Project 2: Using Your Brain to Explore Your Career Path

Download the correctly formatted assignment sheet from here: ellis-jason-eng1101-project-2.

 

Introduction

 

In your second major project of ENG 1101, you will have the opportunity to learn more about your selected major and career path (or one that you would like to explore more fully before selecting a major), and present your findings in a multimodal, research-supported blog post and a 5-minute, PowerPoint-based presentation.

 

Over the remaining weeks of the semester, we will break down this large project into smaller modules of research, drafting, and revising. Through this process, you will learn strategies for managing the large projects that you will encounter at City Tech and beyond.

 

The major components of this multimodal project (remember WOVEN) include a 1,250-word research-supported essay that explores your major, what you will do with your degree, and recommendations for others interested in your field, a blog post on our OpenLab website containing your essay, and a 5-minute, PowerPoint-based presentation that summarizes your essay for your peers.

 

 

Essay

 

Think of your essay as a fact-finding mission, an exploration of your educational and career opportunities, and a recommendation to your peers interested in the same field about how to learn more. Looking ahead to our reading of Jonathan Gottschall’s The Storytelling Animal, think about this essay as an opportunity to tell your audience a story about your interest in your major, what you want to with what you learn at City Tech, and how they can find out more and follow in your footsteps.

 

Your essay’s unifying argument should be: This is the best major/career path for me, because reason one, reason two, and reason three. In the following, I will show you how to link these elements together and maintain a unity of thought.

 

We will break the essay up into the following components. Refer to the schedule to see when we will devote class time for drafting and peer review. Also, consider the paragraph numbers as recommendations only—you will have latitude in the number of paragraphs for your essay, but I wanted to give you one potential path for organizing your essay.

 

This is the recommended structure for your Project 2 essay. We will discuss how and why we will use this structure as we work through each part.

 

1. Introduction (1 paragraph)
   1. Introduce yourself as a student at City Tech who is reflecting on her or his major and thinking ahead to enter a specific career field.
   2. Thesis: This is the best career for me, because reason one, reason two, and reason three (or more).
   3. Roadmap: In this essay, I will do these things in this order.
2. Background and Context (1 paragraph)
   1. Present your general research about your major and career choice. This paragraph gives your reader some background and contextual information.
   2. This paragraph should answer these kinds of questions: What do you learn in your major? What kinds of career options do you have after graduation in this major? What is the specific thing that you want to do with your education at City Tech? This paragraph should be supported with your research in the Course Catalog, City Tech website, and library research.

• Supporting Evidence for Your Thesis (3 or more paragraphs)
  1. Each of these paragraphs should support your thesis statement in the first paragraph.
  2. Each paragraph should address only one of your reasons listed after “because” in your thesis statement.
  3. These paragraphs should be supported with your library research.

1. City Tech’s Preparation for Your Career (1 paragraph)
   1. This is another supporting evidence paragraph, but it is specifically focused on how your educational and other opportunities at City Tech prepare you for your career.
   2. Describe how your education at City Tech prepares you for your future career. This paragraph should be supported by research in the Course Catalog, City Tech website, and an in-person or email interview with a professor or advisor at City Tech.
2. Conclusion (1 paragraph)
   1. The concluding paragraph should turn your discussion toward helping others who might be interested in your major or career choice.
   2. It should answer this question: What recommendations can you make for others who are interested in your field to learn more at City Tech and in your outside research?
3. Works Cited
   1. Create a Works Cited list at the end of your essay that follows MLA formatting. Refer to A Writer’s Reference and the Purdue OWL Website (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/).
   2. Remember to use proper parenthetical citations of all sources in the body of your essay.
   3. Excluding your introduction, you should calculate the number of sources that you use in your essay by the number of paragraphs. For example, if your essay has 7 paragraphs total – 1 paragraph introduction = 6 paragraphs = 6 sources. Of course, some paragraphs might have several sources cited and other paragraphs might only have one source cited. Some sources will be used in more than one paragraph. This number of sources is only a minimal requirement for the essay. You may use more sources as long as they are all properly quoted and cited. One source must be an oral or written interview with a professor/advisor.

 

 

Blog Post

 

After you have completed your essay, you will copy-and-paste it in its entirety (including the Works Cited) into a new blog post on our OpenLab site. The title of your post should be: “Exploring City Tech’s [Your Major Name] at City Tech and a Career in [Your Career Field] by [Your First and Last Name].” For example, your title will look like this: “Exploring City Tech’s Professional and Technical Writing and a Career in New Media Writing by Jason Ellis.”

 

As a reminder, you create a new blog post by following these directions:

 

1. Login to OpenLab and navigate to our class’ site.
2. Mouse over the + sign on our site’s gray menu bar and click on “Post.”
3. You will now be on the Add New Post page.
4. Where it says, “Enter title here,” click and type your title (see above).
5. In the large white box beneath the title, you can type or copy-and-paste the writing that you have done elsewhere. This is where you will create your Project 2 blog post.

 

To receive full credit on the project, you will want to add at least three photos to your blog post that connect to or support what you are writing about in your essay. These photos should be new and taken by you specifically for this project. Upload your photos to Flickr.com as you did on Project 1.

 

As a reminder, you embed your photos by following these instructions:

 

1. For this part of the blog post, you will get to embed your images using another website: Flickr.com. If you do not have an account for Flickr or Yahoo (which owns Flickr), you can easily get an account at flickr.com.
2. After creating an account, you will click Upload at the top of the Flickr menu bar and upload the three or four images that you thought best represented your thinking in part one.
3. Then, click You > Photostream > click the first image that you would like to use so that it fills your web browser window. Click into the address bar of your web browser and copy the link.
4. Paste the link for the first image into this section of your blog post. Type a description for the photo beneath it.
5. Copy and paste the links to the other images by moving through your photostream.

 

Add your photos to your Works Cited list following the same format as you used on Project 1.

 

Presentation

 

After you have published your blog post with your essay and supporting images, you will give a brief 5-minute presentation to the class that summarizes what you wrote about in your essay. The structure of your presentation should follow the essay structure, but you will summarize only the most important points in your oral presentation.

 

For this presentation, you will create a PowerPoint presentation that anchors what you say in your oral presentation. Your PowerPoint presentation should include text and images. You may use the photos that you include in your blog post and others that you take on your own. You may not use photos or images that you find on Google or elsewhere.

 

For your presentation, you may choose to memorize your speech, read from note cards, or read from printed notes. You may not use handwritten notes on notebook paper. You may not read or look at the PowerPoint as displayed on the screen behind you. You should make as much eye contact with your audience as possible and use your notes as a reference for occasional glances. You will want to practice your presentation at least once before your assigned presentation day. If you do not practice, it will be revealed during your presentation performance. Remember what I have said in class about professionalization—this is another step in that direction.

 

 

Tentative Schedule

 

Week	Day	Date	Reading	Work	Due
8	M	10/20	John Medina’s Brain Rules, Sleep.	Student-led introduction to the reading.  Announce Project 2   Form teams for this project. We will use these teams for the remainder of the semester.	Three-ring Binder: Notes on today’s reading.  Blog: Comment on post for previous class’ reading.
	W	10/22	John Medina’s Brain Rules, Stress.  NB: Midterm grades available.	Student-led introduction to the reading.    In-class writing exercise on what you already know about your career path.	Three-ring Binder: Notes on today’s reading.  Blog: Comment on post for previous class’ reading.
9	M	10/27	John Medina’s Brain Rules, Sensory integration.	Student-led introduction to the reading.  Discuss library resources and how to find things.   In-class writing exercise to develop the first paragraph of your Project 2 essay.	Three-ring Binder: Notes on today’s reading.  Blog: Comment on post for previous class’ reading.
	W	10/29	John Medina’s Brain Rules, Vision.	Student-led introduction to the reading.  Peer review your first paragraph with your team during class.	Three-ring Binder: Notes on today’s reading.  Blog: Comment on post for previous class’ reading.   Three printed copies of your essay’s first paragraph.
10	M	11/3	John Medina’s Brain Rules, Gender.	Student-led introduction to the reading.  In-class writing exercise to develop the second paragraph of your Project 2 essay.	Three-ring Binder: Notes on today’s reading.  Blog: Comment on post for previous class’ reading.
	W	11/5	John Medina’s Brain Rules, Exploration.  NB: Nov 6 is the last day to withdraw with a W grade.	Student-led introduction to the reading.  Peer review of your Project 2 essay’s second paragraph (cite research and interview).	Three-ring Binder: Notes on today’s reading.  Blog: Comment on post for previous class’ reading.   Bring three printed copies of your second paragraph to class.   Bring a book from the library to class that you will use in your project.
11	M	11/10	Jonathan Gottschall’s The Storytelling Animal, The Witchery of Story.	Student-led introduction to the reading.  In-class writing exercise on your first supporting paragraph. This is your first reason why your major/career path is right for you.	Three-ring Binder: Notes on today’s reading.  Blog: Comment on post for previous class’ reading.
	W	11/12	Jonathan Gottschall’s The Storytelling Animal, The Riddle of Fiction.	Student-led introduction to the reading.  Peer review of your first “reason” paragraph (and your third paragraph overall).	Three-ring Binder: Notes on today’s reading.  Blog: Comment on post for previous class’ reading.   Bring three printed copies of your third paragraph to class.
12	M	11/17	Jonathan Gottschall’s The Storytelling Animal, Hell is Story-Friendly.	Student-led introduction to the reading.  Peer review of your second “reason” paragraph (and your fourth overall).	Three-ring Binder: Notes on today’s reading.  Blog: Comment on post for previous class’ reading.   Bring three printed copies of your fourth paragraph to class.
	W	11/19	Jonathan Gottschall’s The Storytelling Animal, Night Story.	Student-led introduction to the reading.  Peer review of your third “reason” paragraph (and your fifth overall).	Three-ring Binder: Notes on today’s reading.  Blog: Comment on post for previous class’ reading.   Bring three printed copies of your fifth paragraph to class.
13	M	11/24	Jonathan Gottschall’s The Storytelling Animal, The Mind is a Storyteller.	Student-led introduction to the reading.  In-class writing exercise for the “preparation” paragraph (and your sixth paragraph overall).	Three-ring Binder: Notes on today’s reading.  Blog: Comment on post for previous class’ reading.
	W	11/26	Jonathan Gottschall’s The Storytelling Animal, The Moral of the Story.	Student-led introduction to the reading.  Peer review of your “preparation” paragraph.   First blog post and presentation lecture.	Three-ring Binder: Notes on today’s reading.  Blog: Comment on post for previous class’ reading.   Bring three printed copies of your “preparation” paragraph to class.
	F	11/28	Thanksgiving Break
14	M	12/1	Jonathan Gottschall’s The Storytelling Animal, Ink People Change the World.	Student-led introduction to the reading.  Final peer review of your entire Project 2 essay including your conclusion paragraph written over the break.	Three-ring Binder: Notes on today’s reading.  Blog: Comment on post for previous class’ reading.   Bring three printed copies of your entire essay to class for peer review.
	W	12/3	Jonathan Gottschall’s The Storytelling Animal, Life Stories.	Student-led introduction to the reading.  Second blog post and presentation lecture.	Three-ring Binder: Notes on today’s reading.  Blog: Comment on post for previous class’ reading.
15	M	12/8	Jonathan Gottschall’s The Storytelling Animal, The Future of Story.  Project Two Presentations.	Student-led introduction to the reading.	Three-ring Binder: Notes on today’s reading.  Blog: Comment on post for previous class’ reading.   Project Two Blog Post Due on OpenLab.
	W	12/10	Project Two Presentations.		Blog: Comment on post for previous class’ reading.
16	M	12/15	Project Two Presentations.
	W	12/17	Project Two Presentations.  Wrap-up and discuss final exam.
17	M	12/22	Final exam during class.

 

 

Holistic Grading

 

I grade your work holistically. First, this means that your work must be complete, on time, and done using the writing process. If these components are not met, you will likely lose points. Second, I evaluate your work using the attached grading rubric. I deduct points from a maximum score of 100 based on the weaknesses that I might find in your work. I will include constructive criticism and advice with your grade. Third, your grade will likely be higher if you can develop more revisions of each part, because each revision is like a mathematically iteration bringing you closer to being a very effective communicator. However, this process only works when your revisions are substantial—going back to the foundations of your writing, composing, and ideas. Simply copyediting or proofreading in the revision process will help with the Conventions section of the rubric but not likely the other parts of the rubric. Carefully consider how you do use the revision process.

 

 

Grading Rubric

 

Scale	Basic	Beginning	Developing	Competent	Mature	Exemplary
Rhetorical Awareness Response to the situation/assignment, considering elements such as purpose, audience, register, and context	Ignores two or more aspects of the situation and thus does not fulfill the task	Ignores at least one aspect of the situation and thus compromises effectiveness	Attempts to respond to all aspects of the situation, but the attempt is insufficient or inappropriate	Addresses the situation in a complete but perfunctory or predictable way	Addresses the situation completely, with unexpected insight	Addresses the situation in a complete, sophisticated manner that could advance professional discourse on the topic
Stance and Support Argument, evidence, and analysis	Involves an unspecified or confusing argument; lacks appropriate evidence	Makes an overly general argument; has weak or contradictory evidence	Lacks a unified argument; lacks significance (“so what?”); lacks sufficient analysis	Offers a unified, significant, and common position with predictable evidence and analysis	Offers a unified, distinct position with compelling evidence and analysis	Offers an inventive, expert-like position with precise and convincing evidence and analysis
Organization Structure and coherence, including elements such as introductions and conclusions as well as logical connections within and among paragraphs (or other meaningful chunks)	Lacks unity in constituent parts (such as paragraphs); fails to create coherence among constituent parts	Uses insufficient unifying statements (e.g., thesis statements, topic sentences, headings, or forecasting statements); uses few effective connections (e.g., transitions, match cuts, and hyperlinks)	Uses some effective unifying claims, but a few are unclear; makes connections weakly or inconsistently, as when claims appear as random lists or when paragraphs’ topics lack explicit ties to the thesis	States unifying claims with supporting points that relate clearly to the overall argument and employs an effective but mechanical scheme	Asserts and sustains a claim that develops progressively and adapts typical organizational schemes for the context, achieving substantive coherence	Asserts a sophisticated claim by incorporating diverse perspectives that are organized to achieve maximum coherence and momentum
Conventions Expectations for grammar, mechanics, style, citation, and genre	Involves errors that risk making the overall message distorted or incomprehensible	Involves a major pattern of errors	Involves some distracting errors	Meets expectations, with minor errors	Exceeds expectations in a virtually flawless manner	Manipulates expectations in ways that advance the argument
Design for Medium Features that use affordances to enhance factors such as comprehensibility and usability	Lacks the features necessary for the genre; neglects significant affordances, such as linking on the web; uses features that conflict with or ignore the argument	Omits some important features; involves distracting inconsistencies in features (e.g., type and headings); uses features that don’t support argument	Uses features that support with argument, but some match imprecisely with content; involves minor omissions or inconsistencies	Supports the argument with features that are generally suited to genre and content	Promotes engagement and supports the argument with features that efficiently use affordances	Persuades with careful, seamless integration of features and content and with innovative use of affordances

Table 16. Outcomes for English 1101 and English 1102 specified by the Board of Regents and by Georgia Tech’s Writing and Communication Program (NB: In each cell, one or more items separated by semicolons could apply)