Descriptions of major course projects are listed here.
In your Literacy Narrative you will be telling us, an audience of your classmates and me, a story about you and part of your "literacy life." You will use your skills of description and narration to pull your readers into your story. Be sure you convey the significance of your story; this will make your readers care about what you are saying.
You are writing this essay for several reasons. Of course you want to entertain your audience with a good story, but you also will be investigating and learning something about yourself as well. We learn unexpected and wonderful things when we write, and sometimes we write things we don't know that we know! You will also be exercising those writing muscles you already have: the muscles called narration, description, focus, organization, development, and so on. You will be using these muscles/skills in the writing you will be doing all semester.
Length: Whatever it takes, yes, but it should be at least 3 pages long.
Format: MLA style for the essay (double-spaced, 1-inch margins, standard font, 11- or 12-point). Make sure you are also using the proper heading for your essay (your name, English 106-08-02, the name of the assignment and draft number, and the date of the draft as you are revising it).
Hand in your project in this order (WITH a springy clip):
Your Reflection on the Project is to be written as a "Dear Reader" letter, and it should be about a page and a half to two pages long. In your Reflection, you will address the questions I have provided for you. In addition, you'll need to explain the significance of your narrative. [Note: this is a very important part of your Reflection. Don't omit it.]
Due:
Friday, January 18th--rough draft emailed to me
Wednesday, January 23rd--Revised draft (print hard copy to class)
Friday, January 25th--Further revised draft (bring electronic version to class)
Monday, January 28th--Final Literacy Narrative** project. Bring project (as listed above) to class, ready to hand in at the beginning of the hour.
Wednesday, January 30th--Reflection of Literacy Narrative** due: Bring hard copy to class to hand in at the beginning of the hour.
**As soon as you complete your Reflection, email me your final draft of both your Literacy Narrative and your Reflection. Remember that they must be .doc files.
The Literacy Narrative assignment is worth 50/1000 points.
The Reflection of the Literacy Narrative assignment is worth 10 points.
Reflecting on Your Literacy Narrative
In your reflection, you should NOT merely answer these questions one-by-one; you need to think about your reflection essay in terms of these questions. Use the questions as pre-writing, but then, craft your reflection and organize it like a meditative essay in which you have actually examined your writing critically.
• Did you find the assignment interesting? Explain.
• What did you find most difficult about writing the literacy narrative?
• What did you find easiest about completing the project?
• What do you wish you had spent more time on when completing your literacy narrative?
• What instruction proved most helpful to you when completing this paper?
• What did you need more help with when completing this paper?
• What are the strengths of your literacy narrative, as you see it?
• What are the weaknesses of your literacy narrative, as you see it?
• What will you do differently the next time you write a paper like this? What advice would you give a friend who is about to write the same assignment?
I would expect your reflection to be 2-3 pages, MLA formatted. (What is MLA formatted? Re-read the course syllabus under the "Description" tab.)
Your Reflection is due Wednesday, January 30th at the beginning of class.
Your Reflection on the Literacy Narrative is worth 10 points. Future reflections will be worth more points.
Note: During this project, you will also begin your Annotated Bibliography as part of your research. The Annotated Bibliography is described on another page under the Projects tab.
Profile Assignment
We encounter many different kinds of profiles. We read user profiles published on MySpace sites or on blogs. A profile of a sports figure often includes nothing more than statistics and a bit of general background information. We watch CSI and try to outwit the investigators as they compile a psychological profile of a killer. We think of a profile as the side view of a person. We might think of a biography or an interview. We might consider a profile to be a detailed account of someone or something. Conversely, we might think of a profile as a general overview of someone’s accomplishments.
For this writing assignment, you will be writing a profile about a person who is affiliated with Purdue. Your job is to look for this person’s achievements: has this person done something particularly noteworthy? Does this person have an unusual pastime that’s unusual? Perhaps this person seems to be an ordinary, everyday “Joe” (or Jane). But what’s beneath the surface? Remember that even the most seemingly ordinary person can appear fascinating when you write about that person with your perspective.
The profile you will be writing will be like a “human interest” story that we find in magazines and newspapers. These profiles often take us “behind the scenes” of a person or sometimes an event or place. You will want to describe your profile person from a particular angle or perspective depending on your audience and publication. For example, if you were to profile Johnny Depp, why ask him the same tired questions about his movies and acting? Boring profile. What if, during your conversations, you discovered that he and Chris Martin of Coldplay regularly spend weekends together camping and riding their BMW motorcycles through the Italian Alps? Ok, that’s interesting. At least it’s different.
Possible Subjects
We will discuss who might be an inappropriate subject for your profile, but here is a list of good possibilities:
• A person from another generation
• An international student
• A professional from your field of study
• Someone you encounter everyday but never talk to
• Someone who performs a very important function on campus
• Someone who has an unusual hobby or interest
• A student representative of Purdue (Marching Band, University Senate Rep, Purdue Student Union Board, PMO, Athletics, Tour Guide[?])
Research
Before the interview (primary research) you must thoroughly research (secondary research) your subject and his or her environment. If you are interviewing an academic advisor, you need to know as much about both the advisor and the advising office as you can. The more you know about your subject, the better your interview questions will be--especially your unscripted questions. Since the person you are interviewing is somehow connected to Purdue, you should be able to find things on Purdue’s websites or through the library. Has your subject written a book? Been on Purdue committees? Had a newspaper article written about him/her?
Length and Format
I would expect your profile to be about 3-5 pages long. Yes, it could be a little more, especially if you have included a photograph. We will discuss in class the format your profile will take.
Publication Venue
It is important that you to begin to understand how necessary it is to have a specific audience when writing. Being able to make writing choices always depends on knowing for whom you’re writing and why you’re writing. For this assignment, I want you to choose a publication venue for your profile and write for that venue. This venue needs to be appropriate for the person you’re profiling and for the reasons you’re profiling him/her. For example, you could profile a faculty fellow and try to publish it in your residence hall newsletter (after studying the conventions of the newsletter’s profiles and their publication guidelines). You will need to include a description of your publication venue to each draft of your profile.
Deliverables and Grading
Your profile package will be worth 100 points. (You will also hand in your peer reviews and your Profile Reflection, each worth points separate from the 100 points listed here.) In addition to your profile and profile drafts, you will be required to hand in the following documents as a part of your project package:
• Your original proposal
• Copies/notes of your secondary research
• Contact correspondence
• Interview questions
• Interview transcript
• Description/dialogue
• All drafts
• A copy of your publication venue
• Thank you correspondence
• The Peer Response you wrote AND the one written for you (additional 10 points)
• Your final draft, formatted
You will need to arrange these materials with the most recent document (your final draft) on top. The rest of the documents need to be in reverse order so that the first thing you wrote (your initial planning) is on the bottom of the stack. Use a springy clip.
Grading Criteria
I will consider the following criteria as I read your paper:
• The profile should create a dominant impression of the person through selective use of detail, and every detail should contribute to that dominant impression in a meaningful way.
• The profile should address the intended audience and be appropriate for the publication venue.
• The organization should be easy to follow and should contribute to creating the dominant impression. The introduction should catch the reader’s attention, and the conclusion should provide closure for the profile.
• The profile should effectively incorporate research from a first-hand observation and an interview you conducted. If you use archival (library) sources, the material from these sources should not dominate the paper; they simply should contribute details to the dominant impression.
• Overall, the profile should be free of errors.
Skills
The skills you should improve during this assignment are researching, interviewing, notetaking, observing, describing, synthesizing, shaping, and of course, writing.
Major Due Dates
See course calendar for ALL assignments and due dates.
Helpful Hints
Here are a few things to keep in mind about profiles as you begin to write:
• A profile creates a picture through selective use of detail. Every anecdote, quote, and descriptive detail must contribute in a meaningful way toward your dominant impression of the person. Remember writing the vivid details in your literacy narrative assignment? That was practice for this assignment.
• A profile often uses present tense to create a sense of immediacy and intimacy for the readers. By helping them feel like they are a part of the people and events you are describing, you will create a more powerful relationship between the audience and your profile subject.
• A profile is your interpretation of your interviewee. What special insight have you found while interviewing this person? Can you talk to someone else who might have a different perspective on this person? What motivates your subject? What can you find out about this person that will make people want to read this profile?
I encourage you to visit the Writing Lab (HEAV 226) at any stage of the writing process. Take a copy of this writing assignment with you.
If you have any questions or concerns about the profile assignment, please contact me.
Your Profile is worth 100/1000 points.
Your Profile Reflection is worth 20/1000 points.
You have been a student at Purdue for at least a semester now. You've dealt with a lot of changes, and you've become more comfortable in your surroundings. Now you get to question things that you've been exposed to, experienced, or suffered through. You get to be an advocate for change.
Your research project will have something to do with Purdue University and what you, as a student, can do here as an advocate.
What (be realistic) changes would you like to see?
In what ways can you be an agent for change?
What ideas do you have for an improved life at Purdue?
Rarely do we write an 8 1/2" x 11" one-inch margins all around, MLA formatted document to solve "real world" problems to advocate for change, but you will have to write up something in this format for an audience of your classmates and me. In addition, you will have to produce something that is applicable for the rhetorical situation in which you are working. You will need to decide in what format your message will be most effective. Here are some possibilities:
• Editorial (not just a short letter to the editor)
• Video
• Web Page
• Power Point Presentation
•
Podcast
• Brochure
• Booklet
• Poster
The audience for your final outcome will be the person, committee, agency, or department that can implement, fund, or approve the change(s) you are advocating for or proposing.
Your Research Project will include the following documents:
Preliminary Proposal, due at the end of class, Friday, March 21st, 30 points
Proposal + Timeline, due Monday, March 31st, 75 points
Preliminary Annotated Bibliography, due Monday, March 31st, 10 points
Final Annotated Bibliography, due Friday, April 4th, 100 points
Explanatory Report, due Wednesday, April 16th, 100 points
Two Peer Reviews, due Friday, April 11th & Monday, April 14th, 10 points each
Research Reflection, due Friday, April 18th, 20 points
Outcome/Presentation, due the week of April 21st, 100 points
Presentation Reflection, due the week of April 21st, 25 points
Drafts of the Explanatory Report will be due on Friday, April 11th and Monday, April 14th.
[Note: Your final Semester Analysis will be due via email on Wednesday, April 30th by 5pm.]
Annotated bibliographies provide brief overviews or summaries of articles related to a specific topic. Often they are compiled in order to demonstrate what sources are available on a topic that a scholar is considering studying.
For this assignment, you will find, read, and create annotations for scholarly articles related to a problem or concern that you have identified on Purdue’s campus. After doing some research, you will better equipped to write your research proposal and timeline (due Monday, March 31st) that explains to me your research intentions. Later, you will synthesize these sources in an Explanatory Research Report (due Wednesday, April 16th). Then you will combine this archival research with field research to develop a presentation (in an audience-appropriate mode) to address the problem you identified (presentations due during Week 16). Therefore it is important to select a topic that interests you and that you believe is a genuine concern for the Purdue Community.
In the past, students have addressed campus topics such as:
• Recycling options
• Orientation programs for students who do not live in residence halls
• Signage in Grant Street parking garage
• The use of paper and Styrofoam cups in the residence halls
• The need for a new student organization
• Placing the original Heavilon Bells in the bell tower
Guidelines and Criteria for Evaluation:
Your final annotated bibliography must consist of the following:
1. Annotations for at least ten sources. At least five of these sources must be scholarly journals.
2. A list of entries introduced with the full citation in MLA documentation format so your readers may retrieve the source in its entirety.
3. A brief summary of the content of each source. What are the main points covered in this site, article, book, or interview, etc.?
4. An evaluative statement on the usefulness and/or quality of the given source for a particular audience or research project. (Why is this source/research important to my understanding or to the argument I’m trying to make for my audience?)
5. A statement that indicates how you determined the credibility of the source.
Due Dates
Your preliminary annotated bibliography is due on Monday, March 31st. It is to be handed in with your proposal and timeline.
Your final draft is due on Friday, April 4th. When you submit your final draft, you should attach a copy of your evaluated rough draft.
I encourage you to visit the Writing Lab (Heavilon 226) for help with any part of the writing process.
The Annotated Bibliography
An annotated bibliography is used widely by different disciplines as a means of simultaneously providing a compilation of sources on a given topic and detailed summary information about the content of those source materials. Consequently, an annotated bibliography can be much more useful than an ordinary bibliography, which lists sources but offers no summary of their content.
Annotated bibliographies can vary greatly in length. They may consist of a few pages with five or six entries, serving as a resource for a short research paper, or they may be book-length documents, offering comprehensive information on a broad topic. But despite the variance in length, all annotated bibliographies essentially do the same thing: itemize a group of sources, provide complete reference information on a single topic, and supply a brief abstract for each source entry. Sometimes an annotated bibliography relates the contents to other sources being considered for the research. It may even include significant short quotes from the original text to help establish the author’s main points, attitude, opinion, and/or style. Sometimes a formal annotated bibliography begins with an introduction that contextualizes the research question and offers brief background information about the topic being researched.
Most often, annotated bibliographies consist of three distinct features:
1. a list of entries introduced with the full citation in a given documentation format (such as MLA or APA) to enable retrieval of the source in its entirety,
2. a brief abstract of the content of that source, and
3. an evaluative statement on the usefulness and/or quality of the given source for a particular audience or research project.
Because of the inclusion of this third component, the annotated bibliography has an obvious bias. It is not intending to be totally neutral in the way many abstracts are; rather, it is offering a perspective on the content and value of a group of related resources.
Keep in mind that to write an annotated bibliography, as opposed to a simple bibliography, a writer must read (or at least carefully skim) the sources in order to compose effective abstracts. They are much more demanding to create than ordinary bibliographies, which simply list resources according to the format rules of some particular system of documentation. Not surprisingly, annotated bibliographies are also much more useful to a reader and/or potential researcher seeking information on a given topic.
--last section excerpted from Academic Writing: Genres, Samples, and Resources
Your Annotated Bibliography is worth 100 points.
You will hand in your Research Proposal and Timeline (or Research Timetable) on Monday, March 31st, along with your preliminary Annotated Bibliography. The assignment sheet for the proposal is attached.
Your Research Proposal and Timeline is worth 75 points.
After you’ve gone through your research phase, the next step in your project is to explain to an audience of your classmates and me what other people have written about the problem or concern that you have identified. In this paper, you should synthesize and integrate your annotated bibliography sources.
Remember that your primary purpose is to fully explain the problem or concern and to offer some history of your subject. You might find it necessary to compare and contrast your sources, highlighting agreements and dissonance. When you note disagreement, you should evaluate the sources to determine which source you think best addresses the concern. Soon you will be using these arguments as support for your own argument for change.
Guidelines
Your explanatory report should synthesize at least five (5) sources, and at least four (4) of your sources must be from scholarly sources. Your paper should be four (4) to six (6) pages long. This length is an approximation; the development of your topic should dictate the length. Make sure you adequately explain your main concept and any controversies surrounding it.
Your paper should be typed in an 11- or 12-point font and adhere to MLA formatting guidelines.
Grading Criteria
• Do you have an identifiable thesis about a relevant concept, issue, or problem?
• Do you adequately support your thesis?
• Do you effectively integrate sources to support your thesis and to clarify your topic?
• Are your sources credible? If they are not, do you acknowledge their lack of credibility and address why you used them anyway?
• Does your report meet the assignment guidelines?
• Do you have an effective title for your report?
• Overall, is your report well organized and free of errors?
Due Dates
One draft of your Explanatory Report will be due for peer review on Friday, April 11th. Another revision will be due on Monday, April 14th.
Your final revision is due on Wednesday, April 16th.
When you submit your final paper, you also must turn in a copy of your drafts and your peers’ review sheets. Make sure you include your Works Cited page.
I encourage you to visit the Writing Lab (Heavilon 226) for help with any part of the writing process.
Your Explanatory Report is worth 100 points
Reading for Friday: Refuge pages 281-290. This is an essay titled, "The Clan of the One-Breasted Women." Also read the poem I gave you (and that's attached to this page), "At the Bomb Testing Site" by William Stafford. Find one (at least) credible online site that discusses the bomb testing of the 1950s and 60s. (See A-Bomb Testing for a start, but you must find one of your own.)
Assignment for Friday: Write a response to Williams' essay and Stafford's poem. In your response, make sure you refer to parts of each work (the essay and the poem). Things to consider in the essay:
Be sure you read the essay and the poem more than once. Only through thoughtful and critical reading can you begin to understand what happens in writings that are this personal and political. Use MLA format in your response. Cite the URL that you use to get some background information on the bomb testing of the 1950s and 60s. I would expect your response to be at least 2 pages long.
Your first draft of this paper is due at the beginning of class on Monday, April 7th. Your revised version will be due on Wednesday, April 9th.
This paper is worth 30 points.
Reflections are very important pieces of writing. They give us the opportunity to examine what we learned through the writing process, and they allow us to think about how we'll write in the future.
As each reflection is due, I will post its description here.
Your Literacy Narrative Reflection is worth 10 points.
Your Profile Reflection is worth 20 points.
Your Explanatory Report Reflection is worth 20 points.
Your Presentation Reflection is worth 25 points.
Your Reflection paper total is 75 points.
Reflecting on Your Literacy Narrative
In your reflection, you should NOT merely answer these questions one-by-one; you need to think about your reflection essay in terms of these questions. Use the questions as pre-writing, but then, craft your reflection and organize it like a meditative essay in which you have actually examined your writing critically.
• Did you find the assignment interesting? Explain.
• What did you find most difficult about writing the literacy narrative?
• What did you find easiest about completing the project?
• What do you wish you had spent more time on when completing your literacy narrative?
• What instruction proved most helpful to you when completing this paper?
• What did you need more help with when completing this paper?
• What are the strengths of your literacy narrative, as you see it?
• What are the weaknesses of your literacy narrative, as you see it?
• What will you do differently the next time you write a paper like this? What advice would you give a friend who is about to write the same assignment?
I would expect your reflection to be 2-3 pages, MLA formatted. (What is MLA formatted? Re-read the course syllabus under the "Description" tab.)
Your Reflection is due Wednesday, January 30th at the beginning of class.
Your Reflection on the Literacy Narrative is worth 10 points. Future reflections will be worth more points.
Your reflection should be a thoughtful and personal exploration of the work you did while writing your profile. I want you to consider your research and writing and develop some intriguing insights on your work. Your reflection needs to be in essay format, and I would expect it to be at least two pages long. You need to address the concerns below, but I do NOT want you to simply answer the questions in the order you see them below. You need to consider your own work carefully, and you need to organize your thoughts in your reflection.
Use MLA format for your paper with your last name and page number in the upper right corner of all pages (except the first one) and the following information in the upper left corner of the first page:
Your name
Name of paper/assignment and draft #
English 106-08-03
The current date
Things to Consider and Write about in Your Reflection
• Is the information complete enough for your audience’s needs?
• What background information did you need to give your audience for them to understand your subject?
• What strategies did you use to determine your audience, your audience’s needs, and the purpose for your profile?
• How did you go about researching information on your interviewee? What sources did you find?
• What is the dominant impression you created for your profile subject?
• How does your use of detail create this dominant impression (or angle/perspective)?
• How did you use your introduction and conclusion to help shape your dominant impression of your interviewee?
• What steps did you take in the revision process?
Your reflection is due by 2pm, Friday, March 7th, via email.
Reflection on your Research and Explanatory Report
Your Reflection is worth 20 points
Due: Friday, April 18th at the beginning of class.
Your reflection should be a thoughtful and personal exploration of the work you did while researching and writing your report. Your reflection needs to be in essay format, and I would expect it to be at least two pages long. Your opening paragraph should include your thesis (main idea) and the context (your problem and solution) that I need in order to understand your reflection. In addition, you need to address the concerns below, but I do NOT want you to simply answer the questions in the order you see them. You need to consider your own work carefully, and you need to organize and develop your thoughts into clear, well-constructed and complete sentences. Proofread your work carefully.
Use MLA format for your paper with your last name and page number in the upper right corner of all pages and the following information in the upper left corner of the first page:
Your name
Explanatory Report Reflection
English 106-08-02
Date you completed this draft
Things to Consider and Write about in Your Reflection
• What kinds of research did you do? Describe your research methods.
• What kinds of things did you learn about your project topic that you didn’t expect to learn? Describe any odd “discovery paths” you were led down.
• What kind of primary research did you do? How did you do it?
• What changes did you need to make in your drafts to address the concerns of your audience (of your classmates and me?)
• What kind of secondary research did you do? How did you do it?
• How did you handle revising your document? What was your revision process?
• Who, besides your classmates and me, read your paper? What feedback did that person/those people give you?
Reflection Questions
Presentation: Thinking about your Outcome
25 point writing assignment
In your reflection, you should NOT merely answer these questions one-by-one; you need to think about your essay in terms of these questions. Use the questions as pre-writing, but then, craft your reflection and organize it like a meditative essay in which you have actually examined your writing critically.
• Did you find the Research Project/Explanatory Report/Presentation of the Outcome assignment interesting? Explain.
(You’ll be talking about the entire project here.)
• What did you find most difficult about forming your Outcome?
• What was most difficult about presenting your Outcome for the class?
• What did you find easiest about completing the project?
• What do you wish you had spent more time on when completing this project?
• What instruction proved most helpful to you when completing this project?
• What did you need more help with when completing this project?
• What are the strengths of your outcome and presentation, as you see it?
• What are the weaknesses of your outcome and presentation, as you see it?
• What would you do differently if you were to begin this project anew? What advice would you give a friend who is about to begin the same assignment
Email me your reflection as an attached Word document (.doc only, please) by Monday morning (April 28th). Do not write your presentation reflection until after your presentation. Make sure you read it aloud and proofread what you've written carefully.
You'll do some writing for this class in your individual weblog space on the course website. You can access your weblog by clicking on the "Blogs" link in the sidebar, then by clicking on the "My Blog" link.
One way to think of a weblog or blog is as a journal. However, unlike a journal that you might keep at home (as well as most if not all of the writing you have done in school before), your blog space is public. Your fellow class members will be invited to read your blog. Classmates may respond to your posts with comments and replies. Group members may review notes you take when doing research. And, of course, since it's on the Internet, other Web readers may encounter your writing and take a look at what you have to say.
There are many uses for weblogs, but we'll only use them for a few things here. During this class, you may be asked to use your course weblog to
Good Blogging Practices
I will post blog prompts on the course calendar for you to respond to. These will be a part of your Blog points. I will usually post them on Thursday, and your entry will be due on Mondays by 2pm. Pay close attention to the prompts, and make sure you fully address them.
I will expect your postings to become more sophisticated as we discuss online writing and blogging.
Each blog post is worth 10 points, and there will be a 70 blog points possible (that's 7 blog posts).
Your semester analysis assignment sheet is attached to this page as a Word document. (Remember, you must be logged on to see attachments.)