Running List of Past Daily Assignments 

For Wednesday, 8/26:

Before you arrive on the first day, please be sure that you:

  • have read the email I sent you on August 17 and completed the initial survey.

  • have made a calculated decision about whether to buy the course materials.
    (If you’re staying in the class, buy them ASAP! If you’re on the fence, please wait! If you’re waitlisted, do NOT buy them yet. There are 18 sets of materials for 18 students.)


For Friday, 8/28:

*As a reminder for this first round of work-out-of-class, you should expect to average about 2 hours out of class for every 1 hour in class. Take your time on the assignments below. If you find that you are exceeding 2 hours, stop and submit whatever you have.

  1. Be sure you have completed:

  2. Bring your field journal (or something else to write on/with, if you haven’t yet received your course box)

  3. Read:

  4. Take a picture of your bicycle sketch and upload it here

  5. Complete notebook prompt #1:

  • Reflect on your own experiences as a thinker. How have you chased down ideas, explored them, tried to test them and work them out?
    *Please HANDWRITE your responses in your field notebook, then take photos and upload them here.

    Note from the syllabus (emphasis added):

    Notebook Assignments (15%)
    You will keep active journals all semester, based on part on prompts that I will provide in class. You are always welcome to write more, but not less, than assigned. For each assigned prompt, you should write about 2 pages (handwritten, single-sided). You should also take notes on the course, on your ideas outside of class, on general observations and reflections; drawings and “off-topic” notes are encouraged, as well. I will evaluate notebooks twice: first, during individual student-professor conferences, and again at the semester’s end. These are graded based on completion, with minimal completion of the all prompts warranting a C+ to B; notebooks that go “above and beyond” will receive grades of B+ to A.


For Monday, 8/31:
*Just a note to say, I know you had a lot of sitting and listening in the first week of class; Monday will be mostly discussion, and I’m really looking forward to hearing your thoughts and seeing you have the chance to interact with one another.

  1. Complete notebook prompt #2:

    • Reflect on our time in Special Collections on Friday. Write about whatever struck you most (again, about 2 handwritten pages, single-sided). You can upload these entries here.

      *If you’re not sure what to write about, a few things you might consider:

      • What kinds of materials did we get to see in connection with each “text”? (As in, for Mark Twain’s Jumping Frog, which we might otherwise just think of as a single book, what all did we see?) With all those different pieces in mind, what counts as “a text” anyway? If I told you to go read Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, which edition would you think I meant and why?

      • What did seeing so many steps involved in creating the texts we saw in person (from Phillis Wheatley, Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, William Faulkner, Willa Cather, Charles Darwin, and others—I’ll post the complete list of artifacts when I get it from the librarians)—what did seeing all that make you think about in terms of your own research and/or writing?

  2. It’s game time!! Bring your boxes to class. Don’t open the envelopes until we’re all together and I give you the go-ahead.

  3. Spend time with the following, about “the writing process”:

    • Read: https://writing.ku.edu/writing-process

    • “Read” the attached article, “Modeling and Remodeling Writing” by John Hayes. A few notes, though:

      • The presentation of this article is probably excessively boring. It’s not you.

      • Know that John Hayes has been a key writing researcher for decades; his research has influenced the shape of this class, however obliquely, just because his ideas/findings have been “in the ether” of the rhet/comp world for so long.

      • I’d recommend you READ the abstract, SKIM the headings to get a feel for the content, and then actually take 10-15 minutes to STUDY Figures 1 and 2, which are his old and updated models of “the writing process,” based on extensive study. Can you figure out what’s going on in these? You may need to turn to the running text for some definitions, etc., but we’ll focus on the Figures for a little bit in class on Monday.


For Wednesday, 9/2:

  1. Work on your deduction game—DO NOT GOOGLE ANYTHING, and DO NOT OPEN ANY OF THE #2 ENVELOPES! Just try to identify what you can and figure out what your various authors are doing. Some links to help you with identifying handwritten materials:

  2. Write your mini-paper and upload that document here.

    • Write a 2-page essay in MLA format over the prompt below.

      *Note that this essay is graded only based on completion—finish and submit it, and you’ll receive full credit (as part of your process work for the larger Analysis/Synthesis assignment). I’m reading these primarily for 2 things—first, to see how well you know MLA format already (I’ll tailor future class time accordingly, to fill in gaps as needed but to avoid going over a lot of information you already know); second, to get a sense of how you all are engaging with the archival materials in the context of our 1510 class, so I can modify upcoming class sessions based on interests and needs. With that in mind:

      • Write about 1-3 specific strategies within “the writing process.” You saw what Hayes did with an article on this topic—how would YOU describe the writing process, based on specific examples from the readings? For those examples, refer to:

        • your notes from Special Collections (what different strategies did you see the authors there taking in developing and revising their work?)

        • your notes so far on your deduction assignment (in the few samples you have across your 4 envelopes, can you start to observe some divergences in early approaches to the writing process?

        • the Hayes article and the KU Writing Center page, both on “the writing process”

      • Tie observations to specific moments in source material, whether print or video, and cite your sources as best you can.

      • Use MLA format to the best of your current ability (i.e., look up minor items if you need to, but don’t hurt yourself trying to learn things you don’t know).

      • To the best of your ability, include a clear thesis (that is, one sentence stating your main/controlling idea) and distinct paragraphs with topic sentences and transitions.

      • Include a note at the end of your paper, telling me:

        a) what you felt most confident about in writing this essay

        b) where you felt most ill-prepared in writing this essay 

      • This is the evaluation rubric you’ll get back, FYI. To reiterate, that rubric is just a simple a feedback mechanism for both of us; your grade is wholly based on completion.


For Friday, 9/4:

  1. Work on your deduction game—still do NOT Google anything, and do not open any of the #3 envelopes! Just continue working through what you have in terms of the context clues within the documents themselves. Who are these people? (Not necessarily their names, but their professions, driving interests, life events.) What are they trying to DO with all this writing that you’re investigating?

  2. Read:

    1. excerpts from William Zinsser’s Writing to Learn

    2. Abraham Flexner’s “On the Usefulness of Useless Knowledge”*This one is older—written in 1939. If it helps, you’re welcome to explore this related page, celebrating the essay and the Institute for Advanced Study, which [founding director] Abraham Flexner was discussing. The Institute launched in 1930 and is still active today; scholars can apply for fellowships, and if selected, they get housing and a salary for 2 years to do whatever they want. There are no demands on output; they get offices but don’t have to use them. They have resources and no expectations. And the Institute has had 34 Nobel Prize laureates and 42 Field medalists participate in their work in the past near-century. Flexner’s article reflects on why this model is valuable.

  3. Write and upload your Notebook prompt #3 to this folder:

    1. Look again at the notes you took during Wednesday’s in-class observation exercise. Look at the documents in your various envelopes. How do these connect to the Zinsser and Flexner pieces you’re reading for Friday? What is obvious to you about these connections, and what is challenging to you? What do you think it will do to your “final” writing products (whether for classes or other writing you might do) to do more of THIS kind of writing, the observing/writing-to-learn/working-it-out-on-paper kind of writing?


For Monday, 9/7:

  1. You now know that one of your authors is Rachel Carson, and on Monday, we’ll discuss her work in more detail. But you also have all the envelopes open from your other authors, and you have free reign to search online. So:

    • Figure out who your authors are, and

    • Text me at least 2 of their names (yes; Carson can count if you need hers to be 1 of them).

      • Text me at 615.509.7448. Include YOUR name, as well as 2-4 of your authors’ names.

      • If you’re correct, I will text you a URL and password, so you can get into their bigger archives (which you need for writing your papers next week).

  2. Watch the 1962 CBS special, “The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gaBczHKtWo

  3. Read Silent Spring, Ch. 3, in which Carson lays out the major chemicals (and chemical groups) that are causing medical problems and why they’re unsafe. (Keep in mind that she’s writing primarily for a general public audience, with the knowledge that the scientific community is watching to make sure she keeps all her facts right, etc. Her task is not small.)

  4. Go through these additional archival materials, all letters and notes from her Silent Spring period—she worked on that book for 4 years prior to its publication. Do NOT attempt to read everything that’s there—instead, take about 30 minutes, and:

    • Look through the PDF and make note of the MAJOR CATEGORIES of works (correspondence, bibliographies, plus some of her sources and her notes on those sources, and of course, her own original notes, some personal, plus drafts and edits).

    • Choose any 1 of those categories and read through those materials more closely (so, read all the letters, or whatever strikes you).

  5. Read “The Desolate Year” (Monsanto, 1962) and “The Right and Wrong of Rachel Carson” (2018 review of Silent Spring by Charles C. Mann, published in the Wall Street Journal).


For Wednesday, 9/9:

  1. Reread the first essay assignment and grading rubric.

  2. If you have not unlocked the archive yet, you should do that ASAP. Text me at 615.509.7448.

  3. Read through the archival material for YOUR 4 authors—watch the videos, read the final published files, and read through the process documents (drafts, notes, letters, etc.). Make notes on your observations in your field notebooks, as well as on the hard copies in your envelopes as you find helpful.

  4. I’ll post sample papers from past students on this website on Tuesday, 9/10, for your reference. They’ll appear under the “Unit One” button.

  5. Come to class with ideas about directions YOU’d like to go with your paper. We’ll work on writing thesis statements and workshopping those in small groups, and talk about some additional guidance as you move forward toward outlines and drafts.
    *Keep in mind that if you want to discuss your ideas directly with me, the best time to do that is in office hours. You can just drop in during set hours (WF, 9-11 am EST), or contact me via email/text to set up a different appointment time.


For Friday, 9/11:

  • Take this Assignment #1 quiz and email me your responses. Letter answers only are fine, and feel free to ask questions. This is my way of making sure we’re all on the same page about what you’re doing before you get too far into the essay writing. :)

  • Your outlines are due! You can upload them to this folder.

  • Review these broad notes toward your essays. (Includes some thesis statement templates and more.)

  • Check out this example outline. Note that it is ONE example; you have flexibility here. But DO plan to build in LOTS of specific references to your authors’ texts—the draft material and published versions of things. Usually, 2-3 references per body paragraph (usually, none in the intro or conclusion).

  • Check out the sample papers from the spring semester, to see different approaches students have taken in the past.


For Monday, 9/14:

  • First drafts are due!—and remember, keep it pretty drafty; save some of your writing energy for heavy revision and polishing before the final draft is due on Wednesday.

    • DO pay attention to any feedback you got from the outline workshop on Friday. Don’t write off comments that might be frustrating—if someone found your thesis unclear or imprecise, or someone said you need more support somewhere, take that feedback to heart and work to improve those issues.

    • One piece of style advice that I think might help at this point: avoid nonspecific pronouns or vague descriptions like they’re the enemy. So DON’T say, “This means creativity is always good.” Say, “The vibrant generativity evident in X author’s work from draft to a published work that created large-scale and positive social change speaks to the robust value of creative thought and expression.” Etc. Be specific! That will help you (a) make your ideas more precise and clear, (b) raise your word count, if you tend to be concise, and (c) make your writing more powerful.

    • I usually recommend you aim for at least 2/3 to 3/4 of the final word count, enough that your peer readers can see what you’re doing and that YOU can see where gaps are/what’s not working. I do recommend you go ahead and put together your Works Cited or Reference page if you’re able, but do what you’re able to do given time constraints. These are guidelines; you’re only being graded on whether you submit a draft at all.

    • If you have specific areas where you’re wanting help or feedback, make note of that on your draft somehow (in a comment bubble or a bracketed/highlighted section, or whatever works), so your peers will know where to put their attention on Monday.

  • Submit your draft to this folder.

  • Use these Works Cited entries (and in-text citations) to cite your sources. Let me know if you need any help with other entries.

  • Come to class ready to peer review others’ work.

  • Optional: Feel free to set up a session with a Writing Center tutor! They can’t proofread your papers for you; they can help with pretty much anything else (ideas, structure, recurring grammatical issues, Works Cited questions, etc.). I won’t be notified that you went, so if you have any concerns or follow-up questions, please reach out.


For Wednesday, 9/16:

  • Final drafts of your first essays are due—any time before midnight is fine. Please upload your submissions to this folder.


For Friday, 9/18:

  • Collect a water sample and bring it to class in your test tube, along with your water test strips. You should have a test tubes and test strips in your course boxes! If you do not, please contact me and/or the bookstore ASAP.

  • Do not use the strips prior to class time. (You are welcome to collect additional samples from other sources if you’d like; I believe you each have 5 test strips?) Instructions:

    • Test any water source you like, but try to do something interesting. So, your home sink is fine, but is unlikely to give you interesting results. Still/standing groundwater might give you more fun later.

    • Note the location where you took the sample (use Google maps; mark latitude and longitude).

    • Provide a description of your water source (i.e., muddy puddle outside library near construction equipment; sink at Corner Starbucks; etc.).

    • (We’ll be collecting all of our data into a workbook and map during Wednesday’s class.)

  • Skim the following two articles—get a feel for what they’re talking about and how they’re approaching their subject.

  • Reference this article as needed (read together in class on Wednesday: “What Is Academic Writing?” by L. Lennie Irvin

  • Be ready to discuss issues in “writing about science” (things like, what’s the difference between “writing about science” v. “writing in the sciences"? how does science stuff correspond to academic writing, anyway? what’s the value of different writing approaches in advancing academic and/or scientific knowledge? etc.)

  • Extra credit option: For a 1-point bonus toward any 1 of your your “major writing assignments,” attend an information session through UVA’s Office of Undergraduate Research and take notes in your field notebook. (You can take pictures and submit your notes to this folder.)


For Monday, 9/21:

  1. Complete this survey from our UVA librarians.

    • Ahead of our library instruction next week, the librarians we will be working with have a short, 5-minute survey they are asking you to complete. Your survey responses will help the librarians tailor their instruction to your specific questions and needs. It is also part of a research study the librarians are conducting, and you will find more information about that at the survey link. You are not required to take the survey, but our librarians would really appreciate it!

  2. Complete the Wood between the Worlds exercise (this exercise is also notebook entry #4). 2 pages in your journal. You can upload pictures of the completed pages to this folder.

  3. Finish adding your data into the Water Sampling spreadsheet. (Colors are most vibrant immediately after dipping and fade pretty quickly, sometimes within 10 minutes).

    • If you have a 14-test strip, here is the color guide to help you read your results.

    • If you have a 16-test strip, here is YOUR color guide to help you read your results.

  4. Complete notebook entry #5. Prompt is as follows:

    • What would you do with the water sampling data, given the assignment to turn it into either a report or a reflective essay (as you prefer)? Feel free to engage ethical issues if any have compelled you, or to go in another curiosity-driven direction. (We’ll return to ethical issues again next week.) You can upload pictures of the completed pages to this folder.

  5. Review Major Assignment #2 and contact me if you have any questions.


For your reference, these are the two IRB charts I showed in class on Friday: IRB chart 1 and IRB chart 2.

*And for clarification—the issue is not that you can’t RESEARCH anything medical or ethically interesting; you just have boundaries on the EMPIRICAL experiment portion of your research. So if you wanted to research, say, something about Covid, you could definitely do that; you just couldn’t run saliva, blood, or stool sample tests on other people—you’d need to rely on published data for that information, and consider alternative empirical experiments that don’t fall under IRB regulation.

Feel free to ask questions as they arise!


For Wednesday, 9/23:

  1. Complete notebook prompt #6 and upload it to this folder:
    What research topics/questions are you finding most compelling? Keep in mind that you really can explore anything—students in this section often pursue science questions, but they also consider questions that are more about social science (like issues in education, or family systems, or mental health), art, sports, politics, whatever. You might try a “mind map” or bubble chart or whatever helps you (a) get your ideas out in front of you and then (b) narrow down to one or two major topics/questions you’d really like to spend the next 2 months exploring and writing about. Again, you’re NOT locked into whatever you “choose” before Wednesday, but you should come with one specific idea that you could chase down during the library time. If you DO stick with your topic, you should ideally leave the library day with at least 1-4 possible sources in hand.

    *FYI: Here are the slides from Spencer Tassone’s presentation today, if you want to reference or save them.


For Friday, 9/25:

  1. Try to identify 2-4 peer-reviewed articles of interest to you in the databases and have them available to you during Friday’s class.

    • Unless you have other strong preferences, just start with Academic Search Complete; it’s a good go-to database. (If you go the long way, start at library.uva.edu—>Research—>Academic Search Complete.)

    • Be sure you check the “Peer Reviewed” box to limit your search results to peer-reviewed materials.

    • I recommend you set up a folder in Google Drive and go ahead and save the PDFs to that folder. You’ll then continue collecting your sources to that folder for the rest of the unit. Don’t just copy/paste the URL; download the PDF or at least save the Permalink.

    • If you get stuck, don’t panic—bring questions, and we can go over some of this together in class.

  2. Complete this training module on research ethics. It should take most of you about 15 minutes.

  3. Complete this Qualtrics survey, to provide feedback to the team who developed that module for us. They’ll be refining it for future semesters. It should take most of you about 10 minutes.

  4. Complete notebook prompt #7 and upload it to this folder:

    • Describe the steps you took in searching the library databases for sources to help you explore your research topic/ questions. What went well? What was frustrating? What search terms did you try, and how did you refine those? What kinds of results did you find, and how was it reading the abstracts and citation information to figure out what they were about? How was reading the actual articles you chose to download? (Capturing notes on these items now will give you material to write about in your research narrative essay, as well as making you more conscious of what you’re doing and why.)

  5. Just a heads up that we’ll be revisiting those Flint water articles on Friday, along with your water sample data, now that you’ve had a chance to re-run the tests with the accurate color code chart(s).


For Monday, 9/28:




For Friday, 10/2:

  • Create your Qualtrics surveys.

    • If you want to survey our class (recommended, not required) to at least collect some starting data, send me the link to your survey (via text or email) NO LATER THAN FRIDAY AT 8 AM (so I can load all the links to our course website). We’ll open our class “Survey-Palooza” on Friday. This will be the only opportunity to use our class as your survey pool, so if you don’t send in, you’ll need to distribute your survey on your own.

    • Use Qualtrics (for moderately sensitive data).

    • Include a notification statement as your first “question”; force a single response of “I agree” in order to proceed. (You can refer to the UVA IRB “Study Information Sheet” template for language to include.)

    • Include at least 5 people in your survey sample.

      • For the purposes of our class, you are allowed use a skewed sample (i.e., just send to your friends, etc.), so long as you acknowledge limitations in documenting and interpreting your data. Obviously, collecting broader and more statistically reliable data will give you better content to write about in Unit 3, so make informed choices about your approaches.

    • Don’t “force responses” for sensitive questions; always give responders a way to skip questions.

    • For sensitive questions, always include an “Other” option and then “Allow Text Entry” (on a drop-down menu within the answer option) to allow for write-in clarifications.

    • Generally:

      • Keep your surveys between 5-10 questions.

      • Prioritize easy-answer questions (multiple choice and sliders are nice options).

      • Include 2-3 short answer questions at the end, to collect quotes for your essays.

    • You may send links for your opinion surveys and/or for surveys you’ll use for your empirical studies. Be sure to anonymize all data (under “Survey Options”).

  • Read this 3-page excerpt from the MLA Handbook, 8th edition. It will give you important context for understanding MLA as I present it on Friday. Note: “MLA” means a set of style guidelines set up by the Modern Language Association (an organization of English scholars). It’s just one way of doing things, but it’s how we’ll do things in this class.

    • Also, if it incentivizes you—a LOT of people flunk the 2nd paper on the first round because they do the MLA work incorrectly. You can revise it, of course, and replace the grade, but if you want to avoid a failing grade on the first round, one key way to do that is by paying attention to MLA now, rather than reconstructing it later.


For Wednesday, 9/30:

  • Complete your Empirical Design Worksheet and upload to this folder.

  • Complete your Topic Proposal (using this template) and upload it to this folder.

    • Feel free to put questions to me in either document—if you could highlight those in yellow or whatever to help me quickly identify questions, that would be helpful. :)

  • I’d recommend going ahead and reaching out to interview subjects now, to try to set up times for synchronous interviews or get asynchronous exchanges started.

    • Here is sample language for reaching out to interview subjects with a bit more seniority. DO be sure you’ve modified all the text in red. :-D


For Friday, 10/2:

  • Create your Qualtrics surveys.

    • If you want to survey our class (recommended, not required) to at least collect some starting data, send me the link to your survey (via text or email) NO LATER THAN FRIDAY AT 8 AM (so I can load all the links to our course website). We’ll open our class “Survey-Palooza” on Friday. This will be the only opportunity to use our class as your survey pool, so if you don’t send in, you’ll need to distribute your survey on your own.

    • Use Qualtrics (for moderately sensitive data).

    • Include a notification statement as your first “question”; force a single response of “I agree” in order to proceed. (You can refer to the UVA IRB “Study Information Sheet” template for language to include.)

    • Include at least 5 people in your survey sample.

      • For the purposes of our class, you are allowed use a skewed sample (i.e., just send to your friends, etc.), so long as you acknowledge limitations in documenting and interpreting your data. Obviously, collecting broader and more statistically reliable data will give you better content to write about in Unit 3, so make informed choices about your approaches.

    • Don’t “force responses” for sensitive questions; always give responders a way to skip questions.

    • For sensitive questions, always include an “Other” option and then “Allow Text Entry” (on a drop-down menu within the answer option) to allow for write-in clarifications.

    • Generally:

      • Keep your surveys between 5-10 questions.

      • Prioritize easy-answer questions (multiple choice and sliders are nice options).

      • Include 2-3 short answer questions at the end, to collect quotes for your essays.

    • You may send links for your opinion surveys and/or for surveys you’ll use for your empirical studies. Be sure to anonymize all data (under “Survey Options”).

  • Read this 3-page excerpt from the MLA Handbook, 8th edition. It will give you important context for understanding MLA as I present it on Friday. Note: “MLA” means a set of style guidelines set up by the Modern Language Association (an organization of English scholars). It’s just one way of doing things, but it’s how we’ll do things in this class.

    • Also, if it incentivizes you—a LOT of people flunk the 2nd paper on the first round because they do the MLA work incorrectly. You can revise it, of course, and replace the grade, but if you want to avoid a failing grade on the first round, one key way to do that is by paying attention to MLA now, rather than reconstructing it later.



ASAP:

Please complete all the class surveys, linked here:

  1. https://virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_b4xzEVlfBVjAJr7

  2. https://virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0urtlTPvte90y7H

  3. https://virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_50SkrtBsgs0pELX

  4. https://virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_brBi6W2baK6punj

  5. https://virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_e8n9loL7HUxeYh7

  6. https://virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3wIrTRuCy6yc9q5

  7. https://virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1U4AOBZScN0Hp09

  8. https://virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0TKHa1ciOyxIbk1

  9. https://virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3qFBvNTYoSEMJ49

  10. https://virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5BX8RS2om5RzFpH

  11. https://virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8eSiM81fMGwyAOp

  12. https://virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0v91J32IKQl6fiZ?Q_DL=11UW8VNZoiyQLli_0v91J32IKQl6fiZ_MLRP_6SByCCXiIksWRvL&Q_CHL=email

  13. https://virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5pwuLqERHk871op


For Monday, 10/5:

  • Sign up for your conference time with me for next week.

  • Complete ALL the surveys from our class, as posted on Friday. Please complete ASAP, to help your peers with their work.

  • Revise your empirical design worksheet as needed, per Friday’s discussion.

  • Create your presentation slides, to at least have all the slides in place with basic citations, and as much of the descriptive information as possible. Leave things blank when you’re stuck and bring questions to your conference.

  • Prepare for your conference. Instructions for what to bring and what to expect are on the sign-up sheet, but I’m also reproducing those here for quick reference—

    • What to bring with you: 1. Your (probably revised) research design worksheet (informal is fine) ; 2. all of your sources so far (in digital or hard copy for now, with any notes you've made already); 3. your draft of your slides-in-progress, with MLA citations in place (and MLA questions you're having)--just available to screenshare is fine; you don't need to send any attachments separately; 4. anything else you want to discuss!

    • What to expect: In most cases, I'll start by discussing your field notebook entries to date; those are graded on completion, so we’ll check in on that grade at this time. I will then return your first papers with comments, and go over the revision policy again for clarification. We can set up follow-up meetings to discuss specific revisions as needed, and for regrading. Then we'll focus the rest of our meeting time on your current research--discussing how it's going, questions you have about the research process, and questions you have about the presentation/essay in advance of actually delivering/submitting those items.


For Monday, 10/5-Friday, 10/9:

  • Conferences are happening this week! Be sure you come to yours!

    • What to bring with you: 1. Your (probably revised) research design worksheet (informal is fine) ; 2. all of your sources so far (in digital or hard copy for now, with any notes you've made already); 3. your draft of your slides-in-progress, with MLA citations in place (and MLA questions you're having)--just available to screenshare is fine; you don't need to send any attachments separately; 4. anything else you want to discuss!

    • What to expect: In most cases, I'll start by discussing your field notebook entries to date; those are graded on completion, so we’ll check in on that grade at this time. I will then return your first papers with comments, and go over the revision policy again for clarification. We can set up follow-up meetings to discuss specific revisions as needed, and for regrading. Then we'll focus the rest of our meeting time on your current research--discussing how it's going, questions you have about the research process, and questions you have about the presentation/essay in advance of actually delivering/submitting those items.

  • We will NOT meet for class on Friday. Instead, I’ll post a video of “my presentation” (the one that goes with the sample slides you already have, so you’ll have an idea of how those go.

  • Some additional instructions and resources:

    • You will have 10 minutes to give your presentations. At the 10-minute mark, I will silence your microphone. If you’re not done yet, I’ll ask you to scroll to your final slide (with your updated research question) for us to see where you ended up. To clarify:

      • Your research narrative (the written essay) should address ALL of your 10 sources.

      • Your slides should address ALL of your 10 sources.

      • In your presentation, you may have to skim or even skip over some for time’s sake. Be discerning about what to say out loud and what to skip—you want to demonstrate that you read your sources well (and be prepared for questions), but if some were more relevant than others, you’re welcome to spend more time on those more value-added sources.

    • Here’s my original Discovery essay; I’m posting as an example because I think it will help you to see it sooner than later as you plan your own essays/presentations. My presentation is mostly reading this essay, so you may feel some redundancy on Monday. For what’s it worth, I originally gave myself a B- (83ish) on this presentation/paper, because I didn’t have my interview in yet when I gave this. (I later finished my interview and got an A-.)

*I will also post a video walk-through of recurring style issues on Friday, for your reference when you move toward revising your drafts. As you read through comments on those drafts, you’re welcome to go ahead and reference the slides I’ll be using. As a heads up, most of you shouldn’t worry about style issues until you have at least an 85 (B) on your draft. If you need to, refer back to the grading rubric to see the stages of development/grades.


For Monday, 10/12:

  • Sign up for your conference time!

  • Finish your slides and work on your presentation script.

  • Come to class. We’ll spend most of the time workshopping slide drafts, so if you have any small things left, you’ll be able to ask questions of me and/or your peers. You should be mostly finished by Monday, in other words, but things don’t have to be perfect yet.

*For when you’re ready to tackle style issues (generally, if you got an 85 or higher on your most recent essay; occasionally, I’ll recommend someone with a lower grade focus on style issues), here is a video walk-through of a Style Triage primer. The video isn’t the most fascinating thing, I realize, but I highly recommend you at least work through these 7 items one at a time, to take your writing from “competent” to “powerful.”

  • Here are the slides, so you can also click through at your leisure/have access to the hyperlinks.


For Wednesday, 10/14-Friday, 10/16:

  • Finish and proofread your slides.

  • Practice your presentation script; pay attention to timing and be sure you can cover all you need to in under 10 minutes.

  • Your slides are due to this folder at the time of your presentation.

  • Your research narrative essays are due to this folder by midnight on Friday, 10/16. Remember that your research narrative should (a) include headings that indicate your source types throughout and (b) tell the story of your research process—first I wondered X, so I looked up Y, then . . . . (In other words, this is NOT the research paper where you report on your findings; you’re just telling me about how you gathered your research.)


For Monday, 10/19:

  • Finish up anything you still have outstanding (slides that need updating/resubmitting, etc.).

  • Otherwise, take the weekend off for this class at least; rest and regroup and enjoy.

  • On Monday, we’ll launch into Unit 3 and start talking about how you can take all this information you’ve gathered and turn it into a compelling paper/essay/article/etc.


For Wednesday, 10/21:

  • Read:

  • Complete notebook prompt #8 and upload your entry to this folder:

    • I (your professor) am taking the liberty of defining academic writing based on 3 characteristics:

      • Academic writing takes place in a larger academic conversation. (You’re writing with sources and for others; think back to the idea of the Parlor from Week 1 of this class.)

      • Therefore, academic writing is disciplinary—and you the author need to take into account the conventions of your discipline when you’re writing to an audience. (That disciplinarity DOESN’T mean you just have to “fall in line,” especially with bad habits—ahem, passive voice in the sciences, ahem—but that you have to know what people are expecting and deal with those expectations somehow to communicate your ideas.)

      • Academic writing contributes new knowledge in some form—might be truly unprecedented (like Einstein’s work in relatively) or might be bringing together sources that weren’t together before to reveal something (like Carson’s work in Silent Spring).

      With these three points in mind, along with what we discussed in Monday’s class (looking at the rhetoric triangle from your notes—the reader/author/text thing) and considering the Helen Sword essays and example articles assigned above)—what do you want to accomplish as an academic writer? Do you have any sense of the voice you want to achieve? Do you want to practice formality, or take a more conversational approach to your style? Why? What trade-offs do you anticipate with these choices in writing your upcoming research papers?

  • Sign up for your Workshop date here. Brave souls, if you’re willing to sign up early, your peers will thank you. Procrastinators, be careful—the late spots aren’t necessarily the gift you think they are. Regardless, I think you’ll all enjoy the workshop time!


For Friday, 10/23:

  • I’m posting this late, so I don’t expect a lot of polish, but please at least sketch out a rough outline of your projects. We’ll take some time in class tomorrow to work on fleshing those out, so just bring some work in progress that you can build on during class time. (I’ll make full outlines due Monday.)


For Monday, 10/26:

  • Read and be ready to discuss:

  • Write Notebook Entry #9 and upload it to this folder:
    *Totally fine for this to be drafty/bulleted notes; just let yourself have a little time to process and plan.

    • How do the readings above help you plan for including a balance of logical, emotional, and ethical/credibility appeals in your upcoming essay?

    • What do you know already about the types of logical, emotional, and ethical/credibility material you’ll be including in your draft?

  • Draft a working outline of your essay and upload it to this folder—your goal is to be detailed enough that if classmates had to read it without your being around, they’d understand what you’re planning to do.

    • Aim for 1-2 pages

    • Include your sources and at least a few of your favorite quotations in the outline, so it’s clear what support is going where. (Lets us see that you HAVE support for your various claims—and where you don’t yet!—and also lets us see the balance of sources and source types across your paper.)

    • Aim for about 3 levels deep:

      I.   Major Sections

      a.  Sub-sections

                               i.  Sub-sub-sections

    • Here are 2 examples that I tried with my paper—they’re not super detailed (I’d prefer you to add more than I did, for all our sake), but I did put my sources in, and some short quotes to cue myself on things I wanted to include, and you can see how different the shapes of the papers are; I was playing with what would happen if I tried writing things up in

  • Draft at least two VERY DIFFERENT introductions to your paper and upload those to this folder. Try not to fake this—you’re trying to give yourself different directions and options; if you do this exercise well, you may end up using both directions in some form in your final paper. As usual, super drafty is fine.


For Wednesday, 10/28:

  • Leslie and Abel, your essay DRAFTs are due Wednesday morning by 9 a.m. Please submit them to this folder. (I’ll post them to the website by class time for everyone to access.)

    • Shashank and Tyler, a friendly reminder that your drafts are due Friday by 9 a.m.

  • Make a 3D version of your outline; take a picture and upload the picture here.

    • The level of detail you include is up to you; just somehow model at least the major claims and subclaims of your paper using the [string, notecards, binder clips, and push pins as needed] from your coursepack box.

    • I recommend color-coding your cards, so sketching out your supporting info. on the cards by whether they appeal primarily to pathos (emotion), logos (logic), or ethos (ethics/credibility). [I used pink=pathos; orange=logos; green=ethos—your system only needs to make sense to you.]

    • Consider setting up your 3D outline in a way that you can leave it up for the next few weeks, so you can add/modify things as you draft and revise. For some of you, this approach may be fabulous; for others of you, it will drive you crazy. Try giving it a chance for a couple of days and then doing whatever works for you.

    • There’s an image of mine at the bottom of this post, for whatever it’s worth. You can modify yours as works for you!

  • Write Notebook entry #10 and upload it here:

    • How did the 3D outline exercise work for you? What was SOMETHING it helped you to see better in planning your essay? Do you think you’ll keep it up through your workshop date, at least, to help you think through revisions? Why or why not?

  • We’re doing workshop practice on Wednesday, in advance of our first official workshop day on Friday! So please work through the steps below. (This IS a practice round, and the above activity might have taken some of you a while, so feel free to pace yourself on this part. I.e, submit the Google form, but don’t stress if your feedback isn’t brilliant. Save your energy for your peers; you SHOULD give them really thoughtful feedback!)


My 3D outline draft:

IMG_2800.JPG


For Friday, 10/30:

  • It’s our first real Whole Class Workshop day! Hooray! Looking forward to a lively and helpful discussion of these first papers.

  • Shashank and Tyler, your drafts are due Friday morning by 9 a.m. Please submit them to this folder. (I’ll post them to the website by class time for everyone to access.)

    • Justin and Cata, a friendly reminder that your drafts are due Monday by 9 a.m.

  • EVERYONE:

  • Also: If you are planning to revise Essay 1 and haven’t yet done so, now is the time! Take a few minutes and pick a revision date on your own calendar, then contact me to set up a regrade meeting. My calendar will start to fill up in these final weeks; I want to prioritize your time.

For Monday, 11/2:

Justin and Cata, your drafts are due Monday morning by 9 a.m. Please submit them to this folder. (I’ll post them to the website by class time for everyone to access.)

  • Lena and Jerry, a friendly reminder that your drafts are due Wednesday by 9 a.m.

For Wednesday, 11/4:

  • Lena and Jerry, your drafts are due Wednesday morning by 9 a.m. Please submit them to this folder. (I’ll post them to the website by class time for everyone to access.)

    • Jamie and Esther, a friendly reminder that your drafts are due Friday by 9 a.m.

    • EVERYONE:

      • Read Cata’s draft here.

      • Read Justin’s draft here.

        *I went ahead and linked the PDF because I accidentally linked the PDF for Shashank’s paper last class, and you all seemed to do all right with the commenting. (Apologies to Abel and Leslie; in the past, I’ve always had a few students who had trouble using the PDFs for commenting, but it seems we’re past those issues.)

    • Also, an extra credit option (for a 1-point bump toward one of the 3 major assignments—I’ll apply it to whatever assignment most raises your course grade):

      • Tuesday is election day. You may or may not be stressed. Regardless, I’d love for you to tune into this Democracy Doodle event and submit your Doodles to this folder. (Doodling is part of the creative process, too. :) Think of Oliver Sacks!)

        • The event is Tuesday, 11/3, at 7 p.m.

    • Finally—this is the handout I referenced in class today, with advice on how to properly incorporate quoted [and paraphrased/summarized] material into your papers. Please do follow these four steps EVERY time you include outside information. This handout is the more important resource to follow, but if you also want material on layout (i.e., block quoting for long passages), you can check out this link.

For Friday, 11/6:

  • Jamie and Esther, your drafts are due Friday morning by 9 a.m. Please submit them to this folder. (I’ll post them to the website around class time for everyone to access.)

  • Will Ashton and Will Frankenberry, a friendly reminder that your drafts are due next Monday by 9 a.m.

For Monday, 11/9:

*FYI: I did post the Style slides and the handout on quoting, etc., under the Unit 3 page; that’s where they’ll stay for the rest of the semester, when you’re ready to reference them. DO give yourself at least a full day to “clean up” your draft before you turn in the final. This kind of thing usually marks about a letter grade’s difference (i.e., the difference between a B and an A on the final paper, which is as a reminder, 20% of your course grade).

  • Will Ashton and Will Frankenberry, your drafts are due Monday morning by 9 a.m. Please submit them to this folder. (I’ll post them to the website around class time for everyone to access.)

  • Mahati and Owen, a friendly reminder that your drafts are due Wednesday by 9 a.m.

For Wednesday, 11/11:

  • Mahati and Owen, your drafts are due Wednesday morning by 9 a.m. Please submit them to this folder.

    • Katie and Taylor, a friendly reminder that your drafts are due Friday by 9 a.m.

For Friday, 11/13:

  • Katie and Taylor, your drafts are due Friday morning by 9 a.m. Please submit them to this folder.

    • Samira and Ho Yeon, a friendly reminder that your drafts are due Monday by 9 a.m.

For Monday, 11/17:

  • Samira and Ho Yeon, your drafts are due Monday morning by 9 a.m. Please submit them to this folder.

    • No one’s on deck! We’ll take those last class periods to go over additional last-round developmental, substantive, and style issues before your final drafts are due, + a couple of final notebook entries.

For Wednesday, 11/18:

  • The sign-up sheet for Friday’s (optional) meetings is now available. If you’d like to meet for any/all of the following reasons, please do:

    • 1. Essay #2 (let's fix up your MLA to raise your grade and make sure you know how to do the citations for Essay #3);

    • 2. Any questions you have regarding Essay #3 (including, if you want to bring a completed draft, a rough "pre-grade"—you don’t have the luxury of revisions after final submission on this one, so this is your best chance to simulate that revision pattern); and/or

    • 3. Course Grade review (if you want to make sure you know where you stand going into the final paper & exam).

  • And finally, it’s our last day of workshop, and we’re going out with a bang!

For Friday, 11/20:

  • Please sign up for an optional meeting if you’d still like to do so. There are still spots available on Friday morning. Feel free to contact me if you need a time and can’t find one.

  • Complete your paper as much as you are able prior to class, and bring your current draft along. I’ll be going through style issues that we haven’t yet covered, and if you have a near-final draft, you’ll be able to spend the class time applying the style lessons to (theoretically, anyway; I realize writing doesn’t always work neatly) work on getting your draft from complete to polished.

For Monday, 11/23:

  • Bring your near-final draft for last-minute clean-up issues. We’ll go over some layout issues (like making sure your spacing, fonts, headers are correct; correct placement of your abstract; setting up your Appendix; etc.). Feel free to ask specific questions about your individual documents.

  • We’ll be taking class time on Monday to complete course evaluations (both the official eval you get from the university, and a supplemental eval through Qualtrics). You might want to take some time to review what you’ve learned/done this term, and what you’d like to say on those responses. Admin uses those forms to see how the ENWR classes are going for all students and to make decisions about faculty renewals/promotions; I use those forms in redesigning future versions of this class, and I always read all feedback before I write the next term syllabus/assignments, etc.

Unit 3 Essays Due on Tuesday, 11/24, before midnight!

  • Refer back to the original assignment sheet to be sure you’re on track.

  • Please refer to this sample paper for an example of proper MLA formatting (including placement of all the items listed below).
    *I’ve also saved that sample paper as a PDF, in case that helps anyone.

  • Use this checklist before you submit:

    _ Cover Memo
    *300-500 words, reflecting on the assignment. In particular, you should address the following questions:

    • Who helped you with writing your essay? With writing/designing yourinfographic? (Be sure to disclose any friends, family members, tutors, classmates, etc., who helped you, to avoid charges of collusion.)

    • Throughout the entire project (drafting/revising your essay, possibly even back to your research process in Unit 2), what has this experience taught you about academic writing?

    • What do you most want to remember and implement as an academic writer in future courses?

    • Optional: After you’ve answered all of the above, feel free to vent about things you hated about this assignment. :)

    _ Abstract
    *About half a page; summarizes the whole of your paper.
    _ Essay
    *2000-5000 words.
    *Minimum of 10 credible sources (at least 7 must be from your Unit 2 project).
    *Be sure you submit a clean draft, without comments or edits embedded in the document.
    The easiest way to control these issues is to save/check the final draft as a PDF.
    _ Works Cited
    *Needs to be clean and correct—take time to cross-check all your entries and make sure they’re all linked!
    _ Appendixes (optional)

  • Drop your final drafts to this folder.