What's Up for Week 10?

NOT a good example of the type of critique you'll be receiving!

On Wednesday, we'll be conducting peer review in class. These are the guiding questions you can use to inform your critiques:


1. What question is the author setting out to answer? How does the author tie their question back to the discussions we've been having in this class (discourse)? Are those connections apparent?

2. What type of inquiry does the author engage in? Does the author clearly illustrate this? How does the author tie their inquiry back to their question? Do they analyze, or just paraphrase? How might this be improved?

3. What claim does the author make, in relation to their question? Is the claim original? How does the author support their claims? How does the author articulate the importance and significance of their claim? In other words, so what?

4. How does the author give formal credit to their sources? Check for parenthetical citations and a works cited page.


Critiques are due WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30TH


In class on Wednesday, you'll need to turn in the following revision plan:

• What did you learn were the strengths of your essay? Be specific!
• What did you learn were the limitations of your essay? Be specific!
• Based on your group's discussion, how do you plan to revise your essay? Be specific! 

STUDIO WORK


Be sure to come by and sign-in with your group. You will have time to work on your projects collaboratively, either in the studio or elsewhere (just let me know).


Upcoming due dates:

Wednesday, October 30th -- Critiques due!

Monday, November 4th -- Collaborative proposals due! Turn one in per group

Wednesday, November 6th -- Stage IV draft II is due today! Bring 1 copy to class to turn in to instructor.

Collaborative Project Proposals

Wednesday in class we'll be discussing the collaborative project. Please come to class with a list of questions or concerns you have.

Again, this project really gives you an opportunity to get creative, so please, do just that! The gist of the assignment is that you need to create a public document and present it to an authentic audience. How your group decides to interpret that is completely up to you!

The first step in this is going to be drafting up a PROJECT PROPOSAL which you'll be turning in to me for feedback and approval. Your PROPOSALS are due Monday, November 4th, though you will have plenty of class time to work on these.

Basically for the proposal, you're telling me what you plan to do for your collaborative project. Here is a form you can use to type into:

PROJECT PROPOSAL FORM

And because I think you might need an example, here is one!

PROJECT PROPOSAL EXAMPLE

We will not be meeting in the studio. Use this class time to work on your project proposals. You may want to meet in the library, the ASB, or a study room in the student union.

Homework

Work on Stage IV. Your first draft is due on Monday, October 28th! Bring 3 copies to class for peer review.
Also, continue working on your group project proposals

We're Halfway There!

We've passed the half-way point of the semester, which means we're going to be switching gears a little bit!

In class Monday, I'd like us to take a step back and think about how far along we've come. On that note, you'll be writing a reflective essay about your progress with Stages I-3 so far. To do this, you'll need the GRADED copies of stages 1-2 in class (I will bring your stage 3!).

Then, this also marks the beginning of our COLLABORATIVE PROJECT, which we'll begin discussing.

STUDIO WORK

Read the Bernstein article and address the following discussion questions. This can be a springboard into thinking about the collaborative project, too.

Bernstein Discussion Questions

1.      Summarize the main points of Bernstein’s argument in the essay. What problems does he see?

2.      WHO is Bernstein? Do you think he’s a credible source? Why or why not? 

3.      What do you think Bernstein’s purpose for writing this essay is? Do you think he’s successful in achieving his purpose? Why or why not?

4.      Thinking about YOUR high school experience vs. your experience in college so far, do you think Bernstein’s fears are accurate? What problems of issues have YOU faced? Discuss them and compare/contrast with what Bernstein says.

5.      Thinking about the problems or issues you’ve encountered – what do you think can be done to solve those problems, or even to make the transition to high school to college easier for students? Who do you think might be able to make those changes? You might even think about problems related to your construct (hint hint hint, preparing for the collaborative project).

HOMEWORK

Review the COLLABORATIVE PROJECT assignment details and bring a list of questions you have about it

Continue working on your STAGE IV essays. Rough drafts are due  Monday, October 28th. Here is an EXAMPLE in case you're in need of a little more direction.

Week 8 Plans

Actually, yes you do!

Class,

This week, we'll be beginning our Stage IV discussions and moving forward with our individual research projects. Before you all get going with those, though, I want to meet with you all in small groups to address any concerns and provide you with some feedback on your plans of inquiry (Stage III). Therefore, most of our class time during week 8 will be devoted to small group meetings. I will be meeting with your groups based on the "construct groups" you all chose in the beginning of the semester (by the way, if you'd like to make adjustments to those groups, now would be a good time to bring it up).


Monday

1:10 - 1:40: Whole class discussion on Stage IV. All must attend
1:40-2:25 --  Small group meeting with team "Writing" and "Reading" in the CLASSROOM (SBS 106)

Good Writing:

Jacob

Vianney

Omar

Michael

Aaron B.

Good Reading

Isaiah

Stanislava

Benito

Ydana

 


Wednesday: Small group meetings both class periods

Meeting from 1:10 - 2:25 in the CLASSROOM

Peer Review

Selena

Ralph

Sergio

Aaron S

Revision

Kike

Robbie

Justin

Leslie

Meeting from 2:35-3:50 in the STUDIO

Research

Jake

Jesus

Jorge L

Carlos

Technology

Isa

Nelly

Britannie

Jorge

You are only required to come on your scheduled time. This will be a good time to ASK questions, get help, and address any concerns about your research proposal and project.

"Good Research" and Stage III Discussions

Today in class, we'll be finishing up our discussion of the Kantz article, which should give us a more realistic view as to how "good research" looks in a college context.

In your groups today, brainstorm a list of strategies or pieces of advice that you could give to a beginning college freshman who HASN'T read Kantz. How would you instruct them to do "good research?" We'll be recording these responses here to revisit as you're conducting your own research.

Here's the advice you all came up with:

1. Question the readings -- the author's intentions, where the source gets the information from
2. Look for proven facts (claims supported by facts and peer reviewed sources)
3. Analyze the text to make an original argument about it
4. Look for credibility -- look for a works cited page, not driven by opinions, not wikipedia)
5. Wikipedia is a good starting point, but it's not a scholarly source, and shouldn't be used in your actual paper
6. Think about who the intended audience of the source is and consider why it was written that way
7. Look for more recent research
8. Gather multiple resources for more accurate information and compare them
9. Know the difference between facts and claims: facts are what support claims.
10. Use claims in your writing; use the facts to support them.
11. Use rhetorical reading (Kinnevey's triangle)




Studio Work:

In your peer review groups, discuss your Stage III drafts. What concerns do you have about the assignment? We'll use this class period to offer advice and help each other get through this somewhat difficult assignment.

Before you leave, please turn in:

A list of 3 SPECIFIC suggestions you received from your group members (or me) about your Stage III draft
A list of 3 SPECIFIC suggestions you gave to your group members about their stage IIIs.
A brief explanation as to how you plan to revise/revisit your Stage III, based off of your peer's advice.

The suggestions can be about the research question, suggesting secondary sources, help with primary research, ideas for audience, purpose, or form. As long as your suggestions are specific, you will be in good shape.

Homework for the weekend:
Revise your stage III assignment! Due to me on MONDAY.

Kantz and YOUR Sources

After reading Kantz, this shouldn't be you!

Today in class, we're going to be discussing and working through the Kantz article. Before we get started, get into groups of 3-4 and come up with definitions of the following terms and write them on the board:

Argument
Claim
Opinion
Fact

We'll be discussing which groups' definitions are best, now that we've read Kantz.

Then, complete the following questions in your groups. These are due at the end of the period.

a.     Thinking back to Flower, what does it mean to read rhetorically? How does this relate to writing a research paper?

b.    Read Shirley’s paper and the analysis of it on page 75. Why does Kantz suggest that she got a C-? What’s wrong with her paper? Is it similar to your paper? What might you do to avoid falling into the same trap as Shirley?

c.     When reading sources for a research paper, what is your job? What are you trying to do? Has your research process changed at all over the course of this class? What might you do differently in order to be more successful as a rhetorical writer?

d.    What role does Kantz say audience plays in Shirley’s sources? Why is it so significant? Thinking about your own research so far, do you think audience plays a significant role? Discuss your experiences.

e.     Describe the triangle Kantz discusses. What are “gaps,” and how might observing these help you in your research? Thinking about your research, have you found any gaps? If so, discuss them. If not, why do you think you haven’t found any?

Studio Work 

Today, we will be meeting in ASB 2.102 instead of the writing studio. 

Your task: Post an MLA style citation AND an annotation here in the comments section of the blog. Your source MUST be scholarly (peer-reviewed, from a professional journal). Use either the library databases or google scholar to find your source if you hadn't already found one.

Need help with your citation? Try easybib or Son of Citation Machine

Your annotation should include 1. a brief, 1-2 sentence summary of the source's claims and 2. a 1-2 sentence explanation as to HOW it relates to your research question, or how you plan to use it for your research.

This will help us to share sources!

If you finish this early, work on your Stage III assignment. I have a sample posted for you to see here