• • Weeks 8 and 9 Assignments

    • Each week, I will ask you to do four things:
    • 1/  Post an entry in your Learning Journal.  Entries in your Learning Journal (LJ) will most often be focused on Free Writing or Structured Free Writing, which is Free Writing in response to a specific topic, prompt, or question.  I will give you a weekly LJ assignment.  Please post entries in your LJ HERE.  This is a private journal that only you and your instructor can access.
    • 2/ Complete one or more Group Assignments (GA), which will require that you contribute either a BLOG POST and/or to our course Discussion Board.  These posts and discussions will be read by our entire class.
    • 3/ Complete one to two Reading and Writing Assignments (RWA), which, unless otherwise specified, you will submit as a separate entry/entries in your Learning Journal HERE.
    • 4/ Check in at least THREE separate times a week and respond at least ONCE to contributions by other student blog posts on the Home page of our course Web site AND to forums on the course Discussion Board

     

    • WEEK 8 and 9 ASSIGNMENTS:  DUE DATE:  Monday, OCTOBER 29  at 5PM.

    During Weeks 8 and 9, you will be revising your personal essays, submitting a final draft, and preparing for our midterm exam, which you will take during week 10.

    • LEARNING JOURNAL 8/9
      
    • Please spend 5 to 7 minutes free writing about a story that you know.  If you need help getting started, here are some suggestions:
    • If you were at a party with fifteen people gathered around, all listening to you, what’’s the one story you would tell?; Is there a story that is told again and again by your family or friends? What is the story? Who is it about? Why do you think it is told with such frequency? How has the story changed over time?
  • GROUP ASSIGNMENTS

   Group Assignment 13:   Responding to Suggested Guidelines for Assessment of the Personal Essay

• We need to synthesize the Suggested Guidelines for Assessment from the various groups in order to create one set of Guidelines that will be used to assess the personal essay.  In order to do this, I’d like each group to read through the suggestions put forward by the other groups, as well as my comments on these.  You will find both here.
• As a group, please consider what similarities and differences you are seeing in the suggested guidelines from the various groups.  Finally, put together a REVISED Suggested Guidelines for Assessment that reflects the changes that you’ve made to your original guidelines.  Please post these on our course blog.
• Reading and Writing Assignment 10:  Revising, Editing, and Proofreading Your Personal Essay
  

Please read “What Is Revision?” on page 86 of Professor Rodgers’ eBook _What Is Writing_.  After reading this, your own reflections on your first draft (RWA8), the comments and suggestions from your peer editor, Professor Rodgers’ comments on your draft, and the guidelines for Structural Revision on p. 87 of Professor Rodgers’ eBook, please put together a second draft of your personal essay.  This draft should have a title, coherent and focused paragraphs, and a clear purpose.

After you have completed revising this draft, print out a copy.  Then, with a pen in your hand, please read the essay aloud to yourself making sure to edit any sentences that may not be working/communicating as you read.  Once you have finished reading, please Line Edit your draft by working through the Line Editing Worksheet in Professor Rodgers’ book.  Proofread your draft by working through the Proofreading Worksheet in Professor Rodgers’ eBook _What Is Writing?_  Make any and all changes that need to be made based on your Revision, Line Editing, and Proofreading processes.

Reading and Writing Assignment 11:  Preparing a Finished Piece of Writing

Before handing in your final draft, I’d like you to write me a brief cover letter, or editorial letter.  In this letter, I’d like you to:  1/ describe your experience of drafting and revising this personal essay; 2/ explain what you did or did not learn in the process; 3/ point out any concerns or questions that you have about the essay.  After completing this cover letter, please submit both the cover letter and your final essay draft together by posting the file to our BlackBoard site in the Personal Essay Folder, which you can access here.  PLEASE NOTE:  All files posted should adhere to the following nomenclature guidelines:  LASTNAME.PERSONALESSAY.FINALDRAFT.DOC    (I’m sorry to be returning to BlackBoard, but we need to return to it for the Midterm Exam, and as far as file management goes, it makes my life a lot easier).

Reading and Writing Assignment 12:  Introduction to Argumentation and Argumentative Essays

Our midterm exam will consist of a timed argumentative essay in response to a reading.  There are two purposes for the midterm exam:  1/ to give you practice writing an argumentative essay and 2/to prepare you for the final exam.  To start preparing for this exam, which you will complete during Week 10 of our course (October 29 – Nov. 4), I’d like you to first to review some materials on Argumentative Writing located on the following three Web pages:

http://www.powa.org/index.php/convince/occasions-for-argumentative-essays

http://www.powa.org/index.php/convince/arguing-in-context

http://www.powa.org/index.php/convince/stating-your-proposition

I’m not requiring that you do the suggested assignments, but if you would like to, please do.  I’d be interested in knowing if you find them helpful.

Please also review Professor Rodgers’ handouts related to writing thesis statements and her structural overview of a thesis-driven essay in “College Writing: Some FAQs”

OPTIONAL Reading and Writing Assignment:  Practice Midterm Exam

For those of you interested in taking a practice exam, I will post one here in the next couple of days.  This is NOT REQUIRED.  However, if you are feeling like you need some practice, feel free to take this exam.  You can access it by clicking here.