Category: Writing Prompts (HW)

#6, Due Wed, 7/29, 7p

Good evening y’all!  Thanks for hanging in.  I can’t believe we’re done on Thursday (when the final exam will be given—more info on that on Wednesday).  Also remember that your final portfolio (your shared Google Folder containing *all* of your coursework) will be due Thursday as well.

OK, here’s what I want you to tend to for *Wednesday.*

1. Readings & Article Summaries.  Finish reading the final two reading assignments:

Dan Diamond, “Suddenly, Public Health Officials Say Social Justice Matters More Than Social Distance”
10. Chelsea Janes. “Protests probably didn’t lead to coronavirus spikes, but it’s hard to know for sure” (activated CUNY library card needed to access)

—Remember: due in your final portfolio (your shared Google Drive portfolio) on Thursday will be 5 article summaries.  Feel free to summarize either of these articles if you still need to get to 5.

2. Essay 2 Feedback.  Please read and comment on 5 of your classmates’ Essay 2s.  For each response you give, please provide the following 3 things (I repeat: each of your 5 responses should contain these 3 things):

A–What you think the writer’s thesis is (in your own words).  If you can’t identify the thesis, ask the writer to make their thesis clearer.

B–One supporting reason or story the writer gives for believing their thesis to be right.  Again, use your own words to describe this.  If you can’t identify a supporting reason or story, tell the writer to make this part of their essay clearer.

C—A counter-argument that the writer introduces and then argues AGAINST.  Again, describe the counter-argument in your own words.  Does the counter-argument go AGAINST the writer’s thesis?  If it doesn’t, let the writer know that they should come up with a counter-argument that goes AGAINST their thesis (and then they need to find a way of refuting the counter-argumnet).

3. Revise essays + 2 blog assignment responses (comments).  Using the feedback you got from me and from classmates, revise your Essay 1, your Essay 2, and 3 of your blog assignments.  Save all drafts, including your final draft, in your Google Drive portfolio folder that you shared with me.

#5, 2 parts, A and B:

A: Essay Outline due Sunday 7p as comment below this post
B: (Full Essay 2 draft) due Monday 7p as separate post (categorize under “Essay 2 Feedback”)

NOTE: For those of you who I’ve told to work on Grammar & Paragraphing—and for anyone wanting extra credit—please do the Grammar & Paragraphing exercises (3 of them) and share your responses as a comment on that post.

A due Sunday 7/26, 7p:
—Read the Essay 2 assignment.
—Read the first two Essay 2 articles—on protests during the pandemic—to get ideas for your essay:
–Rep. Ken Buck, “First lockdowns, then riots – here’s how left’s hypocrisy added fuel to the fire”
–Open Letter Advocating for an Anti-Racist Public Health Response

–Brainstorm and outline for your Essay 2.  Post an essay outline containing the following items below as a comment responding to this post:

Essay 2 Outline
–Topic:
–Title/Author of an Article on this Topic you will summarize (can be one of the above readings):
–Your thesis (on whether and how protests should be happening during the Covid pandemic—and your reasons why

–Reason 1 supporting your thesis (topic of body paragraph 1)
–Reason 2 supporting your thesis (topic of body paragraph 2)

–1 related story you can tell that will support your thesis (3-4 notes on the key events and characters of this story will be fine for now)

–1 quotation from the article you’ve chosen that you want to discuss

–1 counter-argument (a perspective that disagrees with your thesis/opinion)

–1 point you will make to refute the counter-argument (why you think the counter-argument is wrong)

B, due Monday 7/27, 7p
–Write your full Essay 2 draft and create you own post containing an upload/link to your essay.  When posting, remember to choose the category “Essay 2 Feedback.” <<<< If you’ve posted correctly, your post will show up there under that link.

4. Due Fri 7/24, 7p

Using Detailed Storytelling to Persuade

For this assignment, I want you to focus on developing a story for your revised Essay 1 that will SHOW your readers the DETAILS of what is at stake in your topic: racism & police brutality.  Telling a detailed story can be one of the most powerful—and powerfully convincing—strategies for convincing a reader to believe in your thesis.  So this is what I want you to get practice doing for Friday.

First, for inspiration, I want you to (re-)read the opening sections of Larry Elder’s “Where’s Black Lives Matter When You Need Them?” and James Baldwin’s “A Report from Occupied Territory.”  Both of these texts begin with powerfully detailed stories that show us horrific acts of police brutality which draw us into the topic the writer wants us to think about.  However, you will notice that there are some key differences in the way each of these stories is worded and angled.  As discussed in today’s Zoom, Elder writes his story in a way that suggests subtly that what Officer Chauvin did to George Floyd wasn’t murder.  Meanwhile, Baldwin, in his story, plays up the violence that the black salesman experiences and witness while in police custody—violence which leads to his being partially blinded.  I point this out because while both of these stories draw us in to the topic of police brutality, they do so with different purposes in mind: Elder wants to convince us that police brutality towards black people is not as much of an issue as black-on-black violence; on the other hand, Baldwin wants to say that the policing of black neighborhoods like Harlem is tantamount to a military occupation of an otherwise autonomous “territory” or community.  Unlike Elder, he is not at all sympathetic to the cops…

Anyway, for this assignment I want you to respond below with two things:

A) A paragraph-long summary of the story Baldwin tells of the salesman’s experience with the police, and

B) A 1-2 paragraph story you will tell in your Essay 1 to try to convince your reader to believe in your own thesis about police brutality in the US. The story you tell can be from your own experience (something that happened to you or someone you are close to), something that you heard about happening to someone you know, a story you saw/heard about online, on social media, in a movie, etc. Please just make sure you make it as detailed as possible.  Details to include (not necessarily in this order):

–Who are the key characters involved?  What do they look like…sound like…smell like…etc.?  (You can make up details as needed, so long as you remain true enough to the spirit of the story.)

–Where are these characters in space?  Where do the key events of this story take place?  When do the events in this story take place (in history/time)?

–What are they (the main characters) doing?  What happens to them?  Which key events need to be described in order for the reader to understand what is going on and why it matters?

PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND TO THESE QUESTIONS IN ORDER.  INSTEAD, WRITE YOUR STORY AS 1-3 PARAGRAPHS, THEN RE-READ THESE QUESTIONS AND RE-READ/RE-WRITE YOUR STORY, MAKING SURE YOU’VE ADDRESSED ALL OF THESE QUESTIONS SOMEWHERE.

—

For Mon 7pm:

1. I’ve made some changes to the course syllabus. Please carefully read it, especially the “Core Course Assignments & Grading Section” (from the bottom of p. 1 to the top of page 3). In your response below, please list the 10 core assignments and the % of the final grade for each. Also, please post 1 question you have about the syllabus.
2. Make a tutoring appointment by sending an email to citytechwritingcenter@gmail.com.
3. Before you begin writing your Essay 2, read: Larry Elder, “Where’s Black Lives Matter When You Need Them?” ;  Bill McCarthy/PolitiFact, “Larry Elder Mislabels Stats on Fatal Shootings…”; “PolitiFact Tags Black Conservative Larry Elder as ‘Mostly False,’ But He’s Not” (activated CUNY library card needed to access). For now, you aren’t required to write anything about these articles. However, I do want you do try to answer as you read these questions: Does Elder agree with Kaba (the first reading we did) about the Black Lives Matter movement and what to do about police brutality?  Does Bill McCarthy agree with Larry Elder?  Why/why not?  Does the final article (by an anonymous author) agree with Bill McCarthy’s view of Larry Elder’s article?
4. Write your Essay 1 assignment in a Google Doc saved to your Google Drive folder. Post a link to your Google Doc (link contains instructions for how to do this), being sure to categorize it as “Essay 1 Feedback.” To make sure you’ve posted correctly, go to the Essay 1 Feedback part of the website and you should see your post with your essay there.

In terms of organizing your essay, please try to use this format for now:

Paragraph 1: Introduce the topic, why it matters, and summarize 1 of the articles on BLM/Police Brutality that we’ve read.  Then also include YOUR RESPONSE TO THAT ARTICLE and YOUR THESIS (what you think should be done about racism/police brutality)

Paragraph 2: Explain 1 of your reasons why you think your THESIS (what you think should be done about police brutality) is right.  In your paragraph, please include an example (a story from your own life or that you’ve heard told by friends, on the internet, etc.) which helps your reader understand your reason for thinking your THESIS is right.

Paragraph 3: Explain 1 other (different/new) reason why you think your THESIS (what you think should be done about police brutality) is right.  In your paragraph, please include an example (a story from your own life or that you’ve heard told by friends, on the internet, etc.) which helps your reader understand your reason for thinking your THESIS is right.

Paragraph 4: Counterclaim. Here, I want you to explain at least 1 reason why someone might disagree with your thesis.  Then respond to this imaginary person who disagrees with you.  Defend your view!

Paragraph 5: Conclusion.  In this paragraph, I want you to restate your THESIS (don’t copy & paste it; now that you’ve gained new insight from writing the essay, you should have new language for explaining your Point of View).  Also explain the broader outcomes for society that you hope will happen if more people take up your thesis and act on it.

Lastly (optional), you can include any questions about your topic that you want to come back to in a future essay.

Due Friday 7p.

1. Read the following two articles (Reading Assignments 1 and 2):
   Mariame Kaba, “Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police…”
   Tracey Meares’ “Policing: A Public Good Gone Bad” ? | Does Kaba (#1) accurately represent Meares’ views?
2. Post a response below as a comment containing two parts. In Part A, I want you to tell me in your own words what you think the thesis of each article (#1, by Mariame Kaba and #2, by Tracey Meares) is. A thesis is a debate-able statement or opinion that an author tries to convince the reader to believe in.  What is Kaba trying to get us to believe in?  What is Meares trying to make us think?  Your responses in part A should answer these questions as best you can.
3. In Part B of your work, I want you to write a 100-150 word summary for both articles. Place your summaries in your comment below (in the part labeled “B”); also save them in your Google Drive portfolio. Each summary should include the following:

–BEFORE YOUR SUMMARY: a list of 5 vocabulary words from the article (of your choosing); for each word, create your own sentence showing its meaning // THEN… Your summary:
—a sentence introducing the author and title of the article: In “[Title of Article],” [Author Name] writes about…[topic of article]
—discussion of at least 2 different perspectives on the main topic of the article—the author’s perspective as well as an opposing or different viewpoint as well (one that the author mentions or which is implied by the content of the article)
—1 direct quotation with adequate context and introduction: Toward the end of her article, Turkle most clearly conveys her main point, that “____sentence-long quotation here____.”
—discussion of important or confusing ideas/words/phrases in this quotation: The most important thing to notice in this passage is…. Something I find interesting/odd/confusing about this passage is….