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Unit 2
Week 5

This week you'll be putting all of your newfound rhetorical knowledge to use! Over the next two weeks, you'll have the opportunity to develop a certain type of paper: a personal narrative. Instead of identifying the use of rhetoric in other pieces of work, you'll be practicing your own rhetorical skills, placing particular emphasis on utilizing "pathos" in your writing. 

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Preparing to Compose Your Personal Narrative

 

In preparation for your first "big"project paper that you'll be working on for the next two weeks, please read:

to familiarize yourself with the concepts of specifically writiing to share an experience with your audience as well as common writing habits, structures and conventions you typically use to communicate when composing. 

I'll be adding the weeklyactivities and paper prompt/ instructions either the evening of 9/19 or 9/20.

Also, please let me know if you haven't been able to get your hands on a copy of the textbook yet!

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Personal Journal for Composition 1

 

Before starting, please read: Personal & Narrative Essays – U Should B Writing (ushouldbwritingtextbook.org) 

For this Journal Entry, I want you to brainstorm, or use another form of prewriting idea generation, to identify different topics you could choose to write about for your personal narrative.  Here are some prompts that may be useful:

  • When was I time I stood up for what I believed in? What happened?

  • What has been my biggest life struggle so far? How have I worked to overcome it? What have I learned about myself?

  • I care a lot about this [particular issue] and I can trace it back to particular experiences I've had. Why do you want others to care?

  • Describe a time where you worked really hard for something and why the outcome was satisyfying/not what you expected. 

Let me know what kinds of prewriting strategies you ended up using! I'm curious :) 

Come up with at least 10 different ideas you could write about. You will more than likely use one of them as your main topic for your personal narrative draft. 

Keep in mind that whatever you eventually do write about will be shared with the class for a collaborative workshop on helpful and respectful peer editing. 

Due by 9/24 at 11:59pm CST. Pass/Fail grade based on if it was submitted on time or not (participation). 

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ZOOM Meeting Sign Up Sheet

 

Click this link to take you to the google doc sign up sheet. Read the instructions at the top! Thank you :) 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/16YobrGIDsYntPyUCfEh9C8tNS0kPxyXeYsMbZmLnxVE/edit?usp=sharing

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Personal Narrative Essay Rubric

 

  • This rubric (which I'll freely admit I found on the internet) is what we'll be using for evaluating your personal narrative essay draft. Notice that it is not point value based.
     

  • This draft is a pass/fail submission because it is your effort in practicing narrative writing that I need you to demonstrate. 
     

  • You'll have the weekend and next week to write your draft. I DO NOT EXPECT IT TO BE PERFECT!!! 
     

  • When writing your essay, please do so in a Google Document. This way I can add comments live and show you where you did excellent and also point out examples of specific things that could use a little tlc.

  • If you'd like, we can collaboratively review it during your Zoom one-on-one meeting. 

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Unit 2
Week 6

Week 6 (9/25/2022-10/1/2022)

 

Welcome to Week 6!

This week is a work week, dedicated to developing your first draft of your personal narrative essay. 

Inside this week's content folder will be 

  • The sign up sheet for our our one-on-one Zoom Meeting this week

  • The rubric for the essay

  • Helpful (optional) resources 

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Personal Narrative Essay Draft 1 Submission

 

Before our Zoom call, please submit a link to a google document containing your draft. 

​

ZOOM Meeting Sign Up Sheet

 

Click this link to take you to the google doc sign up sheet. Read the instructions at the top! Thank you :) 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/16YobrGIDsYntPyUCfEh9C8tNS0kPxyXeYsMbZmLnxVE/edit?usp=sharing

​

Personal Narrative Essay Rubric

 

  • This rubric (which I'll freely admit I found on the internet) is what we'll be using for evaluating your personal narrative essay draft. Notice that it is not point value based.
     

  • This draft is a pass/fail submission because it is your effort in practicing narrative writing that I need you to demonstrate this week.
     

  • You have this week to write your draft. I DO NOT EXPECT IT TO BE PERFECT!!! 
     

  • When writing your essay, please do so in a Google Document. This way I can add comments live and show you where you did excellent and also point out examples of specific things that could use a little tlc.
     

  • We'll collaboratively review it during your Zoom one-on-one meeting. 

​

Helpful (optional) Resources

 

Videos:

​

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Unit 2
Week 7

Week 7 (10/2-10/8)

 

It's peer review workshop week.

I will be adding our content folder's items as well as our disscussion board for this week tomorrow on Monday, 10/3!

Instead of you answering a prompt for our weekly discussion board, I need you to upload your essay draft. You and your peers will practice giving constructive critique, compliements, and suggestions to each other. If you are sharing or visiting another's google doc, make sure you switch user access to "suggestions" instead of edits. 

This week's content will include: 

  • discussion board

  • list of useful online resources to help you spellcheck and edit grammar 

  • helpful readings about the practice of peer review 

  • instructions on how to go about the peer review assignment within our discussion board. 

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Topic: Self-Editing Your Written Work

 

You've probably heard once or twice by now  that writing is a "recursive" process. Part of the writing process is reflecting on your work, considering possible improvements, and then implementing the ones that you believe would help your piece meet your audience's expectations and also heighten the ease of their reading experience. You intentionally take one step back before taking two steps forward. I

Some edits are more practical and structural: 

  • Fixing formatting mistakes such as: forgetting to indent a paragraph, splitting a loooong paragraph into shorter ones, rewriting run on sentences. 

  • Catching spelling mistakes

  • Locating possible grammar mistakes

Readers expect basic adherence to grammar and avoidance of spelling mistakes in final drafts. There are a plethora of tools online that can help you make beneficial alterations to drafts as you lead up to submitting or publishing a final draft. The best part is, many of these tools are free! I highly suggest that  before you turn in writing assignments, you use at least one of these tools/apps to double-check your work for potential mistakes. There is never a downside to doing so. 

Free Websites:

Free Browser Extensions:

Resources behind a paywall ( I'm not saying buy one of these, just that they exist if you're interested in perusing).

  • Writers.work (I bought this myself. I paid a one time fee $49 about 3 years ago. I personally think it is fantastic, especially if you decide to be a freelance writer. If you want more info, let me know)

  • Bartleby Plus | bartleby

 

Before you submit your narrative essay draft for peer review, please run it through one of these or a similar helpful editing software. This is a useful habit to get into before submiting any long assignment.

 

I also found a helpful little checklist for self-editing papers that may be helpful to you. Check it out here: SchoolHabits-Essay-Editing-Checklist.pdf 

​

Different Types of Editing

 

More often than not, you'll likely be editing an academic essay while in college. The Peer Review Process – U Should B Writing (ushouldbwritingtextbook.org) is a fairly good overview of how to approach such a paper. We will return back to this webpage with our next big paper in a few weeks time (it'll be a research paper).

Something that we absolutely need to cover when it comes to editing... is their are different types of editing!

Watch this quick video: Editor Talk | 4 Types of Editing - YouTube It explains 4 common types of editing that you are likely to have expereinced at some point. 

-Development/ Substantive editing: This focuses primarily on developing an idea. It is taking a"big picture" view of your own or someone elses work. It includes fixing plot holes, increasing coherency, doing fact-checking. It can also include organizing information into a consistent tone, style, and format. 

-Line/ Content editing: The stylistic critique. This involves going over each line and workshoping it to increase clarity, refine word choice, and creating a consistent flow. Basically, fixing "clunkiness" of pacing.

(Some of the youtuber's suggestions fall into this category: "making passive writing active. Showing not telling".  These two pieces of advice also can apply to your narrative essays.) 

-Copy editing: Checking for inaccuracies, checking references, reviewingg research, correcting usage of punctuation, word usage, and numbers. Grammar, syntax, style.

-Proof reading: Polishing and fine tuning. Typographical, mechanical errors, word usage, grammar, consistancy, misspellings, typeface, fixing obvious errors. 

 

My mind was blown when I learned this...at the age of 25! How had gone my whole life never knowing that editing had subdisciplines within it! No wonder why many writers get overwhelmed with the editing process... we try to cram all types of editing into one. 

​

Approaching Peer Editing

 

Watch the following videos from  before doing the disscussion post peer revision assignment. 

    • When doing this peer review commentary, focus on delivering "global higher order" specific feedback and avoiding "lower order" and generic comments. It is up to each of you individually to fix the small mistakes in your own paper using one of the resources above before posting your draft for peer review. 

​

Discussion Post 5

 

Instructions:

1. Please use a spellchecking/grammar tool on your essay before posting it for your peers to review. :)

2.Upload your personal narrative essay text draft under Discussion Post 5 by Thursday (10/6). 

3. By Monday evening of next week (10/10) , read three other student essays and provide constructive criticism (in similar vein to how your homework videos demonstrated doing so). Please prioritize reading essays that have no commentary yet, or have less interaction.

4. I suggest that after reading another's essay, you consider the telling them some or all of the following:

  • 3 specific instances of something that the author did well.

  • Your favorite quote.

  • What you think the narrative arc moments of beginning, climax, and ending are.

  • What you believe the message, the "why this matters",  the author is conveying.

  • 3 suggestions for improvement such as: rephrasing a sentence, adding descriptive details in a certain section, or suggestions for flow or formatting. 

5. Feel free to comment suggestions about other  matters as well that you believe could prove beneficial to your fellow students!

Unit 2
Week 8

Week 8 (10/11-10/16)

 

This week we'll be focusing on learning about certain compositional conventions that increase appeal through logos:

  • Using research to support your opinions and give context and credibility to your work (and how to conduct research using database sources)

  • How to properly attribute credit to those who did the research you are referencing, and different formats for citations

  • What an annotated bibliography is and starting your own as part of your next big writing project.

​

Using Research to Bolster Ethos Appeal

 

Please Read:

  • McGraw Hill chapter 20

​

Citations and Bibliographies

 

It's the ethical thing to do: give credit where credit is due. 

Whenever you are writing about someone else's ideas or research, including using direct quoting or paraphrasing, you need to provide evidence of your source of information. Acknowledging someone else's hard work and not claiming it as your own is the right thing to do. If you don't, you have committed plaigarism (which is a type of theft).

Acknowledging your sources in writing is a process called citing. Citations are the actual individual references to your sources that you are making. 

For organization's sake, and easy access for your reader to look over later, it is conventional to keep a biliography, also known as a 'works cited', list at the end of your piece of writing. 

There are lots of different types of formatting conventions for citations. Which one you choose to use while writing is normally dependent on either your teacher or place of employment's preference, or on the academic discipline your writing within. 

Why not just have one single standarized format though? Well, It all boils down to differing audience needs and expectations.

For example, the audience reading articles in a Medical journal will value certain types of information being easy to access compared to, say, an audience of theater students reading a blog post analyzing the works of Shakespeare. Context is key for determining your citation formatting! Thankfully, you are almost always told what type of formatting to do in academics and at work. 

The most popular types of academic citation style formats are: MLA, APA, and Chicago/Turabian. Another one that frequently pops up is AP (Associated Press) which is used for journalism.

My personal preference is Chigaco/Turabian because it's what I used all throughout my undergrad in political science. 

​

Finding Information to Use: Conducting Research

 

There are lots of different styles that writing can be found in that would be useful for research: books, journals, digital articles, online blogs, newspapers, conference presentations, even youtube videos or personal correspondence. 

But, some sources are better than others when it comes to authenticity, crediblity, and authority on a subject. The validity of information you are sourceing is key to whether or not your work is taken seriously. It would be embarassing to write an academic essay on the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus and submit it to a journal publication...only to realize that the source of your information was a satiric farce created specifically to demonstrate to students that not everything they see and hear online is credible.

Please Read:

  • McGraw Hill Chapter 19

The chapter will go over how to research, and how to analyze potential sources for their credibility.

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Personal Journal for Composition 1

 

Quick Exercise: Practicing Creating MLA bibliography citations

​

With the following information, what you read in McGraw Hill, and the Purdue Owl MLA Style and Formatting Guide, try your hand at creating the appropriate citations. 

1. Find the correct type of citation for the following information here and then create a citation for it. 

An article on pages 21 through 23 in the January 2001 issue of Intercom magazine entitled “Technical Communicators: Designing the User Experience.” The author is Lori Fisher.

2. Find the correct type of citation for the following information here and then create a citation for it.

Article (URL: http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/7.3/binder2.html?coverweb/fishman/index.html) in the journal Kairos by T. Fishman. The title is “As It Was in the Beginning: Distance Education and Technology Past, Present, and Future,” and it was published in volume 7, number 3, in 2002. There are no page numbers. 

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Unit 2
Week 9

Using Online Databases When Researching

 

Attached Files:

The following two links are tutorials created by our very own UALR professors Dr. Brian Ray and Dr. Joanne Matson. They walk you through how to navigate our UALR library website, the digital journal subscriptions that are available through the library, and how to save and cite sources that you believe are useful for any research you may be doing. 

1: Dr. Ray's tutorial: Using the Library Databases – U Should B Writing (ushouldbwritingtextbook.org) 

2.  Dr. Matson's tutorial:  Using UALRs Online Library to do Research.pdf  (linked at very top) and her seperate video tutorial: Searching in the Academic Databases - sample search and "mining" - YouTube 

 

Video to watch about how to use research database search tools

 

​

Understanding Different Types of Sources

 

Please Read: 

​

Developing a Research Question for an Academic Paper

 

Read:

After reading the two above sources, take a look at The U.N's 17 Sustainable Goals:Take Action for the Sustainable Development Goals - United Nations Sustainable Development.

After you have had a chance to peruse these 17 topics, choose one of them. It will be the broad general topic that you will end up researching under to determine a research question to write your next big project about!

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Discussion Post 6

​

After deciding on your chosen general research topic from: Take Action for the Sustainable Development Goals - United Nations Sustainable Development , do the following:

1. Go to the UALR online library and use the databases to practice searching for related sources that could prove useful to writing a paper on the topic. 

2. Tell us what key words you used in your searches. What worked well, and what didn't?

3. Find a primary source related to your topic. Write a citation for it in MLA formatting. Then, write a short summary about the sources contents.
Please include:

  • what you learned from the source, and,

  • if this source has raised additional points or questions that you would like to explore.

4. Repeat step three, except create the summaries and citations for two secondary sources.

5. When commenting on two other students' discussion posts, Please suggest:

  • other possible search terms that they could try to use in future searches

  • possible research question ideas on the topic

Initial post due on 10/23, comments due on 10/30.

Unit 2
Week 10

synthesizing what you read

 

Read: 

​

Structuring and Formatting a Research Paper

 

I always find writing a paper easier to draft when I know what the conventional expectation is for the essay genre's structure and formatting. For our research paper, we will specifically be doing what is called a "literature review" paper.

The process you'll be following over the next two weeks will unfold in a similar manner to this:

  1. You can continue to research within your chosen UN topic and collect further resources. 

  2. Write to synthesize the information you've discovered so far. 

  3. While drafting, use the standard structure of a literature review to organize what you've learned in a way that clearly and logically explains the interesting information.

  4. Using quotations, summaries, and citations, properly give credit to where you're pulling information from. You get to choose whether you use APA or MLA. 

Please Read: 

Pay special attention to the standard structure section as well as the variations of structure section. 

 The following link explains more in depth what a literature review is, the structural parts to an essay of this type, as well as suggestions for different ways to organize the researched information you end up synthesizing. 

 

While not necessary, you could also read the following pages in the McGraw Book about drafting an essay: 

  • pages 175-184

  • pages 133-140

​

Draft 1 of your literature review

 

Please submit a rough draft of a literature review about your U.N. topic and issue by Sunday, October 31st at midnight .

​

 I'd like to see what you've researched so far and how the ideas between resources are connecting or conflicting. What would you like to learn more about #researchquestions

Next week, we will workshop thesis statements (to narrow down your paper's research focus even further!) and I will introduce more elements to the essay. 

For this week's submission, include:

  • An introduction to the U.N. topic you chose originally (1 pt)

  • what topical(s) sub-issue you decided to learn more about and "review" (1 pt)

  • At least 4 body paragraphs of synthesizing. (4 pts)

  • Make sure to use in-text citations and have your bibliography at the end (2 pts) (big hint: use the citations you created last week!)

(Also, turning it in on time is 2 pts. Turning it in late loses 1 point unless you message me ahead of Sunday)

​

You do NOT need at this point:

  • a solid thesis statement/ argument to make

  • a research conclusion

  • a real-world application

  • flawless execution of citation style. That can be an editing problem for future you. 

That's all stuff we'll be considering next week :) However, it wouldn't hurt for you to start brainstorming about those aspects as you research, synthesize, and draft. 

You all are AWESOME. 

Unit 2
Week 11

Hello! You may have seen on the schedule that this week was originally set to be a work week for your research essay. It still is! 

​

You turned in a rough draft last week, focusing on synthesizing the research you've done so far on your topic. 

​

This week, you'll be

  •  reflecting on what you've learned from your research so far in order to develop a thesis sentence

  •  doing further research specifically about 

    • possible solutions or plans to address to the social issue that are being discussed by governments/organizations/activists/etc.

    • The pros and cons of the strategies you're seeing being used to address the issue.

  • choosing to promote a certain course of action as what you think will be most effective based on what you've discovered.

  • ​

Also, if you are wanting to meet up with me for another Zoom call to discuss this paper, please send me an email or shoot me a text. 

Content will be uploaded on Monday the 31st. Happy Halloween! Have fun and stay safe! 

​

Coming up with an Opening Thesis Statement

 

Hello and Happy Halloween! It's spooky week! Do you know what's super scary? Having my laptop die right as I was about to post all of this content. EEK! So here we go, take two!
 

Please read this article from the Writing Center of the University of Wisconsin. It methodically breaks down the process of how to go about building a thesis sentence then thesis statement from the ground up. 

Another resource you have the option to read is this one from Harvard. I don't like it as much, it's not as instructional as the previous, but it makes great observations in the latter half of the article, under the sections Some Caveats and Examples. 

Once you have read through the top article at least once, do it once more but with your own topic in mind (you can ignore the sample assignment about american culture). For each step, consider how you could apply that step to your own research and topic. I suggest having a pen and paper handy to write down your ideas and maybe even do some brainstorming. 

​

Once you have a thesis statement that you're satisfied with, make sure to write it down!   

​

Pro-tip: As you continue to research, write, and synthesize, you may find that your initial thesis needs to be tweaked a bit to better fit the direction your creativity takes you in. That is a-okay! Write down the new versions too, and don't delete the old ones. Sometimes looking back on old versions sparks new ideas. Same with paper drafts! (Having multiple drafts separated from each other can be helpful for guiding personal reflection when you get stuck. Sometimes you need to take a couple mental steps back in order to consider different avenues of approaching your content. I do this all the time.) 

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Comparing and Contrasting as Part of Synthesis; Paper Conclusion

 

Please Read:

This article provides a good explanation about a few different ways you can approach comparing different strategies that are being used or promoted as potential solvers of the social issue you've chosen. Pay special attention to the 5 elements needed for a successful comparing/contrasting section of a paper. What are the strengths and weaknesses of certain strategies compared to other ones? 

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Developing Your Comparative Analysis Section

​

In a research paper, you're expected to analyze *something* and come up with a stance or opinion about what that *something's* impact or meaning could be. Since this paper is a literary review paper, and not a data-gathering and review paper, you'll have to showcase your critical thinking skills and synthesize a stance to take that you believe is supported by literature-based evidence.

​

I want you to take a stance and promote a strategy/program/technology that you have found (while researching) that you believe to be the most effective way to combat your chosen social issue topic. Persuade your audience through providing facts and exposing flaws of multiple strategies/programs/technologies that your suggestion is the most promising social issue aid.

​

You may have to conduct more research. If you do, be sure to write up citations for your bibliography and include in-text references to your sources. 

​

If you haven't started a 2nd Draft of your paper, now is the time to do so. You'll want to set up your paper similar to the following structural format:

 

  1. Introductory Paragraph (including your thesis statement, which you'll be working on this week)

  2. Literature Review Section (a background on the general topic you've been studying. This is what you submitted last week! It will be a few paragraphs long)

  3. Comparative Analysis Section (This is what you'll be working on this week. It will be a few paragraphs long) 

  4. Conclusion Paragraph (a summary of the social issue topic, the strategies that could be used, and then why you think a certain strategy to be the best option. 

 

One piece of advice I have heard from every single writing teacher who has ever existed is: Don't write your introduction paragraph until you have your conclusion paragraph completed. This is because an introduction is difficult to write until you know all that you wanted to say is written out AND in the order you want your argument to unfold in. 

 

Another piece of advice. Sometimes, if an intro and the conclusion just don't *feel* right... switch the paragraphs. They are reflections of one another and might make more sense where the other was. This is another trick I find myself doing frequently.

​

Draft 2 Submission

 

By Sunday the 6th at 11:59pm please submit your 2nd draft for me to overview. 

Unit 2
Week 9

Using Online Databases When Researching

 

Attached Files:

The following two links are tutorials created by our very own UALR professors Dr. Brian Ray and Dr. Joanne Matson. They walk you through how to navigate our UALR library website, the digital journal subscriptions that are available through the library, and how to save and cite sources that you believe are useful for any research you may be doing. 

1: Dr. Ray's tutorial: Using the Library Databases – U Should B Writing (ushouldbwritingtextbook.org) 

2.  Dr. Matson's tutorial:  Using UALRs Online Library to do Research.pdf  (linked at very top) and her seperate video tutorial: Searching in the Academic Databases - sample search and "mining" - YouTube 

 

Video to watch about how to use research database search tools

 

​

Understanding Different Types of Sources

 

Please Read: 

​

Developing a Research Question for an Academic Paper

 

Read:

After reading the two above sources, take a look at The U.N's 17 Sustainable Goals:Take Action for the Sustainable Development Goals - United Nations Sustainable Development.

After you have had a chance to peruse these 17 topics, choose one of them. It will be the broad general topic that you will end up researching under to determine a research question to write your next big project about!

​

Discussion Post 6

​

After deciding on your chosen general research topic from: Take Action for the Sustainable Development Goals - United Nations Sustainable Development , do the following:

1. Go to the UALR online library and use the databases to practice searching for related sources that could prove useful to writing a paper on the topic. 

2. Tell us what key words you used in your searches. What worked well, and what didn't?

3. Find a primary source related to your topic. Write a citation for it in MLA formatting. Then, write a short summary about the sources contents.
Please include:

  • what you learned from the source, and,

  • if this source has raised additional points or questions that you would like to explore.

4. Repeat step three, except create the summaries and citations for two secondary sources.

5. When commenting on two other students' discussion posts, Please suggest:

  • other possible search terms that they could try to use in future searches

  • possible research question ideas on the topic

Initial post due on 10/23, comments due on 10/30.

Unit 2
Week 10

synthesizing what you read

 

Read: 

​

Structuring and Formatting a Research Paper

 

I always find writing a paper easier to draft when I know what the conventional expectation is for the essay genre's structure and formatting. For our research paper, we will specifically be doing what is called a "literature review" paper.

The process you'll be following over the next two weeks will unfold in a similar manner to this:

  1. You can continue to research within your chosen UN topic and collect further resources. 

  2. Write to synthesize the information you've discovered so far. 

  3. While drafting, use the standard structure of a literature review to organize what you've learned in a way that clearly and logically explains the interesting information.

  4. Using quotations, summaries, and citations, properly give credit to where you're pulling information from. You get to choose whether you use APA or MLA. 

Please Read: 

Pay special attention to the standard structure section as well as the variations of structure section. 

 The following link explains more in depth what a literature review is, the structural parts to an essay of this type, as well as suggestions for different ways to organize the researched information you end up synthesizing. 

 

While not necessary, you could also read the following pages in the McGraw Book about drafting an essay: 

  • pages 175-184

  • pages 133-140

​

Draft 1 of your literature review

 

Please submit a rough draft of a literature review about your U.N. topic and issue by Sunday, October 31st at midnight .

​

 I'd like to see what you've researched so far and how the ideas between resources are connecting or conflicting. What would you like to learn more about #researchquestions

Next week, we will workshop thesis statements (to narrow down your paper's research focus even further!) and I will introduce more elements to the essay. 

For this week's submission, include:

  • An introduction to the U.N. topic you chose originally (1 pt)

  • what topical(s) sub-issue you decided to learn more about and "review" (1 pt)

  • At least 4 body paragraphs of synthesizing. (4 pts)

  • Make sure to use in-text citations and have your bibliography at the end (2 pts) (big hint: use the citations you created last week!)

(Also, turning it in on time is 2 pts. Turning it in late loses 1 point unless you message me ahead of Sunday)

​

You do NOT need at this point:

  • a solid thesis statement/ argument to make

  • a research conclusion

  • a real-world application

  • flawless execution of citation style. That can be an editing problem for future you. 

That's all stuff we'll be considering next week :) However, it wouldn't hurt for you to start brainstorming about those aspects as you research, synthesize, and draft. 

You all are AWESOME. 

Unit 2
Week 11

Hello! You may have seen on the schedule that this week was originally set to be a work week for your research essay. It still is! 

​

You turned in a rough draft last week, focusing on synthesizing the research you've done so far on your topic. 

​

This week, you'll be

  •  reflecting on what you've learned from your research so far in order to develop a thesis sentence

  •  doing further research specifically about 

    • possible solutions or plans to address to the social issue that are being discussed by governments/organizations/activists/etc.

    • The pros and cons of the strategies you're seeing being used to address the issue.

  • choosing to promote a certain course of action as what you think will be most effective based on what you've discovered.

  • ​

Also, if you are wanting to meet up with me for another Zoom call to discuss this paper, please send me an email or shoot me a text. 

Content will be uploaded on Monday the 31st. Happy Halloween! Have fun and stay safe! 

​

Coming up with an Opening Thesis Statement

 

Hello and Happy Halloween! It's spooky week! Do you know what's super scary? Having my laptop die right as I was about to post all of this content. EEK! So here we go, take two!
 

Please read this article from the Writing Center of the University of Wisconsin. It methodically breaks down the process of how to go about building a thesis sentence then thesis statement from the ground up. 

Another resource you have the option to read is this one from Harvard. I don't like it as much, it's not as instructional as the previous, but it makes great observations in the latter half of the article, under the sections Some Caveats and Examples. 

Once you have read through the top article at least once, do it once more but with your own topic in mind (you can ignore the sample assignment about american culture). For each step, consider how you could apply that step to your own research and topic. I suggest having a pen and paper handy to write down your ideas and maybe even do some brainstorming. 

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Once you have a thesis statement that you're satisfied with, make sure to write it down!   

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Pro-tip: As you continue to research, write, and synthesize, you may find that your initial thesis needs to be tweaked a bit to better fit the direction your creativity takes you in. That is a-okay! Write down the new versions too, and don't delete the old ones. Sometimes looking back on old versions sparks new ideas. Same with paper drafts! (Having multiple drafts separated from each other can be helpful for guiding personal reflection when you get stuck. Sometimes you need to take a couple mental steps back in order to consider different avenues of approaching your content. I do this all the time.) 

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Comparing and Contrasting as Part of Synthesis; Paper Conclusion

 

Please Read:

This article provides a good explanation about a few different ways you can approach comparing different strategies that are being used or promoted as potential solvers of the social issue you've chosen. Pay special attention to the 5 elements needed for a successful comparing/contrasting section of a paper. What are the strengths and weaknesses of certain strategies compared to other ones? 

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Developing Your Comparative Analysis Section

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In a research paper, you're expected to analyze *something* and come up with a stance or opinion about what that *something's* impact or meaning could be. Since this paper is a literary review paper, and not a data-gathering and review paper, you'll have to showcase your critical thinking skills and synthesize a stance to take that you believe is supported by literature-based evidence.

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I want you to take a stance and promote a strategy/program/technology that you have found (while researching) that you believe to be the most effective way to combat your chosen social issue topic. Persuade your audience through providing facts and exposing flaws of multiple strategies/programs/technologies that your suggestion is the most promising social issue aid.

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You may have to conduct more research. If you do, be sure to write up citations for your bibliography and include in-text references to your sources. 

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If you haven't started a 2nd Draft of your paper, now is the time to do so. You'll want to set up your paper similar to the following structural format:

 

  1. Introductory Paragraph (including your thesis statement, which you'll be working on this week)

  2. Literature Review Section (a background on the general topic you've been studying. This is what you submitted last week! It will be a few paragraphs long)

  3. Comparative Analysis Section (This is what you'll be working on this week. It will be a few paragraphs long) 

  4. Conclusion Paragraph (a summary of the social issue topic, the strategies that could be used, and then why you think a certain strategy to be the best option. 

 

One piece of advice I have heard from every single writing teacher who has ever existed is: Don't write your introduction paragraph until you have your conclusion paragraph completed. This is because an introduction is difficult to write until you know all that you wanted to say is written out AND in the order you want your argument to unfold in. 

 

Another piece of advice. Sometimes, if an intro and the conclusion just don't *feel* right... switch the paragraphs. They are reflections of one another and might make more sense where the other was. This is another trick I find myself doing frequently.

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Draft 2 Submission

 

By Sunday the 6th at 11:59pm please submit your 2nd draft for me to overview. 

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