ECTION Jamie Oldham Melanie Hernandez Kirin Wachter-Grene...

ENGL 108: WRITING READY

GETTING A START ON WRITING & CRITICAL THINKING IN COLLEGE | SUMMER LEAP 2012

Instructors & SECTION B1 SECTION B2

Office Hours: Jamie Oldham (jeo3@u.) Melanie Hernandez (melanieh@u.)

(in Conibear T, Th 1-3 PM T-Th 1-3 PM

Lounge) Kirin Wachter-Grene (kirinwg@gmail) Ned Schaumberg (schaumeg@u.)

M, W 1-3 PM M/W 1-3 PM

Class Location: MGH 254 MGH 287

Class Times: M-TH 9:30-12:00PM; F 9:00-3:00PM / Structured Study M-TH 1:30-3:00PM

Course website: http://blogs.uw.edu/uwleap/

Course Materials

• Summer LEAP Course Reader (available from Ave Copy @ 4141 Univ. Way NE and 42nd)

• A 80-page composition notebook, which will be your Process Journal

• An active email address and web access

• A folder to hold and organize all of your assignments, which will be turned in as part of your Final

Portfolio; a stapler, pencils, pens, paper, and other useful school supplies

• Access to a college-level dictionary (not a pocket dictionary), such as the Oxford English Dictionary,

which can be accessed via the UW library webpage: http://www.lib.washington.edu/research/dic.html

Course Overview

In this course, you will learn to become critically conscious of your specific relationship to and

encounters with writing and reading—you will be metacognitive about your own academic strengths and

difficulties. In other words, through thinking about and reflecting on the writing, reading, and analytical

skills you bring to this class, you will learn to assess who you are as a writer, and you will develop your

skills to engage with and to perform more effectively in the many courses that will require writing at the

University.

This course is divided into four major sequences. The first of the four sequences focuses on the concept

of literacy and the nature of learning. You will explore these subjects critically and theoretically by

reading essays and narratives about the process of learning to read and write. You will also write your

own literacy narrative in which you reflect on your own experiences with reading and writing.

Furthermore, we will push the definition of literacy beyond just a knowledge of letters to include multiple

literacies and multiple ways of knowing and showing.

The second and third sequences examine the challenges and strategies of active learning and academic

inquiry. We will explore the concept of difficulty in reading and learning, conventions of ‘academic

discourse’, reasons why students resist facing challenges, and ways for working through difficult learning

tasks. At the same time, we will further develop writing habits, reading lenses, and learning practices,

including close reading and responding to difficult texts, analyzing texts, working in peer groups,

conducting research, and using campus resources.

Finally, the fourth sequence asks you to look back at the quarter and reconsider your literacy narrative in

terms of the ways your writing, reading, and learning have changed. You will be asked to put together a

mailto:jeo3@u

mailto:changed@u

http://www.lib.washington.edu/research/dic.html

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portfolio of all of your work and to submit a culminating prospective essay in which you will track your

progress as a writer, reader, and scholar. The prospective essay will serve both as a cover letter to your

portfolio and as a survey of how you now view yourself as a writer, the challenges you will face in future

classes, how you expect to meet these challenges, and how you will further develop your new set of skills,

strategies, and theories.

ENGL 108 promises a fast-paced, compressed quarter of writing, reading, discussion, research, asking

questions, critical thinking, analysis, fun, revision. We will engage texts small and large, everyday and

theoretical. To this end, on Fridays, we will head out into the city, into the “field” to do some exploration,

observation, and interaction. The “Fridays on Foot” are designed to first, encourage you to become more

aware of the campus, the city, and the communities at large, and second, to think about the connections

between what we do in class to what you do out of class, between learning and lived experience. By the

end of the quarter, the hope of this course is that you realize that learning and knowledge and experience

are more than just rubrics, rote, numbers, syllabuses, tests, grades, and graduation requirements—that

learning and knowledge are fundamentally interconnected, intertextual, personal, political, cultural, and

mutually enhancing.

ENGL 108 Learning Goals or Outcomes

1. This course wants you to leave this class more confident of yourselves as writers and more

comfortable about the writing skills you will bring to future college writing assignments. To this

end you will:

• Write frequently in different contexts and for different audiences and purposes.

• Learn through practice why college-level writing is most successful when it follows a process of inquiry,

drafting, and revision.

• Learn strategies for active reading of college-level material, and come to understand how strong writing

skills often depend upon strong active-reading skills.

2. This course wants you to leave this class having learned about and experienced specific campus

and classroom-based writing resources. To this end you will:

• Learn to make active and effective use of campus writing centers and tutors.

• Become familiar with general writing resources like dictionaries and handbooks, both on-line and hard

copy.

• Become familiar with library-based research resources, both physical and electronic.

• Explore how general campus student resources can support you as a learner.

3. This course wants you to leave this class having been introduced both to a series of key learning

issues and to how understanding such issues can make them not just better and more successful

writers, but better and more successful students as well. To this end you will:

• Become familiar with such writing-connected learning issues as ‘resistance’, ‘difficulty’, ‘authenticity’,

and ‘transfer’.

• Learn to recognize the writing strengths you bring to college level work, and learn how to use them

effectively.

• Become better aware of your writing difficulties and learn how to manage them.

• Explore how your varied life skills and experiences have prepared you for effective reading and writing

at the university.

4. This course wants you to leave this class having learned strategies for writing well by becoming

effective members of a university-level learning community. To this end you will:

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• Develop strategies for peer collaboration, review, and response.

• Engage in classroom discussions in a spirit of inquiry, respect, and openness.

• Learn to make use of instructor office hours and student-teacher conferences.

• Learn how to practice better self-advocacy.

Grading

ENGL 108 is graded. You will earn between a 0.0 to 4.0 on your university transcript. However, if this

course is a condition of admissions, you must get a 2.0 or higher to be considered successful. We expect

you to work hard and to achieve the highest grade possible as a way of preparing yourself for the

academic year to come. Your grade is made up of two parts: your writing portfolio and class

participation.

Grading Breakdown

Literacy Narrative 10%

Close Reading 10%

Read-search Project 10%

Prospective Cover Letter 10%

Participation 20%

Final Portfolio 40%

(which includes: Prospective Cover Letter and everything you’ve written in class and out

of class including revisions, presentations, Fridays on Foot projects, all neatly organized.

It also includes a revision of one of your Major Papers and a revision of your Claim from

Week 3)

Major Papers (40%) & Final Portfolio (40%)

In this course, you will complete four assignment sequences. For each of these sequences, you will

complete in-class exercises and writings, readings, several short, building-block assignments, and peer

review and group work—all to prepare for the longer major papers: the Literacy Narrative, the Close

Reading, the Read-Search Project, and the Prospective Cover Letter. Each sequence and each sequence’s

major paper are worth 10%. All of the preparatory work leading up to each major paper must be

completed to receive full credit for the sequence.

At the end of the course, you will be asked to compile and submit a Final Portfolio of all your work,

including all short in-class and out-of-class papers as well as the four major papers for each sequence.

You will include everything you have written during the course in this final portfolio. You will also be

required to revise one of your Major Papers and Week 3 Claim to include in your portfolio. If any

assignment is missing, you will not get credit for having done it and this will impact your portfolio grade.

The Final Portfolio is worth 40% of your grade.

Preparedness and Participation (20%)

Preparedness and participation forms a large component of your final grade. Reading and commenting on

the work of your peers, discussing ideas, and engaging with the classroom community are all important

parts of this course. You can see why it is essential that you attend class and participate. For example,

class discussion, group activities, oral presentations, and peer-review sessions cannot be made up.

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Missing class may seriously compromise your ability to do well in this class. Negative participation will

hurt your participation grade.

Participation is determined by 1) your respectful, on-time presence in class, 2) your willingness to

discuss, comment, and ask questions, 3) your preparation for class, which includes bringing required

materials to class and doing all of the assigned reading for class, 4) your engagement in group work and

peer workshops, 5) your daily use of UW email, 6) and your interactions with your instructors and other

students, 7) your Process Journal, 8) readings quizzes and in-class exercises, and 9) conferences with your

instructors. Finally, failure to turn in homework, incomplete assignments, or late papers will negatively

impact your participation grade.

Attendance & Lateness

If you miss a class, you miss the explanation of an assignment, the clarification of a persuasive strategy,

an in-class exercise, the chance to have your draft critiqued, an opportunity to help someone else improve,

and overall the class as a learning community. Because the course is only four short weeks, each class

will cover a significant amount of material. Also, you are expected to be in class on time. Class will start

immediately at the appointed time. If you come in after the start of class, even by only a few minutes, you

are late and you will be marked as such. Chronic or conspicuous attendance problems will negatively

affect your class participation grade. If you know you are going to miss class, please let your instructor

know ahead of time (via email), provide any pertinent documentation, and we will make any necessary

arrangements. And when you do miss class, always find another student to get class notes and see your

instructor in order to make up missed work in a timely manner.

Classroom Climate & Respect

Although this class will be a site of collaboration, discussion, and debate, we must all keep in mind that

everyone has a different perspective, different ideas, and not everyone will always agree. Your instructors

do not expect you to agree with them all of the time. Nor should you feel that you must agree with all of

your classmates. You are required, however, to listen, to try to see different points of view, and to respect

your instructors and classmates. Please address and respond to instructors and peers politely and

respectfully. During a debate, during disagreement, during interesting and charged conversations,

remember to be cool, open, courteous, reasonable, and specific in your reactions and responses.

Remember that it is difficult to know the backgrounds, experiences, beliefs, moods, or feelings of your

peers. Be sensitive, generous, and responsible.

Guidelines for Good Class Discussion

1. Listen carefully

2. Think carefully

3. Try not to interrupt

4. Make sure what you say is relevant, on topic

5. Speak up even if you aren’t sure you are right

6. Speak up even if it is scary

7. Write down your thoughts as they come to you

8. Ask follow-up questions

9. Connect your ideas to the readings or earlier discussions

10. Do not dominate the conversation—make sure everyone gets heard

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Late Assignments

All assignments must be done completely and turned in on time. For graded assignments, for every day

that the paper is late, your final grade will be penalized by 1.0—a whole letter grade. Note that late

work will receive no comments from instructors. For other assignments, late papers will affect your

overall participation grade. Moreover, you still need to complete late work and include it in your

portfolio, as your portfolio must be complete in order for you to pass the course. If you miss class on the

due date of a paper, you must notify your instructor and make arrangements to get the paper to me as soon

as possible. Unless previously arranged, do not send assignments via email. Furthermore, all work

must be seen and checked off by your instructor to be eligible for your portfolio! Remember that a paper

has not been officially handed in until it is in my hands. Never turning anything in late is always the best

policy.

Assignment Format

All formal papers must be typed. All papers should be submitted with the following manuscript

guidelines:

1) 1" margins top, bottom, left, and right on each page;

2) Double-spaced, single-sided, using a standard font (preferably Times Roman), using a font size

no larger than 12 pt;

3) Number all pages except for the first page in the top right-hand corner; title page does not

count;

4) Stapled once at the top left corner (do not use fancy report covers or binding gadgetry);

5) At the top of the first page, include your name, your course section, my name, date, and title;

6) Correct MLA citations and bibliography (see usage manual for guidelines); papers with

fundamental citation problems will not receive credit;

7) Include any exercises or additional material required by the assignment.

Paper should be spell-checked and proof-read. Papers that do not follow these format guidelines will not

be accepted. They will be returned unread to you. Papers will be regarded as late until they are

resubmitted in the proper format.

Resources & Getting Help

Instructor office hours are listed at the front of the course policies. We are available during those times

and by appointment to help you. We encourage you to come see us early and often even if it is just to talk

about the class, about the assignments, or about school in general. Instructors are also available

electronically by email. We will do our best to answer your emails and blog posts, usually within twenty-

four hours. If you want to contact one of us privately, send the message to the individual instructor. In

general, email is the best way to contact us. In addition, remember that emails (and blog posts) to

instructors and professors are professional documents and require professional and respectful language.

Conferences

Stay in touch with instructors, tutors, and staff. In addition to time with tutors, you will be asked to have

at least two one-on-one conferences (one with each instructor). These conferences are intended to provide

more focused feedback on your writing, reading, and process than can be given during regular class times.

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Tutors and Support Services

We have six tutors dedicated specifically to working with this class. You are required to visit them

regularly for further guidance on your work at any point during the course. Keep in mind that all of these

tutors are here to help you with the process of critical thinking, reading, writing, which means they will

help you figure out how to work through the challenges you face—they will not “fix-it” for you. A limited

number of extra credit points are available for students who visit one of the campus writing centers. Your

instructor will speak more about this.

Writer’s Handbook & Grammar Help

The UW English Department also provides a grammar help and writing help website called Ask Betty:

<http://depts.washington.edu/engl/askbetty/>, which includes an online workshop on reading instructor

margin comments, help for ESL students, frequently asked questions about grammar, and other online

resources. Furthermore, make good use of a writer’s handbook, like The Everyday Writer by Andrea A.

Lunsford, and its companion website: <http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/everyday_writer/>.

Academic Dishonesty or Plagiarism, the Quickest Way Out of the NCAA

Plagiarism, or academic dishonesty, is presenting someone else’s ideas or writing as your own. In your

writing for this class, you are encouraged to refer to other people’s thoughts and writing — as long as you

cite them. Many students do not have a clear understanding of what constitutes plagiarism, so feel free to

ask questions about these matters at any time. Plagiarism includes:

• a student failing to cite sources of ideas

• a student failing to cite sources of paraphrased material

• a student failing to site sources of specific language and/or passages

• a student submitting someone else’s work as his or her own

• a student submitting his or her own work produced for another class

If you have any doubt about how to cite or acknowledge another’s writing or how to put things into your

own words, please talk to your instructors. It is always better to be safe than sorry. Academic Dishonesty

constitutes grounds for failure of the assignment in question, possible failure of the course, suspension

from play, or even suspension from the University. As a matter of policy, any student found to have

plagiarized any piece of writing in this class will be reported to the College of Arts and Sciences for

review. For further information, please refer to UW’s Student Conduct Code at

<http://www.washington.edu/students/handbook/conduct.html>.

Accommodations for Students with Disabilities

If you have (or think you have) a learning disability that requires accommodations, please contact Pam

Robenolt (proben@u.) in Learning Services so we can begin to make proper arrangements. Even if you

are not sure that your disability will influence your performance in this class, it may be good for us to

know in advance so we can troubleshoot challenges that may arise.

UW SafeCampus

Preventing violence is everyone’s responsibility. If you’re concerned, tell someone. Here are some other

SafeCampus tips:

http://depts.washington.edu/engl/askbetty/

http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/everyday_writer/

http://www.washington.edu/students/handbook/conduct.html

mailto:proben@u

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• Always call 911 if you or others may be in danger.

• Call 206-685-SAFE (7233) to report non-urgent threats of violence and for referrals to UW

counseling and/or safety resources. TTY or VP callers, please call through your preferred relay service.

• Don’t walk alone. Campus safety guards can walk with you on campus after dark. Call Husky

NightWalk 206-685-WALK (9255).

• Stay connected in an emergency with UW Alert. Register your mobile number to receive instant

notification of campus emergencies via text and voice messaging. Sign up online at

<http://www.washington.edu/alert>

For more information visit the SafeCampus website at <http://www.washington.edu/safecampus>.

Course Concerns

If you are experiencing a problem with the course, please see your instructors as soon as possible—we are

very open to feedback and responsive to student concerns. However, if you do not feel comfortable

speaking with either of your instructors, please contact Pam Robenolt (proben@u.) in Learning Services.

http://www.washington.edu/alert

http://www.washington.edu/safecampus

mailto:proben@u

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ENGL 108 B1 and B2 / Oldham & Wachter-Grene / Hernandez & Schaumberg / Summer LEAP 2011 / UW

WEEK 1 SEQUENCE ONE “LITERACY” - DISCUSSION/IN-CLASS TO DO/DUE

FRI 7/6

Welcome and Introduction to Course Introductions & Student Survey Course Policies, Overview, Syllabus Classroom Policies, Participation, Study Skills Plagiarism

How to Become an Active Reader Strengths & Difficulty Inventory I Process Journals, Vocabulary List

What is Literacy? 1.1 Literacy Narrative Brainstorming

Conferences: Sign up

Do: Find a place to keep all your materials together and organized. Come to class prepared with all of your materials.

Do: Read and annotate Course Policies & Syllabus. Also read and annotate Douglass & Alexie

Do: 1.1 Literacy Narrative Brainstorming (3 pages, bring in 3 copies) Ahead: Quiz Likely on the readings.

SAT 7/7

Fridays on Foot: Downtown Seattle

Do: Fridays on Foot Worksheet

MON 7/9

Discuss Douglass.

Sequence One Major Paper #1: Literacy Narrative Reading an Assignment Sheet

Workshop: Literacy Narrative, A Beginning Workshopping/Peer Review 101

Organization & Paragraphing 1.2 One Main Point Paragraph Revision

Process Journals Conferences

Due: 1.1 Literacy Narrative Brainstorming

Do: 1.2 One Main Point Paragraph Revision (Must be at least 1 full page)

Do: Review Alexie. Read Graff and annotate.

Don’t Forget: Conferences with Instructors Due: Friday on Foot worksheet

TUE 7/10

Discuss Alexie/Graff

Audience & Tone, Introductions Dear John Exercise

Critical Thinking & Analysis Summary vs. Analysis, Reading for Writing

Summarizing a Text 1.3 Summary Of Graff

Due: 1.2 One Main Point. 3 copies. Do: Graff Summary (1-2 full pages)

WED 7/11

Discuss Graff.

Process Journals, Generating Critical Questions

Discuss TSIS Worksheets.

Workshop: One Main Point & Paragraphing Annotation/Active Reading Project

Due: 1.2 Summary of Graff Due: TSIS Summary Do: Read and annotate Tan Do: Draft of you Literacy Narrative (3 full pages, bring 3 copies)

THUR 7/12

Discuss Tan.

Evidence and Support, Using Evidence Introduction to Quoting, Intertextuality Organization & Paragraphing (cont.)

Conventions of Academic Papers

Workshop: Literacy Narrative Final Draft

Process Journals, Introduction to Sequence Two

Due: Literacy Narrative Draft Do: Literacy Narrative Final Draft, turn-in at 9:30 AM next Monday, typed, stapled Do: Read Hughes’ “Theme for English B.”

FRI 7/13

Fridays on Foot: International District

Do: Fridays on Foot Worksheet & Blog

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WEEK 2 SEQUENCE TWO “CLOSE READING” - DISCUSSION/IN-CLASS TO DO/DUE

MON 7/16

Process Journals, Portfolio Maintenance Literacy Narrative Self-Reflection Strengths & Difficulty Inventory II Video Day: Close Reading Commercials Discuss Hughes. What is Close Reading? Strategies for Close Reading Working with Difficult Texts Rhetorical Features Workshop: Close Reading of Hughes Summarizing, Paraphrasing, Quoting The Quotation Sandwich Sequence Two Major Paper #2: Close Reading Selecting a Passage

Due: Literacy Narrative Final Draft Due: Fridays on Foot Due: Extra Credit on the International District Do: Read Freire closely and annotate carefully. Do: Selecting a Passage Do: TSIS Worksheet on Quoting Ahead: Quiz likely on Freire

TUE 7/17

Process Journals, Responding to Comments, Grammar Discuss & Close Reading of Freire Breaking Down Difficult Texts Claims, Thesis vs. Claim Introductions (cont.) Workshop: Selecting a Passage

Due: Selecting a Passage for Close Reading, turned in after the workshop. Make sure the sheet has been signed off. Due: TSIS Worksheet on Quoting Do: Close Reading Proposal Worksheet Do: TSIS Worksheet on Metacommentary

WED 7/18

Discuss Freire (cont.) Freire Debate Exercise Thesis vs. Claim (cont.) Conclusions Workshop: Close Reading Proposal Close Reading Proposal Worksheet Process Journals

Due: Close Reading Proposal Worksheet, turned in after the workshop. Make sure the sheet has been signed off. Due: TSIS Worksheet on Metacommentary Do: Close Reading Draft (3 pages, bring 3 copies)

THUR 7/19

What is Argument? Opinion vs. Argument Workshop: Claims and Argument Critical Questions (cont.) Close Reading as Generative of Ideas Workshop: Close Reading Draft Introduction to Sequence Three Process Journals

Due: Close Reading Draft (2 copies) Do: Sequence Two Major Paper Close Reading Do: Research Question Brainstorm

FRI 7/20

Fridays on Foot: Capitol Hill

Do: Fridays on Foot Worksheet

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WEEK 3 SEQUENCE THREE “READ-SEARCH” - DISCUSSION/IN-CLASS TO DO/DUE

MON 7/23

Library Day and Research Orientation Research & Library Question Sheet Finding Sources Researching Your Topic Evaluating Sources Online Sources What is Research? What is a “Good” Source? Primary and Secondary Sources Bibliographic Format Sequence Three Major Paper #3: Read-Search Project Generating Topics/Narrowing a Research Topic 3.1 Research Question Brainstorm

Due: Close Reading Major Paper Due: Research Question Brainstorm Due: Fridays on Foot Do: 3.1 Research Question (2 full paragraphs, bring 2 copies) Do: Library Trip Worksheet/Sources Vital Info Sheet

TUE 7/24

Process Journals, Portfolio Maintenance Close Reading Self-Reflection Strengths & Difficulty Inventory III Workshop: Evaluating Sources Workshop/Lab Day: What is Research? (cont.) Using Evidence, Using Quotes Quoting, Paraphrasing Summarizing (cont.) What is an Annotated Bibliography? 3.2 Annotated Works Cited

Due: 3.1 Research Question, which will be turned in with Read-Search Project Brainstorming Sheet Do: Locate 3 authoritative, useful, and relevant sources for your Read-Search Project. Read and take notes on your three sources, pulling out main points and useful quotes. Do: 3.2 Annotated Works Cited, the second section of your Read-Search Project (1.5 pages, bring copies)

WED 7/25

Read-Search Micro-Presentations Workshop: Research Claims 3.3 Research Claim Workshop: Read-Search Project Putting All the Pieces Together Research Question Annotated Bibliography Research Claim Process Journals, Introduction to Sequence Four Introduction to the Prospective Cover Letter Introduction to the Final Portfolio Looking Ahead to the Next Four Years

Do: 3.3 Research Claim, the third section of your Read-Search Project Due: 3.2 Annotated Works Cited Do: Sequence Three Major Paper Read-Search Project Do: Read Bartholomae. Do: Prospective Brainstorming Do: Organize your portfolio. Bring your portfolio to class. Ahead: Bartholomae Quiz?

THUR 7/26

UW ORIENTATION No Class

Due: Research Claim (turned in before you attend orientation to Pam, Lisa, or Donna)

FRI 7/27

UW ORIENTATION No Class

Do: See above homework for the weekend.

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WEEK 4 SEQUENCE FOUR “PROSPECTIVE” – DISCUSSION/IN-CLASS TO DO/DUE

MON 7/30

Process Journals, Portfolio Maintenance Read-Search Project Self-Reflection Strengths & Difficulty Inventory IIV Sequence Four Major Paper: Prospective Cover Letter & The Final Portfolio Discuss Bartholomae. Course Outcomes Workshop: Course Reflection & Course Outcomes Self-Reflection Workshop: Prospective Cover Letter Brainstorming Prospective Cover Letter Draft

Due: Read-Search Project Due: Prospective Brainstorming (2 pages, bring 2 copies) Do: TSIS Worksheet Do: Select a Major Paper to revise. Ahead: Look through your Process Journal and track your progress, your strengths and challenges, and your ideas. Organize final portfolio.

TUE 7/31

Workshop: Prospective Cover Letter Draft Revision Strategies, Grammar Review Using a Writing Handbook Portfolio Revision of a Major Paper Process Journals, Incorporating Process Journals

Due: Cover Letter Draft Due: TSIS Worksheet Do: Revision of Prospective Cover Letter Draft Do: Revision of a Major Paper (bring 2 copies) Do: Organize your Final Portfolio

WED 8/1

Letter to Self Introduction to 100-Level Composition Courses University Myths, Composition Myths Workshop: Revision of a Paper Process Journals (cont.) Around the World Game

Due: Revised Prospective Cover Letter Draft Due: Revised Major Paper Draft (bring new and old versions to class) Do: Revision of Research Claim (bring 2 copies)

THUR 8/2

Last Day of Class Workshop: Revision Self-Analysis Workshop: Revision of Research Claim Workshop: Final Portfolio & Cover Letter Course Evaluations

Due: Revised Research Claim (bring new and old versions to class) Due: Bring your Cover Letter, your Final Portfolio, and any final questions you have about your papers, revision, or the portfolio itself. Do: Put the finishing touches on your Final Portfolio, which includes ALL work from the quarter, Cover Letter, and Revised Paper

FRI 8/3

Final Presentations & Skit Day Final Portfolio Turn-In

Due: Final Portfolio are due TODAY by 12 NOON Due: Final Day Skits

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WEEK 1

ENGL 108 / SEC B1&B2/ SUMMER LEAP 2012 / OLDHAM & WACHTER-GRENE / HERNANDEZ & SCHAUMBERG

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Welcome & Introductory Survey


We can't wait to learn more about you! Please take the next few minutes to fill out this survey with as much

detail as possible. Thank you!

Name:

Nickname:

Where did you grow up?

What do you think you want to study/major in at UW?

Describe the types and amount of writing you had to do in High School? What did your teachers say about your writing?

How do you feel about writing in general?

What are you strengths as a writer?

What would you like to work on as a writer?

What do you want us to know about you as a writer and a student?

WEEK

1

14

RHETORICAL SITUATIONS


What is a rhetorical situation? Basically, this is an academic way of referring to all of the different

scenarios in which we write or speak (even read). Writing is tool that is used in a broad range of activities

and settings. Things like going to the doctor, sharing your political opinion, applying for a credit card,

writing a letter of complaint, and even writing notes in class are all activities that rely on writing.

However, each of these rhetorical situations is different, and each requires specific knowledge of the

situation, audience, required information.

Part I. Think about everything you have done in the past 24 hours and write down the situations in which

you wrote anything. Some examples include writing a note to your roommate, text messaging, taking

notes, writing email, filling out a job application, making out a check or a grocery list. List these

activities below. First, identify the rhetorical situation, then what features of writing are involved in that

particular situation (e.g. length of writing, vocabulary, required content, medium, format, tone, audience,

level of detail), and finally why or how do you know these rhetorical requirements.

RHETORICAL SITUATION FEATURES OF WRITING WHY?

Part II. You will now work in groups of 2 or 3 to produce a piece of collaborative non-academic writing-

-a writing artifact. You will be assigned one of the following:

• A thank you letter to your grandmother

• A letter of complaint to an airline (about a recent flight)

• An email to your closest high school friend about your first week in college

• An email to your parents telling them that you wrecked the car (you are ok, but it was your fault)

• A cover letter for a job on campus delivering mail

• A letter to the editor of a local newspaper complaining about a misrepresentation of your team's performance in a

recent game

WEEK

1

15

STRENGTH & WEAKNESSES INVENTORY I


You have all heard the adage (now become axiom), “The first step to solving a problem is

to recognize the problem.” The first steps to writing, reading, thinking, and learning at the university is

not that different. Reflecting on what you perceive or believe to be your ‘strengths’ and ‘weaknesses’ is

one of the main goals of this course and one of the main heuristics of learning. Hopefully, you will

discover that these strengths and weaknesses are not monolithic and unchanging. In fact, skill, ability,

talent, drive, understanding, tenacity, imagination, wisdom, and enjoyment are always ebbing and

flowing, developing, regressing and progressing. In the weeks to come, you will be questioning what the

very categories of strengths and weaknesses really are. To do so requires a record, an archaeology of your

writing, reading, and learning life.

Part I: In your Process Journal, on a new page, write at the top “STRENGTH & WEAKNESSES

INVENTORY I” and the DATE. Then, divide the page into two equal columns labeled “STRENGHTS”

and “WEAKNESSES.” Then, please take a moment to construct a brief list (of as many as you can think

of) outlining what you felt your writing, reading, and learning strengths and weaknesses are:

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Part II: Then select one Strength to write more about. Why is it a Strength for you? How did you

acquire or develop that Strength? What does the Strength do for your writing or reading? Then select one

Weakness. Why is it a Weakness? What challenges does the Weakness pose for your writing and

reading? Freewrite a paragraph for each.

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PROCESS JOURNALS


Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way writes, “Creativity requires activity, and this is not good

news to most of us. It makes us responsible, and we tend to hate that. You mean I have to do

something…” (142). It’s good advice, in general, for all sorts of things—studying, playing, working,

practicing, learning, growing. In terms of our class, reading and writing require activity. You must do

something in order to get something out of it. Alongside and in connection to the formal reading and

writing assignments you will be doing for our class, you will also keep, maintain, and produce a Process

Journal.

Your Process Journal is like a metacognitive sandbox or workbook or practice field. You will fill your

Process Journal with in-class writings, memorable quotes, responses to readings, vocabulary lists and

definitions, homework and exercises, paper outlines, and most importantly, your thoughts, concerns, and

reflections on your reading, writing, and research process. The Process Journal is a place and a space for

you to develop ideas, to practice different kinds of writing, and to log the strengths and difficulties and

assessments of your work during the course. Do not use your Process Journal for taking class notes.

Over the course of the quarter, your Process Journal will be filled with raw material and data, which can

be mined for your formal writing assignments. By the end of the quarter, your journal will be a map of

your reading, writing, and learning journey. You will be able to look back on the class and identify the

ways you have changed, grown, and achieved, as well as what things remain challenges and what areas

need further practice. The big picture—the whole of your process—will hopefully help you carry your

strengths and strategies into future work and classes.

Format & Guidelines

Your Process Journal entries will be kept in a composition notebook, the kind you

get from the five-and-dime or the bookstore. Make sure your name and your

section information appears on the front of the notebook. Start each entry or each

activity on a new page. Write on one side only. At the top of the page, in bold

letters, write: the date, the name of the activity, and a title for the entry (if

appropriate). For example:

7/12/10 IN-CLASS WRITING “MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY.”

Journal entries are generally handwritten (please write as neatly as possible), or if time and effort permit,

you can type up entries to be glued or taped into your notebook.

Process Journal entries or activities will be assigned daily, some will be done in-class and others will be

done for homework. Process Journal entries will include: freewrites, Strength & Difficulty inventories,

in-class brainstorms, reading quizzes, activity reflections, assignment clarifications, and a running

vocabulary list. Periodically, you will hand in your Process Journal to be checked and commented on by

your instructors. Incomplete or inadequate entries will affect your overall participation grade.

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First Assignments

Everyone will be provided a simple composition notebook. These are your Process Journals. Carry them

everywhere. Write in them whenever you need to brainstorm, work out an idea, try something new, or jot

something down to remind you of a point. To get things started, your first assignments are as follows:

Don’t Hate, Decorate

Make sure your name, Summer LEAP 2010, and class section appear on your Process Journal. Why not

be creative and customize? Decorate the front of your journal with images, drawings, labels, or stickers.

Make your Process Journal your own.

Strength and Weaknesses Inventory I

In the first week, you will take a brief inventory of what you think are your “best” and “worst” writing

and reading skills. The inventory is the first of many metacognitive and reflective practices and processes

that you will be doing over the next four weeks to get you to think about, write about, and rethink the way

you write, read, and study. Fuller directions will be given for this Process Journal activity in class.

Size Matters (When It Comes to Vocabulary)

The Process Journal is not a one-stop, one-time, do-it-and-forget-it, fair-weather friend. It’s all about

work and writing over time, practicing and trying different things, and thinking about what, how, and why

you’re doing what you’re doing. After all, it’s a process. You will add to the Process Journal all of the

time. One of the things that you will maintain over the next weeks is a vocabulary list. Open your

Process Journal to the back, to the last page and write at the top:

ENGL 108 PROCESS JOURNAL VOCABULARY LIST

Every time you encounter a new word, a word you don’t know, a new definition, record that word and a

brief definition in your Process Journal, filling the pages from the back to the front. There will be new

words, new terms, new ideas every single day. Keeping a running vocabulary list will help you remember

and learn the words and provide an organized, accessible, complete place of reference for you.

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CONVENTIONS OF FORMAL PAPER WRITING


Although you will be asked to write lots of different types of papers at the University, there

are a few general things that you can always keep in mind: formatting and style conventions (differs by

discipline), citations, works cited, language, and assignment requirements.

Format & Style Be sure to follow the structure for papers defined by either the teacher, or the discipline. In this class, we

will be following the MLA conventions for structure. Proper paper headings will look like this (imagine

1” margins) and will be in 12-pt. Times New Roman. Everything after the title will be double-spaced.

First Name Last Name

Oldham & Hernandez

ENGL 108 H

July 12, 2012

Appropriate Title for Your Paper

Page numbers should appear on every page but the first page. For MLA, page numbers are on the top,

right-hand and include your last name and page number. Insert page numbers as headers (use the Header

& Footer function in your word processor):

Last Name 2

Parenthetical Citations

Anytime you quote or paraphrase any text, it must be cited. According to MLA, we use in-text citations

and a works cited page. In-text citations look like this for short quotes, basically 4 or less lines of text:

In “Why I Love Teaching,” Elizabeth Rubasky explains, “GIS 140 is the best class that I have ever

taught. The students are both fun and intelligent” (32).

Note that the quote is fully introduced, the parenthetical citation follows the quote with a space, and the period comes last.

For long quotes (which should be really, really important to include) or 5 or more lines of text, use a

block quote:

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In “Why I Love Teaching,” Elizabeth Rubasky explains,

GIS 140 is the best class that I have ever taught. The students are both fun and

intelligent. The course material is brilliantly chosen and very engaging. Also, I love

teaching in the summer. Some teachers may enjoy sunning themselves on the beach, but I

prefer to avoid the UVA rays and stay inside. (32)

Note that the block quote is still introduced, it is indented, there are NO quotation marks,

and the period comes before the parenthetical citation.

Works Cited & Works Consulted

Although the entries for a works cited page vary depending on the type of resource you have, here is a

quick guide. For more help, see the library’s resource page

<http://lib.washington.edu/research/wri.html>, a usage handbook like Andrea Lunsford’s The Everyday

Writer, or credible citation websites like KnightCite: <http://www.calvin.edu/library/knightcite/>. For

each entry, pay attention to formatting, type, punctuation, and included information.

Last Name 9

Works Cited

Alexie, Sherman. “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me.” The Writer's Presence. Eds.

Donald McQuade and Robert Atwan. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2003: 61-64.

Graff, Gerald and Cathy Birkenstein. They Say I Say. New York: Norton, 2006.

Note that works cited pages are double-spaced, are paginated, are alphabetized by author’s last name,

and require indenting for everything but the first line of each entry.

Here are some common bibliographic entries:

Book:

Author. Title of Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year.

Scholarly Article:

Author. "Title of Article." Title of Journal. Volume number (Year): Page(s).

Newspaper Article:

Author. "Title of Article." Name of Newspaper. Date, edition: Page(s).

Article from a Library Subscription Sources:

Author. "Title of Article." Title of Journal. Volume number (Year): Page(s).

Name of Database. Date of Access <http:/ etc...>.

http://lib.washington.edu/research/wri.html

http://www.calvin.edu/library/knightcite/

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Website:

Title of the Site. Editor. Date and/or Version Number. Name of Sponsoring Institution.

Date of Access <URL>.

Language

When writing an academic paper, you want to make sure you are using the correct language, diction, and

tone. What this means is, when writing an academic paper, you want to sound like an academic (when

writing an email to your best friend you want to sound like a young, vibrant, and hip college student).

This means:

• No Slang in your paper. Even if you think an article is “Hella Cool,” don’t say that. Say it was

“interesting,” “thought-provoking,” “enjoyable,” and an enriching experience. Also, always try to

incorporate the vocabulary from your specific class into your written work for the class—instructors

LOVE that!! It shows that you are paying attention and can apply what you are talking about in class to

your own written work.

• No Contractions in your paper. Although your teachers will certainly understand what you mean if you

say: “I loved this book; I couldn’t put it down,” they would prefer that you spell it out. Not all teachers

will be picky about contractions, but some will- so I want to make sure you know about it.

• Do Not End Sentences on Prepositions. Again, not all teachers are picky about this either, but just in

case, I want you to know about it. And it is just good composition practice anyway.

Follow The Assignment I can pretty much guarantee that your instructor put a lot of time an effort into devising your assignment,

so be sure to read it and follow the directions. This is important advice for two reasons:

• If you follow the assignment you will make your teacher happy because you will demonstrate that you

can read and understand what he/she wants you to do, and will apply what you have learned in class to

your own work. A happy teacher is always a good thing to have when you consider that he/she is the

person grading your paper.

• You will get a better grade if you follow the assignment. By following the assignment you are doing

exactly what your teacher has asked of you. This sounds simple, but trust me, after years of teaching, I

have seen just how few students really read and understand what they are supposed to do in a writing

assignment.

If you don’t exactly understand what your instructor is asking you to complete go to office hours and

ask! Instructors are always happy to re-articulate an assignment and help you to understand just what you

have to do!

21

WHAT IS PLAGIARISM?


According to U.S. News and World Report, what percentage of high-achieving HS

students admitted to cheating at least once?

Answer: 80%

Also according to U.S. News and World Report, what percentage did not necessarily

believe it was wrong?

Answer: 50%

According to Center for Academic Integrity at Duke, what percentage of college

students confess to cheating at least once?

Answer: 75%

(Adapted from “Plagiarism” presentation. UCLA Football Orientation. August 31, 2005.)

Definitions of Plagiarism

Plagiarism, or academic dishonesty, is presenting someone else’s ideas or writing as your own. In your

writing for this class, you are encouraged to refer to other people’s thoughts and writing — as long as you

cite them and properly integrate them. Many students do not have a clear understanding of what

constitutes plagiarism, so feel free to ask questions about these matters at any time. According to the UW

Committee on Academic Conduct, a student commits plagiarism by:

1. Using another writer's words without proper citation. If you use another writer’s words, you must

place quotation marks around the quoted material and include a footnote or citation of the source of the

quotation.

2. Using another writer's ideas without proper citation. When you use another author's ideas, you

must use a citation to indicate where this information was found. Your instructors want to know which

ideas and judgments are yours and which you arrived at by consulting other sources. Even if you arrived

at the same judgment on your own, you need to acknowledge that the writer you consulted also came up

the idea.

3. Citing your source but reproducing the exact words of a printed source without quotation marks. This makes it appear that you have paraphrased rather than borrowed the author's exact words.

4. Borrowing the structure of another author's phrases or sentences without crediting the author

from whom it came. This kind of plagiarism usually occurs out of laziness: it is easier to replicate

another writer's style than to think about what you have read enough to be able put it in your own words.

Below are examples of unacceptable and acceptable paraphrasing (Hacker, 1989, p. 171):

Original: If the existence of a signing ape was unsettling for linguists, it was also startling news

for animal behaviorists.

Unacceptable borrowing of words: An ape who knew sign language unsettled linguists and

startled animal behaviorists.

Unacceptable borrowing of sentence structure: If the presence of a sign-language-using chimp

was disturbing for scientists studying language, it was also surprising to scientists studying animal

behavior.

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Acceptable paraphrasing: When they learned of an ape's ability to use sign language, both

linguists and animal behaviorists were taken by surprise.

5. Borrowing all or part of another student's paper, or using someone else's outline to write your

own paper.

6. Using a paper writing "service" or having a friend write the paper for you. Regardless of whether

you pay a stranger or have a friend do it, it is a breach of academic honesty to hand in work that is not

your own or to use parts of another student's paper.

7. Submitting your own work produced for another class. Turning in the same paper for different

classes is another kind of academic laziness. Always talk to your instructors about repurposing or

revising a previously written paper.

8. Fabricating or falsifying facts, data, quotations, and sources. In other words, making up

information, citations, and research is academically dishonest.

See for further details http://depts.washington.edu/grading/pdf/AcademicResponsibility.pdf

Avoiding Plagiarism, Avoiding the Consequences

If you have any doubt about how to cite or acknowledge another’s writing or how to put things into your

own words, please talk to your instructors. It is always better to be safe than sorry. Academic Dishonesty

constitutes grounds for failure of the assignment in question, possible failure of the course, suspension

from play, or even suspension from the University. As a matter of policy, any student found to have

plagiarized any piece of writing in this class will be reported to the College of Arts and Sciences for

review. For further information, please refer to UW’s Student Conduct Code at

<http://www.washington.edu/students/handbook/conduct.html>.

More often than not, students resort to cheating and plagiarism because of procrastination,

misunderstanding, and making bad choices. The best policy is just don’t risk it, don’t do it, and ask about

it. In order to avoid plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty, keep the following in mind:

1. Plan ahead. Don’t wait till the last minute to do your readings or research. Start your papers and

assignments early. Use a calendar to map out when your assignments are due, when your classes have

scheduled exams, and other important dates. Don’t let desperation and procrastination get the better of

you.

2. Learn the rules. There are rules and conventions to academic writing, research, reading, citing

sources, and bibliographies. Be aware of the rules and conventions for your different classes and

disciplines.

3. When in doubt, ask. If you are feeling the crunch, make sure to talk to your instructor as soon as

possible. If you don’t know how to cite something or use a source, talk to your instructor or visit a

writing center. If you are not sure whether you are plagiarizing or cheating, talk to your instructor.

http://depts.washington.edu/grading/pdf/AcademicResponsibility.pdf

http://www.washington.edu/students/handbook/conduct.html

23

ACTIVE READING


“Active Reading,” “Close Reading,” “Attentive Reading,” or “Rhetorical Reading” are all different ways

of saying the same thing—sustained, critical, analytical, and careful reading. Pay attention when you

read—it will help you later!

Most courses and instructors will ask you to read something during the quarter—chapters from a

textbook, novels, journal articles, handouts, lab manuals, sample student essays. Many courses and

instructors will ask you to read a lot during the quarter. Expect between 50 to 150 pages of reading a

week per class. By reading texts actively, you will help yourself become:

• First, a better reader

• Second, a better participant in class

• Third, better prepared for cumulative material, tasks, and exams

• Fourth, a more confident student

• Fifth, a better writer.

How can active reading do all this for you? And what is Active Reading? Active reading is making sure

that you understand the text as completely as possible, and have the annotations in your text to prove it.

Active readers do all of the following:

1. Write on your text—circle, underline, or highlight important words, phrases, ideas; summarize difficult

sections in the margins; write down all definitions you need.

2. Look up all words—look up the words you don’t know, and look up the words you think you know, but

don’t quite seem to make sense in the context of the paper. You can’t understand a text if you don’t

understand the author’s vocabulary. (These would be great words to add to your Process Journal.)

3. Ask Questions—if you have questions about context, structure, or anything else, write them down.

These questions might be answered as you continue reading, and if not, they might be great to ask in class

discussion later

4. Make Connections—if anything in the text reminds you of something else (i.e. something else you

learned in class, something in a book or movie you recently read or saw, or any other outside idea) make a

note of it! Teachers LOVE to see students making connections of their own. Plus it allows you to apply

new information to knowledge you already have.

5. REREAD—there is no shame in rereading a text. Actually, it is often a necessity! Almost no one

understands difficult texts the first time around. If you read a text and it is difficult, give yourself a little

break and come back and read it again. Oftentimes difficult sections in texts make much more sense the

second (or third) time around. Also, you can be more aware of what the author is doing where (i.e. where

he/she summarizes, makes an argument, addresses a counter-claim, etc).

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LITERACY NARRATIVE SEQUENCE ONE MAJOR PAPER


In class this week, we will discuss many strategies for constructing an engaging, thorough, and effective

narrative. We will also be thinking about literacy in a broad sense, reading the narratives of other’s experiences of reading and

writing , as well as defining personal experiences of literacy. After a number of building block assignments, you will write

your own polished literacy narrative.

Before You Begin Writing

Think about how you have gotten to where you are now as a writer and reader and consider how this could relate to literacy in

a larger context. Look back at your readings, the Literacy Narrative Brainstorming exercise, and class discussion to help you

with ideas, details, and direction. In this assignment, you should not only narrate, but most importantly, also reflect on these

experiences. You will also be asked to locate your narrative within a larger conversation about what literacy means and how it

functions.

Goals and Outcomes

For this assignment, you will write a narrative of your experiences learning to read and write. The narrative aspect of your

paper should explore the ways in which your experiences with reading and writing—both your positive experiences and

difficulties—have shaped you and your relationships with other people and groups, both in and outside of school. The readings

we have done this week—especially Alexie, Douglass, Graff, and Tan—will serve as a springboard for thinking about your

own experiences with learning to read and write. Please note that this does not mean we expect you to have the same or even

similar experiences to these writers; rather, we hope that their experiences will encourage you to think more critically about

your own, individual experiences of gaining and sustaining literacy. Most importantly, you need to be sure to move beyond

just explaining your experiences, to reflecting on how literacy functioned in your development as a reader and writer. Use the

readings as examples to think about the purpose literacy served in this development, and what it allowed you to think, realize,

act on, challenge, or question.

Although this is a reflective paper, it is still a formal paper, which means you need to have an introduction, body, and

conclusion. We would also like you to specifically refer to at least one of the readings from this week.

A strong Literacy Narrative will exhibit attention to both content and form. Here are some of the evaluative questions that

instructors will use to assess these narratives:

Content • Does the writer fully develop his/her ideas?

• Does the writer sufficiently support his/her ideas through the use of detail?

• Does the writer engage with the question of what literacy means (by showing familiarity with a larger conversation

about literacy; arguing against, challenging, supporting, or modifying a definition of literacy; or demonstrating

attention to different viewpoints on literacy)?

Form

• Does the writer effectively integrate narrative with critical reflection?

• Is the overall organization of the narrative clear and engaging?

• Are the paragraphs cohesive and developed?

• Does the writer communicate his/her ideas effectively to a college-level audience, in a clear language?

Guidelines and Due Dates

Format: 3 full pages, typed, double-spaced, 1” margins, title, proper heading, 12-point Times Roman font,

MLA format, proofread and edited, stapled

Due: Monday, July 16, at the start of class

MAJOR PAPER

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LITERACY NARRATIVE BRAINSTORMING


The following questions are meant to help you begin to generate some ideas for your Literacy Narrative. You

do not have to answer or even think about all of these, but we would like you to spend time thinking about and answering at

least four of these questions (not as a laundry list)! Remember that Alexie, Douglass, Graff, and Tan all share stories about

how reading and writing helped shape who they are today. We would like you to do the same, so use the narratives we’ve read

as models and try to think about details and feelings and memories here that will help convey to the reader your own story

about why you are the type of reader and writer you are today and how you see yourself developing as a reader, writer and

student in the future. Again, be selective in what you want to express and address.

• What was your earliest writing or reading experience? How have your earlier writing and reading experiences shaped who

you are as a writer today?

• Who taught you how to read? What do you remember about this process?

• Do you like to read? Do you like to write? Do you feel you are a stronger reader or writer? Why?

• Compare and contrast your own experiences with reading and writing with those of Alexie, Douglass, King, and Tan.

• Can you remember a time when you someone in your life gave you advice about school or learning? Did you take is

seriously? What do you think about that advice now?

• What struggles and what successes have you had as a reader and a writer? What are your strengths and weaknesses as a

reader and a writer? How has “success” in reading or writing been defined by you, or by others?

• How have you encountered the word “literacy” before? In what situations? What has it meant to you?

• What was the most difficult school project that you have ever encountered? How did you manage it?

• How have you developed various skills as a writer or reader? How have you transferred those skills to different reading or

writing situations?

• How would you describe your relationship to writing? What kind of writer are you? How would you describe yourself as a

writer?

• What does the word “English” mean to you? If English is a foreign or second language for you, describe your experiences

learning it.

• What are some of your more recent writing experiences? What types of writing have you done and in what settings (school,

personal, job-related, etc.)? What types and lengths of papers have you written? Have you ever completed multiple drafts and

revisions of a paper?

• What do you want to learn about writing? What do you hope to get out of this class? What goals do you have for yourself as

a writer in the future?

• What is the purpose of writing, both in and outside of school? Why is writing important?


Format: 3 pages, typed, double-spaced, proper heading, stapled

bring 3 copies to class for peer review


SHORT PAPER

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WRITING WORKSHOPS, A PRIMER


Today is the first in a line of the many writing workshops we will hold over the next four

weeks. Before we begin, we would like to provide you with some information about what we hope to

accomplish in holding these sessions in which you read your peers’ papers, and we would like to provide

guidelines for how these sessions work.

What is a Writing Workshop? What is Peer Review?

A writing workshop is a dedicated period of in-class time in which you will work on your current piece of

writing with the guidance and support of your peers, instructors and tutors. Workshopping your papers

and engaging in peer review gives you and your peers a very important opportunity to think, reflect, and

discuss your writing in a small group setting. Some workshops will involve the whole class reading,

going over, commenting, and making suggestions about a sample paper, a paragraph of a volunteer’s

paper, or even a sentence, clause, or choice of word. Some workshops will be in small groups and will

focus on particular tasks, problems, questions, or skills. And some workshops will be in pairs or one-on-

one with a tutor.

Workshopping and peer review is about getting help, getting a fresh pair of eyes to look to look at

something, and getting more than just simple quick fixes to your writing. Writing workshops are an

opportunity for you to see your writing in a different light. Your peers will read what you have written

and will offer detailed and generous feedback that will help you as you continue to write this assignment.

But it is also about developing your own strengths, skills, and confidence as a writer, a reader, and a

collaborator in learning. You get to see other people’s writing in a different light.

In all cases, workshopping and peer review is an opportunity to try something out, to take risks with your

writing, and to offer suggestions before your papers are finalized and turned in for a grade. You and your

classmates are a tremendous resource in the process of writing—everyone has something to offer—it isn’t

about being experts or “good” writers already. Even well-established writers like Sherman Alexie or

Stephen King or Amy Tan have a circle of friends and readers to help them in their writing process. You

and your peers are smart, insightful, and open readers and writers who can contribute and get a lot out of

peer review.

Responding 1-2-3s

For most writers (and readers), getting started is the toughest step. And workshopping and peer review is

not different. Most students have difficulty in knowing what to do, how to peer review someone else’s

writing, and what to say: What should I be looking for? What if I don’t know what to comment on?

What if I have nothing to offer? What if I think it’s good and fine? What if I don’t like it or understand

it? To help you get started and to give you a general heuristic to follow, try the following steps:

One: Read through your peer’s piece carefully and identify one thing that you found interesting, useful,

enjoyable, successful. Explain why that one thing is interesting or useful or enjoyable or successful. Add

why it helps the overall writing.

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Two: Then identify one thing that you found difficult, confusing, challenging, or unclear. Explain why

that one thing is difficult or confusing or challenging or unclear. Think about what solutions might be

helpful here.

Three: Finally, offer one way to help your peer’s piece. Be as specific as possible and work on ways to

build the “good” you saw in step one and to improve the “problem” you saw in step two. Your suggestion

should enhance your peer’s writing, your own experience as a reader, and hopefully help you with your

own paper.

Though these steps are the “basic” format for peer review, they can form the building blocks of a fuller,

extended, and comprehensive workshop. For example, these three steps could be applied to the different

parts of a standard paper: introduction, body, conclusion. Each section would be workshopped for what

makes each successful. Or, for example, these three steps could be applied to different writing goals:

claim or argument, subclaims, summary, evidence, analysis, interpretation, quotations, and so on. Finally,

these three steps could be used to workshop specific skills or parts of writing: word choice, sentence

length, figures of speech, clarity, style, tone, and so on.

All in all, the goal of workshopping and peer review is to 1) support and help the writer, 2) identify what

the writing needs or how the writing can be improved, and 3) provide solutions, skills, and strategies to

better the writing of both reviewer and reviewee.

Guidelines for Peer Feedback

• Always be respectful of your classmates and their writing

• To start, read the whole piece once without writing or commenting on anything

• Do not focus on editing or correcting their paper (we will worry about this later)

• Use I-statements (e.g. I found this paragraph confusing. I am not sure what you mean in this sentence.)

• Ask interpretive questions (e.g. Why do you think Douglass said this? Why was this book so important

to you?)

• Avoid using only abstract, personal opinion (e.g. I like it. I think it’s good.)

• Use concrete, specific feedback (e.g. I like your narrative because of the way you connected your first

grade experience with Alexie’s story. I think your draft is good because it is well organized with clear

topic sentences.)

• Follow the directions provided (because this will provide your focus for reading)

• Ask for help or guidance from the instructors or tutors

• Think about how the process is helping you even as you are helping someone else (because part of

workshopping is about being metacognitive)

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LITERACY NARRATIVE, IN THE BEGINNING


Workshop Guidelines

We are in the very early stages of producing your Literacy Narratives (due next Monday); this is the stage

where you generate ideas, try out different approaches to writing the assignment, and figure out what you

want to say. There is not much pressure here—the piece of writing your produced today can be the

equivalent of a coherent brainstorm or a formal journal entry. What we will do in today’s writing

workshop is focus on providing you with an understanding of a) what you have written b) the most

interesting or promising ideas in your writing, and c) suggestions for where to go from here.

Part A: Create a Reverse Outline

Number each paragraph of your classmate’s paper. Using these numbers, on the blank side of their paper,

describe (as briefly as you can) what happens in this paragraph. Is it an introduction? Does the paragraph

provide background information? What is the main point? Provide as much information as you can about

the structure of the essay.

Part B: Most Interesting Points

Underline or highlight two or three of the most interesting points in the paper—summarize these points on

the reverse side of the paper.

Part C: What’s Next?

Your classmate has to eventually turn this into a polished, 3-4 page piece of writing. Help them out by

providing some suggestions for which ideas, stories, or reflections could be expanded. Should they

provide more details? Do they need to explain in more detail why something was important or

interesting? Give them some suggestions for how to continue with their writing.

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PARAGRAPH DEVELOPMENT


Paragraphs are the meat of your argument. As Sherman Alexie says, paragraphs are “a

fence for words.” They are where you present your most convincing ideas, and where you offer support

for your main idea or claim. There are a few things to keep in mind when creating interesting and

effective paragraphs.

1. Topic Sentences. Always make sure that your paragraph addresses only one topic, and be sure to state

that topic in the first or second sentence of the paragraph. That way your reader knows what the

paragraph will be about and how it will support your main idea. Every paragraph’s job is to give a reason

that supports your main idea, or claim. Therefore, every paragraph should put forth one reason that

supports your claim, and then offer convincing evidence of how that reason supports your claim.

2. Convincing Evidence. After you let your readers know what you are going to be talking about, you

want to offer really convincing evidence that you are right. Look to authoritative sources like journals,

newspapers, University press books, and case studies to help support your ideas. Be sure to use quotation

marks and cite page numbers of these very important sources.

3. Original Commentary. Although outside sources are interesting, in order to make a really convincing

argument, you need to have some of your own ideas in there. The way to include your own original

commentary is to explain to your readers how your evidence supports your claim, and why it is so

convincing. Also, make connections for your readers and explain to them just how complex and

important your claim is.

4. Conclusions and Transitions. Paragraphs are almost like mini papers: your topic sentence is your

intro, your evidence is the meat of the argument, and you need a little conclusion and transition to your

next paragraph. Try to include a few sentences at the end of the paragraph that distill what you were

trying to prove, and also make connections to the argument you will be presenting in your next body

paragraph

Basic Paragraph Formula to Fall Back on in Times of Distress

Although we never want to reduce writing to a formula because it should be an exciting and creative

enterprise, thinking in terms of formulae can be helpful when you get writer’s block. You can use the

formula to fill in a missing or difficult paragraph, and then come back and revise it to make it more

creative and more interesting.

Topic Sentence or Subclaim

Evidence 1

Commentary 1 (where you link the evidence to your reason and main claim)

Evidence 2

Commentary 2

Evidence 3

Commentary 3 (the amount of evidence you have will vary from paper to paper

and from paragraph to paragraph)

Conclusions

Transition

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ONE MAIN POINT PARAGRAPH REVISION


Now that you have done some freewriting and the Literacy Narrative Brainstorming

exercise, it is time to push your ideas one step further and to think about how to organize your ideas into

clear, useful, interesting paragraphs.


Go back to the literacy narratives of Douglass and Alexie. Look over your notes from class and our

discussions about literacy, writing, and reading. Reread your freewrites and your Literacy Narrative

Brainstorming exercise. Make a list of all the different ideas that your papers introduce and discuss.

Think about how you would group like ideas, connect ideas, and move from one idea to the next. In other

words, how might these ideas be formed into paragraphs?

Goals and Outcomes

Consider your ideas in your typed-up brainstorm and our discussion about literacy, reading, writing, and

literacy narratives. Pick one main idea or one main point from the list you generated. Then write two to

three fully developed paragraphs on this main point incorporating solid topic statements, support, details,

and critical thinking. Imagine these paragraphs as potentially becoming part of a larger, longer essay.

Think about how your own personal experience and how your readings can be incorporated as support for

your main point. You might even want to draw on your readings for ideas or quotes to bring in to help

your writing. Finally, consider what your audience will think or how they will react to your writing.

Consider how other writers like Douglass or Alexie or Tan or how your classmates would respond to your

writing. Be prepared to discuss the revisions you made in class.


Format: 2-3 paragraphs, typed, double-spaced, proper heading, stapled

bring 3 copies to class for peer review

Due: Tomorrow, Tuesday, July 10, at the start of class

SHORT PAPER

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PARAGRAPH WORKSHOP


In today’s writing workshop, we will be working on paragraph development. Last night

you were asked to isolate one of the paragraphs from your literacy narrative and revise it according to

your own inclinations for revision, and also according to your peers’ comments. Today we will continue

to work on those paragraphs in groups.

Goals & Outcomes

Get into the same group you had yesterday. In this activity we will strengthen your paragraphs even

further. As we talked about today, paragraphs are comprised of a few main components:

1. Topic sentences — Underline

2. Evidence/ Detail/ Reason — Put in a box

3. Commentary — Use a squiggly line

4. Connection or Transition — Circle it

Please take the time to isolate each of these aspects in your peer’s paper. You may find many pieces of

evidence, or you may find none. Please use the notation written above for each type of sentence.

Practice with the following example:

I started writing when I was in first grade. I remember struggling with my first name. It had so

many letters. Elizabeth Ann Rubasky is a MEAN name to give a five year old. But after lots of practice,

I learned how to spell my name. I also began to read in first grade. My teacher, Mrs. Pellagatto, tried to

teach me how to sound out words, but oftentimes I was more interested in running around the room to

listen to her much. However, after staying in for recess a few times, I stopped running around, and started

learning. That’s why I am such a great reader and writer today.

Follow-Up

Now that you have read your peer’s paragraph and annotated it, generate two strategies to help your peer

better develop his/her paper. Please write these at the bottom of the page, and when everyone is finished,

please talk about the process in your group.

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THE ART OF SUMMARIZING


What Is Summarizing?

Summarizing is how we take larger selections of text and reduce them to their bare essentials: the gist, the

key ideas, the main points that are worth noting and remembering. Summarizing involves putting the

main idea(s) of a text into your own words. Summaries are significantly shorter than the original and take

a broad overview of the source material. They include only necessary or relevant ideas.

What Are We Doing When We Summarize?

We strip away the extra details and extraneous examples of an original text. We focus on the heart of the

matter. We try to find the key words and phrases that, when uttered later, still manage to capture the gist

of what we've read. We are trying to capture the main ideas and the crucial details necessary for

supporting them.

Things to do in a summary:

• pull out main ideas

• focus on key details

• use key words and phrases

• break down the larger ideas

• write only enough to convey the gist

Things not to do in a summary:

• write down everything contained in the text

• neglect important information that is essential to the text's argument

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SUMMARY VS. ANALYSIS


When Do You Summarize? Why? And How?

Knowing how to summarize something you have read, seen, or heard is a valuable skill, one you have

probably used in many writing assignments—like book reports, getting the gist of a text, broadly outlining

a project. It is important, though, to recognize when and why you must go beyond describing, explaining,

and restating texts and offer a more complex analysis. Much of college writing will require some

summary and mostly analysis, interpretation, and argument.

Is Summary a Bad Thing?

Not necessarily. But it’s important that your keep your assignment and your audience in mind as you

write. If your assignment requires an argument with a thesis statement and supporting evidence-as many

academic writing assignments do-then you should limit the amount of summary in your paper. You

might,use summary to provide background, set the stage, or illustrate supporting evidence, but keep it

very brief: a few sentences should do the trick. Most of your paper should focus on your argument.

Why Is It So Tempting to Stick with Summary and Skip Analysis?

Many writers rely too heavily on summary because it is what they can most easily write. If you’re stalled

by a difficult writing prompt, summarizing the plot of The Great Gatsby may be more appealing than

staring at the computer for three hours and wondering what to say about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s use of color

symbolism. After all, the plot is usually the easiest part of a work to understand. Something similar can

happen even when what you are writing about has no plot: if you don’t really understand an author’s

argument, it might seem easiest to just repeat what he or she said.

How Do I Know If I’m Summarizing?

As you read through your essay, ask yourself the following questions:

• Am I stating something that would be obvious to a reader or viewer?

• Am I simply describing what happens, where it happens, or to whom it happens?

• Does what I wrote seem to be irrelevant in a larger context? Do I lack stakes?

A “yes” to any of these questions may be a sign that you are summarizing. Certain phrases are warning

signs of summary. Keep an eye out for these:

• “[This essay] is about...”

• “[This book] is the story of...”

• “[This author] writes about...”

• “[This movie] is set in...”

• “[The author] says...”

• “[The character] looked like...”

However, If you answer yes to the questions below, though, it is a sign that your paper may have more

analysis (which is usually a good thing):

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• Am I making an original, interesting, complex argument?

• Does my argument answer the “so what? why is it important?”

• Do I have subclaims that support my larger argument?

• Do I explicate why my details or evidence are important?

How Do I Write More Analytically?

Analysis requires breaking something—like a story, poem, play, theory, or argument—into parts so you

can understand how those parts work together to make the whole. Ideally, you should begin to analyze a

work as you read or view it instead of waiting until after you’re done-it may help you to jot down some

notes as you read. Your notes can be about major themes or ideas you notice, as well as anything that

intrigues, puzzles, excites, or irritates you. Remember, analytic writing goes beyond the obvious to

discuss questions of how and why—so ask yourself those questions as you read.

The St. Martin’s Handbook encourages readers to take the following steps in order to analyze a text:

• Identify evidence that supports or illustrates the main point or theme as well as anything that seems to

contradict it.

• Consider why the authors chooses the particular words he or she chooses (rhetorical strategies or

“moves”). How do those words affect the meaning of the text?

• Decide whether the sources used are trustworthy.

• Identify the work’s underlying assumptions about the subject, as well as any biases it reveals.

Once you have written a draft, some questions you might want to ask yourself about your writing are

“What’s my point?” or “What am I arguing in this paper?” If you can’t answer these questions, then you

haven’t gone beyond summarizing. You may also want to think about how much of your writing comes

from your own ideas or arguments. If you’re only reporting someone else’s ideas, you probably aren’t

offering an analysis.

What Strategies Can Help Me Avoid Excessive Summary?

• Read the assignment (the prompt) as soon as you get it. Make sure to reread it before you start writing.

Go back to your assignment often while you write.

• Formulate an argument (including a good thesis) and stick to it, including aspects of the plot, story,

history, background, etc. only as evidence for your argument.

• Read critically—imagine having a dialogue with the work you are discussing. With what parts of it do

you agree or disagree? What questions do you have about the work? Does it remind you of other works

you’ve seen?

• Make sure you have clear topic sentences that make arguments in support of your thesis statement.

• Use two different highlighters to mark your paper. With one color, highlight areas of summary or

description. With the other, highlight areas of analysis. A good paper should have lots of analysis and

minimal summary/description.

• Ask yourself: What part of the essay would be obvious to a reader/viewer of the work being discussed?

What parts (words, sentences, paragraphs) of the essay could be deleted without loss? In most cases, your

paper should focus on points that are essential and that will be interesting to people who have already read

or seen the work you are writing about.

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“DEAR JOHN”


As in speaking, your writing can communicate tone. Like your tone of voice, the tone of

your writing is about how you say something as much as it is what you say. Word choice, word order,

rhythm and pace, sentence length, formality or informality, and rhetorical context all impact tone. For

most of your writing at the university, you will adopt an academic or professional tone (which is more

formal, third person, more objective, and often requires specialized vocabulary), particularly for papers,

exams, and emails to your professors. However, depending on the writing situation, tone in writing can

be friendly, disappointed, frustrated, funny, and so on.

An Exercise in Tone

In this activity, you will break up into small groups. One person should act as the group’s secretary,

writing down what the group’s work. And one person will be the group’s presenter and will share with

the class the activity’s final product. Each group will be randomly assigned a “tone.”

In your group, read the following “Dear John” letter (a genre of letter often used to break up with

someone) out loud to yourselves.

Dear John,

I am leaving you. Things did not work out between us. I think we just became

different people with different goals in life. I have packed my things. You

can keep the rest. The keys are in the usual place.

Goodbye.

Then, in your group, rewrite and revise the letter to fit and express your assigned tone. What would you

need to change in order to express your tone? What would you add, embellish, or take away? Keep the

basic structure and gist of the letter intact but provide enough verbal and textual clues to your overall

tone. Really think about what your letter reads and sounds like, exaggerate the tone, and have fun with it.

Finally, when the whole class reconvenes, your group presenter will read (and intonate) the finished letter.

Possible Tones

• Disappointed • Professioanl

• Funny • Angry

• Academic • Loving and caring

• Frustrated • Complaining

• Sad • Lost and rambling

• Desperate (doesn’t want to really break up) • Sexy

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SUMMARY OF GRAFF’S HIDDEN INTELLECTUALISM


As we have discussed, a skill important to reading, writing, learning, and academic inquiry

is summary. On the one hand, summarizing is about distilling or condensing a text, outlining a text’s

main ideas, putting into your own words a broad overview of the most important parts of a text. On the

other hand, summarizing is about transforming a text, digesting it, understanding what you need from it so

that you can make decisions about the text. Is it useful to your writing? Do you agree or disagree with

the argument? Does it further your ideas or research? Does it support or contradict other texts? In other

words, the skill and art of summary is often the first step in reading, writing, and inquiry since you need to

“get” the text before you can ask questions of it or enter into conversation with it.


Tonight we are asking you to read the selection from Stephen Graff’s Hidden Intellectualism. Remember

to read the text actively (annotate, circle, highlight, look-up words—do anything you can to help you

really understand and interact with the text).

Goals and Outcomes

After you read the Graff piece, distill the most important points of the text into a summary of 1-2 pages.

Your summary should be specific, detailed, focused on what you think are the most salient and interesting

points, and express the overall invention of the text. Because the summary is supposed to be short and

precise, get to the heart of the matter, make decisions about what is vital to include in your paper, and

avoid unnecessary generalizations irrelevant to the text. Your summary should include and address the

following:

1) A brief introduction to the text, the author, and its main invention

2) One to three significant points, arguments, terms, or ideas

3) Support what you find significant with at least three quotes or examples directly from the text


Format: 1-2 pages, typed, double-spaced, 1” margins, title, proper heading, 12-point Times Roman

font, MLA format, proofread and edited, stapled

Due: Tomorrow, Wednesday, July 11, at the start of class

SHORT PAPER

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TSIS WORKSHEET ON RESPONDING


Responding to a Conversation

In the first template exercise on “Beginning with What Others Are Saying,” we practiced how to

understand and summarize other people’s points in a purposeful way. Now that you have picked which

author you want to write about, it’s time to start thinking about what you want to say about your own

experiences with literacy.

Keeping the “What Others Are Saying” template in mind, use the template below to begin laying out

some thoughts about what purpose literacy served for you in the experiences you want to use. Remember

that you are not just offering an opinion on literacy, but describing how literacy worked for you and what

it did, just like the author’s description you gave in the first template. Not everyone’s narratives will

follow this pattern, and you can modify the template to fit your own story, but think of this as a

brainstorming exercise to help you get at the main points of your narrative. Again, it’s like practicing

putting together a paragraph (but do not just copy the following into your paper):

For me, literacy means ____________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________. It was not always this way.

When I think about my experiences with literacy, I think of ______________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________.

What I remember most about literacy in this example is_________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________. This is because _______________________________

_________________________________________________________________________. It also makes me

think about ______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________, which is important because ________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________.

These experiences are examples of how literacy helped me to ___________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________.

In the first example, I thought that __________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________, and in the second, I thought

that ____________________________________________________________________________________.

When I look back on these experiences now I see that literacy means _____________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________,

which is supported by the fact that I now _____________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________.

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TSIS WORKSHEET ON WHAT OTHERS SAY


Beginning With What Others Are Saying

In the introduction to They Say, I Say, Graff and Birkenstein emphasize that one of the most important

skills in good academic writing is to “write the voices of others into your text,” or more specifically, to

think of your writing as a response to other ideas (3).

The readings for this week (Douglass, Graff, King and Tan) are all stories about the way literacy formed a

part of these authors’ experiences as readers and writers. While they have some similarities between

them, each text uses literacy in different ways to explain its purpose in each story, specific to the writers’

experiences. In other words, literacy means something distinct for each author, and the narratives show

what literacy did for each of these people in turn.

Because we are asking you to incorporate one of the readings into your own Literacy Narrative, use the

template below to help you get at the purpose of literacy in the stories we have read so far, so you can use

their understandings of literacy to add to your own in your paper. Though Douglass’ name is in the

template, it will work with any of the readings, so choose which one you want to write about. Think of

this template as a way to generate your own body paragraph in your own paper (but do not simply copy

the following into your paper):

Douglass begins his narrative with an anecdote. The purpose of this anecdote is to describe literacy as

_________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________. An important realization about literacy happens when

________________________________________________________________________________________.

This affects Douglass because _______________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________.

As the narrative continues, another example of literacy affecting Douglass’ life is when _____________

_________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________. This supports/changes his

earlier experience with literacy because ______________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________.

At the beginning, literacy for Douglass meant__________________________________________________

______________________________________, and this turned into ________________________________

_______________________________________________________________ as a result of his experiences.

Ultimately Douglass tells us that literacy made him understand that ______________________________

_________________________________________________________________________ and helped him to

________________________________________________________________________________________,

which is important for him because __________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________.

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LITERACY NARRATIVE FINAL WORKSHOP


You have now produced several pieces of writing that all address or reflect on your literacy

narrative. Each assignment, process journal, exercise, and draft all add up to the raw materials for your

major paper. Here is a list of what you have written this week:

• Literacy Narrative Brainstorming exercise

• One Main Point paragraph exercise

• Summary Of Graff

• Process Journals & Freewrites

Today’s workshop is designed to help you to think about these various pieces of writing and begin to

develop a coherent, detailed, and polished, four-page Literacy Narrative. This is a three-in-one workshop.

The topics covered here are creating a writing plan, introductions and conclusions, and details and support

through textual analysis and argument.

Part A: Mapping the Future

This exercise is designed to help you to determine what the body of your final literacy narrative will look

like.

• Read everything you have written this week. Identify what writing might be useful to your final paper.

List them here. Then, highlight or flag the ideas, passages, main points that you want to include in your

final literacy narrative.

• How do all of these various passages or ideas relate to each other? Write some notes about how you will

connect these different parts (i.e. My definition of literacy connects to Douglass’s definition).

• Create either an outline in which you detail how the paper will be organized and in what order.

• Start a “To Do” list of all the things you have to do to complete the final paper. You will want to

continue adding to this list as you work on the various parts of this workshop.

Part B: Introductions and Conclusions

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The beginning and end of your essay are crucial elements to making a paper work. These two elements of

a paper do so much to communicate the purpose of your writing and to persuade the reader that you know

what you are talking about.

Introductions

Your introduction to your paper should draw readers into your paper and “convince” them that it is

interesting and worth reading (note: this is hard to do if you do not believe it yourself!) Make sure that the

points you raise in your introduction relate directly to the subject of your paper. This is not the place to

make broad generalizations about society, the world, human beings, etc.

Think of your introduction as the road map to your paper. It is the place where you tell your reader where

you are going and how you will get there. Do not think of the introduction as a broad, over-arching

“umbrella” even if this is what you may have learned in high school.

Your introduction can be more than one paragraph (though the one paragraph model keeps it simple).

Make sure that your introduction includes a reference to the main point of your essay. This should be a

clearly articulated statement outlining the specific argument that the rest of your paper will develop.

Conclusions

Unfortunately, there is no easy formula for writing an effective conclusion; it can be one of the hardest

parts of writing a paper.

Your conclusion should not say exactly the same thing as your introduction (if it does, you haven’t gotten

very far!) By the end of your essay, you should have worked through ideas enough so that your reader

understands what you have argued and is ready to hear the larger point (i.e. the answer to my “So What?”

question). Your conclusion should create a sense of development or movement to a more complex

understanding of the subject of your paper.

This is the place where you want to bring together all of the points that you have addressed throughout the

paper.

Avoid bringing up totally new points, making any new claims, or unsupported arguments in the

conclusion.

Vivid, careful, concrete language is as important here as it is elsewhere – perhaps more essential, since the

conclusion determines the reader’s final impression of your essay.

What to Workshop

Use the above criteria for introductions and conclusions to a) assess what you already have, b) brainstorm

what might improve, clarify, or strengthen your intro and conclusion, and d) begin to draft a new and

improved introduction and conclusion.

Part C: Details & Support: Critical Analysis and Argument

41

This week we have focused on developing our skills as critical readers and thinkers. We’ve used various

reading strategies to look for patterns and connections in the works of Douglass, Alexie, King, and Tan

both to deepen our understanding of their narratives and to question what they have to say to us. You are

being asked to use those same tools of analysis when composing your literacy narrative, for what you are

doing when you reflect on past experiences with literacy is actually a critical “reading” of that experience.

You are in fact analyzing that experience in detail and, based on that detailed analysis, making an

argument about the meaning and importance of your experience for you and for your readers. This

component of the workshop is designed to help you evaluate whether you have enough details and

support to your main ideas and to help you extend your critical analysis and argument through the

organization of these details and ideas.

Connecting to the Readings

1. Which of the readings we have done this week are most related to your own literacy narrative.

Describe these connections.

2. Do you talk about these connections anywhere in your writing? If so, mark places in your writings

from this week where you address these connections. If not, take a few minutes to expand your ideas

about these connections,

3. How can you expand your discussion of the texts in your literacy narrative? What more can you say?

Details & Support

4. What kinds of details do you use to support your main points? Mark places where you provide detail.

Mark places where more details would be useful. Remember that as a writer you need to show specific,

concrete details to back up your impressions or conclusions.

5. Mark the places in the text where you tell a personal story or provide an anecdote about your own

experiences with reading and writing. Do you provide enough detail to fully support these parts of your

writing? Do you analyze and think critically about your experience?

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LITERACY NARRATIVE FINAL CHECKLIST


It is always helpful to look back at your paper after you have finished it and do one last

check to make sure that it looks like it is supposed to, says what it is supposed to, is polished and ready

for your instructor. Here is a checklist for this assignment. Please complete it and attach it to the back of

your final draft of your literacy narrative.

Content:

□ Have I addressed the assignment?

□ Do I fully develop my ideas?

□ Do I sufficiently support my ideas with detail?

□ Do I engage with the question of what literacy means (by showing familiarity with a larger

conversation about literacy; arguing against, challenging, supporting, or modifying a

definition of literacy; or demonstrating attention to different viewpoints on literacy)?

Details:

□ Do I have a complete introduction that states my topic, offers a roadmap, and has a claim?

□ Do I have complete paragraphs that each address a single topic?

□ Do I have specific details and evidence supporting my topics?

□ Do I have transitions between my paragraphs?

□ Do I have a conclusion?

□ Do I effectively integrate narrative with critical reflection?

□ Is the overall organization clear and engaging?

□ Do I communicated my ideas effectively to a college-level audience, in a clear language?

Format & Mechanics:

□ Is my paper 3-4 full pages?

□ Does it have my name block?

□ Is it double spaced?

□ Is it in Times New Roman Font, 12 Point?

□ Do I have one inch margins?

□ Do I use MLA format?

□ Are all quotations correctly cited?

Revision & Proofreading:

□ Did I consider comments from peers and instructors?

□ Did I spell check for typos?

□ Did I read my paper out loud to detect and correct awkward sentences?

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GRADING CRITERIA & RUBRIC WORKSHEET


Understanding the Grading Process

A huge part of being successful in college is understanding what the assignment requires and what your

instructor is looking for when he/she evaluates and assesses your work. Depending on the teacher, this

will sometimes be very clear on the assignment sheet, sometimes it will be general guidelines, and

sometimes it will be completely assumed as to what you are expected to do. If you are ever unsure of

what an instructor will be looking for, you need to ask in a timely fashion either in person or by email.

This is just one of many, many reasons why you should make it a priority to go to class and read the

assignment sheet! (Believe it or not, many students fail to do this and end up with lower grades as a result

because they did not follow directions.) As a class, we are going to practice using the assignment sheets

to come up with a list of what your instructors will be looking for as they read your final drafts. Please

fill this sheet out as we discuss the assignment and keep it with you as you work on your papers. Make

sure you have done everything on the checklist below. Take care of it before you hand in your final draft.

If you don’t understand something, please ask an instructor or tutor! You will need to hand this sheet in

with your final draft.

Week (circle one):

Assignment: _______________________________________________________________________

Assignment Goals, Expectations, & Criteria (successful papers will include the following):

□ _____________________________________________________________________

□ _____________________________________________________________________

□ _____________________________________________________________________

□ _____________________________________________________________________

□ _____________________________________________________________________

□ _____________________________________________________________________

□ _____________________________________________________________________

□ _____________________________________________________________________

□ _____________________________________________________________________

Notes (other things to consider):

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WEEK 2


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STRENGTH & DIFFICULTY INVENTORY II


Part I: Even in the short time that you have been working on your writing, reading, and

critical thinking, things have changed. You have encountered new words, new ideas, new ways of

approaching writing, reading, and thinking. Some skills and strategies have been honed, some have been

rearticulated, and some have become new challenges. Go back to your first list of writing, reading, and

learning strengths and difficulties. Do not simply copy your list. Consider if anything has changed and

why. What new strengths have you discovered? What new challenges have you encountered? Note that

weaknesses (which seems too negative) are now thought of as difficulties.

In your Process Journal, on a new page, write at the top “STRENGTH & DIFFICULTIES INVENTORY

II” and the DATE. Then, divide the page into three equal columns each labeled “STRENGTHS,”

“DIFFICULTIES,” and “CHANGED?” What are your top strengths? Has a strength now become a

difficulty? Has a difficulty has become a strength? What remained the same? In the third column,

describe the what, how, and why of the change.

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES DIFFICULTIES

CHANGE? WHY?

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Part II: Then, select one thing from the above list to freewrite about. You could focus on a Strength that

became a Difficulty or a Difficulty that has become a Strength or something that has stayed the same.

Think and write about why and how it changed or why and how it didn’t change and ultimately how that

affects your writing and reading process. What might you need to work on in order to strengthen a

Strength or to minimize a Difficulty? Be specific—this will become good material for the end of the

quarter’s final paper, the Prospective Cover Letter.

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WRITING SELF-ANALYSIS


As part of a metacognitive approach to writing, it is a good practice to re-evaluate your

papers once they are “finished.” This self-analysis, though brief, of your Literacy Narrative will enable

you to look at your writing from another perspective, in turn, telling you a lot about yourself as a writer—

how you work, where your strengths lie, and what you can do to continue to improve. Please choose one

or two of the following prompts to think about and answering in your Process Journal:

1. What do you argue in this paper? Complete this sentence: “In this paper, I want readers to see...”

2. What is one of your main ideas? In other words, what is one of your specific subclaims? How do

support your subclaim?

3. What is one Strength you have demonstrated in this paper? Why is that important to your overall

writing process?

4. What is one Difficulty you encountered in writing this paper? What make it so challenging? And how

might you overcome it?

5. What is one thing you want to improve about this paper? How would you go about improving it?

6. How did your writing process for this paper, your first college assignment, differ from your high school

writing experience?

7. What did you learn from this assignment? How do you think it will help you in future assignments?

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WHAT IS CLOSE READING?


Close reading is a necessary skill that will be very useful to you no matter your discipline or your eventual

profession. Many situations will require you to read or evaluate something difficult and make sense of it.

In general, “close reading” means analyzing a text—be it a photograph, a short story, a poem, a scholarly

essay, an operation manual, a tax form, a television commercial—very carefully, crystallizing main ideas,

and then drawing conclusions or making decisions based on your analysis. The kind of analysis you will

be asked to do will vary depending on your classes and chosen fields. In this class, we will talk about

different ways to close read. We will essentially be asking for all these levels for your claims as part of a

good analysis.

Literal Close Reading

This first level of close reading refers to the most basic analysis of a text. This is where you pick

out symbols, motifs, language, and other rhetorical features. The claim for this kind of close

reading usually remains local, skimming the surface of the text to make an argument about the

passage for the passage’s sake.

Example: The use of words such as “bleak” and “damp” to describe London contribute to the overall sense of

mystery and despair Stevenson creates as a setting for The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Rhetorical Close Reading

This second level of close reading refers to using the rhetorical features mentioned above to argue

something about how the author uses those features for a certain purpose. This is the kind of

analysis some of you might use as a base for your close reading paper. The claim for this close

reading has bigger stakes than a literal close reading, but still stays close to the argument of the

passage.

Example: Stevenson uses the figure of the monster to highlight the fact that Hyde’s qualities and characteristics are

seen as unacceptable to the society he lives in.

Example: Douglass uses pathos, the rhetorical appeal to the audience’s emotions, to evoke pity, frustration, and

anger in his readers.

Social/Cultural Close Reading

This third level of close reading is the hardest to do, and has the largest stakes. In this kind of

close reading, the literal and rhetorical close reading you do should allow you to say something

about the larger social or cultural relevance of your analysis. The claim for this close reading will

link your passage to the larger novel, and sometimes even to the contexts outside of the novel.

Example: Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde opens on a London scene shrouded in fog. The fog is universal, obscuring both the

wealthier home of Dr. Jekyll and the Soho slums that belong to Mr. Hyde. By emphasizing the connections between

both the locations and characters, Stevenson presents a critique of the similarities between the seeming propriety of

the gentleman and the more obvious monster, suggesting that they are not as different as they seem but are instead

bleakly united in their desires and actions.

Strategies for Close Reading

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1) Read a difficult passage several times. Read out loud, slowly, deliberately. Difficult parts will be

easier the second or third time through.

2) Annotate the text. This is sometimes called “active reading.” Annotating involves underlining

important words, writing notes or questions in the margins, highlighting, bracketing important passages,

taking reading notes, and so on. Write down key ideas, pages to return to, terms, and quotes that may be

helpful in your own understanding and argument.

3) Have a notebook/notepad in hand. Write down any words, places, names, terms, concepts that you are

unfamiliar with and look them up, either at once or after you are done reading. Also try to discover the

meaning of key words and concepts from the reading. Keep a running list of these

words/terms/phrases. Some terms have specialized definitions that you will learn only from context.

Two good places to look for general definitions online are: <http://www.dictionary.com> and

<http://www.wikipedia.com>. Try to incorporate some of these words into your next writing assignment

as a means of familiarizing yourself with them.

4) Pay close attention to the rhetorical features or rhetorical “moves” of the text, the figures of speech,

repetitions, imagery, and word choices. How does the language itself work in the text?

5) Ask yourself what sorts of evidence the author is providing. Does he or she back their argument up

with specific details? If yes, what sorts of details? If no, how does this impact you as a reader?

6) Before beginning your reading, do some preliminary research. Biographies, bibliographies, journal

articles, anthologies, can all give you greater insight into the work and can provide you with some helpful

historical context. For whom was it written? By whom? Why? Has it been well received?

7) Jot down any questions you have about the reading as you go. This will do two things: first, it will

help focus your reading; second, it will help you to generate material for class discussion and response

papers/writing assignments.

8) Remember specific passages that you found difficult. Ask yourself why you found them difficult. Is

it an issue of vocabulary? Is there a concept in there that you did not understand? Sometimes the key to

understanding a difficult passage can be as simple as re-reading it after you have finished the text.

9) Decide how a difficult passage fits into the larger text. What themes or arguments does the passage

develop?

10) Remember the big picture. Why is the text or passage or statement important? What are its overall

claims?

11) When you have finished the assigned reading, skim over your notes and the text to make sure you

feel comfortable with everything you have read.

12) Bring a list to class of any issues/questions/talking points that crossed your mind as you did the

reading.

http://www.dictionary.com/

http://www.wikipedia.com/

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WORKING THROUGH DIFFICULT TEXTS


One of the hardest lessons in learning, reading, studying, writing, and overcoming academic

(or any) challenges is figuring out how to face and working through difficult tasks. Part of any difficulty

is unfamiliarity, scale, scope, problem solving, procrastination, and effort. These things can make

difficult tasks—like reading a challenging text—boring, frustrating, seemingly impossible, irrelevant, or

just plain busy work. However, part of navigating your academic life is metacognitively thinking,

strategizing, and practicing how to tackle difficult tasks.

Take the following scenario, for example:

You get back to your dorm after a long day of class and practice and you are tired. You pull out

the syllabus for your Intro to Art History class and you see that you have 30 pages to read. No big

deal, you think to yourself. I can get this done in an hour. You find the course pack, turn to the

readings, and get started. And then you start to panic. You have only read one paragraph of the

reading and you didn’t understand a thing! The writer uses phrases like “postmodern aesthetic”

and “dominant theoretical paradigm.” Not only is the language really dense, it took you ten

minutes time to not understand it. At this rate you will be up until 3 AM trying to get through it.

First you feel hopeless, then you start to feel angry. Then you say, “forget it, I’m going to bed!”

What this scene demonstrates are the ways that difficult tasks can be overwhelming for the already-

exhausted college student. You have been working so hard to get things done, and then you are faced

with a highly difficult reading that seems to make no sense whatsoever. Often we respond to feeling

overwhelmed by shutting down and giving up. And, while giving up and going to bed is something we all

do at one time or another, it is not something that helps you learn what you need to learn, maintain your

GPA, get into your intended major, or make the Dean’s List. The reality of college work is that once you

start to get behind, it is really hard to catch up.

We want to help you tackle what seems to be an impossible task by offering strategies by which you can

get something out of the reading. It is a big misconception that your professors and instructors expect you

to understand everything you read. Perhaps some teachers do have these very high expectations, but most

understand that as readers, you have to get what you can out of an essay. In fact, they will be thrilled if

you come to class able to demonstrate some understanding of what you have been asked to read.

Ultimately it is better to understand some of the reading than to have read none of it.

Here are some strategies for coping with difficult readings:

• Use your annotation skills to the best of your ability; close read passages to help you focus

• Focus on understanding one or two key concepts—you don’t have to try to understand it all

• Take notes in which you summarize the points you do understand

• Do some general, contextualizing research (see what other people are saying about the material)

• Use the class discussion and lecture to help create a focus for your reading (what are the themes that

have been discussed, etc.)

• If necessary, skim. Pay attention to section headings, beginning and concluding sentences, and bolded

or italicized texts

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RHETORICAL FEATURES


What Are Rhetorical Features?

Rhetorical features of a text are all the different aspects of the text that contribute to meaning. They are

strategies, tactics, and choices that the author makes that help to convey his or her message. They are

identifiable aspects of the text that “do” something. Being able to identify them is one way to close read,

though not the only way, which we will talk about further in class.

Some Rhetorical Features: The following is a list of rhetorical features of texts and other things to keep

your eyes open for when analyzing a text. This list is by no means exhaustive! However, it should help

to get you thinking about how and why authors make the choices they do.

• Repetition

• Diction (word choice)

• Connotation and Denotation (implicit and explicit meanings)

• Types of Evidence (e.g. personal narrative, direct quotations, interviews, historical documents)

Remember when evaluating evidence to always consider if it is authoritative or not.

• Methods of Persuasion (e.g. appeal to emotion or appeal to logic)

• Figurative Language and Specific Rhetorical Devices (e.g. metaphor, simile, alliteration,

synecdoche, alliteration, hyperbole, metonymy, personification, rhetorical question, symbolism)

• Patterns and Syntax (word arrangement)

• Genre

• Form—look at the visual form of the text as well as the genre. Also look at how the text is

organized.

• Point of View

• Tone

• Audience (you want to consider what audience the author is targeting and how you can determine

this from the choices he or she makes)

• Ethos, Pathos, and Logos (the three rhetorical appeals)

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CLOSE READING “A THEME FOR ENGLISH B”


Today in small groups you will be discussing Langston Hughes’s poem “Theme for English

B.” As a means of working on your close reading skills, we’d like you to pay very close attention to some

of the details of this story. Before breaking into groups, take a moment and jot down some of your initial

reactions to the story. Did you notice any patterns developing? Can you isolate any particular passages

that you liked? Please share some of your “initial reactions” with your group-mates. Then, pick one

passage/pattern/set of details to present to the class. Be prepared to explain its significance.

1) Initial reactions to the poem:

2) What your group-mates noticed:

3) Your passage/pattern/set of details:

4) Why is your selection important?

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CLAIMS, CLAIMS, CLAIMS


We will spend a great deal of time and attention and effort in identifying, developing,

clarifying, and strengthening argumentative claims. A claim persuades, argues, convinces, proves, or

provocatively suggests something to a reader who may or may not initially agree with you.

What most non-academics mean by argument is usually a polar opposition or heated debate: I win/you

lose; you’re a Democrat/I’m a Republican; I’m for the death penalty/you’re a bleeding-heart liberal

against the death penalty; I’m pro-choice/you’re against choice. Though academic arguments can be just

as heated and draw on political, social, cultural, or personal positions and experiences, academic claims

are different — often more complex, nuanced, specific, and detailed. Most academic argument is

bounded by what is considered debatable or up for inquiry within a discipline, acknowledging that some

questions are already settled (though that too may end up being debatable).

The ‘rules’ of academic argument cannot (only) depend on the following as support:

• Because it is my personal opinion

• Because my friends or relatives think so or most people think so

• Because it’s always been, it’s tradition

• Because it’s obvious

• Because it’s morally right

What Is a Claim?

• A claim is the main argument of an essay. It is probably the single most important part of an

academic paper. The quality of the entire paper hinges on the claim, so if your claim is boring or obvious,

the rest of the paper probably will be too.

• A claim must be argumentative. When you make a claim, you are arguing for a certain

interpretation or understanding of your subject.

• A good claim is specific. It makes a focused argument (MTV’s popularity is waning because it

no longer plays music videos) rather than a general one (MTV sucks).

What a Claim Is Not

• A claim is not a statement of opinion. Fried Twinkies are delicious is not a claim. There is no

way to argue against it, because it is subjective.

• A good claim is not overly general. The Seattle Seahawks had a bad defense last year is not a

very good claim. A better one would be: Last season, the Seattle Seahawks’ defensive problems resulted

largely from the offense’s short possession times.

• A claim is not limited to one sentence. If you have a complicated claim, it may take several

sentences or even a whole paragraph to articulate it.

• A claim is not obvious. Using scientific evidence, expert interviews, and close reading of

meteorological texts, you could successfully argue that it rains a lot in Seattle. But this might not be the

most interesting argument to make.

Why Descriptive Thesis Statements are NOT Arguable Claims

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A thesis statement is the main idea of a paper, but it is predominantly descriptive. Similarly, a claim is

also the main idea of a paper, but it is argumentative. Following are examples of descriptive thesis

statements. Each is drawn from the top-scoring AP English Language and Composition papers posted on

the College Board website.

“To be a writer, one must have an elite understanding of diction, syntax and tone. These literary

devices are utilized by writers, including Eudora Welty, as a method for expressing the message

that they wish to convey to readers.”

“In the excerpt from One Writer’s Beginnings, Eudora Welty conveys a positive tone toward her

childhood experience. She accomplishes this through the use of descriptive diction,

impressionable images, and unusual syntax.”

“The two passages given describe the swamp in very different lights. Although they are in some

ways familiar, the styles of the authors of these paragraphs are very different.”

These are NOT argumentative claims because the writers’ strategy here is to create a thesis statement that

is DESCRIPTIVE. The writer is describing some aspect of the main text, and that’s all their doing. It’s

like saying, “Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a play about two star crossed lovers and two warring

families.”

Descriptive theses do not investigate anything, critique anything, or analyze anything. Descriptive claims

also do not invite support and argument from outside of the central text nor do descriptive papers apply

what has been learned in the central text to other texts.

Examples of Claims

Here are two complex claims:

“The media is an influential force in our society. It carries the power to shape our thoughts and

close or accommodate our perception of a particular event. In many cases, the media will shape an

event around norms in society focused on a particular group of people, many times masking real

and complex social issues that truly gave rise to the incident. These ‘master narratives’

oversimplify events and fail to tell the whole story in order to provide predictability and comfort

to society or a group of people. This was the case during the Los Angeles riot of 1992.”

“Despite the mystery surrounding this famous speech, its contents can be understood in terms of

what Mary Louis Pratt calls a ‘contact zone.’ In Pratt's article Arts of the Contact Zone, she

introduces this zone as the chaotic space in which cultures collide. Essential features of the contact

zone include autoethnography, the representation of one's own culture that responds to

representations made by others, and transculturation, the selective absorption of the dominant

culture by a marginal group. These features of autoethnography and transculturation emerge

prominently in Chief Seattle's speech, shedding more insight on the interactions between the

Native Americans and the Euro-Americans; however, in the context of the unique circumstances

surrounding the text, Seattle's speech ultimately demonstrates the inherent dangers of

representation and misrepresentation in the contact zone.”

Opinion vs. Arguable claim

54

Opinion:

• Twinkies are delicious.

• I like dance music.

• I think Virginia Woolf is better than James Joyce.

• The governor is a bad man.

Argument/Arguable claim:

• Twinkies taste better than other snack cakes because of their texture, their creamy filling, and

their golden appearance.

• Dance music has become popular for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the

music; rather, the clear, fast beats respond to the need of people on amphetamines to move, and to move

quickly.

• Virginia Woolf is a more effective writer than James Joyce because she does not rely on

elaborate language devices that ultimately confuse and alienate the reader.

• The governor has continually done the community a disservice by mishandling money, focusing

on frivolous causes, and failing to listen to his constituents.

What are the differences?

• An argument is supported by evidence, which can be debated/challenged. Opinion is supported

by more opinion (and ultimately you end up with something along the lines of “Well, just because,

okay?”).

• A claim can be substantiated with research, evidence, testimony, and academic reasoning.

• A claim is something more than statement and support: an arguable claim also goes on to address

the “so what?” question, the implications and why we should care in the first place.

• Remember that not all claims are created equal, and though a claim may be arguable, the best

claims are focused, specific, complex, and relevant.

An Exercise

In the following exercise, identify which are claims and which are theses. Once you have identified the

descriptive thesis, try to revise them to make argumentative claims.

1. Frederick Douglass’s Narrative is a very important work because it outlines how one can overcome adversity and

educate himself. Douglass offers numerous examples of surpassing the expectations for a person of color in his

time period. For this reason, we should all read his Narrative.

2. Stephen King is an excellent writer of fiction and horror. Surprisingly, he is also an excellent teacher of the

basic tools of composition. In his book, On Writing, King offers many different strategies for beginners to

improver their writing skills. By offering different approaches to writing, King demonstrates that he understands

that all authors approach writing a little differently.

3. In his book, On Writing, Stephen King breaks up his “toolbox” for writing into four basic levels. By dividing

the tools for writing into these four different aspects, King helps readers to understand that writing is produced

when many distinct skills are combined. This approach of dividing skills into parts is especially useful for teaching

writing in a University setting because while many students have all the various skills needed to be excellent

writers, they often have not put all these skills to work together until they reach a composition class. Because of his

acute awareness of how synthetic sophisticated writing is, King’s book is an excellent choice for a reading in a

composition class.

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FREIRE FREEWRITE


For homework last night, you were asked to read Freire’s (fray-EER-uhs) piece on problem-posing

education. You were asked to read the entire text closely, using the strategies for active reading that we

discussed on Monday and Tuesday. We will be focusing on how you used those strategies last night.

Please answer the following questions in your Process Journal:

1. What did you notice about the text? Were the things you noticed related to content, vocabulary, style,

or tone?

2. What was the close reading strategy that you benefited from the most? Did you find paraphrasing most

helpful? Did considering the denotation and connotation of words help you interpret the text? Did you

look for repetition, binaries, defamiliarization?

3. Finally, what is Freire’s argument? Can you answer the “so what?” question in relation to Freire’s

argument? What is at stake for him? What is his goal in writing this piece?

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CLOSE READING SEQUENCE TWO MAJOR PAPER


This week we will be working on one of the most valuable writing skills: the ability to read, understand,

retain, and examine any piece of writing that you encounter. In order to be able to write sophisticatedly about a text you have

to understand what it is telling you. In many English classes this is called “close reading;” however the ability to scrutinize a

text is valuable for all texts that you encounter. Close reading means to read consciously or actively, and it can go though

many stages, and may require more than one read through a text. Most often, when you are asked to do a close reading at the

college-level, your instructor expects you to pay attention to how one small section of the text “works” and how that small

section connects with the text as a whole. This week’s major paper will ask you to practice these skills, but before you begin

writing, you will need to be a diligent, active and close reader.


In order to practice close reading, be sure to actively read Paulo Freire’s essay, “The Banking Concept of Education,” for

Wednesday’s class. As we have discussed, in order to be an active reader, you will need to underline important points, make

notes in the margins, look-up words, ask questions, etc. By annotating your text you will help to remind yourself which parts

of the text are important and interesting as you consider how you will write about the text for this formal assignment. As you

read, consider important questions about the text. Often asking questions of a text can help us get to the heart of its meaning.

So think about questions that pop into your head while reading. Here are a few examples: What did you expect when you first

encountered the text? Were your ideas changed or challenged by the time you finished? What was the author’s main goal in

creating the text? Was he/she effective in getting the point across to you? How does the structure of the text impact your

personal interpretation? What is your individual interpretation?

Goals and Outcomes

After working with Freire’s text, you will be ready to do some more sustained writing and close reading. As we have talked

about, a close reading can be thought of as an analysis that moves from the small details of a text to larger issues having to do

with that text. In this assignment, we are asking you to choose a small section of any major text we have read in class up to

this point—maybe one or two paragraphs—and do a close reading of your selection, to be followed by an explanation of how

these details relate to the text as a whole. Whatever text you choose, make sure to use your annotations, reverse outlines, close

reading proposal, and our class discussions as a way to guide your writing. By the end of structured study time on Wednesday,

you will need to have identified your close reading section and have brainstormed some ideas about its relevance, what

happens in it, how it works, etc. Please have a tutor or instructor sign-off on the proposal handout we will give you and

turn it in with your rough draft on Thursday. Here are some questions to get you started:

• Is your passage using any interesting metaphors, analogies, or rhetorical devices? What are they, how are they used, and what

are their purposes?

• Does your passage give you any clues about how the author/speaker feels about a certain issue? Focus not just on the content

of the sentence or statement, but also on how it is written or stated.

• What is the context of the passage? What is it explaining, why is it there?

• How do you respond to the passage? What makes you have that response? What is effective or not so effective about it?

• How does the passage connect to the larger essay? Does it discuss themes or arguments that are mentioned elsewhere? Does

it conflict? (Answering this question will allow you to generate your claim!) What can you say about the passage’s significance

to the bigger picture?

Guidelines and Due Dates Format: 3 full pages, typed, double-spaced, 1” margins, title, proper heading, 12-point Times Roman font,

MLA format, proofread and edited, stapled

Close Reading Proposal Worksheet to be submitted with the final draft


MAJOR PAPER

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SAMPLE OUTLINE FOR CLOSE READING


Your Close Reading paper requires that you focus on a particular passage from a text. You

can do this by choosing to focus around rhetorical features, but remember that you are trying to create a

claim about what the passage is arguing overall. Don’t forget that you must do more than just summarize

the passage. Consider the following outline for your paper:

I. Introduction

a. Introduce the text that you’re working with (e.g. Paulo Freire’s “The Banking Concept of

Education”)

b. Introduce the specific passage or set of rhetorical features you’re working with

c. Make a claim about how the passage works, how the passage is effective, how the passage is

persuasive

II. Body

A. Make a subclaim/topic sentence about your passage

1. Identify one argument/feature in the passage

2. Draw on the passage for quotes and examples and evidence

3. Analyze why and how the argument being made is effective or useful

4. Connect your analysis back to Freire’s overall claims and goals, or, why is this important?

B. Make another subclaim/topic sentence about your passage





C. Make another subclaim/topic sentence about your passage





D. Make a final subclaim/topic sentence about your passage





III. Conclusion

a. Do more than just sum up your previous points or restate your introduction

b. Articulate how all of these pieces fit together, why the passage/features accomplish what Freire

wants to get across

c. Relate the passage/features to the overall goals of the text (e.g. think about Freire’s beliefs about

what education should look like, how he believes students/teachers learn be.

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SELECTING A PASSAGE FOR CLOSE READING


As we have discussed, a close reading assignment asks you to pay very close attention to

one or two small sections of a text. However, the truth is that some passages are just easier and more

productive to close read than others. Passages that are interesting to you, that are pivotal moments in the

text, and that use dramatic, figurative or otherwise exciting language, for example, will be better choices

than an obvious or dull passage in a text. Selecting a passage for close reading requires attention to detail,

to organization, to argument, to language, and to your own interests and interpretations.

We will begin by practicing with Freire’s “The Banking Concept of Education.” As you read the essay

tonight, think about potential passages that you might be interested in close reading. Remember: if it isn’t

interesting to you, it will not likely be interesting to the reader, so it is crucial that you pick a passage that

can engage your attention for a while. Tonight, you need to pick out your top three favorite passages.

You will hand this sheet in with your Close Reading Proposal Worksheet on Wednesday.

Keep an eye out for any of the following features and things or interest—their presence might suggest that

you have found an appropriate passage to close read:

• Language: similes, metaphor, irony, sarcasm, exaggeration, understatement, confusing terms, new

terms, concrete images, patterns.

• Content: find the claim; facts that surprise or intrigue you; things that seem inconsistent; facts or

explanations that remind you of something else, images or statements that allow you to connect with them

personally.

• Your Own Response: something that makes you feel sad or shocked or happy; something that you think

just sounds really good; something that you wish you had written!

Keywords:________________________________________ Page #:_________

Passage 1 Brief Summary:

Why you think it is interesting:

Keywords:________________________________________ Page #:_________



Keywords:________________________________________ Page #:_________



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CLOSE READING PROPOSAL WORKSHEET


As we have talked about, a close reading can be thought of as an analysis that moves from

the small details of a text to larger issues having to do with that text. In this assignment, we are asking

you to choose a small section of any major text we have read in class up to this point—maybe one or two

paragraphs—and do a close reading of your selection, to be followed by an explanation of how these

details relate to the text as a whole. In order to ensure that the passage you select is viable, please answer

the following questions. Then have a tutor or instructor look over your proposal, approve it, and

initial this form to be handed in on Wednesday. Make sure your name is at the top of the sheet.

1. Which section do you plan to close read? Provide a quick identification and a page number.

2. What is the overall purpose of your section? What is its argument?

3. What interesting details do you notice? What features or rhetorical “moves” are being made?

4. How do you think your passage might relate to the rest of the essay?

5. What is your argument about this passage? Why is close reading this passage important?

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TSIS WORKSHEET ON QUOTING


Introducing Quotations

In order to write a solid and detailed close reading, you will need to provide evidence from the text.

There are a variety of ways that you can do this. Two important ways are to paraphrase what an author

writes (while still giving him/her credit for the original ideas) and to quote from the text directly. This

exercise should help you to collect some of your evidence, which will in turn help you to write your

paper.

You will not be able to talk about the whole essay. Instead, choose an argument or passage to work with

that seems important overall. Below is a They Say, I Say-style template to help you with quotations. In

Part One, you will need to put Freire's words in your own words (also called paraphrasing), while in Part

2, you will be quoting directly. Also, pay attention to the citation format.

Part One: They Say

In his essay, Freire suggests that _________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________ ( ).

In his essay, Freire questions whether _____________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________ ( ).

Although Freire does not say so directly, he seems to assume that __________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________ ( ).

Part Two: Quoting What They Say

Freire argues that “_____________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________” ( ).

Freire is challenging the idea that “_______________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________” ( ).

In his essay, Freire maintains that “_______________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________” ( ).

Freire complicates matters further when he writes, “________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________” ( ).

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TSIS WORKSHEET ON METACOMMENTARY


The Art of Metacommentary

At this point in our course, you are learning to make your own claims and back those claims up with

evidence. However, as Graff and Birkenstein note in They Say, I Say, sometimes, “no matter how clear

you are, your readers may still need you to help them process what you mean” (125). Basically, what

Graff and Birkenstein mean is that while you may know what you mean, your readers may not have

thought about your topic in quite the same way as you have, so you need to help them out. One way to do

this is to use metacommentary. (By now, the word “meta” should be very familiar to you...so

metacommentary means basically that you are commenting on your commentary.) In your close reading

paper, you will need to use metacommentary to help explain both what you are saying and what Freire is

saying. Here are some examples that should help.

Using Metacommentary to Explain what They Are Saying:

Essentially, Freire is arguing that _________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________.

Freire writes that ______________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________. While at first this may seem confusing,

what he really means is _________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________.

As I mentioned earlier, Freire wants readers to understand that ______________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________.

To put it another way, what Freire wants us to realize is ____________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________.

While at first this idea may seem trivial, readers should realize that ___________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________.

Using Metacommentary to Highlight What You Are Saying:

To put it another way, I believe that ______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________.

Essentially, I am arguing that ____________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________.

My point is not that Freire cares about ___________________________________________________________,

but rather that _________________________________________________________________________________.

In order to prove that ____________________________________________________________________ is true,

this paper will explore ____________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________.

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CLAIMS AND ARGUMENT WORKSHOP


In today’s workshop, you will assess the strength of the paper’s claim and line of

argumentation. (By line of argument we mean the development of the claim in the body of the paper.)

You will work silently in groups of three, spending about 25 minutes on each paper. Make sure each

person in your group starts with a different paper in case you do not finish commenting on both. Please

comment on the following questions:

1. Review the writer’s claim, which you identified yesterday, and mark it again. Has the writer revised

the claim since then? If yes, please comment on the effectiveness of the revision.

2. Assess the overall cohesion of the paper. That is, is the claim set out in the introduction developed

more fully in the body paragraphs? Does each paragraph relate to the main claim? In the margins, jot

down some notes about how you think each paragraph relates to that main claim. (Example: This

paragraph provides evidence based on XYZ that supports the main claim.)

3. Please assess the writer’s use of details/support. Where should the writer include more detailed/quoted

evidence from the text to back up his/her argument? Mark spots where this is the case. Note any sub-

claims that are NOT backed up.

4. Finally, does the writer use evidence in ways that clearly convey to readers the significance of the

writer’s interpretation? Does the evidence help the writer to convey that “so what” question? What are

the stakes of this interpretation?

5. Now that you have examined this paper really closely, please take the final moments of the workshop

to make one last set of assessments about the writer’s claim and the claim’s development. Can you make

any final comments for revision? Does the claim need to be narrowed? Does it need to be broadened?

Be sure to clarify why you are making these suggestions.

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CLOSE READING FINAL WORKSHOP


In today’s workshop, you will work to sharpen your close reading and analytical skills

while at the same time giving your peers some feedback on their work. Please assess the ways in which

your peers use tools of academic analysis and organization. Spend about 20 minutes on each paper.

• Begin with one person’s paper and read it silently, making any comments that come to mind based on

today’s workshop questions.

• After you have read it through once silently, please work through the paper one paragraph at a time,

reading the paper aloud to the writer. Please comment on the following as you read each paragraph:

1. Look for the writer’s claim. Remember, the claim is where the writer sets out his or her argument and

answers that “so what?” question. Label it on the paper.

2. Where does the writer use the academic tools of summary, paraphrase, quotation and analysis in

his/her close reading? Mark places where you see summary with an “S,” paraphrase with a “P,” quotation

with a “Q,” and analysis with an “A.” Are quotations followed up by analysis? Remember not to simply

drop quotes into the paper, but always follow them up with analysis. As a reader, do you feel that the

summary provides you with enough, not enough, or too much information?

3. Assess the cohesion of the paragraph. Does it make sense? Write the main idea of each paragraph in

the margin. Should any paragraphs be split up or combined with others? Does each paragraph have a

main idea?

4. Does the writing read fluently, or do certain words or sentences interfere with understanding? Please

mark and try to make suggestions.

5. If you have time, please jot down any additional suggestions that you can offer that might help the

writer to improve his/her work. Remember, it will be especially helpful if you explain to your partner

why you think this change makes sense.

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WEEK 3


65

STRENGTH & DIFFICULTY INVENTORY III


Part I: You have been working on your writing, reading, and critical thinking for two

weeks now. You continue to discover new words, new ideas, new ways of approaching writing, reading,

and thinking. Some skills and strategies have been honed, some have been rearticulated, and some have

become new challenges. Go back to your first lists of writing, reading, and learning strengths and

difficulties. Go back to your first list of writing, reading, and learning strengths and difficulties. Do not

simply copy your list. Consider if anything has changed and why. What new strengths have you

discovered? What new challenges have you encountered? Note that weaknesses (which seems too

negative) are now thought of as difficulties.






STRENGTHS DIFFICULTIES CHANGE? WHY?

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Part II: Then, select one thing from the above list to freewrite about (choose one you have not yet

addressed in a previous Process Journal entry). You could focus on a Strength that became a Difficulty or

a Difficulty that has become a Strength or something that has stayed the same. Think and write about

why and how it changed or why and how it didn’t change and ultimately how that affects your writing and

reading process. What might you need to work on in order to strengthen a Strength or to minimize a

Difficulty? Be specific—this will become good material for the end of the quarter’s final paper, the

Prospective Cover Letter.

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As part of a metacognitive approach to writing, it is a good practice to re-evaluate your

papers once they are “finished.” This self-analysis, though brief, of your Close Reading will enable you

to look at your writing from another perspective, in turn, telling you a lot about yourself as a writer—how

you work, where your strengths lie, and what you can do to continue to improve. Please choose one or

two of the following prompts to think about and answering in your Process Journal:





writing process?




6. How does this paper compare to your previous major paper? What differences do you see in the

writing? What similarities?

7. What did you learn from this assignment? How do you think it will help you in future assignments?

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QUOTING, PARAPHRASING, SUMMARIZING


Research and the use of different kinds of evidence and texts are important skills and necessary strategies in

writing, developing an argument, and participating in academic discourse. In other words, the work you engage in and produce

at the university will require you to read about, think about, write about, organize, synthesize, and deploy other people’s ideas,

words, concepts, studies, data, and expertise. Depending on the class and your discipline, what counts as solid, useful, and

telling evidence will vary, but the use of evidence and the incorporation of evidence to support your position and rhetorical

authority will always be required. The use of research and evidence requires more than just copying passages from articles,

books, websites, or sources; this would be negligent and plagiarism. Part of research and writing and argument is

demonstrating that you understand how to incorporate evidence, how you document evidence (according to your discipline, in

our case MLA), and how you quote, paraphrase, and summarize the work of others.

Whether you are quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing, the evidence or selected text you use must be relevant to your writing,

must support your argument, must be carefully framed or incorporated, must be attributed and cited when necessary, must be

properly punctuated according to your discipline’s style, and must be explicated or analysed.

A Sample Passage

Squirrels (excerpt by Edmond Chang)

Squirrels belong to the order rodentia

sharing a common heraldry with nearly

1,650 species. Rodents, whose family

tree includes squirrels, mice, rats, guinea

pigs, hamsters, beavers, porcupines,

muskrats, chipmunks, woodchucks,

lemmings, and voles (but not moles,

shrews, hedgehogs, hares or rabbits), are

the largest group of living mammals

making up forty percent of all present day

mammalia. The largest species are the

South American capibaras who grow to

the size of small pigs and weigh up to a

hundred pounds.

There are over three hundred and fifty

species of squirrels including red

squirrels, fox squirrels, ground squirrels,

pygmy squirrels, antelope squirrels,

flying squirrels, and squirrel-like animals

such as the gopher, ground hog, and

prairie dog. The most common squirrel is

the gray squirrel or more specifically the

eastern gray squirrel, Sciurus

carolinensis. Sciurus is Latin for squirrel

and is derived from the Greek skiouros,

the combination of skia meaning “shade”

and oura meaning “tail.” Johann

Friedrich Gmelin, the German naturalist,

published the thirteenth edition of

Linnaeus’ Systema Naturae in 1788 citing

for the first time Sciurus carolinensis, the

“shade-tail of Carolina.”

Gray squirrels range all over the eastern

United States, up into Canada, and only

as far west as the Mississippi where the

deciduous forest meets the great plains.

They are no stranger to the mid-Atlantic,

Maryland, or the sloping lawns, splashing

fountain, and long alleys lined by willow

oaks of the university’s McKeldin Mall.

Grays are also called cat squirrels, wood

cats, Silvertails, Greybacks, or

Bannertails. You can almost imagine

them on the back of a jersey or on the

side of a football helmet. On the Eastern

Shore of Maryland, gray squirrel is a

misnomer. In a curious reversal, the gray

squirrel is misnamed the fox squirrel by

locals and the fox squirrel, Sciurus niger,

is the gray squirrel. Honneek is the

Delaware name meaning squirrel. Salali

is Cherokee. Xanikw is Lenape. In

Russian, it’s Bielka, in Malaysian, Tupai,

in Japanese, Risu, and Yiddish, Yipsel.

Song shu is Mandarin Chinese for

squirrel. In Bavarian, it’s Oachkatzl, in

Irish, Iora glas, and in Czech, Veverka.

In fact, Ververka is etymologically

related to the French vair meaning

squirrel’s fur. The ancestral Cinderella

from the early Norman-French tale might

have originally worn slippers of squirrel’s

fur to the prince’s ball. Over the

centuries, the telling of the tale replaced

vair with the homophone verre, French

for glass.

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Quoting

Quoting is word for word or verbatim, relevant and usually brief, introduced or framed by your writing, in quotation marks

(block quoting requires different formatting), and needs attribution and citation. Quoting or using quotations is the most

common form of incorporating evidence into your writing. A direct quotation is used to support your claims or subclaims; to

provide further evidence or examples; to introduce a writer’s claim, point, or position; when you want to use the writer as an

authoritative or expert voice; or when the writer’s words are particularly powerful, poetic, emotional, or well-writen.

Quoting from the Original: There are many different kinds of squirrels including “red squirrels, fox squirrels, ground

squirrels, pygmy squirrels, antelope squirrels, flying squirrels” (Chang 3). Gray squirrels, in fact, come with many different

names as Edmond Chang lists, “Grays are also called cat squirrels, wood cats, Silvertails, Greybacks, or Bannertails” (4).

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is not verbatim, is put into your own words, changing words or phrasing but preserving and maintaining the

passage’s original meaning and intent, introduced or framed by your writing, not in quotation marks, and needs attribution and

citation. Paraphrasing is another common form of incorporating evidence or other people’s ideas into your writing.

Paraphrasing is an alternative to direct quotation; to rewrite and synthesize someone else’s ideas without changing their

meaning or intent; to condense and explain information, particularly in long passages or in tables, charts, or diagrams; to

provide further evidence or examples.

Paraphrasing from the Original: Gray squirrels are all over North America, particularly the eastern US, up into Canada, as

far west as the Mississippi, and especially in the mid-Atlantic (Chang 4).

Summarizing

Summarizing is not verbatim, is put into your own words, including only the main points or main ideas, provides a broad

overview, often shorter than the original text, not in quotation marks, and needs attribution to the source. Summarizing is the

final form of incorporating other people’s ideas or information into your writing. Summarizing is meant to condense and distill

long passages or whole texts; to outline someone else’s main ideas or main points in your words leaving out details and

examples; to briefly give examples of several different ideas, arguments, or points of view on a topic; to use fewer words than

the original text; to provide further evidence or examples.

Summarizing from the Original: Edmond Chang tells the story of how Cinderella’s slippers once might have been made

from squirrel fur and not glass.

The Quotation Sandwich

Topic

statement

or subclaim

Development

of subclaim

Incorporation

of a relevant

quote

Restatement,

analysis, and

explication

A quotation, or any other kind of evidence really, must be

used with care. Quotations should be used when necessary

to support your arguments. A quotation should not be in

substitution of your own writing or your own argument. Dr.

Writer A. Extraordinaire says, “Quotations are support, they

are the lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, and other toppings of a

sandwich. In other words, an argument, the meat of the

sandwich, cannot stand alone, nor can just its condiments.

The writer’s words frame everything like the bread holds the

sandwich together” (17). In other words, quotations cannot

stand by themselves. They need to be properly set-up,

introduced, incorporated, and provide useful and telling

support. Quotations are not the meat of an argument, but the

fine dressing that makes the argument taste better.

Paragraphs

develop one

main idea.

Watch

punctuation

and citation

format.

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MLA BIBLIOGRAPHIC & CITATION FORMAT


Different disciplines use different documentation and bibliographic conventions. For the humanities—such as the discipline of

English—the standard is set by the Modern Language Association (MLA). MLA guidelines or style requires in-text

parenthetical documentation after quotations, paraphrases, some summaries, and other borrowed material. Parenthetical

citations (as opposed to the footnote or endnote) contain certain pieces of information (e.g. author’s name, page number, title of

work) that correspond to full entries in a works cited or bibliography. Consult a style or usage manual such as Andrea A.

Lunsford’s The Everyday Writer for full details on MLA citation and bibliographies.

In-Text Parenthetical Citations

Remember that a quotation should never stand completely alone (i.e. a dropped quote). Quotations, even paraphrases and

summaries, should be framed by your own words, given a speaker or a signal phrase, or incorporated into the flow of your

language. Citations fall at the end of quoted or borrowed material. End punctuation generally falls outside the quotation marks

save for the question mark. The following is a sample of the format, punctuation, detail, and style of typical citation entries:

Single Author Named in Citation (Incorporated Quote)

The central argument of the essay is that teaching a slave to read and write was teaching a slave to not be a slave, “that

education and slavery were incompatible with each other” (Douglass 72).

Single Author in Signal Phrase

Frederick Douglass in “Learning to Read and Write” argues that literacy was tantamount to his freedom saying, “I wish to

learn how to write, as I might have occasion to write my own pass” (74).

Two or More Authors in Citation

Literacy cannot be monolithic, unchanging, and dictated by the few over the many for there is “no single literacy, instead a

multiplicity of practices and values” (Collins & Blot 3).

Organization as Author

According to the university’s student handbook, the primary mission of the school “is the preservation, advancement, and

dissemination of knowledge” (University of Washington vi).

Unknown Author (Title Only)

The state continues to perpetuate an “ideological monopoly over those that do not have the resources to enact change

themselves” (“State Problems” 3A).

Author of Two or More Works (Include Abbreviated Title of the Work in Citation)

In the first of Sherman Alexie’s essays, he vividly defines the paragraph as “a fence that held words” (“The Joy” 62).

Sacred Text

He ignored the admonition: “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (New Oxford Annotated Bible

Prov. 16.18).

Secondary Source or Indirect Source (Someone Quoted Within the Text of Another)

Mina Shaughnessy says, “No education can be total, it must be continuous” (as qtd. in Bartholomae 419).

Work Without Page Numbers (Use Paragraph Numbers)

The argument follows that “any attempt to reconcile the differences between groups will only result in further conflict” (Jones

par. 7).

Web Source (Give Author or Page Number If Available)

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The hope of GIS 140 is to foster the idea that “learning and knowledge and experience are more than just rubrics, rote,

numbers, syllabuses, tests, grades, and graduation requirements—that learning and knowledge are fundamentally

interconnected, intertextual, personal, political, cultural, and mutually enhancing” (Chang).

Bibliographies

Keep in mind the differences between bibliographies and works cited lists—the first is a complete list of all research consulted

and the second is a list of only the sources used in the text. Bibliographic entries are alphabetized by last name (or title if there

is no author). The first line of each entry is not indented; however subsequent lines are indented half an inch. Titles of books,

magazines, newspapers, and films are underlined or italicized. Titles of articles, essays, songs, poems, and chapters are in

quotation marks. The following is a sample of the format, punctuation, detail, and style of typical bibliographic entries:

One Author

Lunsford, Andrea A. The Everyday Writer. 3rd

ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005.

Two or Three Authors

Collins, James and Richard Blot. Literacy and Literacies. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003.

Editor or Editors

Blaylock, Cameron, ed. Falling Down the Mountain (and Other Essays). Chattanooga: Little Brick Press, 2006.

Work in An Anthology or Chapter in a Book with An Editor

Douglass, Frederick. “Learning to Read and Write.” Eds. Nancy R. Comley, David Hamilton, and Carl H. Klaus.

Fields of Reading: Motives for Writing. 6th

ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2001.

Article in a Monthly Magazine

Broadway, Lillian. “Looking for Mr. Puppydog.” Life. Jan. 2005: 33-35.

Article in a Weekly Magazine

Patterson, Michael S. “Tom Tom and the Train to Nowhere.” Newsweek. 17 Aug. 2004: 48.

Article in a Newspaper

Abshard, Vincent. “The Best Places to Eat Under a Bridge.” New York Times. 2 Sep. 2005: C7+.

Article in a Journal Paginated by Volume

Florence, Tyler. “Eating With Rapineux.” Odyssey 33 (2004): 331-339.

Article in a Journal Paginated by Issue

Yamay, Shin-lee. “Fire in the Attics.” Literature of the Lowlands 12.2 (2003): 18-20.

Unsigned Article

“These Won’t Be My Friends.” Celebrity 7 Oct. 2006: 89.

Work from a Personal Website

Lunsford, Andrea A. Home page. 15 Mar. 2003. 5 Sep. 2006. <http://www.stanford.edu/~lunsfor1/>.

Work from a Profession Website

Lunsford, Andrea A. “20 Most Common Errors.” The Everday Writer. 15 Mar. 2003. 5 Sep. 2006.

<http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/everyday_writer3e/20errors/default.asp>.

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RESEARCH TOPIC BRAINSTORMING


Part of doing good research in an academic context involves coming up with a well-defined,

interesting topic. Before you come to class on Monday, we would like every single one of you to have a

topic that you are excited to research and write about. We would like you to pick a topic that relates to

one of the readings covered in class, to the city of Seattle, or to a current event or debate, but you can and

should be creative. Then, before you begin researching on Monday, have a tutor or instructor look over

your proposal, approve it, and initial this form to be handed in Monday, July 23. Make sure your name

is at the top of the sheet.

Part I

Brainstorm as many of the issues/ideas/themes/events that you can think of that relate to the various

readings and issues we’ve covered in class.

Read over your brainstormed notes. Pick three potential, specific topics from that list and write them

down here:

1.

2.

3.

Part II

Now, pick one of the above and think about how you might narrow this down into a research topic.

Asking yourself “who,” “where”, “when,” “why,” “how,” “who cares,” “what do I know,” and “what

more do I need to know,” will help you to arrive at a great topic. You don’t need to write one here, but

when picking your topic try to keep a tentative research question in mind that is interesting to you that

you can write about.

Final Topic: _____________________________________________________________

Finally, generate three key terms that will help you research your topic. You must also explain, in a

sentence or two, how and why these terms will provide you with meaningful results that add important

depth to your topic (use the back of the sheet).

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RESEARCH TOPIC


Last week, you worked on close reading texts, an analytical and critical skill that can be

used to generate ideas and questions as well as to identify and answer them. This week, you will be

building on those skills by developing a research question. While you won’t be answering that question

here, this assignment is designed to get you to generate thoughtful and meaningful topics you could write

about, which is harder than it sounds! Try to choose something that interests you, because the more you

are interested the less that researching will seem like work—it might even be fun. Your topic should be

related in some way to our course, to the city of Seattle, or to a current event or debate that has generated

written discussion.


One of the biggest differences between high school and college is that in college, you will most likely

have more freedom in deciding what you want to study. To prepare you for this, we want you to start

thinking about what sorts of things generate good paper topics. Think about the readings we have done in

the past week, the places you have gone in Seattle, the things you have read about in the news: What

caught your attention? What do you want to learn more about? What questions do you have? Be clear,

specific, and concrete with your topic; explore whether the topic might be too broad or too narrow with a

little initial research. Make sure you have your Research Question Brainstorm worksheet approved.

Begin with some preliminary research, locate potential sources for your Research Question, determine

what topics seem viable, and think about how to narrow your research question.

Sample Topics Might Include:

The History of Seattle’s Pike Place Market (Seattle)

The History of Seattle’s International District (Seattle)

The Debate over Nuclear Energy (current event/debate)

Health Care Reform (current event/debate)

Frederick Douglass’ Life (course)

Sherman Alexie’s Life (course)

Paolo Freire’s Life (course)

The History of Title 9 (your life/current event)

University of Washington’s Budget Crisis (current event)

The History of the NCAA (course/your life)

Should student athletes be paid? (course/your life)

An issue of importance to your community (current event/your life)

All of these topics are too broad to write your paper on, but they are all examples of the types of

topics that will allow you to generate a well defined, narrow topic after having done some research.

Goals and Outcomes

SHORT PAPER

3.1

73

For this short paper assignment, you will write up a research question draft. Be precise and concise with

your topic, so that you can develop a focused research question. In coming up with a complex and critical

research question, you will need to explain your topic and how you are thinking about it. Your paper

should address the following:

1) What is your topic? Give a little bit of background on the topic, why you are interested in it, and why

it is important to think about. Tell us what parties or issues are involved, who it impacts, or why it is

something people are talking about. You shouldn’t summarize everything about it, but give enough

information to your audience so they know what your topic is.

2) Now tell us about you are interested in finding out more about. What kinds of things might be

researched further to add to the topic? What might researching your question add to your topic? And

most importantly, why is asking this question important in thinking more about the topic? Being able to

answer these questions will help to make sure that you can do your annotations.

Each of these two sections should be at least a paragraph.


Format: 2 full paragraphs, typed, double-spaced, 1” margins, title, proper heading, 12-point Times

Roman font, MLA format, proofread and edited, stapled

Due: Tuesday, July 24, at the start of class

bring _2_ copies to class

74

TSIS WORKSHEET FOR RESEARCH QUESTION


Using Your Sources to Help Create a Strong Research Question

Unlike our earlier assignments, the Read-Search Project asks you to do very different things in each

section of the paper. In the first section, the Research Question, you want articulate the main topic for

your project, some background and framing of the question, and the stakes of your research. Rather than

be reflective and personal, the tone of this section of the paper will be formal, academic, and

argumentative. Imagine you are a very important historian who is pitching your research ideas to the

Smithsonian, and you need to convince a whole bunch of important people that you have a viable and

important research question so that they should give you a scholarship to complete your research. That is

the kind of tone you want for this part of the paper. But, creating that kind of question is easier said than

done. These templates will help you to create a strong and rigorous research question.

Templates for Beginning to Articulate Your Claim and Your Topic’s Issues

So, let’s look at some of the templates that can help (some of the templates have been augmented, and not

all of them are represented here, so be sure to check the pages noted for more templates). Some of these

templates will work perfectly for your topic, and some might not exactly fit your topic. For the ones that

don’t work as well, please use the back of the paper or a separate sheet of paper to revise them so that

they fit your topic. These templates are drawn from Graff and Birkenstein’s They Say, I Say.

Introducing Standard Views

The standard way of thinking about _______________________________________________________________

is that _________________________________________________________________________________________,

but what my research shows is _____________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________.

My research is essential to the new understanding of this topic because of ________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________.

Many people assume that _______________________, but what my research about _________________

demonstrates is that in fact_________________________.

Introducing an Ongoing Debate

In discussions of _________________________________, one controversial issue has been _________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________.

On the one hand, ____________________________________________ argues _____________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________.

On the other hand, ____________________________________________ contends __________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________.

Others even maintain ____________________________________________________________________________.

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My own view is ___________________________________________________________ and is the most significant

because________________________________________________________________________________________.

In conclusion, then, as I suggested earlier, defenders of _____________________________________________

__________________________________ can’t have it both ways. Their assertion that ______________________

___________________________________________________________________is contradicted by their claim that

___________________________________________________________________________________________.

Establishing Why Your Claims Matter

_________________________________________________ matters/ is important because _________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________.

Ultimately what is at stake here is _______________________________________________________________.

My discussion of _________________________________ is in fact addressing the larger matter of __________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________.

Some other templates that may help include: Indicating Who Cares (TSIS 91, 172), Commonly Used Transitions (TSIS 174-175), and Adding Metacommentary (TSIS 128, 176) The following templates build on your work on quoting, paraphrasing, and citing (see Week Two) and provide further ways to work on authoritatively using your sources (in fact, here is a great place to write down some of the significant quotations you might want to use in your Read-Search paper).

Capturing Authorial Action

________________ acknowledges that ____________________________________________________________.

________________ argues that __________________________________________________________________.

________________ complains that _______________________________________________________________.

________________ demonstrates that ____________________________________________________________.

________________ celebrates the fact that________________________________________________________.

________________ refutes the claim that_________________________________________________________.

Introducing Quotations

______________________ himself writes __________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________ ( ).

In her book, _____________________________________________, the author ___________________________

maintains that ___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________ ( ).

______________________ agrees with _______________________, when she writes ______________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________ ( )

in her own text titled ____________________________________________________________________________.

76

____________________, the author of the article titled “___________________________________________,”

suggests that ____________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________ ( ).

Explaining Quotations This is one of the MOST important aspects of your proposal—you MUST explain both why the quotation is significant and HOW it helps to support your claim. Basically, __________________________ is saying, __________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________ which is significant

because _______________________________________________________________________________________.

In other words, _____________________ believes __________________________________________________,

which supports my claim that ______________________________________________________________________

by emphasizing _________________________________________________________________________________.

The essence of ______________________’s argument is ______________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________.

Signaling Who is Saying What

____________________________ argues, while I believe _____________________________________________

______________________________________________________because __________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________.

According to both __________________________ and ______________________________, they say _________

________________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________.

However, it is simply not true that _______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________.

Indeed, it is highly likely that ____________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________.

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LIBRARY RESOURCES WORKSHEET


The following worksheet will point you to common resources to help you find what you need at the UW

libraries. Whether by going online or visiting Odegaard or Suzzallo or using the library’s website, you

should familiarize yourself with these resources. If you are having trouble finding something, please see a

librarian for help!

Catalogs: Finding Books

To Get There: Go to the libraries home page @ http://lib.washington.edu/

Click the link right under “Resources” that says UW Libraries Catalog

• By KEYWORD

Start with a Keyword because______________________________________________.

To Use Keyword: Type a term related to your topic. Here you want to use really specific

terms to see what the computer will find in Titles, descriptions, and subjects for you.

Example: Japanese and World War II (not that specific)

Japanese Americans and World War II (better)

Japanese Americans and World War II and Redress (Yay!)

Your Keywords:__________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

• By LIBRARY OF CONGRESS SUBJECTS

Library of Congress subjects do a great job of helping you find similar sources.

To Use LC Subject: It is easiest to first find a source through a keyword search that looks

helpful. In that entry there will be a section called LC Subject right under the contents

(where you’ll see if it is a good book for you).

Click on the Subject that looks best for you.

Example: Japanese Americans—Civil Rights Click on the Bolded Subject to bring you to the whole list.

Your LC Subjects:_________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

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http://lib.washington.edu/

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• REQUEST/PLACE HOLD/ SUMMIT

Many times the book you really need is at another library or in the auxiliary stacks.

Sometimes it is already checked out. There are a few different ways to get a hold of that

book.

REQUEST/PLACE HOLD—This is for books within the UW libraries, but in Auxiliary,

Tacoma, or Bothell. The book should arrive to your chosen destination in about 2-3 days.

Click the icon in the upper left portion of the screen

Enter your UWNET ID and Password

Choose your Pickup Location (I usually go to Suzzallo Circulation)

Click Submit

Choose the location where the book is now

Click Request Selected Item

SUMMIT—If the book is checked out you can also see if other libraries have the item.

These books will usually arrive in 2-5 days.

Click “Search Summit” icon in upper right part of page

Click “Request Item” in center of the Orbis Cascade page

Choose “U of Washington” From the drop down menu and Click “Submit info”

Enter UW NETID and Password, choose pickup location

Click “Submit”

Databases: Finding Articles

To Get There: Go to the libraries home page @ http://lib.washington.edu/

Click the link right under “Resources” that says Research Databases

Databases are for finding articles in magazines, journals, and other periodicals. Some will

be completely digital, some will be in the library. You won’t need to do it on-campus, but

you may need to “log in from home” if you are on a non-UW computer. Click the Off

Campus Access icon in the upper right and enter your UW NetID and Password…then

continue as follows.

• ACADEMIC SEARCH COMPLETE (EBSCO)

This database has many full-text articles in the humanities, social sciences, and science and

technology

How to Use It: Start at the Libraries’ Homepage _______________________________ Click Research Databases

Click “Academic Search Complete” it will be the second choice under “starting

points”

Use the Keywords you discovered from your Catalog experience. Then try to

refine your search.

http://lib.washington.edu/

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• JSTOR

This database is always full-text, but is not quite as comprehensive as Academic Search

Complete. In most cases, however, JSTOR articles can be trusted as authoritative.

How to Use It: Start at the Libraries’ Homepage

Click Electronic Journals

Click “JSTOR” it will be the first choice under “popular e-journal packages”

Use the Keywords you discovered from your Catalog experience. Then try to

refine your search.

A Few Extra Tips

• Be sure to record all the important bibliographical information. In these cases you want to make

sure you can tell from the citation whether it is listing a journal article or a book article. Rules of thumb:

Is there an italicized title? (book article); does it give volume no. and date? (journal article.)

• Finding journal articles—citations may connect to full text, some may not. To find the full text:

Look up journal title in Catalog, check back to the citation for date, volume, etc.

Check our holdings (may be partly electronic, partly in print depending on date).

If only in print, get call number and go to the stacks (usually in PER STACKS).

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LIBRARY TRIP WORKSHEET


On your visit to Suzzallo library, fill out the following worksheet as completely as possible. Make sure

your name is on the top of the sheet. Due on Wednesday July, 25 in class.

General Information

1. What is Odegaard Library? What kinds of resources are there? Where is it located? Why can’t you go

there now?

2. What is Suzzallo Library? What kinds of resources are there? Where is it located?

While Researching in Suzzallo

1. Where can you ask reference librarians questions? What floor are they on?

2. What floor is the reading room on?

3. Where can you return books (identify at least 2 places)?

4. Where is Suzzallo Espresso located?

Other Notes about Suzzallo:

Using the Catalog & Databases

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1. Using the library catalog and keywords:

a. What Keywords did you search? Which ones worked, and which did not?

b. Ultimately, what is one source you found? (List: Author Last Name, First Name. Book Title.

Publication City: Publication Company, Copyright. Library and Call number)

2. Using the library catalog and LC Subjects:

a. What Library of Congress Subject terms did you find? Circle the one that was most helpful.

b. Ultimately, what is one source you found? (List: Author Last Name, First Name. Book Title.

Publication City: Publication Company, Copyright. Library and Call number.)

3. Describe your experience using Academic Search Complete. What was easy about this process, what

was difficult or frustrating? What source were you able to find? Is it full-text or Print?

4. Describe your experience using JSTOR. What was easy about this process, what was difficult or

frustrating? What source were you able to find? Is it full-text or Print?

5. Describe your experience using a third relevant database:_________________________________.

Why did you choose this database? What was easy about this process, what was difficult or frustrating?

What source were you able to find? Is it full-text or Print?

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SOURCES VITAL INFORMATION SHEET


Use the following worksheet to record the vital information about possible resources for

your Read-Search Project. Make sure your name appears at the top of this sheet. Due on

Wednesday, July 25 in class.

Source One

Author: ______________________________________________________________

Article Title: ______________________________________________________________

Publication Title: ______________________________________________________________

Volume and Issue (for journal articles): ____________________________________________

Publication City (for books): ___________________ Pub. Company: _______________________

Date: _________________________ Page Numbers: _______________________

Webpage (digital): ______________________________________________________________

Date Accessed (digital): ________________________________________________________

Source Two

Author: ______________________________________________________________

Article Title: ______________________________________________________________





Webpage (digital): ______________________________________________________________


Source Three

Author: ______________________________________________________________

Article Title: ______________________________________________________________





Webpage (digital): ______________________________________________________________


Source Four

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Author: ______________________________________________________________

Article Title: ______________________________________________________________





Webpage (digital): ______________________________________________________________


Source Five

Author: ______________________________________________________________

Article Title: ______________________________________________________________





Webpage (digital): ______________________________________________________________


Source Six

Author: ______________________________________________________________

Article Title: ______________________________________________________________





Webpage (digital): ______________________________________________________________


84

ANNOTATED WORKS CITED


Part of the academic and scholarly enterprise is research. Unfortunately, not all research nor references nor

sources are created equal. Organizing, evaluating, and selecting research materials is just as important as finding relevant

books, articles, studies, reports, images, videos, and artifacts. The critical thinking and close reading skills you have been

developing become necessary tools for finding and choosing quality references. Choosing solid and useful references can

influence the authority and strength and exigence of your writing, your argument, and your evidence.

Before You Begin Writing It is good habit to make notes about your sources as you discover them and read through them. What are the main arguments

of the source? What are the main points and the main examples or evidence? Is the source relevant to my research, my claim?

Is the source credible, timely, and useful? Attach your notes to a copy of your source (if possible). Your notes may save you

time and effort during your writing process as you sift through what you need and use in your work.

Your notes can also be used to generate an annotated works cited or bibliography. One entry of your bibliography will be

given an extended note. In many academic disciplines, annotated bibliographies published with essays or articles help readers

(potential researchers) with a summary and brief evaluation of a source. Furthermore, in creating an annotated bibliography for

yourself you are crystallizing the main points of your research, which may serve as points for review, revision, support,

interrogation, challenge, discussion, and exploration.

Goals and Outcomes Annotated bibliographies come in many different forms, with many different conventions. In this class, you will be required to

write-up an MLA style annotated bibliography. However, all annotations across disciplines require: critical analysis of the

source and summary of the source. A basic annotated bibliography may follow the following format (each entry contains):

1) standard MLA-format bibliographic entry.

2) a paragraph of summary; summarize main ideas, main points, main arguments; identify the writer’s main position; directly

quote useful portions or information.

3) one to three paragraphs of critical evaluation or analysis; why is the source useful or relevant; how does the source relate to

your research topic.

By now, you should have done research for your Read-Search Project. Remember that your Read-Search Project requires a

works cited of three useful, authoritative, recent sources—2 articles and 1 book or 3 articles. For this assignment, using

proper format, generate a bibliographic entry and annotation for each of your references. Appropriate resources for annotation

can include chapters in books, newspaper articles, journal articles, pamphlets and brochures, documentaries, films, news

stories, and websites. However, select sources with care—do not just take the first that you find. Consider how each provides

a different kind of evidence and how each may be appropriate in certain writing contexts.


Format: 1.5 pages, typed, double-spaced, 1” margins, title, proper heading, 12-point Times Roman font, MLA

bibliographic format, proofread and edited, stapled

A finalized, revised version of your annotated works cited will be turned in with your Read-Search Project

Due: Wednesday, July 25, at the start of class

SHORT PAPER

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RESEARCH CLAIM


In academic writing you will be asked to argue a claim, the most important part of any

piece of critical writing. The claim defines the goals of your paper and tells your audience what you will

be talking about. It should be original, interesting, and complex—as we’ve discussed, good claims should

be arguable. Your claim also includes your stakes, which means that you express why what you are

arguing is important to the topic. Without a good claim, you can’t have a thoughtful, critical, persuasive

paper, which is what college writing is all about.


You’ve already done a lot of work towards being able to generate your claim. Remember, you won’t be

actually answering your question in an assignment, but this is practice for being able to begin writing

academic papers. You need to have a strong claim to produce strong papers. Think about the question

you came up with at the beginning of the week, and the smaller questions you had to ask to come up with

the larger one. Think about the sources that you found that deal with your topic, and the reasons you

thought those sources would help you add depth to your topic. You’ll want to keep all of these materials

in mind to have a good sense of how you would write a research paper about your topic. Then, you

should think about what you want to say about your topic, and give a reason why this argument is

important. Don’t be shy about using some of the work you’ve done to help you out here!

Goals and Outcomes

You want to present a claim about your topic, based on the research you’ve done and all the thinking and

writing you’ve completed this week. Be sure that your claim meets all the requirements for a good claim

that was discussed in class. Also be sure you have two parts to your claim:

1) the “what”: what you will be arguing

2) the “so what”: why what you are arguing is important

Because we are practicing writing a complex claim, you will need to explain your claim well. This means

you shouldn’t just have two sentences on your page. Instead, you might give some really brief

background to your topic, and then lead up to introducing your claim. Writing a claim and having it make

sense can take some work, so we’re expecting about a paragraph.

You’ll be turning in a revised version of this claim, along with the research question and annotated

bibliography, all together on Monday, July 30.


Format: 1 full paragraph, typed, double-spaced, 1” margins, title, proper heading, 12-point Times

Roman font, MLA format, proofread and edited

Due: Thursday, July 26, before your orientation, turned in to Pam or Lisa or Donna

SHORT PAPER

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READ-SEARCH PROJECT SEQUENCE THREE MAJOR PAPER


In many classes here at the University, you will be asked to complete an end of the quarter research project

where you will be expected to do independent and substantial research on a topic related to your class. After completing this

information, you will be asked to write a research paper where you both explain the data you collect and analyze what you

have learned about your specific topic. Your analysis will be directly based on the research you have done.

Because we do not have enough time to actually write a research paper in this course, we will instead explore the process of

preparing to write such a paper by selecting a research topic, writing an annotated bibliography, and a research claim. This

week we will be exploring all the various resources that the University has for helping you to search, find, and compile

information for a research project. We will be discussing different strategies for analyzing this information, and for organizing

your thoughts into a complex and interesting research paper. For this paper, you will incorporate research you do into a two

part “project.” In other words, you will be doing the prep work to write your hypothetical research paper without actually

writing it.


First you’ll read. All week long we will be teaching you different methods for researching your topic. For the paper, pick a

topic that can be developed into a research paper. You have read a number of texts, engaged in class discussion about many

different topics, and visited different parts of the campus and the city—using these experiences as a jumping off point, develop

a topic inspired by the class. Try to choose something that interests you, because the more you are interested the less that

researching will seem like work—it might even be fun. What ideas, histories, biographies do the literacy narratives inspire?

How might Freire generate topics about education, universities, student life, and learning? What did the poetry, short stories,

or the Fridays on Foot make you think hard about? In the past, students have written about various aspects of the International

District, Japanese internment camps, World War II, famous Seattle people, different cultures and cultural lifeways, and

literacy.

Then you’ll search. You will use the resources and strategies covered in class, in your library day, and in your handouts for

finding material for your paper. Once you have found sources for your topic, be sure to use the skills from last week to read

them closely. Annotate your texts and be sure to ask questions of the texts. Try to find connections among the texts, and also be

aware of how each text is distinct from the others. Think about what the main argument of a research paper that used these

sources to discuss your topic might be.

Goals and Outcomes

For the Read-Search Project, you will be required to be self-aware, self-reflective about your research process and how you

work to find, read, and organize your research materials. This metacognitive approach will help you identify and assess how

you choose a topic, how you use close reading to generate potential questions and inquiries, how you use different resources

for research, how you evaluate your sources, and how you put everything together to propose a larger project. In other words,

you will explain what your topic is, what research supports your ideas, and what your main claim would be if you did have to

write a research project for this topic. Because this paper is intended to help you practice the writing process that will help

you write research papers later on, your paper will be split into three parts (you can use section headings in your paper):

1. Annotated Works Cited. The second part of your project will be an annotated bibliography. You will be required to have

3 sources for your Read-Search Project—at least 3 articles OR 2 articles and 1 book.* As part of the week’s exercises, you

will complete a short (1.5 pages) MLA annotated bibliography, which requires you to briefly abstract and evaluate one of your

sources. You will include a finalized version of the annotated bibliography with your Read-Search Project.

As you can see, the first half of this paper asks you to reflect on how you came to your topic, researched it, and decided it was

worthwhile to pursue, and the second half is an actual proposal that you might give to an instructor or professor for a class.

Many times, a class will require a brief proposal before you start a research project or long paper so the teacher can see and

approve your working claim, direction, and resources. Remember that because this paper is about research and sources, just

like any research paper or project, the works cited is a requirement; failure to include a bibliography means the paper

automatically fails.

MAJOR PAPER

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*In the past, we have had problems with students checking books out of the library and then losing or forgetting to

return them, which results in huge fines and a hold on your ability to register. If you are using a book for your paper, it

is your responsibility to manage that book’s safe and timely return back the library.

2. Research Claim. The last part of your paper (1/2 page) will be your critical claim for your research project:

a) What you will be arguing in your paper

b) Why what you are arguing is important


Format: 2 pages, typed in 2 sections, double-spaced, 1” margins, title, proper heading, 12-point Times Roman font,

MLA format, three sections, proofread and edited, stapled


88

PROSPECTIVE BRAINSTORMING


Next week, you will be introduced to the final major paper of the quarter: the Prospective Essay. The

following worksheet is designed to help you generate ideas for what your essay, which will be in the form of

a formal cover letter. What will your cover letter include? This “prospective” (which means to look

forward) brainstorming exercise asks you to think about the last few weeks, to think about your current

writing process, and to develop arguments about your future writing, reading, and learning. Answer the

following questions and sections briefly but be specific, use concrete examples, and consider how you might

include these details in your final essay. This is due next Monday at the start of class.

Part I: Identifying and Working through Difficulty

Pull out your Literacy Narrative and your Close Reading with instructors’ comments. Reread these papers,

the comments, and your reflective writing on what was difficult for you. Then, begin to answer the following

questions:

1. What do you observe about your writing that you may have noticed before? Do you see any recurring

themes or issues in your inventories, freewrites, and self-reflections?

2. What have you become more fluent in, more capable in this quarter?

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3. What has been most difficult to you, so far, about college writing?

4. Looking back at your work, break down your writing difficulties as specifically as possible:

Identify 4

difficulties

(choose the

most important

to you)

Difficulty #1: Difficulty #2: Difficulty #3: Difficulty #4:

Which

assignment

represents your

best attempt at

overcoming this

difficulty?

Why?

How were your

assignments or

papers affected

by this

difficulty?

Do you have

trouble seeing

this difficulty in

your own

writing/process?

Why?

90

What skills and

resources will

help you with

this difficulty in

the future? Be

specific in the

ways each of

these resources

has helped and

will continue to

help.

Part II: Prospection, Or, Transferring and Developing Skills

Part of the cover letter should focus on thinking ahead, on the future, on “prospection.” Your cover letter

should identify and discuss how you might transfer the skills you learned in class to other class and to other

writing, reading, and critical tasks.

1. What skills or strategies did you bring to this class?

2. What skills or strategies did you gain in this class, and how will you build on them to become a more effective

college writer or reader in the future? Be as realistic and detailed as possible.

91

3. To the best of your ability, given the experiences you have faced so far, define some of the expectations of

“academic discourse” or college-level writing.

4. Given this definition, what challenges do you envision you’ll face as a college writer?

5. How does the writing and reading you’ve done this quarter differ from the writing and reading you did in high

school? What kinds of transitions have you begun to make?

Part III: Writing and Learning Analysis

Finally, your cover letter should discuss your writing process, how it has changed over the course of the class,

and how you see yourself as a writer, reader, and critical thinker in college.

1. How would you describe your writing process? (What are the steps you usually go through to write a paper?)

92

2. When does your process work well, and when does it not?

3. What are possible alternative processes to try?

4. Have you started to view writing as a process rather than just a product? Why/why not?

5. How do you see yourself as a writer in the context of the University? Are you an academic writer?

6. What is academic writing? Is it a set of skills? A matter of gaining familiarity with conventions? Becoming

fluent in new discourses, or academic conversations? A set of social encounters? Something else? A combination

of those?

7. How do you see yourself as a reader in the context of the University? Are you an academic reader?

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WEEK 4


WEEK

4 WEEK

4

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STRENGTH & DIFFICULTY INVENTORY IV


Part I: You have been working on your writing, reading, and critical thinking for two

weeks now. You continue to discover new words, new ideas, new ways of approaching writing, reading,

and thinking. Some skills and strategies have been honed, some have been rearticulated, and some have

become new challenges. Go back to your first lists of writing, reading, and learning strengths and

difficulties. Go back to your first list of writing, reading, and learning strengths and difficulties. Do not

simply copy your list. Consider if anything has changed and why. What new strengths have you

discovered? What new challenges have you encountered? Note that weaknesses (which seems too

negative) are now thought of as difficulties.






STRENGTHS DIFFICULTIES CHANGE? WHY?

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Part II: Then, select one thing from the above list to freewrite about (choose one you have not yet

addressed in a previous Process Journal entry). You could focus on a Strength that became a Difficulty or

a Difficulty that has become a Strength or something that has stayed the same. Think and write about

why and how it changed or why and how it didn’t change and ultimately how that affects your writing and

reading process. What might you need to work on in order to strengthen a Strength or to minimize a

Difficulty? Be specific—this will become good material for the end of the quarter’s final paper, the

Prospective Cover Letter.

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As part of a metacognitive approach to writing, it is a good practice to re-evaluate your papers once they

are “finished.” This self-analysis, though brief, of your Read-Search Project will enable you to look at

your writing from another perspective, in turn, telling you a lot about yourself as a writer—how you

work, where your strengths lie, and what you can do to continue to improve. Please choose one or two of

the following prompts to think about and answering in your Process Journal:





writing process?




6. How does this paper compare to your previous major paper? What differences do you see in the

writing? What similarities?

7. What did you learn about academic research and your research process? How do you think it will help

you in future assignments?

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PROSPECTIVE COVER LETTER SEQUENCE FOUR MAJOR PAPER


Your Final Portfolio and Prospective Essay are your culminating assignments for the quarter. They are the

sum of your work and a testament to the dedication, reading, writing, and critical thinking (not to mention sweat and

effort) you have engaged these past weeks. The Prospective Essay, which will be in the form of a cover letter, is the

crowning piece of your metacognitive perspective on writing that you’ve been developing. To prepare for this assignment,

look back at your major papers, your workshops, your Process Journals, your readings, your homework. You have read

and written and learned a lot in this course! Then look ahead to the goals you will set to become a more successful college

reader, writer, and thinker. Because our class emphasizes writing as a process aided by metacognitive awareness of one’s

writing practices, this “cover letter” essay will necessarily draw on your recent experiences, challenges, successes, and

reflections.


In order to complete this assignment, you will have to take some time and really reflect on all your writing

experiences—Past, Present, and Future. Here are some ideas to get you started with brainstorming and

prewriting (you don’t need to address every single question asked here in your cover letter):

• What successes did you have during the quarter and what have you accomplished? What

difficulties did you face in this quarter’s assignments and why were those tasks difficult? Reread

everything you have written carefully (and all those comments you received). What do you observe about

your writing? Do you see any recurring themes in your Process Journals, your Strength & Difficulty

Inventories, in your self-reflections and freewrites? You’ve all achieved a lot this quarter, so give

yourself credit—take some time to reflect on what you have worked on and what you are good at when it

comes to reading, writing, and learning!

• Break down your writing difficulties as specifically as possible. (For example, if you struggle with

writing claims, think about the following: What were your most and least successful attempts to write

interpretive claims? Do you have trouble recognizing interpretive claims in other people’s work? Did

any of your peers’ papers have effective claims? Why were they effective? Are your claims too broad,

too narrow, or too obvious? Why? What skills or strategies are needed to write an effective claim?)

Make a short list with short notes about each item.

• What have you learned about working through these difficulties? How can you most effectively work

through difficulty in various situations? What writing or other academic resources have been useful for

you, and why? Figure out which one or two of these things would be the most telling, the most important

to talk about, and the best evidence to show that you have identified a challenged, worked at it, and

improved your writing.

• How would you describe your writing process? When does it serve you well, and when does it not?

What are possible alternative processes to try? Have you started to view writing as a process rather than

just a product? Why/why not?

• Think about “prospection” (this just means looking ahead): What skills or strategies did you bring to this

class, what skills or strategies did you gain in this class, and how will you build on them to become a

MAJOR PAPER

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97

more effective college writer in the future?

Goals and Outcomes

In this assignment, we are asking you to think about your personal and specific experiences as a writer,

both before this class, and as a consequence of it, and analyze how and why you think about writing the

way you do today. How will these attitudes you have toward writing serve you in the future? What

specific things have you learned about yourself as an individual and as a student at this university that will

help you in the years to come? Have you identified any difficulties you have, and do you now have

strategies to combat them? Your essay functions as a kind of academic, intellectual, and rhetorical self-

assessment of what the reading and writing you have selected do (and do not do), and a self-reflection of

how you see yourself participating (or not participating) in the class and classroom. A superior essay will

incorporate the language of the various readings, the theories on literacy and writing, the course

description, the assignment sheets, as well as cite your peers’ and my assessments of your work to support

your self-assessment. Strategically (and briefly) quoting or paraphrasing passages from your own work

(both strong and weak samples) is another way to make your argument concrete. In addition, this paper

will be impeccably formatted according to MLA guidelines, will have a clear organizational structure, and

will have a complex claim with specific details as evidence. This is your chance to really demonstrate all

that you have learned and all that you have become as a writer...we can’t wait to read it!

Your Prospective Essay will take the form of a cover letter for your final portfolio. The essay must be 2-

4 pages, single-spaced, in business letter format and should selectively include, describe, synthesize, and

critique the following:

—makes a claim about your experience, your exploration, and your progress in ENGL 108, in reading and

writing

—identifies, explicates, and demonstrates how you understand the key ENGL 108 outcomes, concepts,

skills, and strategies; draws specifically instructor comments and readings

—makes good use of your Strength and Difficulty inventories and Process Journal entries; considers how

you have learned about working through reading and writing challenges

—uses the language of the course outcomes, the assessment rubric, and the assignments

—discusses your writing process, engagement with the course texts, and research

—considers how your definition of literacy has changed over the quarter

—assesses your participation in workshopping and peer review; engages how you participated in the

class and in the academic arena

—imagines how you will approach future academic writing assignments; argues for how you will

transfer skills and practices and strategies to other classes

—offers a final self-assessment in terms of evaluation and grade


Format: 2-4 pages, typed, single-spaced, 1” margins, title, proper business letter format, 12-point

Times Roman font, MLA style, proofread and edited, stapled

Due: Friday, August 3, at 12:00 NOON

Turned in with your Final Portfolio

98

PROSPECTIVE COVER LETTER TIPS


Don’t start from scratch here! Utilize your our comments, course materials, blog posts,

and any previous peer reviews to help frame and enhance your cover letter. The more that you can draw

specifically from examples, the more that you will reveal to me your intertextual use of your previous

thoughts (e.g. reference your responses to either or both instances here).

Be critical, analytical, and intertextual. In other words, paraphrase and quote from all of the materials

you’ve used in class; select only things that are relevant and that can support your overall metacognitive

assessment of your writing progress and process.

Consider your overall strengths and successes (mention these and locate them within a specific paper

assignment) but don’t “oversell” yourself. How do your strengths connect to or affect your difficulties?

Consider how you built on your specific weak points (mention these and locate them within a specific

paper assignment) to become a stronger writer.

Argue how your writing within the entire portfolio represents the progress that you have made and

illustrates the specific changes that you have undergone in your move from high school to college

writing.

Identify general issues regarding how you achieved progress throughout the quarter. You will want to

talk critically about how you enacted significant revisions within your paper. Also, be sure to discuss the

number of times that you went to the Writing Center (with dates) or any other tutorial help that you

received—whether that be extra peer edits in class or other tutorial departments that you received help.

How what you have learned in this class builds on the knowledge that you came to the class regarding

writing and creating a paper (e.g. what you know about organization, claim development, revision,

grammar, and so on—you may utilize the rubric here to help frame this part of the portfolio letter)

How what you have learned in this class acts as a foundation for the type of writing that your degreed

field requires once you leave the university and enter the work world.

When you talk about your portfolio papers, you should directly address what points you decided to

incorporate based on the comments that both your peers and your instructor suggested and talk about

how you have decided to incorporate or not to incorporate within your final portfolio paper. In addition,

you should discuss what attempts you made to help mold your paper closer to the image of the superior

portfolio by drawing on the language of the rubric. These papers should represent the progress that

you’ve undergone throughout the quarter and are thus a big part of the weight of the portfolio, so you

will want to spend some time on this portion of the letter.

The cover letter should be in-depth, specific, and reflective, rather than a mere description of what

your papers are saying.

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TSIS WORKSHEET FOR PROSPECTIVE LETTER


Below is a They Say, I Say-style template that we hope will help you as you write your

Prospective Essay cover letter. This is designed to give you a sense of what a Prospective Essay might

look like, but you should think of it only as a model and know that this essay is about your voice and

your reflections. You should not copy this template for your essay or simply fill in the blanks and details

that we have provided you with here. Develop your own ideas, your own points, your own organization,

your own evidence, and your own overall goals and assessment.

Dear ____________________ and ____________________:

In high school, I always considered myself ____________________________________________________.

I usually received good grades on my essays and because my teachers focused on things like sentence

structure and grammar more than the content of my papers, I thought I would have no problems

transitioning to writing at the college level. Or, to be more honest, I _____________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________.

When I received my first paper back in this class, I realized that there was, in fact, a huge difference. I

know that my writing still isn’t perfect and that I have a lot to work on still in terms of

________________________________________________________________________________________,

but I feel that over the course of the four weeks in LEAP, I have _________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________.

{Note: Make sure to be reflective, to outline what you are going to cover, to address the goals of the class, and so on.}

In this class, we worked a lot on ____________________________________________________________.

This was new to me, because although I like reading and am a pretty fast reader, I usually just read to

be able to answer the discussion questions or to be able to answer questions that might show up on a

quiz. Our first reading was an essay by Sherman Alexie called “Superman and Me.” I liked this piece a

lot because ______________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________.

My reading strategies for this piece were to read it while I was on the treadmill at the IMA. That was a

bad idea, apparently, because when we got to class, I had no notes and couldn’t refer to page numbers.

I decided to be a more conscientious reader when we moved on to Tan’s essay, “Mother Tongue.”

Instead of reading at the gym I, _______________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________.

In fact, it is interesting to me that these essays, which are about reading, both ____________________

________________________________________________________________________________________.

I think that what I have learned from this is ___________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________.

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In addition to reading a lot, we also wrote a ton of summaries. I think summaries are very boring to

write, but for that reason, I was glad to have read all the sections of writing summaries in They Say/I

Say, because ____________________________________________________________________________.

Which is great because, as I may have mentioned just now...I hate writing summaries! When I received

my first summary back from you on ___________________________________, you wrote that I “needed

to think more carefully about what the main ideas were and what the supporting details were.” In my

second summary, I did a better job with this because I figured out before I started writing, what the

main ideas in ______________________’s essay were, as opposed to the supporting, anecdotal details. I

could tell I had done a better job because you wrote, “I can tell that you have read and understood the

article from the way you are able to synthesize King’s ideas.” I guess it does pay not to read on the

treadmill!

One other thing that we worked on in this class, and that was a real challenge to me was making claims.

Early on, in my Strengths and Challenges list, I wrote that I had a lot of trouble understanding what a

claim was. Now, __________________________________________________________________. I

wouldn’t say that all of my papers had “perfect” claims, but ___________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________.

For example, in my close reading draft, I thought that my claim was ______________________________

_______________________________________________. However, after looking at your comments and

working with the tutors, I ended up with a much more advanced claim. I wrote that ________________

________________________________________________________________________________________.

{Note: Include more analysis, be metacognitive, address the outcomes, and so on.}

Overall, I am _________________________________________________________________ with the work

that I have done this summer. This class was _________________________ for me, but as I look back at

my accomplishments, I feel _________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________.

However, I know that ______________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________. I

am looking forward to the Fall quarter because _______________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________.

{Note: Again, more reflection. Address how you might use what you’ve learned in the future. End on a positive note.} Sincerely, ___________________________ Type Your Name (Sign Above)

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WEEK

4 COURSE OUTCOMES WORKSHOP


ENGL 108 has four course outcomes, a set of learning goals and expectations. By the time

you turn in your Final Portfolio and get ready for the coming academic year, you should be able to say

that you have “accomplished” these outcomes. However, think of these outcomes not as a destination—

someplace that you arrive at and leave and forget—but rather they will be learning goals that you will

continue to use, develop, think about, and refine as you go. Today’s workshop asks you to reflect on the

ENGL 108 course outcomes and to reflect on the writing you have done all quarter.

ENGL 108 Learning Goals

1. This course wants you to leave this class more confident of yourselves as writers and more

comfortable about the writing skills you will bring to future college writing assignments. To this

end you will:

• Write frequently in different contexts and for different audiences and purposes.

• Learn through practice why college-level writing is most successful when it follows a process of inquiry,

drafting, and revision.

• Learn strategies for active reading of college-level material, and come to understand how strong writing

skills often depend upon strong active-reading skills.

2. This course wants you to leave this class having learned about and experienced specific campus

and classroom-based writing resources. To this end you will:

• Learn to make active and effective use of campus writing centers and tutors.

• Become familiar with general writing resources like dictionaries and handbooks, both on-line and hard

copy.

• Become familiar with library-based research resources, both physical and electronic.

• Explore how general campus student resources can support you as a learner.

3. This course wants you to leave this class having been introduced both to a series of key learning

issues and to how understanding such issues can make them not just better and more successful

writers, but better and more successful students as well. To this end you will:

• Become familiar with such writing-connected learning issues as ‘resistance’, ‘difficulty’, ‘authenticity’,

and ‘transfer’.

• Learn to recognize the writing strengths you bring to college level work, and learn how to use them

effectively.

• Become better aware of your writing difficulties and learn how to manage them.

• Explore how your varied life skills and experiences have prepared you for effective reading and writing

at the university.

4. This course wants you to leave this class having learned strategies for writing well by becoming

effective members of a university-level learning community. To this end you will:

• Develop strategies for peer collaboration, review, and response.

• Engage in classroom discussions in a spirit of inquiry, respect, and openness.

• Learn to make use of instructor office hours and student-teacher conferences.

• Learn how to practice better self-advocacy.

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As a small group, rewrite each outcome in your own words, summarizing the main goal and sub-goals.

Part II

As a group, go through each of your formal writing assignments and assess the outcomes each assignment

hits or focuses on. Though every assignment should technically address all of the outcomes, choose the

best ones, the main goals each assignment asks for.

Part III

As a group, discuss how you might use the course learning goals in your Prospective Cover Letter. Each

person should volunteer a way he or she might discuss how they might demonstrate that they have

addressed and accomplished a particular outcome using a particular assignment as evidence. Discuss

outcomes that you might have trouble defining, showing, or supporting in your cover letter.

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WEEK

4 PROSPECTIVE BRAINSTORMING WORKSHOP


Part I: Prospective Cover Letter Brainstorming

You will have completed the Prospective Brainstorming Worksheet over the weekend. In your small groups,

go over each section of the worksheet sharing what you think is the most pertinent information, experience,

anecdote, or evidence. Discuss how you might incorporate that piece of evidence in your overall cover

letter. Consider and talk about the following:

1) What is your writing process? What are the recurring themes, issues, or concerns in your process? How

might this be a way to frame your cover letter, to serve as an introduction?

2) What are your top Strengths? What are your top Difficulties? How would you incorporate these things into

your cover letter? How do they show metacognition, self-reflection, and self-assessment?

3) How do you want to organize your letter? By course outcome? By assignment? By chronology? Why?

4) What have you learned all quarter? What are the most important take-away skills, lessons, experiences

you’ve had? How might this be a way to close your cover letter, to serve as a conclusion?

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Part II: Writing Tasks & Writing Plan

Once you understand what you are being asked to do, the next step is break down the assignment into

“writing tasks.” Writing is a process that include, but are not limited to: understanding the assignment,

brainstorming, generating topics, talking to peers and instructors and tutors, research, planning,

organization, writing, peer review and workshopping, asking questions, re-writing, revising, proofreading,

and editing. As you can see, there’s a lot to make time for and to get done. Because college life is full of

commitments, classes, committees, practice, games, and distractions, it can be difficult to make time for all

these things. But proactively planning out some things and prioritizing them makes life much easier than

staying up until 4:00 AM cramming or rushing. Individually, for the following, identify at least 6-8 things that

you need to do for the Prospective Essay cover letter (e.g. complete second draft, reread past assignments,

complete a worksheet, revision), when you need to do them by (e.g. today, during study table, as

homework, by the end of the week), and what is their priority (e.g. High = done as soon as possible, Medium

= done within the next day or so, Low = done by the end of the week):

Priority Writing Task Done By

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WEEK

4 COVER LETTER FIRST DRAFT WORKSHOP


Today’s workshop focuses on your first draft of the Prospective Cover Letter and focuses on the key

requirements of the assignment. While you workshop in small groups, you should have the following on

hand: your Cover Letter draft, the Prospective Essay assignment prompt, the Course Outcomes Workshop

sheet, and your Prospective Brainstorming worksheet. Each group member should read their Cover Letter

draft out loud in turn. Then, for each draft, address and comment and take notes on the following:

Format

First and foremost, is the cover letter in proper formal business letter format? Is there a sender’s address? A

recipient’s address? Date? Salutation? Is the body in block paragraph format? Is there a closing? A signature?

Introduction

Does the Cover Letter open confidently, specifically, courteously, and provide the purpose for the letter?

Identify one thing that is successful or works well in the introduction. Why does it work well?

Identify one thing that does not work so well or needs clarification in the introduction. What specifically would

improve it?

Body

How is the Cover Letter organized? Is there a clear outline? Does the writer follow a plan (e.g. organized by

Course Outcome or assignment or chronology)?

Identify one paragraph that is successful. Why does it work well? What specifics and details does it provide?

How does it demonstrate reflection and analysis?

Identify one paragraph that is not as successful. Why? What specifically would improve it?

Conclusion

Does the Cover Letter come to a satisfying, interesting, and confident close? Does the letter offer a final

assessment or self-reflection?

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Identify one thing that is successful or works well in the conclusion. Why does it work well?

Identify one thing that does not work so well or needs clarification in the conclusion. What specifically would

improve it?

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THE FINAL PORTFOLIO


Think back to the first day of class, to the course policies, to the discussion about the

assignment sequences. Think back over the last four weeks, over the readings and research you have

done, over the skills and strategies you have practiced, and over the papers—short and long—you have

written. You have done an amazing amount of work, thought about new ideas and concepts, and

practiced skills that hopefully will transfer to other classes and other endeavors.

On the last Friday of the course, August 3, you will turn in your completed Final Portfolios. You are

responsible for a) organizing and turning in everything listed below, putting it all together neatly and

creatively in a binder (design a cover, include images or photos, create useful dividers, add a table of

contents), and b) finalizing and including your Prospective Cover Letter.

Portfolio Assignments Check-List

Week One:

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

Week Two:

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

Week Three:

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

Week Four

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________

□ _______________________________


Format: Final Portfolio, complete with all of your written work (including worksheets, drafts,

graded assignments, Process Journal)

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Make sure your Final Portfolio is neat, complete, and organized chronologically (an

incomplete Portfolio will receive a failing grade)

Prospective Cover Letter should be the first thing in the Portfolio, followed by the

Revisions of your Major Paper and your Week 3 Claim

Due: Friday, August 3, at 12 NOON

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PORTFOLIO REVISION OF A MAJOR PAPER


Revision is an important part of the writing process. It provides you the opportunity to

return to your paper with a critical eye, to reconsider or rethink your argument, to review and reorganize

your evidence, and to respond to and polish your language. In other words, revision is a process of “re-

visioning” or “re-seeing” what you have done and what you might do next with your paper.

One of the requirements for your Final Portfolio is to revise one of your earlier Major Paper assignments:

the Literacy Narrative or the Close Reading. You will also need to revise your claim from Week 3—this

will be a less substantial revision.

Before You Start Revising

Your first step is to pick the Major Paper that you want to revise and include as part of your Final

Portfolio. You should consider the following when picking your paper: 1) Does the paper satisfy the

assignment? 2) Does the paper make an argument, have a claim, have a purpose? 3) Does the paper

provide the necessary support and evidence? 4) How much time and work is required in order to

accomplish all of the above? And finally, 5) Am I interested in working on the paper again?

What do we mean by revision? You already know this because you have been revising all summer!

BUT, what we mean by revision for the final portfolio is that you will take all that you have learned from

our class and apply it to the paper you have chosen to revise. For example, in Week 1, you didn’t know

what a claim was. In Week 4, you do; if you choose to revise your Literacy Narrative then, we would

expect it to have a claim.

Can I just move some commas around? No! Revision literally means “to see again,” not “to move

some commas around.” We expect substantial revision from you. This might mean that you cut whole

paragraphs and add whole new pages. This might mean that your claim becomes totally different. You

should look at all of your drafts for that paper and pay careful attention to your instructor’s comments. If

you have a question, ask!

What if both of my final papers are PERFECT and there is nothing to revise? We know none of you

would ACTUALLY ask us this, because we know that you know there is always more work to do when it

comes to writing. If you are having trouble trying to figure out a direction for your revision, talk to your

instructors.

How do I know which Major Paper to choose? You should choose whichever paper you think you can

do the most productive revision of. If one paper fills you with dread, choose the other one. If both fill

you with dread, come talk to one of us and we will try to help you make a dread-free decision.

Goals and Outcomes

Once you have selected your paper, you must set aside enough time for revision. Significant and

meaningful revisions cannot be done in just a few minutes. Again, revision is more than just proofreading

and editing and responding to instructor comments. You must do more than just fix spelling, grammar,

and punctuation (though these details are important). You must do more than just make sure you have

complete sentences, topic sentences, strong evidence, and good transitions. You must do more than just

MAJOR PAPER REVISION

110

“fix” what you received comment on. Successful revision requires that you look at the big picture and

how the little stuff all fits and flows together.

Fortunately, you’ve been away from your papers at least a few days, so you can come back to them with

fresh eyes. Reread your assignment sheet to make sure you understand what the paper requires. Reread

your peer review workshop notes. And reread your instructor’s marginal and end comments. Then come

up with a revising plan:

• What do you need to change? (claim, focus, direction, stakes, texts, reasoning, tone)

• What do you need to add? (subclaims, quotes, evidence, transitions, analysis, commentary, description)

• What do you need to cut? (redundancy, digressions, examples, unnecessary language, fluff)

• What do you need to polish? (word choice, sentence length, transitions, paragraphs, figures of speech)

• What do you need to fix? (grammar, punctuation, formatting, quotations, citations, works cited)


Format: follow the manuscript requirements for the revised paper

Due: Select your major paper by Tuesday, July 31

Revise your major paper and bring a clean draft of the revision plus previous drafts (with

your instructors’ comments) on Wednesday, July 1

Revise your Research Claim and bring a clean draft of the revision plus previous drafts

on Thursday, August 2

Final revisions due Friday, August 3, by 12 NOON, turned in with your Final Portfolio

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REVISION STRATEGIES


One of the central processes in writing is revision, though many college writers do not revise enough, give

themselves enough time for revision, nor know what revision entails. What does it mean to revise, to edit, and

to proofread?

Revision indicates that changes be made at a fundamental level. In an argumentative essay, the central claim,

supporting claims, unwritten assumptions, evidence, analysis, definitions of key terms, and overall structure of

the piece are all up for scrutiny and improvement when you revise. Revision should be specific, substantive, and

strategic.

Editing has to do with issues like paragraphing, sentence structure, word choice, grammar, transitions, and the

other choices writers make to develop and clearly communicate their ideas in writing. Editing is also about tone

and style.

Proofreading is the stage at which issues of formatting, mechanics, spelling, and so on are addressed. In other

words, if it doesn’t look good, you don’t look good.

I. Revision

Work from big to small issues, from higher-order issues to lower-order issues:

CLAIMS

□ Is my claim clear?

□ What is at stake in my claim? Why is it important in an academic context? Am I being

analytical enough (and not just summarizing)? Does it answer the “so what” or “this is important

because” questions?

□ Does my paper support my claim specifically with evidence?

□ Do my sub-claims relate back to my main claim? Do they answer the “so what” question?

ORGANIZATION

□ Do all my paragraphs have a purpose that relates to my claim?

□ Do I have a clear introduction that anticipates my following organization?

□ Do I have a conclusion?

□ Is there a natural progression in the paper?

□ Do I use transitions to remind my readers where they have been and where they are going?

SOURCES

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□ Have I properly introduced my quotations by recognizing the author and the article/book/etc

where the quote is from originally?

□ Do my quotes function as evidence to support my claim?

□ Have I correctly cited all my quotations and paraphrases?

□ Do I use my source as evidence to support my own claim, or do I just summarize the argument

from the source?

II. Editing

Think about the structure and language of your paper.

PARAGRAPHS

□ Do I have topic sentences that introduce the main theme of the paragraph and show

connections between paragraphs?

SENTENCES

□ Do I choose the words that best describe the ideas that I am trying to get across to my reader?

□ Do I use an academic tone?

□ Does the length of my sentences vary?

□ Do I follow rules of grammar?

□ Do I use complete sentences (and not sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and comma

splices)?

III. Proofreading

Pay attention to detail, mechanics, and manuscript conventions.

FORMATTING

□ Do I adhere to the MLA style guide citing quotations?

□ Do I have a Works Cited page?

□ Have I used the agreed upon format for papers?

Helpful Revision Activities

1. Underline your claim. It should me more than one sentence. It should also signal to your reader what your

paper is about, and the stakes involved in your argument.

2. Write the topic/sub-claim of each paragraph in the margins. Make sure that the topic is related to your

main claim and sub-claims. These topics and sub-claims should provide support for your argument.

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3. Check for a natural progression. After outlining your paragraphs, make sure the sub-claims you identify

more from weakest to strongest as your paper progresses, with the climax of your paper coming right before the

conclusion.

4. Read your paper aloud. Often times this can help you identify awkward sentences, or missed words.

5. Work Backwards. If you examine a sentence from the end forward, you focus on the words, not on the

content.

6. Double check spelling. REMEMBER: your computer can’t tell the difference between “their books” and

“there books,” but you can.

7. Have someone you trust look over your paper. If you have a peer or tutor or instructor who you trust, go to

them with specific things for them to help you with.

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WEEK

4 REVISION SELF-ANALYSIS


As part of a metacognitive approach to writing, it is a good practice to re-evaluate your papers once they

are “finished.” This self-analysis, though brief, asks you to reflect on your overall revision process—

what do you notice about your writing between drafts, what kind of suggestions did your instructor or

peers make, what kind of changes did you make and why did you make them. You will need to submit

this Revision Self-Analysis in your Final Portfolio in the Week 4 section of your binder.

Please answer all of the following questions, making frequent reference to your drafts:

1. What revision “suggestions” did your instructor* give you? List them here.

*If necessary, translate those suggestions from teacher-speak into your own words. If you have

questions, ask one of us! We are right here, watching you...right now.

2. What are three things that worked really well in this paper?

3. What are the things you are going to work on in your revision? (Some possible examples might

include your claim, topic sentences, Introduction, Conclusion, Metacommentary, etc.) Explain what you

want to do with the areas you have identified as areas for revision.

4. Pick one paragraph in class and do a full revision of it. Write your new paragraph here (use the back if

necessary):

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WEEK

4 REVISION OF RESEARCH CLAIM


Please take out the graded version of your Claim from Week 3’s Read-Search Project to help you with

this assignment. You might want to go back and look at the assignment sheet for the Research Claim.

Then, in your process journal, please answer all of the following questions:

1. What do you want readers to understand about your topic?

2. How successful do you think your claim is?

3. How successful did your instructor think your claim was? What instructions for revision did your

instructor give you?

4. Try rewriting your claim here. (You will have to turn in a typed final version, of course, but get started

with your revision now.)

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WEEK

4 COVER LETTER REVISION FINAL WORKSHOP


Today’s final workshop focuses on revising the Prospective Cover Letter and whether the whole paper

satisfies the requirements of the assignment. Let’s make sure you are ready to hand in your fully revised

paper.

Introduction

Does the Author have a claim? Underline it. Is it focused and analytical? How could the author make it more

analytical?

Is there a roadmap, or a clear description of how the paper will progress??

Body

Underline the topic sentences of each paragraph. Does each paragraph address that topic and nothing else?

Does each paragraph help to support the main topic of the paper?

Conclusion

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Does this author conclude this paper in an interesting fashion? Can you offer any suggestions?

Revision

Ask the author to show you where he/she considerably rewrote the paper. Circle these sections.

Ask the author to show you where he/she edited.

Help this author proofread for errors.

What are two suggestions you can offer to this author?

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Revision Check List

□ Did you significantly RE-WRITE sections of your paper?

□ Did you EDIT your paper?

□ Did you PROOFREAD your paper?

□ Did you respond to instructor comments?

□ Did you respond to peer comments?

□ Did you satisfy the assignment?

□ Single-spaced

□ Business letter

□ MLA Format

□ Times New Roman font, 12 point

□ One-inch margins

119

KEEPING IT REAL AN EXERCISE IN CUTTING OUT THE B.S.


While your instructors definitely hope that you have learned from this class, we have no illusions that it was the

best experience of your lives and you are forever transformed as a writer. You might feel ambivalent about the

class. Many of you still dislike writing. Many of you like it a bit more than you did three weeks ago, but it is still

a painful struggle. Some of you came into the class a good writer and will leave an even better writer. One of

the reasons we will not believe you if you tell us your writing is “fixed” is that no one—not me, not you, not even

the boy-geniuses making robots in the hall—can totally change/improve their writing in a month. That is

because writing is a process. That idea is important enough to repeat: writing is a process through which we

develop, revise and communicate our ideas. Writing is tough. It is painful. It has many parts. From the Graff

essay to the hellish reflective writing (“what was difficult about writing this essay?”) we have forced on you

daily, this class has been planned to be a sort of reality check/skill boosting session in which you can figure out

where you stand as a first-year college writer, honestly assess the challenges that lay ahead, and create a plan

for tacking these difficulties. In order to really execute the last part of this goal, you need be detailed, sincere

and realistic when you write this prospective essay. This exercise is designed to help you do that.

Pair up with one other person in the class. Switch papers. Then read your partner’s paper out loud to them.

Both the reader and the listener/writer should keep these questions in mind:

• How does the paper sound?

• What is the overall tone of the essay? Does it change?

• What parts ring true, and which phrases or ideas are more generic or clichéd?

• What claims to you make in this essay?

• What details are there to support these claims? (i.e. is what you say true? How do we know?)

As your own paper is being read to you, take notes on your own copy of the draft. After the draft has been read,

spend a few minutes discussing with your partner. Switch and repeat.

Keeping It Real, a Quick Guide

BAD = When I came into this class I was a terrible writer, however, with the help of my instuctors , I

feel that I can conquer anything that comes my way. I have no doubt that I am going to soar

through my first-year college experience thanks to these wonderful teachers.

GOOD = I have always struggled with writing. I feel that I have good ideas that I cannot get onto paper.

However, this class has helped me to realize that having a good idea is only the beginning and

that “good” writing is the result of a lot of steps including brainstorming, drafting, revising and

editing. I think that part of my difficulty as a writer has been that I am impatient and I want it to

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just “flow” out of me. Now I realize that half the battle is just taking the steps and giving myself

enough time.

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FRIDAYS ON FOOT: FIELD DAY SKITS


The final Fridays on Foot will be a “field day” on campus. We will gather for some food,

fun, and festivities that will include special presentations by you and your classmates. Your assignment

for the “field day” is simple: put on a short, informative, entertaining, and relevant skit for your class,

your instructors, and your tutors. The skin can demonstrate a talent or it can dramatize an important

concept from the class or it can be a spoof of the course. Feel free to be creative, funny, musical, and

innovative, but be respectful!

List your skit members: Team Name:

___________________________ _______________________________________________

___________________________

___________________________ Title of Skit:

___________________________ _______________________________________________

___________________________

Goals and Guidelines

End of term skits are a long tradition at many schools, teams, and institutions. In fact, there is a long

standing tradition in the military called “dining in,” where officers and enlisted mix and mingle to

improve morale, cohesion, and community. During “dining-in” ceremonies, skits are often performed as

part of the entertainment. According to a 2007 Northwestern/Loyola NROTC “Dining In” memo, these

skits “[poke] fun at ourselves through the use of satire and skits while maintaining a sense of

responsibility and respect for our service traditions, universities, and shipmates[, and] promotes

leadership, teamwork and unit cohesion. Take responsibility for a buddy’s safety and conduct. Smile,

chuckle, and laugh aloud.” In other words, these skits allowed the lower ranks to spoof the commanders,

allowed different groups to highlight their skills, and celebrated the ideals of the corp, all the while

maintaining the “rules of the mess.”

Like the “dining in” festivities, your “field day” skit or performance must incorporate or address or be the

following:

• no more than 5 minutes in length

• demonstrate a talent or dramatize a lesson or concept from class (feel free to draw on the course

readings, packet, assignments, discussions, lectures, and Fridays on Foot) or can spoof or satirize

classmates, tutors, teachers, coaches (respectfully)

• scripted or extemporaneous (practice your skit ahead of time)

• can use props or costumes or make-up or music

• all skit members must have a part in the skit (though they need not necessary speak)

• promote leadership, teamwork, cohesion, community, and learning

• be respectful, attentive to your audience, and keep in mind good taste

WEEK

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SAMPLES AND READINGS


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Sample Student

ENGL 108 H

Instructors Names

July 15, 2009

Literacy Narrative

Homeschooling: a word that many associate with these words: loner, friendless, loser. And yes, with the people I grew

up around, I fit those three words like a good, comfortable pair of shoes. I do not mean to be naive, but I feel as though I can

relate to Sherman Alexie when he said that he was ridiculed by both Indians and non-Indians. Although I claim moderate

proficiency in math, I have limited confidence in my ability to properly count how many times I have received this response:

“You like to read!?”

Heck yes I do! I love to read. I think. At least I thought I did. I am not so sure if I love consuming the treacherous and

long winded narrative that Frederick Douglass has woven together in an extremely confusing and vocabulary ridden tapestry.

For example, “They gave tongue to my own soul, which had frequently flashed through my mind, and died away for want of

utterance” (Douglass, 73). Quite obviously, Douglass had attained a high level of proficiency in using his cross stitch on canvas

technique. I am again unsure if I love reading the seemingly more interesting, more descriptive, more easily understandable

Sherman Alexie piece, for it serves as a reminder that I, as an unaccomplished writer, do not have the privilege of penning a

simple subject and predicate, simple peanut butter and jelly sentence sandwich. “I refused to fail. I was smart. I was arrogant. I

was lucky” (Alexie, 43).

Simple and plain, peanut butter and jelly. Those select words explain the beautiful simplicity and excitement of

learning how to read, which I first encountered when I learned to read my first book: Goodnight Moon, and I can remember my

excitement when I first was able to comprehend the fact that the word “cow” was the big, black and white animal that lived on

farms. I am fairly certain that even after I was able to read with ease and the initial feeling of excitement of discovery had died

down, my joy for reading had found a new way to vent itself, in the form of my very active, picture painting, HD imagination.

However, my imagination also lets me envision the not so wonderful, tinfoil antenna picture that academic reading

brings. I am glad to say though, that after all of the self inflicted drama and pain, associated with suffering through academic

reading, I can repeat to myself: “Yes! I love to read!” The feeling of being instantaneously and magically transported to

different worlds, situations, and environments is unsurpassable; I believe it is like eating the most perfect, heavenly sandwich

this world has to offer. The feeling of losing myself in a different world is unbelievable. I would liken my interest in reading to

running; for example, a marathon runner would not express the slightest interest in trying out for the sprinting team. Likewise,

I don’t have the slightest interest in reading analytically while annotating simultaneously, but I would gladly let my mind

transport me instaneously to another world. In Clive Cussler’s The Navigator I can feel my mouth fill with sand as sandstorms

develop and I can taste the saltiness of the Mediterranean as I plunge down into the icy depths of the ocean with no hope of

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surfacing again. Ten times more lucid than TV, reading is prevalent in my everyday life. And perhaps that is what I love most

about reading: the wonderful, active yet peaceful (sometimes), bliss-like state of mind that literacy affords me.

However, nothing kills the oh-so-sweet mood that I receive from reading better than writing. In my case, I often feel

as though I am constantly missing the jar of peanut butter while simultaneously lathering jelly all over my arm in the attempt to

construct the simple and perfect peanut butter and jelly sentence-sandwich. My papers taste and feel like a feast of slop!

Mangled crusts of passive verbs, globs of sweet subjects, and spoonfuls of incomplete and undeveloped slosh around crumbs

of crummy adverbs and weak adjectives as I wallow in my pitiful wake as I write. I feel as though I am a stronger reader than a

writer because, when I read, my sometimes overly active imagination concocts intricate visions and makes connections; then,

like a magnet to electrical data, the visions and connections vanish as soon as I pick up a pen.

I believe that I have a hard time putting my thoughts down in a paper partly because I do not know how to organize

my thoughts clearly, and partly because I get so caught up in a developing a certain idea that I do not take the time to write

down my other thoughts. This became evident in my junior year of school when we were assigned nightly reading logs that

accompanied Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter. We had to select one of five motifs from Scarlet Letter and write a three

hundred and fifty word log pertaining to a section of the book that we had started in class and finished on our own later. This

was very difficult for me, and quickly became frustrating as I understood the chapter, but was unable to explain motifs such as

redemption, the wilderness of nature, women’s role in society, and revenge to my teacher’s liking. I tried to manage this

problem by asking the teacher exactly how I could improve upon my logs, but I still had trouble organizing my thoughts and

clearly finishing my points; this is something I hope to fix before the end of this course, hopefully with the help of our

wonderful reading discussion groups that pick out new points like a hungry child on a bone-bare chicken. I hope to soon be

able to pick a chicken clean and create an organized feast of words and ideas, which will render readers with this thought:

“Delectable.”

All of the cooking metaphors aside, I believe that writing has many uses, some of which are communicating an idea,

expressing a thought or using rhetoric to persuade. In school, to me, writing helps open the doors to different options and

different ideas. I think that the more powerful the writing, the fancier the door being opened is. Outside of school, writing

serves as many of the previously mentioned ideas; but for me it mainly serves as a process for communicating. I believe many

individuals have different reasons for writing. For Frederick Douglass, writing, although useful as a means of communication

to him, primarily served as hope. Hope that he would one day be able to convince his master that he too, like the imaginary

slave in Richard Sheridan’s Columbian Orator, was worthy of “voluntary emancipation” (Douglass, 73). Douglass’s hope was

eventually made reality, and although he did not manage to debate his way out of slavery, literacy made Douglass’s dream a

reality.

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I hope, over the duration of this course, to be able to apply my love of reading and bridge it into being able to write

better papers and improving my critical reading skills. The witty and crude Steven King inspired me to say Mykenna finishes.

“Take any noun, put it with a verb, and you have a sentence. It never fails” (King, 121). A simple, open and close, peanut

butter and jelly sentence-sandwich. These sentence-sandwiches have won my attention for my entire life, and I hope to be able

to make the ones I construct in the future edible. Excuse me, not edible. Delectable.

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Literacy: Hood Motivations, Dreams and Reputation

What is Literacy, and personal development? Being illiterate is not an option with the rising competition factor in all aspects of life. High-end jobs look for well-educated people who know how to handle a situation fluently on their own. With out a degree in some field of study it almost impossible to land the high paying job that will support you on a annual basis. Corporations usually look for their "next best thing" through internships. Internships pick students based on the criteria they set forward, education level having to be the most prestige out of the group. Then your resume, which is made up of all sorts or things, that defines you whether it be feeding the homeless every Sunday or a national spelling bee champion. Sports programs need student athletes to understand what's going on around them and handle the media in the most professional way. In games, coaches need to rely on you to understand body, and game language during tight situations, and in post-game interviews they rely on you to humble your self respectfully and professionally preach about what happened in that game. Lastly Socializing its self solely with friends and family is based upon the literal understanding each person has. Switching from a professional standpoint to a friendly laid back one is difficult. Speaking to a boss would differ from speaking to a cousin or nephew. Learning how to realize you’re so-called language zones are a must. my personal development has turned out to be a tough road to follow and I am yet to hit the half waypoint to my finish.

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The road to mastering literacy is of high importance and my ultimate goal academic wise. Literacy is something earned not given. Literacy is the difference between the man I am and the man I want to be. Literacy is the possession of education and the most important trait to acquire overall. Coming from Oakland California if you are not the few dreaming big to become a rapper or professional athlete, then you might be the few shooting to become a lawyer or business man, and if you aren't them then you are one of the hundreds being killed or thrown in jail every day. Before I was born, a label was put on my generation and me. One suggested the fact that because of my African American race, and place in which I was born, Oakland California, I wouldn’t be successful. It stated that I would become involved in gangs, violence, or drug and suffer the consequences of either jail or death. It also stressed the fact that I will not succeed in school and it will pass on to my kids, and future generations are surely to follow this sort of life style. Unfortunately because of my families past stereotypes, my future seemed doomed with every passing year condensing my families pride and respect into a little bit of nothing. Instead of relating this story with Douglass who I share historical background with it would be more suitable for me to relate it to the sophisticated writings of Sherman Alexie and Amy Tan. Tan brought up a good point about her mother saying, “You should know that my mother’s expressive command of English belies how much she actually understands”(78). In other words her mother speaks like she does not

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know much when she actually knows a lot. Is it her mother’s fault that she comes from another country with a different set of grammar skills or the fault of the stereotypical people out there who do not want to take the time out to actually get to know her? It riddles me given the observations I make on a daily basis how blatant people can be with their stereotype and not know, or just don't care. There were times were I was literally the only one told just do your best on school work with out a plausible explanation from me as of why I would have any problems at all. There were times where teachers actually told me I was not fit for the work at hand and sat me to the side. Whether being straight forward or not the fact that you don't know me or wouldn't try to get to know me, and you rather sit me aside to rot rather than teaching me the steps to be successful is rather scandalous. Not only did stereotypes take a toll on us mentally the physical damage was fierce. It caused young boys and girls to actually believe we can’t be teachers, we can’t be managers, we can’t be governors, in other words we will not be a success. Kids were brainwashed to forget about their dreams because it wasn’t going to happen. The stereotypes is the least bit of my problems, the effect the stereotypes have on me and other youth like me is almost literally life or death. The effect is that of being embarrassed to the point one goes into hiding him or herself from the world to not be seen or reminded about what happened. Alexie stated, "A smart Indian is a dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians alike. I fought with my classmates on a daily basis. They

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wanted me to stay quiet when the non-Indian teacher asked for answers, for volunteers, for help. We were Indians children who were expected to be stupid"(63). The stereotypes set forward by the non-Indians oppressed the Indian children to actually believe that they weren't good enough. That in fact it is their duty to sit back and do nothing about it. That's the feeling me and my generation share and the weird thing about it, we understand this. We understand the whens, wheres, whos, hows, and whys we are looked down upon in the educational system. We are aware of the fact that a white teacher, most of the time, would rather help a white student just because the simple thought that it would be easier to teach it to him or her. This fact including the actual action to try is abated by the thought of why should I? why should I waste my time with someone who doesn't want to waste their time with me? At this time we become smothered with the oppressive accusations, the stereotypes, and the straight bullshit they feed us to basically control us. I often feel as a constant dreamer it is my duty to be the "Alexie" of African Americans, to show my people it is ok to be smart, to learn, and to get good grades. Doing so we can punish the people who punished us by being that lawyer, that doctor, or governor. Before I was brought about the world, my family grew up through And overcame problems such as racism, gang violence, drugs, oppression, police brutality, and devastating family issues. Because of these dramatic obstacles most of the adults in my family failed to either graduate high school or enroll into college. Thus the fact of a good

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education to earn a better life for the individual, immediate family, and Elders who lived the other life pushed family as a whole. My mother trained me to overcome the worse. She taught me to be independent, the importance of education, and how to love my brothers and sisters because they were all I was going to have in the future. I openly listened to my mother with enthusiasm and because of that I made a promise to myself that I would be the one to respectively represent and bring honor to my family’s title whether it is sitting behind a desk or Playing on a field. During my journey I found the urge to want to become educated. My academic background has been sound for the most part of my life due to my strong upbringing. I have breezed through elementary and middle school with A’s and B’s coming into high school with a clear understanding of how academic standards were going to be, but was blinded by the political side of education, the real educational system. My educational qualities were now defined by my strengths and weaknesses, and determined by my successes and struggles.

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Reading to Learn

Though I was born in Hollywood, I grew up in probably what many would consider one of the richest and whitest

places in America: Danville, California. Soccer moms drive their kids around in tricked-out Escalades, five year olds are given

expensive cell phones, and teenagers drive Mercedes and BMWs to and from high school. The cumulative amount of wealth in

the area that I lived in is enormous. With all of that money around, the local schools are some of the best in the country. It is

uncommon for a few students NOT to go to Harvard or Stanford from the local High School. Living in a place like Danville it

is easy to get lost in the wealth and forget about other important things like developing your reading and writing skills. My

learning conditions were very different from those of Sherman Alexie and Fredrick Douglass because instead of having to deal

with poverty, or slavery and the hardships that came with it I had to deal with too much privilege and the distractions and

problems it brought to my process of trying to become literate.

The ability to be literate and to communicate with other people through reading and writing can give any person an

advantage in their lives. There are two writers who are great examples of this, Sherman Alexie and Fredrick Douglass.

Sherman Alexie is professor at University of Washington and is a perfect example of succeeding through literacy. He grew up

on a Spokane Native American reservation in Wellpinit, Washington. Alexie distinguished himself from his class by his

profound love for literature. Frederick Douglass is another example of a person making a difference because of their ability to

read and write. He was a slave in the south during the 1800’s. He used his ability to read and write to help free slaves. These

two influential people had to learn in opposite conditions to those that I had to.

Frederick Douglass had to learn to read and write in many different ways. He initially had help from his mistress, but

she eventually turned on him and tried to prevent him from learning to read. He then had to go and bribe the poor white kids to

teach him words so that he could continue his education. Douglass eventually escaped from slavery and became an advocate

for the rights of African Americans. My situation could be considered the opposite of Douglass’s. I was not struggling with

poverty or racism; I had more than I needed and therefore, was lacking the enthusiasm when it came to being motivated to

learn to read. I consider myself extremely lucky that I was born into an environment that catered to my needs, but along with it

being a blessing it was also a curse. Having more than I needed was a curse because I had no motivation to try and do better.

No matter what I did, if I did or didn’t read, I was still coming back to a big warm house at night. I didn’t have an external

force pushing me so that I may do better later in my life. Without my dad constantly bothering me to do better I would have

never been pushed to do my best in school and extracurricular activities. Sherman Alexie is another example of some one who

had to overcome negative influences in order to learn to read and write.

Alexie’s story is not as systemic as Frederick Douglass’s was but it is still a situation much more difficult than mine

was. Alexie faced what most people would consider a cultural issue. Most Native Americans were against learning to read and

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write in schools because they did not want to feel like they were charity cases. This ultimately led to a large portion of Native

Americans being below the poverty line, which added to the amount of illiterate people. Alexie went against stereotype and

took every opportunity in school to learn to read and write. By doing this he became very good at writing and is now an

acclaimed author and film writer. Much like how Alexie went against his poverty stricken culture I had to go against my lavish

overindulgent culture. With the help of my dad I was able to put down the remote and take not only my education but also my

success in life into my own hands. Alexie’s story inspires me to become a better student in all aspects so that much like

Sherman Alexie did may overcome a set expectation by my culture. My dad helping me was the reason I was able to overcome

my stereotype of a rich kid.

My father was also the one who taught me how to read. He was the motivation behind instructing me not only how to

read but to take pleasure in it as well. He persuaded me to read using incentives. I needed incentive to push me to read because

I had gotten enveloped in the cultures of where I lived: televisions, phones and video games. Because I especially enjoyed

watching television so much, my dad decided to base the amount of television I was permitted to watch each day on the

amount of time I spent reading. The system that he set up was I would read and then go to him with a short oral summary of

what I had read. He would then base the amount of television on the summary I presented. Though this system was getting me

to read, it was not exactly what my dad had in mind. He wanted me to not only read, but to enjoy what I was reading as well.

He accomplished this through bringing home books based on my current likes and avoiding books that had to do with my

dislikes. At that time I was a huge fan of the show Are You Afraid of the Dark, a horror show that played on Nickelodeon. With

this in mind, my dad went out and bought my first Goosebumps books. This is very easily related to Gerald Graff’s argument

about how when a student is given interesting material they will respond much stronger than if it was material that was boring

to them. One particular book stuck out, the book One Day in Horror Land. This book was very special to me; it had gotten me

addicted reading. I can honestly say after reading this book I read almost all the Goosebumps books thereafter.

Much like how Sherman Alexie had fallen in love with his Superman comics, The Goosebumps books were my

obsession. I loved how R.L. Stine wrote the books with very simple language, but they still ended up telling theses amazing

stories that would take you on mental quests in other worlds. Learning to appreciate literature was a very difficult process for

me. With the help of my dad though, I am now able to benefit from reading and all the great things that can come from it. I

eventually expanded my interests in books. Though I still do like reading the occasional horror novel, I am much more

interested in non-fiction writing now. Books like License to Pawn and The Gift of Fear really interest me now. This is all

attributed to my dad teaching me to read about my interests and not to force myself to read something that I don’t appreciate. It

is safe to say that this is the story of me over coming my negative influences and becoming literate.

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Literacy is one of the most important things a person can develop. Whether it’s to break a common stereotype or to

break out of oppression reading and writing is one of the most powerful tools in the world. It is known that literacy is a key to

success and the better you become at reading and writing the easier time you will have at becoming a smarter person.

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Works Cited

Alexie, Sherman. “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me.” The Writer’s Presence. Eds. Donald McQuade and

Robert Atwan. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2003: 61-64

Huffington Post.6-16-10.7-10-11. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/16/highest-paid-

professors_n_614302.html#s101162&title=Area_Ethnic_Culture

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Sample Student

Oldham & Hernandez

ENGL 108 H

July 20, 2011

Analyzing Paulo Freire’s Absentis Corpo Conscientie Metaphor

Paulo Freire’s essay The “Banking” Concept of Education is a very interesting work on how he

believes education should be taught and the relationships between students and teachers. Freire writes in

the first couple of pages about the downsides (of the then currently run) of the “Banking” system of

education. In a selected passage on page 211, Freire’s writing shows his ability to think analytically in the

content of the downsides of the “Banking” concept. The passage requires the reader and his audience to

heighten their sensitivity of reason to become fully aware of the content’s intricate meaning. Freire

strengthens his opinion on how education should be run by incorporating a high level of rationalization

and was able to construct a complicated metaphor from the inner depths of his meditations. He is able to

establish validity to his views with the power of this metaphor by incorporating more rhetorical devices

such as analogies and connotations to make his audience better understand and reveal the dehumanizing

results of the “banking” system. I have hence named the passage as: The Metaphor of Absentis Corpo

Conscientie, or the absence of the conscious being. Paulo Freire uses the metaphor of Absentis Corpo

Conscientie to help audiences that support his point of view to strengthen their belief in the Problem-

Posing Method and to have practitioners of the “Banking” system to doubt their own perspective. This

strategy of bait and catch was well executed in the Absentis Corpo Conscientie, and is a great example of

how to prove a point effectively.

The first sentence of the Absentis Corpo Conscientie begins with the word “implicit” and therefore

implies the fact that Freire shows his ability to think critically by finding the implicit message in the

“Banking” concept. “Implicit in the banking concept is the assumption of dichotomy between man and

the world:” (211). Therefore in order to comprehend the meaning of the passage, one must also think

critically. The earlier passages before this talks about how there is a void between the student and the

teacher in the “Banking” concept. Freire looks beyond the void between student and teacher and extends

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to an enlarged view, the void between man and the world. To truly understand the rest of the Absentis

Corpo Conscientie, the reader too must also look implicitly like Freire to see the connection between the

two relationships. The word Implicit warns the reader to prepare for a deeper perception to see how his

new metaphor was taken out of the previous arguments. Once the reader is able to perceive more implicit

in thought, the reader will be able see that the dignity of humanity is taken away. If the world is pouring

reality into our heads, then we as humans will not have the agency and ability to perceive the world. This

insight becomes a powerful upgrade in the argument toward the “banking” system. Freire is able to show

how the “banking” system takes away the liberty of agency, the abilty to think because all knowledge and

reality is “deposited” into our minds.

As we continue on with the rest of the first sentence, we go on with the context of the introduction

of Freire’s metaphor; the man and the world. Still a part of the first sentence, Freire states that there is a,

“dichotomy between man and the world:” (211), which is the reduced implication of the void between the

student and the teacher. Freire gives the two components of his metaphor attributes as we continue with

the second half of his powerful first sentence, “…man is merely in the world, not with the world or with

others; man is spectator, not re-creator.” (211). Freire imbues the character in his metaphor with meaning,

telling man that he is a part of the world and not a separate entity. He continues giving the two

components more meaning by saying, “In this view, man is not a conscious being (corpo consciente); he

is rather the possessor of a consciousness…” (211). Freire plays with these words, mixing and matching

them. Both statements “conscious being”, and a “possessor of a consciousness”, show that both have a

conscious but because of Freire’s word trickery and arrangement, he is able to make both sound the same

and confusing but the word possessor gives it all away. One can possess anything but it doesn’t mean it’s

used or even applied. However in the matter of the “conscious being”, the word conscious comes first

which means that his conscious is activated, thus the reasoning behind my title of the passage, Absentis

Corpo Conscientie, the absence of conscience in a being. Freire then goes on and describes the jobs that

are bestowed upon the two components. The possessor of a consciousness has, “an empty ‘mind’

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passively open to the reception of deposits of reality from the world outside. Here Freire explains both

roles of the world and the man. The man is an empty mind (Absentis Corpo Conscientie) and sits while

the world “deposits” reality into the absent conscious mind. In the second sentence of the passage, Freire

brings question in the difference between two different bodies of consciousness, answers the audience

with the difference and then describes the functions of the being and its counterpart the world. When

reading the metaphor in deep insight, Freire is able to connect the passage back to the “Banking” system.

The world pours itself into humanity, as the teacher just pours knowledge into the student. Like the

“possessor of consciousness”, the student too is merely a “possessor of knowledge”, where it is neither

activated nor applied, but is just in the state of potentiality. That rationing of knowledge to students,

according to Freire is deemed an act of dehumanization. Freire uses this to make his audience disgusted

with the “Banking” system by saying that it will take away your agency of thought and speech, whereas

the Problem-Posing concept will not.

The Absentis Corpo Conscientie uses the rhetorical device of the metaphor to strengthen his

argument to side with his Problem-Posing Method. After the introducing the metaphor, Freire brings in an

analogy compliment the Absentis Corpo Conscientie. Freire uses the analogy of his study as an example

to better help his audience understand the metaphor of the world and the man. Freire states that, “…my

desk, my books, my coffee cup, all the objects before me-as bits of the world which surrounds me-would

be ‘inside’ me, exactly as I am inside my study right now.” (211). Right here Freire shows his readers an

exact example of the relationship between the world and the man that humans are not “automatons” that

possess no consciousness. Sitting in his study, Freire sees objects and those objects are matter that has

been “deposited” into his mind because he is an empty mind, an Absentis Corpo Conscientie. In his next

sentence he describes horrible state that the “possessor of a consciousness” is in inside the analogy, “This

view makes no distinction between being accessible to consciousness and entering consciousness.” (211).

Freire’s analogy sounds reasonable and not harmful, however this sentence reveals an implicit problem,

and he explains it by saying that man has no power over his own thoughts. The man will not be able

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distinguish the difference between reality and non-reality. However Freire is able to find that “distinction”

of accessing consciousness or not and says that, “…it is essential: the objects which surround me are

simply accessible to my consciousness, not located within it. I am aware of them, but they are not inside

of me.” (211). Freire answers the paradox of the analogy by denouncing the function of the world in the

metaphor, saying that the world doesn’t “deposit” reality to man, but rather that reality is merely a

perception of consciousness from man. The fifth and last sentence is bold and powerful ending all doubts,

“I am aware of them, but they are not inside of me.” (211).

Freire structures the metaphor of the Absentis Corpo Conscientie and the analogy of his study

cleverly and inserts his sentances and words in the right place. If the points shown in the last few

sentences were taken to the beginning, the impact of his arguments would not have as much impact.

Freire takes your hand and walks you down the other viewpoint that seems spotless without doubt, and

then however suddenly presents a problem and then takes you back to his viewpoint presenting

triumphantly his solution.

The Absentis Corpo Conscientie is the deepest five sentences of the whole essay. Freire was able

to connect a deep metaphysical and ontological scenario with the revealing fallacies of the “Banking”

Concept of Education. This ability to connect two different ideas and settings is ingenious and can only be

found through a deep thought process into the implicit trail inside the inter-depths of the “Banking”

concept. The Absentis Corpo Conscientie shows the far depths of Freire’s intellect to cross pollinate such

schools of thought; philosophy and education. Freire uses an abstract metaphor and analogy to suffice to

the needs of the intellectual reader. The Absentis Corpo Conscientie shows his audience the capacity of

his intellect, which makes his preivous and upcoming arguments more trustworthy. This is because if this

smart person is saying that something is wrong and here’s a solution, then he knows what he is talking

about, therefore I can and I should trust him. This deep metaphor also shows the more knowledgeable

reader the deeper concepts of his argument that its complexity also appeals to them which also makes

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them trust Freire too. Because of the intricate metaphor, Freire is able to establish himself as a liable

source to his audience of both the average and the intellectual reader.

Freire executes the functions of his rhetorical devices in the Absentis Corpo Conscientie. He

begins the passage with a metaphor, helps describes the metaphor with an analogy, states the problems

behind the metaphor and analogy, and then finally silencing all opposing views by answering with a

strong statement. Freire cleverly places each device in its set state to bring more strength into his

arguments. The Absentis Corpo Conscientie metaphor shows Freire’s uncanny thought process of cross

pollinating the deep mystical theories of ontology philosophy and the “Banking” concept of education.

This passage identifies Freire’s status on the zenith of education reform because of the power of doubt it

creates in the eyes of the opposing viewpoint, due to the execution of the Absentis Corpo Conscientie.

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Sample Student

Chang & Lee

ENGL 108

July 20, 2011

Paulo Freire Close Reading

In “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education,” Paulo Freire, a Brazilian-born writer, describes two

different systems of education. First he talks about the banking concept of learning in which teachers

deposit knowledge in the students like they are “receptacles” or “containers” and there is no dialogue.

This type of education is inhuman to the students, even though this type of education is present in most

education systems today. Secondly, he talks about the problem-posing method in which the students

engage in dialogue with the teachers, and it is a two-way learning process. Freire states that this type of

learning is better for both the students and teachers, and it also practices humanism, which is recognizing

an individual’s human qualities especially when communicating with others. Freire believes that even

though the teachers think they are practicing humanism, they really aren’t when they use the banking-

method. Throughout this essay, Freire repeats various forms of the word “humanism” to show the

importance of having a humanistic type of education because no system wants to be known as inhumane.

When Freire attaches the –ism to the term “humanism” he turns it into a phrase that sounds like a

philosophical term, which embodies the banking concept because teachers teach students as if they are

ignorant and need to be taught by people who know better. In contrast, he uses the word human to show

that teachers can actually treat students as equals, rather than talking down to them when using the

problem-posing method. The oppressors use humanism in a deceptive way which leads the students to

believing that their teachers practice humanism, but Freire is trying to recover the term humanism from

the oppressors because he knows they are using it in the wrong way.

When talking about the banking method of education, Freire uses quotation marks around the

words “humanitarianism” and “humanism” to show that he doesn’t believe the banking-concept uses

these words correctly. For example he says, “The oppressors use their “humanitarianism” to preserve a

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profitable situation” (209). The teachers are compared to the oppressors, and in the essay the oppressors

only want to deposit knowledge, they don’t care about the students and their learning ability. Freire uses

quotation marks around the word “humanitarianism” in this section because he doesn’t believe these

teachers are practicing humanism. The oppressors use the word humanism in the wrong way because they

say their system is humanistic, but all they really want is to have all the power and not give the students

any say. This leads Freire to believe that the banking concept doesn’t practice humanism which is defined

as giving the students the power to act like humans, not robots and be able to have a two-way

conversation between the student and the teacher. If the oppressors really cared about the students, they

would let the students participate and engage in activities which would help them learn better because

Freire says that students learn better when they are engaged in dialogue with their teachers.

Another example is when Freire says, “The ‘humanism’ of the banking approach masks the effort

to turn men into automatons” (210). Freire again uses quotation marks around the word “humanism”

because he doesn’t think an automaton is human, but rather a robot figure. Freire’s main argument is that

he doesn’t agree with the banking concept of education because it doesn’t treat the students like humans,

but rather like robots who have no ability to have a conversation with their teacher. Since Freire doesn’t

believe the banking concept is humanizing, he put the word “humanism” in quotation marks so it stands

out to the reader, and lets the reader know that any such claims posed by the banking educators are false.

When Freire uses quotation marks he really emphasizes his beliefs and shows sarcasm, but when he

thinks the system is practicing humanism, he leaves the word out of quotation marks.

Another tool that Freire uses is the use of the ending –ism. He says that the people who use the

word “humanism” aren’t using it in the correct way, because they aren’t being human or treating the

students like they are capable of having a conversation with their teachers. Rather when adding the ending

–ism it shows that they are trying to use it as a sign of authority, not a sign of humanity.

Freire believes the problem-posing concept practices humanism, and therefore doesn’t place

quotation marks around the different forms of the word. For example, Freire says, “The world-no longer

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something to be described with deceptive words-becomes the object of that transforming action by men

which results in their humanization” (218). Freire is describing the problem-posing concept and is saying

that it doesn’t use deceptive words like the banking concept does. The banking concept uses the word

humanism in a deceptive way which makes the reader think the banking concept practices it, but it really

doesn’t. Also Freire is no longer being sarcastic, but rather believes that the problem posing method is

actually being humanistic. This quote shows that the students are no longer “automatons” or robots, but

rather human beings who can perform their own actions by engaging in a conversation with their teacher.

This specific quote argues that the problem posing method is humanistic by not placing it in the

quotations. Since there are no quotations, there is no special attention drawn to this word because the

reader should read it how it is and take it as it is stated, unlike the banking concept which needs quotes so

the reader has to think twice about it in order to understand that Freire doesn’t believe the banking method

is humanistic.

Also in this example about the problem-posing method, Freire doesn’t use the ending –ism

because he believes the teachers in the problem posing method are actually treating people with humanity,

unlike the banking educators who use –ism as a sign of authority. Instead of using the word humanism,

Freire is specific about his word choice by choosing the word “humanization” instead of humanism. His

choice of the word humanization shows that Freire doesn’t belive in the word humanism because the

oppressors use it in such a negative way. He didn’t fully recover the word humanism, so he has to result

to a different form of the word to make the reader believe his argument. This supports Freire’s overall

argument because Freire’s main purpose is to have the education system reformed to a system which

practices humanity, and this quote says that the problem posing method practices humanity by treating the

students like humans who can perform actions, not like robots.

Freire is trying to prove that the banking system of education is inhuman, while the problem

posing method practices humanism. He says, “Any situation in which some men prevent others from

engaging in the process of inquiry is one of violence. The means used are not important; to alienate men

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from their own decision-making is to change them into objects” (218). Freire uses this quote to sum

things up by saying he doesn’t believe in the banking system because the teachers and students are not

involved with each other to help one other learn. He states that if men cannot make their own decisions,

then they are turned into objects which are inhumane. Freire’s use of quotations, when talking about the

banking-method, supports his main purpose because he doesn’t agree with the banking system and wants

all education systems to be changed to the problem-posing method. Freire’s overall goal is to change the

system of education from the banking system to the problem posing system because the problem posing

system practices humanism and allows the students to learn better. Humanism is necessary because in

order or there to be change we have to work together to transform the world we share in common. Freire

is trying to change the education system to a humanist one by taking back the word humanism from the

ones who use it in a deceptive way. He is educating the population of hat the true meaning of humanism is

in order to take the next step of changing all education to the problem-posing method.

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Sample

ENGL 108 I

Ed Chang and Jane Lee

July 31, 2011

Research Paper- The Influence of Print Media on Eating Disorders

I realized that and as I carry out my everyday life, the mass media has become an essential part not only throughout

society, but also the way in which I live my life. I never paid much attention to the advertisements and pictures displayed

around me whether they are on billboards, magazines, or in shows on television. However, now I have begun to realize that

they were used to serve as constant reminders of what is expected and accepted of society. As I grew much older and began

purchasing print advertising of fashion and women’s magazines, I noticed the influence this specific type of media has on

young teenage girls. Although, these certain magazines aren’t necessarily targeted toward their age group, teenage girls still

buy them to read. Ultimately, print advertising impacts the way in which teenage girls view their physical appearances, as well

as overall effects how they associate the things viewed in these magazines to positive emotions and feelings.

Many of my friends, along with myself purchase these magazines religiously. I can vividly recall incidents where my

friends made remarks of how they admired the different models throughout the magazines. I noticed that not only myself but

also girls my age were being exposed to misleading expectations on what body image is considered “beautiful”. In order to

achieve this unrealistic body image, girls are forced toward the direction of developing an eating disorder, which ultimately

proves to be detrimental to health and overall wellbeing. As a result of this observation, I became interested in this topic. I

also had recently just taken feminism during my last semester in high school. While taking the class, my teacher had my class

specifically observe print advertisement that concentrated on the depiction and portrayal of

women as being unrealistically thin, petite, and fragile. It fascinated me how the this type of media can have such a powerful

impact in the way women view themselves and try to do whatever they can to become just like the models they view and

eventually idolize. I believe that this is an important topic that should be discussed because society needs to find a way in

which we can undermine this influence that magazines force upon women and their ideals.

To determine a way to decrease teenage girls from developing eating disorders from occurring so frequently, I need to

understand why these young girls are engrossed with magazines that aren’t meant for their age group. I want to further

understand why they associate looking a certain way that the media portrays women as to being happy and content with

themselves. Therefore, my ultimate research question is: how does print advertising in fashion and women’s magazines

present stereotypes about women’s bodies that might lead to the development of eating disorders among teenage girls?

To answer this question I will need to find information that focuses on models influence on young girls and the

process teenage girls undergo that cause them to believe that looking a certain way leads to happiness, desirability, and higher

social status. Researching my question will definitely help add to my topic in that it will clearly help demonstrate how this

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specific type of media causes women to become so obsessed with their weight that they become bulimic or anorexic.

Ultimately, asking this question is important in thinking more about the topic at hand because I will be able to generate more

information that can help me back up my final claim.

Annotated Works Cited

Ahern, Amy L., et al. “Internalization of the Ultra- Thin Ideal: Positive Implicit Associations with Underweight Fashion

Models are Associate with Drive for Thinness in Young Women.” Eating Disorders. 16. 4 (2008): 294-307.

A study was conducted to examine whether young women who make implied connections between underweight

models and beautiful physical features that they posses seem to have higher eating disorder symptoms. An implicit

association test (IAT) and self report that measures body dissatisfaction, their idea of thinness, and eating disorder

symptoms. The study resulted that the relationship between the drive for thinness and IAT scores was stronger in the

participants who said that the media is an essential source about fashion and being attractive. Overall, it was found

that women who come up with different versions of what thinness is and being underweight with positive traits report

higher eating disorder symptoms.

The study with using the IAT test is useful in explaining and identifying the relationship of young girls perceptions of

thinness and appearances in order to discover the overall significance of this experiment. The background information

of the study will help provide proof that the exposure to print advertising in fashion and women’s magazines does

contribute to the development of eating disorders among teenage girls. This evidence will allow me to focus on how

young women associate their specific interpretations and versions of thinness and the positive features that these

models possess associating it to feelings of happiness, desirability, and social status. With the authors help, I can

analyze and clearly explain how the thin- ideal promoted by the media

is often an unhealthy level of thinness, with images of women who are not just slim but visibly underweight.

“Doctors Blame Unhealthy Body Goals for Many Eating Disorders.” New York Amsterdam News. 10 Apr. 2008.

This article tells about an account on the charge of the Medical Society of the State of New York against fashion

industry. They are concerned about society’s perception of beauty that has been recently developed due to the

unrealistic ideals of beauty that are demonstrated by fashion models within magazines. The Academy of Eating

Disorders (AED) mentions research that help show the gap between the ideal and reality and how it can have a

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negative effect on the self- esteem and behavior of young girls. Consequently, half of America’s teenage girls have

major eating problems, suffering from anorexia or bulimia due to the exposure they have to fashion and women’s

magazine.

This newspaper article would be essential to use in my proposed research paper because it first summarizes the

problem and issue that is occurring before talking about how to fix this problem. It tells the reader what the

consequences are from the exposure of print advertisements. I can use the claim that this article is trying to make as a

way of persuading my reader to understand the dangers and harms of developing eating disorders. I can argue and

promote that due to the high exposure of models and the positive features that they acquire throughout magazines,

teenage girls are becoming influenced by the way in which they look causing them to develop dangerous eating

disorders. To prove this claim, I can give an overview of the current dilemma. Then, begin to discuss the different

types of eating disorders and how they are unlike one

another before addressing the harmful consequences of them and eventually how to treat them.

Fauquet, Jordi, et al. “Influence of Mass Media on Body Image and Eating Disordered Attitudes and Behaviors in Females: A

Review of Effects and Processes.” Media Psychology. 13. 4 (2010): 387-416.

The article discusses the research that has been conducted on the effects of television and magazines on body image

and on disordered eating attitudes and behaviors in females. Evidence is provided from the different types of studies

in the fields of eating disorders help indicate that the media is a significant source of information. It also helps to

strengthen the relation to the essence of the thin beauty ideal and its overall importance and how to attain it. The

article provides evidence of the pressures that teenage girls are facing within their every day lives and the expectations

that they are constantly plagued with. All in all, teenage girls are being forced conform to society and meet the

expectations that the culture has set.

This article is important because it focuses on the pressures that females encounter throughout their exposure to

society. It gives good examples of how teenage girls are beginning to look up to these “models” as their idols. These

pressures that they are facing will help me to further research and discover why they correspond positive and good

emotions to looking a certain way. I can also use the author’s claim in order to allow my reader to recognize and

understand the significance of what the media can do to an individual.

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Phillips, Barbara J. “Working Out: Consumers and the Culture of Exercise.” Journal of Popular Culture. 38. 3 (2005): 525-

551.

All in all, the article concentrates on the North American popular culture obsession with fitness and exercise. In the

media, a dramatic increase in exercise articles written for women’s magazines have began to develop. Young girls are

beginning to feel even more self conscious about their weight after viewing numerous pictures of thin, in-shape

women in magazines. The article is about how our culture is so driven to look a certain way that we feel it is

necessary to work out and do everything possible to look acceptable within society.

This article comes from a different angle than the first three articles I had found. Instead of just talking about the

media playing the major role in a teenage girls physical desires, the reader is able to focus on society as a whole and

why we have the mindset to become thin which will ultimately make one look attractive. I can use this difference of

articles to my advantage in order to help promote the author’s claim. Also, this article can help in the beginning of my

argument to first discuss how big of deal exercise has become for our society. This can ultimately lead me into my

main argument in points about how young teenagers are skipping a major necessity in our lives to just developing

eating disorders.

Research Claim

Print advertising in fashion and women’s magazines present general stereotypes of the physical appearances of

women’s bodies that link physical features such as hair and skin to beauty. However, one of the most prominent of these is

weight. The advertisements within these articles reflect on the idea of what society believes is considered “attractive” through

the overuse of underweight models. This allows the reader of the magazine to cultivate personal ideals of thinness and

attribute it to positive and powerful emotions.

I argue that there is a link in the sources I observed between thinness and the following outcomes: happiness,

desirability, and social status, which causes the reader to want to achieve these things. While the correlation between weight

and happiness is a serious issue for women, teenage girls are being influenced to develop eating disorders through this

exposure. Furthermore, teenage girls especially admire the models that are portrayed throughout these advertisements although

the magazines these models are in aren’t necessarily intended for young girls. The models and how they look which cause

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them to aspire to resemble these impractical bodies the models possess fascinate teenage girls. The exposure that these teenage

girls have proven to be quite essential in their overall development of how they view thinness and associate the printing

advertisements version of beauty to their own. Ultimately the connection between the way in which women are being

presented in printing advertisements to the social reality that the culture feeds upon, leads to the increase of eating disorders

among teenage girls.

This research paper is very important because it affects a specific demographic of individuals who are constantly

comparing themselves to something that is unlikely to achieve and eventually cause harm to themselves. This topic is an

ongoing issue that needs to be regularly addressed in order to prevent girls from developing damaging eating disorders.

The evidence I discovered is important in arguing my claim because society should be informed of the consequence that can

occur due to the exposure of this unrealistic depiction of women. It enlightens society on how this is a major issue within our

culture today and what actions need to be done in order to attempt to prevent this rise of eating disorders among teenage girls.

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July 15, 2009

Edmond Chang & Jane Lee

University of Washington

English Department

Box 354330

Seattle WA 98195

Dear Ed and Jane,

First off, let me say that this quarter was not in any way a reflection of my study habits, my work ethic, or

my personality. I am not using this as an excuse, but it was my first quarter away from home, and

frankly, I blew it. It was just so easy to sleep in and not go to class. This is nobody’s fault but my own

and I apologize for not giving you, or myself for that matter, my best effort 100% of the time.

Coming out of high school I thought I was a great writer. I had always gotten good grades in English, and

had really never struggled with an assignment. However, I had also never waited to write a paper until

three in the morning the day it was due. Due to this lack of organization, I had some pretty bad papers,

especially my second one about Howard Zinn, Roland Barthes, Equiano, and Jacobs. When you read that

piece, it seems as though I simply didn’t understand what Zinn was saying in his writing. The truth is, I

never fully read Zinn, and so I didn’t get the just of what he was saying. It wasn’t a matter of the material

being too difficult, just a matter of being too caught up in fraternity life.

Even though in my Zinn piece I didn’t do a very good close reading, I believe that one of my strong

points is the understanding of the passages we read in class. Especially Roland Barthes, which many

students had a difficult time understanding. From the first time I read the piece, I knew exactly what he

was saying. Because of this understanding, my first paper of the quarter, “When is the Author Really Not

the Author” was my best work. It is fluent, follows proper format, is free of major errors, and

incorporates all of the sources well. It may seem funny that the first paper I wrote for you was my best

work of the quarter, however, it is due largely to the fact that it was the beginning of the quarter and I was

really trying to buckle down and get my work done.

At the beginning of the quarter, you told us to do a close reading of Roland Barthes’ “The Death of the

Author”, and to be quite frank, I had no clue what a close reading was. Now, at the conclusion of the

quarter, I find myself doing close readings of everything, it is scary. I will be reading a newspaper, and

not know a word, without even thinking about it, I look up that word in a dictionary. Really, if you look

back at this quarter, my writing didn’t progress all that much. I thought coming into the class that I had a

grasp on writing, and from my first paper you could see that was in fact true.

Then I got lazy. My second paper went down the drain. At the end of the quarter I tried to dig myself out

of a hole with my third paper, but I had already dug too deep. I still think I have a very good grasp on

how to write a quality paper, that is not what I learned from your class. What I learned from your class

was organization. Planning ahead, getting work done early, keeping an organized history of past works,

and coming to class every day. This is what I really learned this quarter, not how to write. I believe that

learning those things is invaluable to the rest of my college education, and will stick with me throughout

the next four years.

Sincerely,

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July 15, 2009

Elizabeth Rubasky & Jamie Oldham

University of Washington

English Department

Box 354330

Seattle WA 98195

Dear Jamie and Liz,

“Come see me please.” Those words inspired a feeling of dread. As I trudged to the teacher’s desk, I

wondered sarcastically to myself: “What now!?” I knew what the problem was, of course. Yet again I had

failed to pay close attention to the assignment details. Yet again my grade had suffered. That was a little

over four years ago, the first week of my freshman English class, and I was already suffering the

consequences for not paying close attention to details. Throughout my time in high school, I continually

suffered from not following assignment guidelines closely. However, when I started GIS 140 this year, I

made a promise to myself. I would follow my assignments exactly, and do everything. And do everything

well. I believe that this class has helped me to become a better writer not only by demanding a great deal

of work, but by making it imperative that to be successful I must pay attention to detail. The writing in

this portfolio shows that by paying close attention to detail I have the ability to be a successful writer

“Assess,” “consider,” “identify, MLA format, transition…” In the first week of GIS 140, the terms just

rolled in and out of my mind during class, especially on the first day. However, I believe the rigidity of

the first week helped me greatly in achieving fluency and confidence as a writer, which is the goal of

outcome I. I felt like a ship sinking slowly in the sea, drowning slowly, with no life rafts, no life jackets.

After making it out of the first day of class, I was having a hard time dealing with the workload. Even

though all of the past students I had talked to had said that we would have a heavy workload, hearing

about how much work we were going to get and actually getting the work were two entirely different

animals. I was glad that during the first week we had to write about our personal definition of “literacy”

and our first experiences with it because reading has always been something that I have loved. This is a

quote from my literacy narrative that describes my love for reading: “The feeling of being instantaneously

and magically transported to different worlds, situations, and environments is unsurpassable; I believe it is

like eating the most perfect, heavenly sandwich this world has to offer” (2). I really liked the literacy

narrative assignment because it let me talk about something that I loved to do, which was reading, and

also incorporated some aspects of English that I didn’t find as exciting, like reading excerpts from

literature, such as Frederick Douglass, Sherman Alexie, and Steven King. I especially enjoyed reading

Sherman Alexie’s piece, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” because I liked his book

Reservation Blues. What I found most stood out to me was Alexie’s description of the kids who sat in the

back of class and had already given up hope on life, and I immediately realized that I knew the kinds of

people Alexie was talking about. What I found most helpful about the first week of school was doing the

assignment in little steps and continually getting feedback from the teachers, which I believe made a

definite difference in the grade I received on my paper. I had to continually remind myself about the

promise I had made to myself, and I realized that following and utilizing the project guidelines actually

made doing the assignment easier.

I knew that week two of class was looming on the horizon, partly in thanks to Pam’s constant reminders

admonishing us that “class is only going to get harder;” a reminder that reverberated through our ears and

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nervous brains every day as we walked begrudgingly into class. I started to feel anxious, because I was

thinking that if I was tired and loaded with work the first week, what would the next week be like? After

thinking all of this, I was surprised to find that the close reading was not as hard as I thought it would be.

In fact, it was relatively “easy” to do because of all of the little steps and assignments that we do in class

make everything come together smoothly in the end. In fact, I actually found that I like breaking down a

specific passage, and milking it for everything it was worth. I told myself that it was a challenge to find

and extract everything that I could from the passage, and at the same time I realized that by doing this, I

was making myself pay close attention to the details. Here is an excerpt from my close reading: “The

fourth rhetorical feature that makes this passage unbelievably special is Dubrow’s use of descriptive

language through the use of metaphors and onomatopoeia” (3). In retrospect, I think it is interesting that

my writing took on almost a scholarly sound in the close reading essay. I also realized that the more I read

something over the more I could extract and learn from the passage, which I thought related to one of the

readings we had done in class by Paulo Freire, “The “Banking” Concept of Education.” Freire’s piece

strongly promoted the use of “The Banking Concept” which stated that students should be “problem

posing” and question why and how, instead of sitting in the class and “being receptacles, to be filled by

the teacher” (Freire, 208). I believe that by doing the close reading project, I was able to develop

strategies that helped me actively learn through writing and close reading, which demonstrate my

achievement in outcome III.

The read search project demanded that I pay attention close attention to detail in that in order to have a

chance at thoroughly completing the assignment, I needed to follow the details of the project guidelines

exactly. The hardest part of the read search project, in my opinion, was making sure that the research

narrative and project proposal did not overlap. Even though we had numerous group work sessions and a

lot of time to talk to our teachers and tutors, I did not consciously realize that my sections were

overlapping. I strongly feel that at the conclusion of this project, I had transitioned greatly from high

school level to college level writing, and at the same time developed a more metacognitive approach to

writing, which demonstrates proficiency in outcome II. I believe that the most valuable thing I learned

from this project was how to use the library system. The lecture that our GIS 140 class received at the

beginning of research was extremely valuable and helpful in the research process. However, one of the

most difficult things about researching in the library was finding the books on the shelves in the library. I

found that it was really helpful to be extremely detailed in writing down call numbers, paying attention to

the reference librarians, and, elementary though it may seem, knowing how to read the maps in the library

itself. These newly acquired research skills demonstrate a proficiency in outcome IV, which stress

“locate, explore, and use different collegial resources” (Course Pack, ii).

I believe that these past four weeks have made me a better writer. The past three essays were just lids on

jars. I believe that every week I filled up a jar with more knowledge, better study habits, and better

reading skills. After reviewing the course outcomes, I was pleased to find that I had become better at

everything on the course outcomes worksheet over the duration of this class. I believe that what helped

me be the most successful in this class was paying attention to details. Every assignment had specific

deadlines, requirements, and topics that needed to be addressed. I believe that I am a better writer,

researcher, and close reader, and I attribute these newly acquired tools to these past four weeks in class. I

feel that the skills I have gained from this class will help me tremendously in the future and help me

immediately as I begin classes this fall, where research skills, analytical writing, and close reading skills

will be paramount.

Sincerely,

ECTION Jamie Oldham Melanie Hernandez Kirin Wachter-Grene...

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