Again, I did take a bulk of this assignment from examples from last session’s PD. It worked well and I am impressed with the caliber of papers I’ve received this semester.

English 1101 D371 Paper #2: Research Report

Due Dates

Proposal/Conceptual Outline: 3/16

First Draft: 3/23

Final Draft: 3/25

In this unit, we are reading about the community around us. More specifically, we are reading and analyzing issues that are relevant to New Yorkers. You will choose a relevant topic that interests you, and report on a specific question you’d like to investigate within that topic.

Since the Unit 2 and Unit 3 papers are closely linked, in order to explain Unit 2, I have to talk about Units 2 + 3 together, because you’re going to have to use some foresight in the research decisions you make; there will be planning, trial, error, planning again. It’s all part of the process.

In Unit 3, you’ll be writing a document in a new genre, one you haven’t written in before, about what you’ve decided to research in unit 2. For example, you might write a manifesto, or a comic book. Maybe you want to write a speech addressing a problem you outlined or discovered in your research for Unit 2.

You don’t need to know exactly what you’re going to be doing in Unit 3 yet. HOWEVER, you’ll be doing some things in Unit 2 that you’ll need for Unit 3:

1. Researching a question about a NYC community or issue that you are truly curious about. You will use some of your research from Unit 2 when you write Unit 3.
2. Researching a variety of different genres, which will inform what you write in Unit 3.

So, Unit 2 will be an investigation into and report on a specific question about a topic that interests you. You will conduct research into various genres (4 sources), gather and evaluate the information in those sources, and present a report on your findings. For this assignment, you will not need a thesis statement; rather, I am asking you think investigate, analyze, and report what you have learned from your investigation. You may arrive at an answer to you initial question, or you may find you’re asking the wrong questions and will need to rethink your approach.

1. Ask and develop specific question. This should be something you care about, something you’ve always wondered about – something that will keep you engaged, as you’ll be continuing this line of inquiry in Unit 3 as well.
2. Have your question approved by me (REQUIRED). If you change your question, your new question must be approved. Due 3/16  (You cannot change your question past 3/18).
3. Research, gather information on, and analyze 4 sources consisting of at least 3 different genres.
4. Read and annotate sources with your question in mind. Take notes on the relationship between the source and your question. Consider throughout: what did I learn from this source? About my own process of thought? About my reading process? My writing process?
5. Write your report. The best way to go about this is to write the report for each source, then write the intro and conclusion. Remember that format and appearance count, so give yourself time to proofread and make it look good!

Your analysis of each source must be at least 300 words – this is both content analysis AND rhetorical analysis, which we have discussed and will continue to discuss during this unit. In other words, you must analyze not only what the source says, but also who its intended audience is, what its history is, its purpose, etc. Remember, try to make this as interesting to your readers as possible. This gives you some leeway in choosing how you want to format your report, but make sure you consider what is best for your audience.

The entire report, consisting of source analysis, introduction, and conclusion, should be at least 1800 words. 

Grading System

1. Is your document readable and informative? Does it teach us about what you’ve learned, as it relates to question? Does it teach us, not only about the content of the sources you’ve chosen, but also the rhetorical situation surrounding those sources? In other words, is it a “good” source? Good for whom? Why?
2. Did you do good research here? One of the main goals of the assignment is to learn something new about your topic AND to help you learn to find information on your own, to be applied to future situations. If you simply choose the first three options on Google, that’s not doing enough, and your topic will most likely not be as nuanced as it could be.
3. Did you find sources in at least three different genres? Do the genres you chose “gel” with the content – that is, do the genres you chose make sense for the goals of both Units 2 and 3?
4. Your report must look good, and must be organized in a way that makes sense to the reader you have in mind (and to me!).
5. Is your language appropriate to the audience you have in mind? No matter how you chose to write it, the type of language you use (how it is written) must be consistent and must be appropriate to your audience. You should be able to explain with a good line of reasoning why you chose the language you chose.
6. Cite your sources.

What are some strategies or low-stakes assignments you might use to teach your students what genre is, and how and why we move between genres in order to reach our audiences and achieve our desired outcomes? Try to think of strategies that you might be able to use online.

I actually found this great in-class genre exercise from the FSU Composition site Robert suggested in January. I tried this exercise in both my 1101 and 1121 classes this semester. It was a fun way to engage the class and get them thinking about genre. I tweaked the 1121 class lesson plan by adding in a discussion and analysis of multimodal genres. In both classes I started the class by asking them to define genre and how they came up with that definition.  I gave them five minutes to write the response and told them we can share the responses after class. After they finished writing I asked the class to name genres of films. Once we had six genres on the board, I broke the class up into six groups (the average size of the group was 4). I asked the group to answer these four questions about their film genre. (I lifted these questions from the FSU lesson plan)

1. Genre: What are the conventions of your group’s movie genre?
2. Audience: Who watches this type of movie?
3. Audience Expectation: What does an audience expect to experience/feel/learn/see from this genre?
4. Evidence: Provide 3 examples of movies that fit this type and explain why they fit.

I moved the conversation to writing and we talked about genres of writing, asking the class if a poster, text, letter, instruction manual, etc. was a genre? And why? We filled the board with a long list of genres.

I asked the class to answer the original question about genre that I had written on the board again, and if there were any difference between the first response and the second, and if so, what they were. The class shared a few responses and we had a short class discussion. We also discussed subgenre and about rhetoric and genre.

After we completed this exercise, I handed out copies of Dirk’s reading, which was the assigned reading for the next class. The students referred to the exercise in both their writing responses and the following class discussion on the Dirk reading. I have been thinking of how I could do this online. I might try to break this into a series of discussion posts, with three people working together in groups to answer the questions about their assigned genre.

Why I think this exercise worked–I think starting a discussion with a subject the class is familiar with (like film) helped the students understand the broader concept of genre and the role of the audience.

Just to note, I used this assignment this semester, which I found on the FYW website and found it to work exceptionally well. I made minor tweaks.

English 1101 D371 Paper #1: Literacy Narrative

Due Dates

Proposal/Conceptual Outline: 2/10

First Draft: 2/19

Final Draft: 2/24

In this unit, we are investigating the place of language and writing in our lives. The goal here is to think through, in all of its nuance and contradictions, our varied experiences of language and writing – the ways in which the languages we speak contribute to a developing identity and sense of self/community, and the role writing (and reading) plays in this development. We want to think through personal experience, everyday life – the languages we use with friends, with relatives, immediate family, whomever else we may encounter in whatever context – and begin to consider how we use language differently in different contexts, often to a specific end. We want to begin to devise our own relationships to language. Through our readings, and as we consider our personal relationships to language and look critically at our own writing processes, we should begin to see how the world creeps in, how our everyday experiences of language, of writing, of being in school, are intimately connected to and reflective of the world at large and the institutions we inhabit.

Part I: Narrative (1000-1500 words)

To round out this unit, each of you will write an essay about a significant event in your experience as a writer/student. Consider what you’ve written in your observations: perhaps you want to expand on some of the things you have written there. Consider also the different ways the writers we’ve looked at write about their own experience as writers/speakers of language. You may want to write about:

• An event in your educational career that was particularly formative;
• A specific literacy/learning event that led you to become the thinker you are today;
• The first time you had a profound experience related to language;
• Your experience as a writer in this class so far, or in writing classes in general

You should talk about how the event shaped your relationship to reading and writing, or to school/education in general. Or else, you will want to talk about how your particular experience relates to some of the bigger social and cultural issues we discussed in class, such as race, the education system, standard English, etc. In any of these cases, you should reflect upon how your experience has enabled you to understand something specific about reading, writing, learning, or language AND how that understanding reflects on the communities/world you inhabit.

In this assignment you should seek to: describe your reading and writing processes, and the relationship between the two; gain a greater sense of how your personal experience of literacy, and how those experiences have shaped how you envision yourself as a writer in the current world; reflect on your own schooling and educational influences, and examine the social and technological issues involved in accessing language fluency; and explore understandings of the ethnic and cultural diversity of written English, as well as the influence of other registers, dialects, and languages.

This is not a 5-paragraph essay. This is you relating to your peers the story of whom you are as someone who belongs to a particular speech and/or writing community, and your history as a reader and writer. In that spirit, you can choose to format or write this in whatever way you think best communicates your story honestly.

You don’t have to choose a good event, or a happy one. You do not have to pretend. Write honestly, and with as much care as you can muster.

A note: this is not an excuse to write something unfocused or sloppy. You are allowed to be creative. You should absolutely be descriptive. Stay away from vague or general claims and clichés. It’s your life, you know it best and to the smallest detail – use that to your advantage.

Part 2: Reflection

After you have completed the first draft, you will bring in three copies of your essay – one for me and two for two of your peers. You will share these essays with your group, and, after reading each other’s essays, provide thoughtful, critical feedback. I will hand out a sheet with a list of questions to help guide you in your peer review. Note what you think works and what you think could use some work. You will attach a copy of the two letters and your first draft to your final draft.

Once you receive your grade, you will hand in a reflection (400 words). In this, you will explain:

1. Why you chose to write the way you wrote
2. What insights you’ve gained from the readings and your peers’ essays
3. What you think worked and what you might improve on