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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" video or the "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. 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. Each member of the Writing Group will then have the next few days to offer constructive comments and suggestions to the other members about 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. Your essay should be about the length of The Wet Drug on pp. 27-28 (pp. 30-31). In addition, it must clearly reflect the revision process described in Viewpoints Assignment #2 and demonstrated on pp. 59-76 (pp. 60-77) of the text. The Assignment: 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. Turn to the end of the essay you choose, locate the “Pursuing Possible Essay Topics,” section, and read through the essay topic choices. Select the topic choice most appealing to you and write your essay using that essay topic choice as the prompt for your essay. 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. |