Jim
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Viewpoints Essay #1 Before you begin our first essay, be sure you clearly understand essay structure. I recommend you watch the "Pitfalls of Technology Instructional Video” and the "Essay Planning Sheet and Milkshake Essay" video before continuing. Welcome to our first essay. There is lots of information here, so please read carefully. Having worked through chapter 2 of Viewpoints, pp. 35-76 (pp. 36-77) and the two Viewpoints assignments in General Preparation, we now know that an essay should have an inviting introductory paragraph with a clear thesis sentence at its end, robust supporting paragraphs to develop the thesis, and an elegant conclusion to tie it all together. In addition, composing an
essay is a process—a series of steps--that takes an essay through as
many meaningful changes (revisions) as necessary. And the willingness to thoroughly revise is
at the heart of writing well. First Week For our first essay, I have
placed each of you in a Writing Group of four to five people. The purpose of
a writing group is to offer constructive feedback on the drafts of essays after
the drafts have been taken at least through the second
revision described in Viewpoints
Assignment #2.
(Translation: please do not submit junk to your Writing Group.) Feedback from
your peers concerning your essay can then be blended into your subsequent
revisions to make your final draft (the one you submit for a grade) even
better. The version of your first
essay, taken at least through the second revision described above, is due
submitted to your Writing Group by the rough draft due date given on the
calendar. An on-time submission can yield up to five points. You will submit your revised rough draft to your Writing Group by
the end of the first week. Second Week Each member of the Writing Group will then have the next few days to offer constructive comments and suggestions to help the other group members with their drafts. Of course, as the essay’s author, it is always your choice whether to incorporate your Writing Group’s advice into your essay. The due date for these Writing Group comments to others is also on the calendar. Full participation
in your Writing Group by offering useful, gentle, but constructive
comments to all members concerning their essays can earn an additional
five points. We'll explore peer
editing more next week, so for now, concentrate on getting a good draft
to your Writing Group. You will then have the next
few days to complete the final revisions of your essay, and submit a final draft
to me for grading. Please note the due date for your final version on the
calendar. An essay can earn up to 100 points. You will submit your revised final draft to the CANVAS assignment
link by the end of the second week. Here’s how to begin
the assignment: First, please read all three of the essays whose
titles are given below. You can find the Viewpoints page numbers for
each essay at the end of each essay’s title. Next,
choose only one of the three essays to write about. Then, turn
to the end of the essay you chose, locate the “Pursuing Possible Essay
Topics,” section, and read through the essay topic choices. Next,
select the topic choice most appealing to you and write your rough draft
using that essay topic choice as the prompt for your essay. Then, in
at least three instances, select and blend words or ideas from the Viewpoints essay you chose with your
own words. Please remember to lead in with signal phrases and keep the
quotations as short as possible. (These skills were covered in last week’s
module.) Finally, submit your revised essay to your Writing Group, as described in the First Week information above. VIEWPOINTS ESSAYS to choose from and ESSAY TOPIC CHOICES Please read all three of these Viewpoints essays before making a choice. To Err is Wrong by Roger von Oech, pp.
87-92 (pp. 88-93). Your topic choices for this essay are either #1 or
#4 on p. 93 (p. 94) under Pursuing Possible Essay Topics. Zero by Paul Logan, pp. 98-102 (pp. 101-105). You topic
choices for this essay are either #1 or #3 on p. 103 (p.
106) under Pursuing Possible Essay Topics. Final Copy Requirements—(you’ll submit your final copy by the end of the second week.) Please Note: To be
eligible for a score of 70 or better, your essay must conform exactly to all of the following requirements: 1.
The essay must be about the
length of the "Pitfalls
of Technology" essay or the "Milkshake
Essay" example. 2. Your essay must be a response to one of the
Viewpoints essays and writing prompts specified for Essay #1. 3.
In at least three places, your essay must blend in
words or ideas from the Viewpoints essay you are writing about. Please be sure to use signal phrases to
introduce these borrowed words or ideas, as demonstrated in
“Working with Words from a Source—MLA style”—the Document,” Working
with Words from a Source—the Video,” and “Citing
Viewpoints Essays.” (All of these
skills were covered as part of last week’s module). 4. Each instance of borrowing and blending must have a
signal phrase and conform exactly to
MLA documentation guidelines. 5. Your essay must have a clear thesis sentence and
well-developed and unified body paragraphs, as discussed in the Viewpoints #1
and #2 assignments and the assigned videos. 6. Your essay must be relatively free of the
grammatical problems covered in earlier modules including Commonly Confused
Words, Sentencing (absence of comma spice and run-on sentence errors),
Subject-Verb Agreement, and Pronoun Agreement. 7. Your essay must demonstrate careful and thorough revision, reflecting the revision process described in Viewpoints Assignment #2 and demonstrated on pp. 59-76 (pp. 60-77) of the text. Remember—one critical revision skill is to read your draft ALOUD. 8. Your final
copy must be submitted on or before the due date. According to our syllabus, no essays will be accepted late,
regardless of reason, so please don’t ask. |