Hello all,
As you digest the last of your turkey and look towards the holidays (and the end of class!) I will remind you that there are still a few assignments left before we can all bid each other farewell. A number of folks neither emailed me nor posted their outlines--if you did not, you do not receive the ten points this assignment was worth. More importantly, you will also not receive any points for anything else (the rough draft, the bibliography, even the final draft) from this last paper until you get the missing outline to me! I have responded to most of your blogs concerning this--if you posted your outline on your blog, I responded to it; if you emailed it to me, I responded to the message. If you did neither of those things, I left you a message on the last post your did publish, so you may have to dig to get my response.
As far as rough draft conferences go, I have either emailed or posted each of you with your individual conference day. If you forget (or never look), the schedule goes like this:
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27: Barnak, Blaney, Casper, Cotts, Cudzewicz, Davenport, Forbes
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29: Perez, Plate, Reel, Singer, Wagner, Feldott
Make sure that you have your rough drafts (at least two pages worth, preferably more) ready to go on your conference day. You only have to show up for class the day your conference is scheduled, and the bibliographies are also due the day of your conference.
If you have any questions, concerns, or confusion, please email me, come see me during my office hours, or leave me a voicemail.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Persuasive Research Piece
This is it—your final piece. To this point, we have worked on a variety of specific skills in the various paragraphs, and then worked on combining them into longer, more complex thoughts in the essays. At this point, it is time to move beyond the individual tools used in writing, and get to the important stuff: making yourself understood, and making yourself persuasive.
Doing all of this isn’t easy; it takes thought, care and energy on your part. The bright side is that generating all of this isn’t as difficult as you might think. When you persuade, you are probably trying to get people to agree with you. Unless you are a habitual liar, you probably really believe in whatever you are trying to convince your subjects about—and that means that you usually really do care about whether or not the believe and agree with you!
Your final assignment puts these concepts into practice. The requirements are as follows:
Standard formatting guidelines apply. As this is your final paper, this should be representative of the absolute best, most polished work you are capable of producing. Grammar, sentence construction and spelling will be more heavily weighted than in past assignments, so be sure to carefully proofread your work! This paper must be a minimum of four full pages long, and must not be longer than eight.
In addition to this packet, you can find more information on argumentative writing in chapter 12 of your textbook.
Your topic is a simple one: I want you to choose something that you think is unfair, and try to convince your audience that A) the situation really is unfair (and explain why and how this is the case) and B) provide a solution to the unfair situation and advocate for that solution to be adopted (and show how that adoption could be achieved). You have two alternatives as far as what sort of unfair situations you can discuss: you can write about a more general, public unfair situation, like immigration, gender inequity in the workplace, or something like that. For example, you could write about how it is unfair that logging companies are attempting to cut down areas of a redwood forest that had previously been designated off limits. You could provide an alternative of creating a sustainable system of forest preserves set aside expressly for the logging industry. The way that this solution could be enacted would be to present the proposal as a bill to congress.
Or, you can choose to write about something specific to yourself—a problem
with another person, a problem within your family, a problem at work or school,
or whatever. An example of this might be that you think that it is unfair that the
boss at your job makes the schedule based on who has worked the most hours last
week. You think that the schedule should be based on seniority—who has been
working at the job the longest. You would present your reasons why a schedule
based on who works the most hours from week to week is unfair, and then show
why a schedule based on seniority would be fairer. You would finish off by
making suggestions on how to correct this unfair situation—in this case, the
solution is (obviously) adopting the new kind of schedule.
As a different slant on this, you can take a more general and traditional tack, and discuss an issue that is of importance to you (and others), and try to convince your audience that your position is the one that should be acted upon or believed. This could be something along the lines of a social or political issue (legalized marijuana, gun control, election reform) or more cultural (exploitation in the media, doping in sports). In this paper, you are presenting an issue that has at least two opposing arguments, both of which may have good points. It is up to you to do a fair and thorough job of exploring and exposing those points. Like the unfair paper, however, you are advocating a position—you must take a stand on one side or the other!
Regardless of which version of the paper you choose to write, you will need to find outside sources and use them properly. This paper calls for a minimum of five sources—make sure that whatever your topic is robust enough to support these five sources! At least two different types of sources must be used (books and websites, magazine articles and interviews, or databases and documentaries, for example). You MAY NOT simply use all of the same kind of source (this is especially true of online materials). Keep in mind that NOT ALL SOURCES ARE CREATED EQUALLY!! Some are more respectable/useful/trustworthy than others, and it is part of your job to make sure that the sources you are using are appropriate for an academic paper. You will be required to properly cite your sources in-text using parenthetical citation, and you will also be required to provide a works cited page in proper MLA format. We will discuss these requirements in class, but it is YOUR responsibility to make sure that you are familiar and comfortable with the MLA citation process. This will be an important component of this assignment, so it is important to do it well.
You need to keep a number of factors in mind as you write this paper. Tone is very important—you may be very angry about the unfair situation (especially if the situation is a personal one), but if your tone comes across as angry, nasty or superior, you are likely to anger and offend your reader! This, of course, makes them much less likely to listen to you or to do what you want them to. You must also remember that you are not the only person in the universe. Just because you think that something seems unfair doesn’t necessarily make it so. If you are writing the paper about the unfair situation, you must remember that there is a difference between “things that are not fair” and “things I don’t like”. Keep in mind that your solutions will likely impact others—if you want your message to be persuasive, you need to come up with solutions that will make those others happy, not just benefit you. If you are writing the position paper, you must remember to give reasonably even coverage to both sides—you must be able to show that you understand both sides of the issue before people will trust your position.
You should also keep the difference between belief and opinion in mind as you work on this paper (we will cover this material in class). This will help you select and refine your topic, as well as make decisions on what sorts of arguments to make, and what evidence to present.
All good persuasion follows the argument/counterargument/concession/rebuttal model. We will be covering this in class, but it is an expected part of this paper! Also we will be discussing the three parts of a traditional argument—pathos, ethos, and logos. Again, regardless of type of paper, you are expected to show an awareness of and facility with these elements. You do NOT need to include one section or paragraph on each of the three elements, but you should be able to include information from all three sections as it is needed.
Regardless of which type of paper you choose to write, keep the situations and solutions, or your position, realistic and reasonable—try to concentrate on solutions that can actually be fixed, and come up with legitimate ways to fix them, and positions that are able to be defended clearly and reasonably.
Unlike the other papers we have worked on, the importance of this paper, combined with the length and preparation time, causes due dates for this paper to be handled a little differently than the other papers we have worked on. This paper will be divided into a number of smaller sections: a topic proposal, an outline, a working bibliography, and a rough draft, as well as the final draft. Put simply, each section is due at the start of the class it is due on, unless I tell you otherwise. If you have the section done when it is due, and it is reasonably complete and accurate, you will receive full credit for that section. If you do not have the section done, or it is obviously incorrect or incomplete, two things will occur: you will receive a zero for that section, and you will continue to receive zeroes for every other section (up to and including the final draft) until you get that section properly completed and turned in to me. THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS RULE!!! If you are sick, if you are going to be gone, if you are planning on using one of your free absences, you will still need to make arrangements with me concerning the sections of the paper you might be missing. In addition, I WILL NOT be taking the final draft late under any circumstances, to allow sufficient time for grading.
As always, see me with any questions or concerns you may have about this assignment.
Doing all of this isn’t easy; it takes thought, care and energy on your part. The bright side is that generating all of this isn’t as difficult as you might think. When you persuade, you are probably trying to get people to agree with you. Unless you are a habitual liar, you probably really believe in whatever you are trying to convince your subjects about—and that means that you usually really do care about whether or not the believe and agree with you!
Your final assignment puts these concepts into practice. The requirements are as follows:
Standard formatting guidelines apply. As this is your final paper, this should be representative of the absolute best, most polished work you are capable of producing. Grammar, sentence construction and spelling will be more heavily weighted than in past assignments, so be sure to carefully proofread your work! This paper must be a minimum of four full pages long, and must not be longer than eight.
In addition to this packet, you can find more information on argumentative writing in chapter 12 of your textbook.
Your topic is a simple one: I want you to choose something that you think is unfair, and try to convince your audience that A) the situation really is unfair (and explain why and how this is the case) and B) provide a solution to the unfair situation and advocate for that solution to be adopted (and show how that adoption could be achieved). You have two alternatives as far as what sort of unfair situations you can discuss: you can write about a more general, public unfair situation, like immigration, gender inequity in the workplace, or something like that. For example, you could write about how it is unfair that logging companies are attempting to cut down areas of a redwood forest that had previously been designated off limits. You could provide an alternative of creating a sustainable system of forest preserves set aside expressly for the logging industry. The way that this solution could be enacted would be to present the proposal as a bill to congress.
Or, you can choose to write about something specific to yourself—a problem
with another person, a problem within your family, a problem at work or school,
or whatever. An example of this might be that you think that it is unfair that the
boss at your job makes the schedule based on who has worked the most hours last
week. You think that the schedule should be based on seniority—who has been
working at the job the longest. You would present your reasons why a schedule
based on who works the most hours from week to week is unfair, and then show
why a schedule based on seniority would be fairer. You would finish off by
making suggestions on how to correct this unfair situation—in this case, the
solution is (obviously) adopting the new kind of schedule.
As a different slant on this, you can take a more general and traditional tack, and discuss an issue that is of importance to you (and others), and try to convince your audience that your position is the one that should be acted upon or believed. This could be something along the lines of a social or political issue (legalized marijuana, gun control, election reform) or more cultural (exploitation in the media, doping in sports). In this paper, you are presenting an issue that has at least two opposing arguments, both of which may have good points. It is up to you to do a fair and thorough job of exploring and exposing those points. Like the unfair paper, however, you are advocating a position—you must take a stand on one side or the other!
Regardless of which version of the paper you choose to write, you will need to find outside sources and use them properly. This paper calls for a minimum of five sources—make sure that whatever your topic is robust enough to support these five sources! At least two different types of sources must be used (books and websites, magazine articles and interviews, or databases and documentaries, for example). You MAY NOT simply use all of the same kind of source (this is especially true of online materials). Keep in mind that NOT ALL SOURCES ARE CREATED EQUALLY!! Some are more respectable/useful/trustworthy than others, and it is part of your job to make sure that the sources you are using are appropriate for an academic paper. You will be required to properly cite your sources in-text using parenthetical citation, and you will also be required to provide a works cited page in proper MLA format. We will discuss these requirements in class, but it is YOUR responsibility to make sure that you are familiar and comfortable with the MLA citation process. This will be an important component of this assignment, so it is important to do it well.
You need to keep a number of factors in mind as you write this paper. Tone is very important—you may be very angry about the unfair situation (especially if the situation is a personal one), but if your tone comes across as angry, nasty or superior, you are likely to anger and offend your reader! This, of course, makes them much less likely to listen to you or to do what you want them to. You must also remember that you are not the only person in the universe. Just because you think that something seems unfair doesn’t necessarily make it so. If you are writing the paper about the unfair situation, you must remember that there is a difference between “things that are not fair” and “things I don’t like”. Keep in mind that your solutions will likely impact others—if you want your message to be persuasive, you need to come up with solutions that will make those others happy, not just benefit you. If you are writing the position paper, you must remember to give reasonably even coverage to both sides—you must be able to show that you understand both sides of the issue before people will trust your position.
You should also keep the difference between belief and opinion in mind as you work on this paper (we will cover this material in class). This will help you select and refine your topic, as well as make decisions on what sorts of arguments to make, and what evidence to present.
All good persuasion follows the argument/counterargument/concession/rebuttal model. We will be covering this in class, but it is an expected part of this paper! Also we will be discussing the three parts of a traditional argument—pathos, ethos, and logos. Again, regardless of type of paper, you are expected to show an awareness of and facility with these elements. You do NOT need to include one section or paragraph on each of the three elements, but you should be able to include information from all three sections as it is needed.
Regardless of which type of paper you choose to write, keep the situations and solutions, or your position, realistic and reasonable—try to concentrate on solutions that can actually be fixed, and come up with legitimate ways to fix them, and positions that are able to be defended clearly and reasonably.
Unlike the other papers we have worked on, the importance of this paper, combined with the length and preparation time, causes due dates for this paper to be handled a little differently than the other papers we have worked on. This paper will be divided into a number of smaller sections: a topic proposal, an outline, a working bibliography, and a rough draft, as well as the final draft. Put simply, each section is due at the start of the class it is due on, unless I tell you otherwise. If you have the section done when it is due, and it is reasonably complete and accurate, you will receive full credit for that section. If you do not have the section done, or it is obviously incorrect or incomplete, two things will occur: you will receive a zero for that section, and you will continue to receive zeroes for every other section (up to and including the final draft) until you get that section properly completed and turned in to me. THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS RULE!!! If you are sick, if you are going to be gone, if you are planning on using one of your free absences, you will still need to make arrangements with me concerning the sections of the paper you might be missing. In addition, I WILL NOT be taking the final draft late under any circumstances, to allow sufficient time for grading.
As always, see me with any questions or concerns you may have about this assignment.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Entrance Essay/Financial Aid Piece
Persuasive, argumentative writing is some of the most important communication that a person can do. It is also some of the most difficult. We will begin our practice in this area by working on a project that many of you can, or will eventually, relate to: the college entrance essay.
If you have ever applied to a four-year college for admission, you know that they often ask you to include a brief essay explaining why you want to enroll. Even if you have no desire to enroll in a four-year school, the practice of working on a short, controlled persuasive piece can be very helpful. Here is what you need to know to successfully complete your essay:
There are three ways you can complete this assignment: you write your entrance essay to either a college you really do want to go to (you can in fact make this essay a part of your application materials) or you can choose a school some other way: pick your “dream school”, a school you have always been interested in, choose at random, whatever you would like. Alternatively, if you are not planning on transferring to another school, or have already been accepted, or simply don’t know what school you would like to attend, you may instead write a letter applying for financial aid or a scholarship. Many of these are tailored to a specific school, but many can be used wherever you eventually decide to attend. There are even scholarships and financial aid packages available for community colleges like Waubonsee, so you can use this to aid you in your current studies.
You will need to do some research on your chosen school. The more you know about your chosen school, the better a job you will be able to do of convincing the admissions board that you are a worthwhile and serious applicant. This means knowing things like where the school is located, what sorts of strong programs it has, what sorts of things it is famous for, and so on. We will have class time to let you research your school but you may need to work on your own as well.
If you choose to work on a real application essay, you are welcome to use the essay (if any) included with the application materials. If your school does not include an essay, or if you are not really planning on applying, use this essay prompt:
Why do you want to enroll in (college name)? What qualities do you have that will make you successful here? What sorts of experiences have you had that will make you a valuable part of the college community? What are your ultimate goals for yourself and your education?
If you choose to work on a scholarship, you will find that the vast majority of them include some sort of statement or essay prompt—again, I want a copy if you use an existing prompt. If you cannot find a prompt for your particular scholarship, use the following generic prompt:
Why are you deserving of this financial assistance? How will you use this assistance to achieve your goals? What do you want to do with your education in the long run? How will you use this assistance to give back to the wider community?
You need to make sure that you consider the audience you are writing to. What are they interested in hearing about? What sort of language, vocabulary, and tone do they expect from you? What sorts of things do they already know, and what sorts of things do you need to explain to them?
You will also need to be able to give the folks who will see your essay some information and background—both about yourself, and about what you know about them. You will want to include information about your educational and working background, your extracurricular activities, hobbies, skills, and personal qualities that you think will make you successful at the school (or with the scholarship). You will also want to demonstrate that you know about them—that you have done your homework, take the opportunity seriously, and have taken steps to make sure that you will be a good fit with the college, and that you will be successful there (or will be successful through receiving the scholarship).
You will need to make use of a number of different techniques we have worked on throughout the class to write a successful essay: you may need to define and explain things, to give example, to use narrative to explain what you have done or want to do, you may even need to compare your abilities or backgrounds to the admissions requirements of the school.
Whether this is a real letter or not, you must be honest in your essay—this is really you who is applying to this school! There is one exception to this: if you do decide to apply to a dream school, and this school is one that you would normally not be allowed to attend for whatever reason (financial, distance, a school that specializes in something you have no background in, or any other admissions criteria that you don’t/can’t meet for whatever reason) you may alter your personal information to the point that it allows you to be a potential candidate.
Obviously, the essay may be very different depending on the particular school and what they are looking for. If you are writing a real application essay, the requirement of the school take precedence over the requirements of this assignment. However, there are a few rules you do need to follow—if these don’t mix with the real-life essay, you will need to create an alternate, “class version” of the essay. This essay must be a minimum of two full pages. It must follow all of the formatting guidelines discussed in class. If the real entrance essay is extremely different than the imaginary essay prompt given above, you will need to see me to make sure that the essay is acceptable for use in this assignment.
As always, see me if you have any questions about this assignment.
If you have ever applied to a four-year college for admission, you know that they often ask you to include a brief essay explaining why you want to enroll. Even if you have no desire to enroll in a four-year school, the practice of working on a short, controlled persuasive piece can be very helpful. Here is what you need to know to successfully complete your essay:
There are three ways you can complete this assignment: you write your entrance essay to either a college you really do want to go to (you can in fact make this essay a part of your application materials) or you can choose a school some other way: pick your “dream school”, a school you have always been interested in, choose at random, whatever you would like. Alternatively, if you are not planning on transferring to another school, or have already been accepted, or simply don’t know what school you would like to attend, you may instead write a letter applying for financial aid or a scholarship. Many of these are tailored to a specific school, but many can be used wherever you eventually decide to attend. There are even scholarships and financial aid packages available for community colleges like Waubonsee, so you can use this to aid you in your current studies.
You will need to do some research on your chosen school. The more you know about your chosen school, the better a job you will be able to do of convincing the admissions board that you are a worthwhile and serious applicant. This means knowing things like where the school is located, what sorts of strong programs it has, what sorts of things it is famous for, and so on. We will have class time to let you research your school but you may need to work on your own as well.
If you choose to work on a real application essay, you are welcome to use the essay (if any) included with the application materials. If your school does not include an essay, or if you are not really planning on applying, use this essay prompt:
Why do you want to enroll in (college name)? What qualities do you have that will make you successful here? What sorts of experiences have you had that will make you a valuable part of the college community? What are your ultimate goals for yourself and your education?
If you choose to work on a scholarship, you will find that the vast majority of them include some sort of statement or essay prompt—again, I want a copy if you use an existing prompt. If you cannot find a prompt for your particular scholarship, use the following generic prompt:
Why are you deserving of this financial assistance? How will you use this assistance to achieve your goals? What do you want to do with your education in the long run? How will you use this assistance to give back to the wider community?
You need to make sure that you consider the audience you are writing to. What are they interested in hearing about? What sort of language, vocabulary, and tone do they expect from you? What sorts of things do they already know, and what sorts of things do you need to explain to them?
You will also need to be able to give the folks who will see your essay some information and background—both about yourself, and about what you know about them. You will want to include information about your educational and working background, your extracurricular activities, hobbies, skills, and personal qualities that you think will make you successful at the school (or with the scholarship). You will also want to demonstrate that you know about them—that you have done your homework, take the opportunity seriously, and have taken steps to make sure that you will be a good fit with the college, and that you will be successful there (or will be successful through receiving the scholarship).
You will need to make use of a number of different techniques we have worked on throughout the class to write a successful essay: you may need to define and explain things, to give example, to use narrative to explain what you have done or want to do, you may even need to compare your abilities or backgrounds to the admissions requirements of the school.
Whether this is a real letter or not, you must be honest in your essay—this is really you who is applying to this school! There is one exception to this: if you do decide to apply to a dream school, and this school is one that you would normally not be allowed to attend for whatever reason (financial, distance, a school that specializes in something you have no background in, or any other admissions criteria that you don’t/can’t meet for whatever reason) you may alter your personal information to the point that it allows you to be a potential candidate.
Obviously, the essay may be very different depending on the particular school and what they are looking for. If you are writing a real application essay, the requirement of the school take precedence over the requirements of this assignment. However, there are a few rules you do need to follow—if these don’t mix with the real-life essay, you will need to create an alternate, “class version” of the essay. This essay must be a minimum of two full pages. It must follow all of the formatting guidelines discussed in class. If the real entrance essay is extremely different than the imaginary essay prompt given above, you will need to see me to make sure that the essay is acceptable for use in this assignment.
As always, see me if you have any questions about this assignment.
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