Prof. Ruth Garcia

English 1101, semester

Unit 1: Literacy Narrative Writing Assignment (1000-word minimum)

Due: xx/xx/xx

Assignment

In class we have read, discussed, and analyzed Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” Malcolm X’s “Learning to Read,” and Sandra Cisneros’ “Only Daughter.” In these narratives, the writers discuss their educational journey—the way their experiences affect their education and shapes their career choices/professional interests, the way they feel about education, and their understanding of the world around them. In addition, in the “Allegory of the Cave,” Plato likens leaving the cave to the painful experience of TRUE education, while being trapped in the cave and being force-fed the shadows on the wall is something of a false education.

Now, for this assignment you will use these writers as models and write an education narrative of your own. You should write a narrative focused on one of the following:

1. A moment, person, and/or experience that led you to choose your major and shaped your interest in your chosen field.
2. An experience, or inter-related series of experiences, that shaped how you viewed or experienced education.
3. An experience in your educational journey thus far that changed how you felt or thought about something important to you.
4. With Plato and your own experiences in mind, write a narrative in which you show what to you is a true education and explain how it relates to Plato’s ideas.

In developing your narrative, and regardless of which focus you choose, you should reflect on your experience and the significance of your story. As you write, you should also keep in mind Mike Bunn’s “How to Read Like a Writer” and think about your purpose and audience as these will help you makes decisions about your content, style, and tone.

You will be graded on:

• Your ability to develop an overall point/significance for your narrative.
• Concrete, significant detail (are you painting us a picture?)
• Focused event (did you focus on one event or connected, series of events?)
• The thoughtfulness of your reflections (is there a point?)
• The carefulness of your proofreading and organization You should be able to explain the choices you made.
• Word count: At least 1000 words!
• Whether or not it’s on time

Prof. Garcia

ENG 1121, semester ???

Unit 3: Multimodal Repurposing Assignment

Due: ?/?/20

Assignment

In the conclusion of your annotated bibliography you identified a discourse community that you think would benefit from your research. You also thought about why and how that community would benefit from your research.

Now for this assignment you will repurpose the information you learned from your research and present it in another medium. This medium should be the one you think will best convey your information to the specific audience you have chosen. Your final product should go beyond the written word and communicate using other modes of communication.

Examples of modes you might choose: TedTalk, audio Podcast, YouTube video, song lyrics, Wikipedia entry, video or graphic essay, blog, informational brochure, short movie, or play.

Notes: This project asks you to write in a new way, but you must still turn in a written component. For example, if you put together a TedTalk, podcast, or video of some sort, you can turn in the transcript you developed.

Due Dates

??/??/??: Hand in a one-page plan for your project. Here you should do the following:

• Tell me the mode you selected for presenting your information and why you feel this is the appropriate mode. Also, tell me what you hope to accomplish with your piece (persuade, inform, something else).
• Tell me about the mode in which you will compose. For example, what do you see as the main elements or features of this genre, including the length, tone, format, organization, desired effect on the audience, and other key features? Make a list and describe each element in a few sentences.
• Tell me about how you will go about composing your piece. For example: What technologies will you use? What information will you include in your final product? How will you organize it?

??/??/??: Bring in a fully drafted version of your project for peer review

??/??/??: Unit 3 project due. On this day you should also come prepared to write an in-class reflection on your project. You will be asked to write about the choices you made, the process you undertook, what you learned, and how you will use this experience/information in future classes.

How will this be graded?

• Careful and thorough thinking: The new media piece you produce should be similar to other pieces in the media you chose to work with, be polished/finished looking, and thorough. Note: There is no particular word count for your assignment as the length will be determined by the genre in which you chose to work.
• Audience: The audience you chose should make sense for your topic. Also, the genre you chose to work in and the choices you made when composing should be appropriate for your chosen audience.
• Repurposing: The new genre piece you produce should use the research from your annotated bibliography and be related to your research question.
• Timeliness: Your project should be on time.

Prof. Ruth Garcia

English 1121, semester ????

Unit 2: Inquiry Based Research/Annotated Bibliography (1800-word minimum)

Due: ?/?/2020

Assignment

In class we have read and discussed “The Declaration of Independence,” The U.S Constitution, and current pieces about social issues in occurring today. Inspired by these texts, we have brainstormed issues that are deeply important to you and you have picked one of these and worked over the last couple of weeks to develop a question related to your topic that you want to investigate.

Now, for this assignment you will do research and put together an 1800-word annotated bibliography of four sources that help you answer your research question.

Here is a useful site explaining what an annotated bibliography is and how to do one: https://guides.library.cornell.edu/annotatedbibliography

Your particular annotated bibliography should include the following:

• Your research question at the top of the page.
• An opening statement (a paragraph) explaining why this topic is important to you, what you know about it, and what you expect to find.
• Four sources that are properly formatted in MLA style.
  • Note that your sources do not need to be articles. In fact, I encourage you to find information from a variety of genres. Examples of genres you might include are: newspaper articles, TED talks, personal essays, magazine article, scholarly article, organizations website.
  • You can find more on how to do MLA citations at the link below and throughout the Purdue OWL site: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html
  • You can also use Purdue OWL, Easy Bib, or Citation aNchine to do your citations—you can google for the second two sites and the first is at the link above.
  • Make sure your citations are in alphabetical order by author’s last name.
• After each MLA style citation, put a summary of the source that tells what the piece is about.
• Following each summary, you should also include
  • a few sentences that explain the genre, audience, and purpose of the piece.
  • one or two sentences evaluating the usefulness of each source.
  • An important and useful quotation from your source.
• A concluding statement (about two paragraphs) reflecting on the following: What did you learned about your topic? How did your thinking change? Which discourse community do you think would benefit from your research? Why and how would this discourse community benefit from this information?

Note: Below–after “How will this be graded” I have included a template for your annotated bibliography. This is to show you how to organize and format your annotated bibliography, which is its own genre of writing.

How will this be graded?

• Your annotated bibliography should be at least 1800 words.
• Your annotated bibliography should be on time.
• Your annotated bibliography should have all the components listed above and be formatted in the way indicated by the template below.
• You should proofread.

The template for this assignment begins on the next page.

Your Name Here

Prof. Garcia

ENG 1121

Date Here

Research Question: Insert your research question here in place of this red text. Then make the text black/automatic when you are done.

Introduction:

In place of this blue text, insert your Opening statement saying what you expected to find before you began your research—this should be about at least a paragraph. Make sure to return the text to black/automatic.

Insert your first source here in place of all this black text and make sure your citation is in MLA style and alphabetized by author’s last name. Notice that the first line of a citation is all the way to the left and other lines of the citation are indented.

In place of this green text, you should insert your summary. In your summary you should make sure to mention the genre, audience, and purpose of the piece. Also, make sure to return your text to black/automatic.

In place of this purple text, you should insert your evaluation of the source and return the text to black/automatic.

In place of this orange text, insert an important or useful quotation from your source and return the text to black/automatic.

Insert your second source here in place of all this black text and make sure your citation is in MLA style and alphabetized by author’s last name. Notice that the first line of a citation is all the way to the left and other lines of the citation are indented.

In place of this green text, you should insert your summary. In your summary you should make sure to mention the genre, audience, and purpose of the piece. Also, make sure to return your text to black/automatic.

In place of this purple text, you should insert your evaluation of the source and return the text to black/automatic.

In place of this orange text, insert an important or useful quotation from your source and return the text to black/automatic.

Insert your third source here in place of all this black text and make sure your citation is in MLA style and alphabetized by author’s last name. Notice that the first line of a citation is all the way to the left and other lines of the citation are indented.

In place of this green text, you should insert your summary. In your summary you should make sure to mention the genre, audience, and purpose of the piece. Also, make sure to return your text to black/automatic.

In place of this purple text, you should insert your evaluation of the source and return the text to black/automatic.

In place of this orange text, insert an important or useful quotation from your source and return the text to black/automatic.

Insert your fourth source here in place of all this black text and make sure your citation is in MLA style and alphabetized by author’s last name. Notice that the first line of a citation is all the way to the left and other lines of the citation are indented.

In place of this green text, you should insert your summary. In your summary you should make sure to mention the genre, audience, and purpose of the piece. Also, make sure to return your text to black/automatic.

In place of this purple text, you should insert your evaluation of the source and return the text to black/automatic.

Conclusions:

In place of this blue text, insert your concluding statement saying what you learned about your topic, who you think would benefit from this information, and why and how they would benefit from this information—this should be about a paragraph. Make sure to return the text to black/automatic.