-2 double-spaced pages in length. Please follow the formatting guidelines outlined in the section of your syllabus titled “Guidelines for Typewritten Work.” Please also be sure to cite any sources you use in your essay; consult Easy Access for MLA citation guidelines. Additionally, you will need to include a writer’s memo with this assignment.

Research Question Assignment

Research Question Assignment

(The First of Many Steps to Write a Research Paper)

Question itself Due Monday, October 15^th for Library Session

First Draft Due Wednesday, October 17^th

The research project you are about to undertake will give you practice formulating a question and shaping that question over time. You should expect, then, that as you engage in library research, and the research process in general, your question will change as you make new discoveries.

From Chapter 3 in The Craft of Research, there are several techniques for approaching the task of formulating a good research question. Specifically, in section 3.4, there is a formula for organizing ideas in order to pursue the research project effectively:

I am trying to learn about/working on/studying ____

Because I want to find out who/what/when/where/whether/why/how _____

In order to help my reader understand how/how/why/whether ________.

While this formula certainly doesn’t exhaust the possible avenues of exploration for a given topic, it does accomplish three key tasks that are essential to beginning a research project:

1) it identifies the topic,

2) it identifies a question related to the topic, and

3) it motivates the question by indicating why it might be important to your readers.

The purpose of the Research Question assignment is precisely to accomplish these three tasks. The question that you identify will emerge out of the reading and writing you’ve done over the last sex weeks. It should be personal and important to you. Think of your question as beginning a dialogue with people who have written articles and books about the topic you are curious about. Again, you should expect your initial questions to change, especially in the early stages of the research process. Finally, please be aware that you can count on the librarians to help you with your research and that it is easier for them to help you if you have a question from which to begin your research.

Your Research Question paper should do the following:

· identify a question;

· describe how you arrived at your question and explain why your question is important to you (i.e. tell the story behind your question);

· provide some key words or phrases related to your question that you can use as search terms to begin your research; and

· tell your reader how you plan to begin researching your question and topic (What will you consult first: dictionary, encyclopedia, library database, book or journal? Why?)

It may help to read the material in Chapter 3 before beginning your Research Question paper.

Guidelines: The Research Question paper should be one page in length. Please follow the formatting guidelines outlined in the section of your syllabus titled “Guidelines for Typewritten Work.” Please also be sure to cite any sources you use in your essay; consult Easy Access for MLA citation guidelines.

Be sure to include a writer’s memo with this assignment.

BRING YOUR RESEARCH QUESTION WITH YOU TO THE LIBRARY SESSION.

Revised Course Schedule

English 100-22 Course Schedule

(Subject to Change)

Unit II: Critical Reading

Week 5	M	10/01	We will discuss “Mister Sparkle Meets the Yakuza.” Summary Two due for discussion and peer review. HW: First draft of Analysis Two, due Monday 10/08.
	W	10/03	“Mister Sparkle Meets the Yakuza” discussion cont. We will discuss analysis and argumentation. Analysis One returned with comments HW: Continue working on Analysis Two. Bring copies for your peer review group and me on Monday.
	F	10/05	No Class. HW: Draft one of Analysis Two, due Monday 10/08. Work on CLUE (1-3 due on Wednesday 10/10; 4 and 5 due on Friday 10/12).
Week 6	M	10/08	Draft of Analysis Two due for Peer Review. We will discuss portfolios and revision strategies. HW: Write Midterm Portfolio Cover Letter. Revise essays for Midterm Portfolio, due Monday 10/15. Continue working on CLUE.
	W	10/10	Portfolio and Revision discussion cont. Workshop on Midterm Portfolio Cover Letter. CLUE 1-3 due. HW: Continue working on Midterm Portfolio and Cover Letter. Continue working on CLUE.
	F	10/12	I will introduce Unit III: Researching and distribute new assignments. Analysis Two returned with comments. CLUE 4 and 5 due. HW: Continue working on Midterm Portfolio and Cover Letter. First draft of the Research Question. Have your Research Question prepared for the Library Instruction session on Friday.
Week 7	M	10/15	Library Instruction Day (meet at College Library 1193D). Midterm Portfolio due by 9pm at my office in Helen C. White 7151. HW: Continue working on the Research Question, due Wednesday 10/17. Bring copies for your peer review group on Wednesday. Read Chapter 3 in The Craft of Research.

Unit III: Researching

	W	10/17	First draft of Research Question due for discussion and peer review. Discussion on HW: Read Chapter 4 in The Craft of Research. Revise Research Question; second draft due on Friday, 10/19.
	F	10/19	Second draft of Research Question due. Discussion on Chapter 4 in The Craft of Research and plagiarism. HW: Work on Research Proposal (due 10/26) and collect sources for Annotated Bibliography (due Week 9 at conference). Begin reading Chapters 5 and 6 in The Craft of Research.
Week 8	M	10/22	Library Day (research and write on your own). I will return comments on the Research Question via email. HW: Continue working on the Research Proposal, Annotated Bibliography, and reading Chapters 5 and 6.
	W	10/24	We will discuss finding and evaluating sources, writing the Annotated Bibliography, and Chapters 5 and 6 from The Craft of Research. HW: Continue working on the Research Proposal. Work on Annotated Bibliography, due at your conference.
	F	10/26	Research Proposal due. Discussion of Wednesday’s topics cont. HW: Continue working on Annotated Bibliography. Bring 2 copies to your conference with me.
Week 9	M	10/29	Conferences at the Open Book Café in College Library. Research Proposal returned at conference. HW: Revise Annotated Bibliography, due Friday 11/02. Begin writing your Research Paper, due Wednesday 11/14.
	W	10/31	Conferences cont. HW: Continue revising Annotated Bibliography. Bring copies for peer review group and me to class on Friday. Continue writing your Research Paper.
	F	11/02	Second draft of Annotated Bibliography due for discussion and peer review. I will discuss your Research Narratives/Oral Presentations. HW: Work on your Research Narratives/Oral Presentations (due next week). Continue working on your Research Paper.
Week 10	M	11/05	Research Narratives/Oral Presentations HW: Continue working on your Research Paper.
	W	11/07	Research Narratives/Oral Presentations HW: Continue working on your Research Paper.
	F	11/09	Research Narratives/Oral Presentations HW: Continue working on your Research Paper.
Week 11	M	11/12	Research Narratives/Oral Presentations HW: Continue working on your Research Paper.
	W	11/14	Research Narratives/Oral Presentations. If we finish early, the rest of the period will be used for questions and library research. HW: Continue working on your Research Paper. Bring copies for peer review group and me to class.
	F	11/16	First draft of Research Paper due for peer review. HW: Work on second draft of Research Paper, due Friday 11/30.
Week 12	M	11/19	Continue Peer Review. First draft of Research Paper returned with my comments. Discussion on Reflections Project. HW: Continue working on second draft of Research Paper. Begin Reflections Project, due Monday 12/03.
	W	11/21	No Class.
	F	11/23	Thanksgiving Break. No class.

Unit IV: Reflecting

Week 13	M	11/26	In-class writing for Reflections Project. HW: Continue working on second draft of Research Paper and Reflections Project.
	W	11/28	In-class writing/work for Reflections Project. HW: Continue working on second draft of Research Paper and Reflections Project. Bring copies of Research Paper for peer review group and me on Friday.
	F	11/30	Second draft of Research Paper due for discussion and peer review. HW: Continue working on Reflections Project. Bring copies for peer review group and me for Monday.
Week 14	M	12/03	First draft of Reflections Project due for discussion and peer review. HW: Revise Reflections Project. Second draft due 12/07.
	W	12/05	Discussion and in-class workshop on the Final Portfolio Cover Letter. HW: Continue working on Reflections Project.
	F	12/07	Second draft of Reflections Project due. Continue in-class work on the Cover Letter. HW: Revise your Portfolio materials. Final Portfolio due on Friday 12/14.
Week 15	M	12/10	Workshop on Final Portfolio. Reflections Project returned with comments. HW: Continue revising your Final Portfolio.
	W	12/12	Instructor Evaluations. Peer review of Final Portfolio.
	F	12/14	Last day of class. Peer review of Final Portfolio. Final Portfolio due at Helen C. White 7151 (my office) by 9pm.

Conference schedule for next week

Conference Sign-Up
Time	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday
9:00
9:30	Breann Kroll	JD Frank
10:00	Cate Hall	Royce Taylor
10:30	Marie Tapp		Liz Hamburger
11:00	Danielle Gibson	Abby Evans	Lauren Weininger
11:30	Tom Reed	Dan Schmidt	Max Meier
12:00	Kalyn Wadsworth	Chelsea Evans	Peter Kadin
12:30	Justin Delwiche	Kelsey Gunderson
2:00		Ozair Chaudhry
2:30		Shalissa Merriweather
3:00
3:30
4:00