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Teaching Guide: CO130 manual

The first link below provides a description of the course as a whole as well as the goals for each of the major units. Writing assignments are described within each unit in the course overview, but assignment sheets appear in the Writing Assignments section linked below. Finally, materials you might find helpful are collected in the Teaching Materials section.

Course Overview

To get a sense of the course overall, click on the links below:

Rationale

Academic Writing, CO130, is designed for those students who need two semesters (CO130 and CO150) to practice the skills currently covered (and to some degree assumed) in CO150. This class introduces less-prepared students to many of the writing strategies and principles that the current CO150 covers, but at a slower pace. The two-course sequence, in effect, spreads the current CO150 course materials over two semesters, because some students simply need more time to practice writing skills before they can write at the level required in academic contexts across campus.

Prerequisite: Composition Placement Examination.

Goals

In CO130, students will practice processes appropriate for college reading and writing, by identifying rhetorical contexts (audiences and purposes) in a number of texts and exploring various strategies (writing from personal experience, summarizing, arguing from sources) appropriate to those contexts. By writing and revising several essays, students refine their prewriting, drafting, and revising strategies to produce focused and detailed papers. Classroom activities will focus on two principles--daily writing practice and collaborative work--to emphasize the concepts of writing as a process and of academic writing as a collaborative endeavor that requires actively engaging the texts of others.

Portfolios - Overview

The syllabus calls for students to complete two portfolios of finished work along with informal writing done during the semester. To complete the portfolios, students will practice narrative writing, summary, personal response, library research, source evaluation, and responding to sources. From their informal writing, students will choose those pieces they want to revise and prepare for submission as finished pieces in the portfolio. The weekly outline for CO130 notes clearly the progression of topics and the sequence of writing tasks that students will complete during the term.

Unit 1: Personal and Academic Writing

In Unit 1, students first make the transition from writing for themselves to writing with others in mind, by exploring their own experience in a narrative essay, reading and writing informal summaries of other authors' writings about a similar experience, and then connecting their own experience to one author's essay in a summary/response assignment aimed at an academic audience.

To look more closely at the Unit, click on the links below:

Writing Assignments

Back Back to Unit 1: Personal and Academic Writing

The unit begins with a brief reflective essay about a significant experience the student has had, related to the class topic. This first assignment (Personal Essay) is designed to get the writer thinking about his or her own authority on the class topic and provide a "warm-up" assignment in a form that will be immediately accessible to many students. This essay is followed by a number of reading/writing assignments in which the student practices critical reading and examines context by summarizing several professional writers' essays on the class topic, many of which--like the student's own personal essay--draw on personal experience. The formal summary (essay 2) is placed within the context of developing a "class text" of common articles with which everyone in the class is familiar. In the final essay of this unit, the student will summarize and respond to one author's essay, using his/her experience to interpret, reflect upon, or agree/disagree with the author's main point. In other words, once the class has developed a class text, each student situates him- or herself within that text by establishing an individual position.

Goals of the Unit

Back Back to Unit 1: Personal and Academic Writing

One goal of this unit is to help students bridge the gap between their personal experience and the writing they will be asked to do in college. It both provides them with a sense of authority (their experiences can and do matter in college) and begins to place their experience within a wider range of audiences and purposes than they may have considered up to now. A second goal is to help students identify and define rhetorical terms and strategies within their own and others' writing.

Skills Students Focus On

Back Back to Unit 1: Personal and Academic Writing

Some of the skills students will develop and refine in this unit include:

Unit 2: Using Sources

In Unit 2, students will extend their exploration of the class topic and of academic writing by examining the resources available through library research and exploring how those resources can help students develop and support their own positions.

To look more closely at the Unit, click on the links below:

Writing Assignments

This guide begins with a further examination of academic texts in class, exploring how writers in an academic setting combine personal experience with other kinds of data to appeal to their audiences. The first paper in Unit 2 is an exercise in evaluating sources, which combines rhetorical analysis with textual analysis and asks students to assess why a particular source will or will not be compelling to an academic audience. To complete this assignment, students will need to become familiar with the resources available in the CSU library.

The second assignment in Unit 2 is a second summary/response essay. Unlike the summary/response in Unit 1, though, this essay de-emphasizes summary and instead stresses the use of research and evidence from outside sources to support students' agreement or disagreement with an author's argument. The student is asked to determine which aspects of an author's argument s/he accepts and rejects and to evaluate both that argument and outside research in determining the position s/he finds most compelling.

Goals of the Unit

The goals of this unit include

Skills Students Focus On

The skills students will develop and refine in this unit include:

Unit 3: Reflecting on Writing

In Unit 3, students will apply the analytical skills they have developed in the previous two units to their own writing by re-evaluating a previously "completed" class essay of their choice and reflecting on their learning process throughout the semester.

To look more closely at the Unit, click on the links below:

International Students in CO130

General tips:

Other points:

International students may have had low literacy skills in their first language, so critical reading/thinking will be a weak point. Ask students to circle words they don't know and then work on vocabulary.

Teachers may also want to elicit some cultural background as well.

International students cannot read cursive script.

Saudi students are happy to lobby for each other; gender isn't usually a big part of the dynamic with Saudi students, but you need to be firm.

If you have questions, feel free to contact Mary.Wedum@colostate.edu or Nancy.Berry@colostate.edu. Comp faculty are also happy to arrange a meeting with all instructors of CO130 and these resource folks.


Writing Assignment

This guide wraps up the course by giving students an opportunity to take another look at an assignment they've already submitted for a grade, once again emphasizing writing as an ongoing process of revision. In this assignment, students will make an argument for their grade in the course by evaluating their chosen assignment in terms of its effectiveness in meeting its purpose and context. As part of their argument, they will submit a revision plan for that essay; in other words, they'll describe how they would now revise that essay to meet the audience expectations more effectively.

Goals and Skills in this Unit

The goal of this unit is to allow students to reflect on the skills and knowledge they've gained throughout the semester. The skills emphasized in this final unit are thus the same ones stressed in previous units, with a strong emphasis on revision.

Suggested Grading Breakdown

You have choices, of coures, about the specific assignments you collect in the portfolios, but we present this breakdown as a general guideline for weighing elements of the course.

Unit 1 Portfolio: Personal and Academic Writing (6 pages of revised prose) - 30%
Personal Essay
Summary
Response Using Personal Experience

Unit 2 Portfolio: Using Sources (8 pages of revised prose) - 40%
Source Evaluation
Response Using Sources

Unit 3: Reflecting on Your Writing - 10%
Course Postscript

Homework, Attendance, Participation - 20%

Suggested Weekly Outline

This syllabus serves as a general model that can be adapted by CO130 instructors to meet their students' needs. Please note that this sample was drafted when our semesters were only 15 weeks long. You can see a more detailed syllabus under the Teaching Materials link.

Week 1: Writing processes, writing rituals, and prewriting strategies
What processes help writers get started and keep going as they write? Do all writers use the same strategies?
Class Activities: Discuss writing myths, rituals and processes. Present and practice prewriting/collecting strategies.
Assignments: Informal writing about preferred writing processes and rituals. Personal narrative (audience = writer and classmates) about an experience with education (or the class topic).

Weeks 2-3: Reading strategies
How are reading and writing connected? How does reading for learning differ from reading for other purposes? How is reading a prewriting strategy?
Class Activities: Discuss reading techniques and how reading might help students with their own writing. Class reading of an essay with a subject similar to the personal essay from last week (for example, if the class is using an education theme, something like Russell Baker would be a good example). Discuss what makes writing interesting and effective--develop the class's own rhetorical terminology. Informal peer workshop for students to read each other's essays; prompt students to come up with questions for the writers as well as ideas for their own essays.
Assignments: Begin revision plan for personal essay.

Week 4: Audience awareness; revising to meet audience needs
Who are potential audiences in the university? How do audiences differ? Who might find your narrative useful and how would you revise it to meet their needs and interests?
Class Activities: Continue looking at readings and developing rhetorical terminology, with particular attention to the question of audience (look at some academic and some non-academic pieces on the subject of education). Then, have students look at their own piece and imagine a specific audience that would find it useful (whether academic or not). Students then revise their pieces to meet the needs of that audience.
Assignments: Audience analysis of readings/reactions to readings. Revise the narrative into a more audience-aware form for the portfolio.

Week 5: Summarizing
Why is summarizing a valuable learning tool? When might a summary be useful or required? What are the features of effective summaries? Why should summaries be objective?
Class Activities: Discuss the purpose of summary and when students have done this in the past. Allow students to practice summary both in and out of class, with texts of increasing complexity. The goal for this week should simply be reading accurately and condensing information appropriately.
Assignments: Writing in response to readings--summaries.

Week 6: More work with summary--linking personal experience with academic context
How do readers use their personal experience to make sense of new information? What academic reading/writing assignments draw mainly on personal experience?
Class Activities: This week should introduce a focus on ideas rather than events in summary--the notion that even essays which are strictly narrative have a purpose beyond conveying the experience itself. Students should practice identifying and then responding to the ideas in the essay, rather than the experiences themselves.
Assignments: Writing in response to readings--summaries and responses.

Week 7: Focusing, developing and organizing ideas
What techniques can help writers communicate effectively with readers? Why do readers need detail? How do writers organize material to present it efficiently to readers? (Backwards outlines) Why do readers expect these organizational patterns? How do the patterns make reading more efficient? How can writers revise their texts to make the patterns more helpful to readers?
Class Activities: Students begin applying some of the rhetorical terminology they've been developing to their own writing. Students will develop appropriate criteria for the summary/personal response, considering all that they've learned so far about an academic audience (including the idea that personal experience should have a point and be clearly relevant to the essay's topic). Then they'll look at sample essays to consider how effective those drafts are, develop a revision plan as a class, and revise aspects of a sample essay in groups.
Assignments: Drafting summary/responses.

Week 8: Revising to meet audience needs. Workshopping. Preparing Portfolio 1.
What techniques help writers revise? When might writers prewrite as they revise? How do audience and purpose shape revising strategies? How can outside readers help with revising? Where does proofreading fit into the writing process? How can readers help writers with final revisions and proofreading?
Class Activities: Now students will help each other apply the criteria developed in Week 6 to their own essays, through peer review workshops. They'll also learn about specific common grammatical/usage errors and (in groups) teach a particular concept to the class, using their own writing as examples.
Assignments: Revising essays for Portfolio 1

Week 9: Revising strategies. Collect Portfolio 1. Introduce Portfolio 2--other forms of academic writing.
What academic reading/writing tasks draw less on personal experience? When do writers use other sources to supplement their personal experience and insights? What kinds of data supplement personal experience? What do readers expect from writing based on data? How can writers help readers understand new concepts? What mixture of personal experience and data works well in academic papers?
Class Activities: Return to some of the essays we've read previously on the class topic, specifically to look at the mixture of personal experience and data used. Practice discourse/source analysis with a class reading. Use this practice source analysis as a way for students to begin coming up with their own criteria for what makes a good "academic" source. Students join research groups based on topic interests.
Assignments: Proofreading essays for Portfolio 1.

Week 10: Introduction to library research
What resources in the library are available to help writers find information? How do writers document their sources?
Class Activities: The class will spend at least one day this week in the library, learning and practicing fundamental library and Internet research methods. Research groups will find a collection of source materials on their common topic, and each member will complete a source analysis worksheet on one of those materials. Then, students will write a draft of their source analysis paper.
Assignments: Library work on thematic topics. Research process. Work on source analysis.

Week 11: Organizational strategies revisited; source analysis
How do writers organize data for readers? How does the context affect choices of content and organization strategies? What are typical ways that writers blend personal experience and data for readers?
Class Activities: Students will workshop each other's source analysis papers. They will discuss how the second response assignment differs from the first and how those differences will affect content, organization, and evidence.
Assignments: Begin drafting for Portfolio 2 (Response Using Sources). Select "primary" text (the one they'll respond to), focus, and supporting texts (the ones they'll use for evidence).

Week 12: Drafting a paper that uses sources: focus and development
How do writers maintain their own focus while using source material? How do writers use source material to support their own ideas? How do writers know when they have included enough source material?
Class Activities: Class this week will center on helping students maintain focus when supporting their agreement and disagreement with other texts. The class may return to some of the sample essays to look at how other authors use source material to support their own ideas.
Assignments: Continue drafting Response Using Sources.

Week 13: Revising strategies revisited. Workshopping.
How do audience and purpose shape revising strategies? What revising strategies help writers who use outside source materials? How can writers use workshop peers to be sure they have included enough information and organized it clearly?
Class Activities: This week the class should complete several workshops on their drafts, focusing on specific elements like focus, support, and organization.
Assignments: Revise Portfolio 2.

Week 14: Preparing Portfolio 2. Portfolio 2 due.
Class Activities: Continue/complete workshopping Portfolio 2 assignments, including an "editing" workshop on how to incorporate source material correctly.
Assignments: Proofread and prepare Portfolio 2.

Week 15: Catch-up (if necessary) and reflection
Class activities: The class activities this week should lead students (in large- and small-group discussion) through a reflection on what they've learned about academic writing and how their own writing has developed through the semester. Discuss through a sample how to complete the course postscript.
Assignment: Course postscript analyzing the effectiveness of one piece of their own writing from the semester in terms of its purpose and intended audience, and discussing possibilities for future revision.

Suggested Text: Frame Work

Frame Work: Culture, Storytelling, and College Writing. Gary Colombo, Bonnie Lisle, and Sandra Mano. Bedford Books, 1997.

To look at potential strengths and weaknesses of the text for our students, click on the first two options below. To look more closely at readings for specific assignments, click on the next three links.

Advantages

Disadvantages/Caveats

In other words, this book isn't one that can be followed page by page; it requires some active involvement on the instructor's part if it is to work with the syllabus as written.

For the Personal Essay

Part 1 has similar goals to our Unit 1; it can be used pretty much as is. The Personal Essay assignment is nearly identical to the "Essay Options" presented on pp. 81-2 ("School Stories"). The instructor can decide whether to limit the students to writing about an experience or allow them to choose a significant teacher instead. Like our assignment, the text stresses focus and details; the authors even include sample revision/workshop exercises on pp. 111-112.

Suggested readings for the Personal Essay:

Week 1: Writing processes, writing rituals, and prewriting strategies: pp. 3-9 ("Writing as Storytelling") and pp. 50-62 ("The Writing Process" and "Approaches to Prewriting").

Week 2: Reading strategies: pp. 15-34 ("Active Reading"). The essay, "How I Started Writing Poetry" (pp. 76-81), could work well as the "professional example."

Weeks 3-4: Audience awareness; revising to meet audience needs: pp. 85-95 ("Establishing Expectations") and 96-112 ("Revision Workshop: Engaging the Reader").

For the Summary and Response Using Personal Experience Essays

For the Summary and Response Using Personal Experience essays, the instructor will have to do more of the work on his/her own. Part 2 of the text focuses on examining "cultural collisions" and an interview assignment that emphasizes listening for difference; however, this can be seen as applicable to typical student difficulties in reading (seeing their own ideas reflected in a text rather than the author's). Looked at this way, the readings in Part 2 can be used sparingly to enhance continued work with active, careful reading and response.

The instructor might choose to adapt the response to fit the text more closely while still meeting syllabus goals. One possibility would be to keep a textual response assignment (as the interview assignment does not fit the goals of this syllabus as well), but ask students to examine/explain how the writer's ideas are similar to or different from (stressing difference, since this is what most students seem to have trouble seeing) their own initial expectations or beliefs, rather than simply to "agree" or "disagree."

Suggested readings for Summary and Response Using Personal Experience:

Week 5: Summarizing: pp. 115-124 ("Cultural Collisions") and pp. 143-148 ("Listening for Difference").

Week 7: Focusing, developing, and organizing ideas: pp. 186-193 ("Direct and Indirect Style" and "Beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay").

Week 8: Revising to meet audience needs; workshopping: pp. 197-217 ("Revision Workshop" on clarity and paragraphing).

Note: The actual apparatus for summary--what to include, why be objective, etc--will have to be provided by the instructor, as it's not dealt with in this text. Fruitful options for summary/response essays include Kluckhohn, "Designs for Living" (pp. 118-122); Lorde, "From Zami: A New Spelling of my Name" (pp. 65-74); Fedullo, "Mrs. Cassadore" (pp. 149-160); Shen, "The Classroom and the Wider Culture" (pp. 175-185); and Holland, "Discovering the Forms of Academic Discourse" (pp. 171-174). The difficulty level varies greatly, and some are strictly narrative while others use narrative.

For Discourse Analysis

In Unit 2, instructors may want to return to some of the Unit 1 readings (suggested above), this time to look at how the authors are expressing their ideas (see Week 9 of the syllabus). Part 3 of the text takes a similar approach to the discourse analysis in the syllabus, using the concept of discourse communities, which could easily be incorporated into the syllabus. The section of the text on voice and audience will work particularly well.

The rest of this part of the book focuses on comparison/contrast. At this point, instructors have two choices. They could depart from the book and follow the syllabus, spending only a few weeks on discourse analysis and then having students write a second summary/response. Alternatively, they could have students write a comparison/contrast discourse analysis for the second portfolio--comparing two works on the same subject written for different audiences, for example. This could easily take up the remaining time: first helping students get a handle on single essays and then developing comparisons. The students would then go straight into the course postscript. In this way, they are immediately applying skills from Unit 2 back to their own writing and using discourse analysis and comparison/contrast to tell the "story" of their development as writers through this course. This second option has the advantage of developing a skill (comparison/contrast) that is not covered in CO150, while arguing from sources is covered in the next course.

Suggested readings for Discourse Analysis:

Week 9: Introduce portfolio 2--other forms of academic writing (discourse communities): pp. 221-239 ("Speech Communities"), pp. 265-273 ("Voice and Audience").

Week 10: Introduction to library research: pp. 489-501 ("Evaluating Sources").

Week 11: Organizational strategies revisited; source analysis: pp. 291-307 ("Structuring Comparisons") if students are comparing two sources for this paper.

Week 12: Drafting a paper that uses sources: pp. 509-515 ("Writing using sources").

Week 13: Revising strategies revisited: pp. 307-324 ("Revision Workshop").

Alternative Texts

The assignments for this course can be designed around any class topic: an education focus (like the Writing Center tutorial), a cultural focus (like CO150) or any other focus/reader the instructor prefers. The portfolio system also lends itself to two different topics for Portfolios 1 and 2 and even allows students more freedom in selecting topics for Portfolio 2 (perhaps working in groups around several different topics) if the instructor chooses.

Instructors might find the book Interactions: A Thematic Reader (Ann Moseley and Jeanette Harris, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997) particularly useful. This book begins with a unit entitled "The Self," which includes a number of personal narratives. The other units of the book then broaden out from the self to include such topics as "Self with Family," "Self with Work," "Self with Society," etc. It mirrors the movement of the syllabus, from personal writing to more reader-oriented, "public" prose.

The following are some other texts that would work well with this syllabus:

Writing Assignments

This section includes detailed assignment sheets for each of the essays we imagine students will write in CO130. The assignments are clustered under headings to help you see how teachers vary in their presentation of assignments.

Some teachers (and many students) prefer to complete a formal draft of each essay as it comes up in the syllabus; teachers collect and comment on those drafts that students then revise for resubmission and grading in the portfolio in week 9. Alternatively, student work in first half of the semester can be assigned and collected in a true portfolio, i.e., students draft several less formal attempts at each essay and choose their most successful (in their terms) papers to revise for the portfolio. I've arranged assignment sheets under "Unit 1" if you plan to adopt the first approach for this chunk of the semester and under "Portfolio 1" if you prefer the second approach.

Unit 2 assignments appear here as prompts for a "discourse analysis" approach, a "source and response" approach, or a "position paper" approach to the essays in the second half of the semester.

Unit 1

If you prefer to have students draft essays for your comment that are then revised for a second round of portfolio commentary, then you'll probably want to use the assignment sheets linked below. If you prefer to have students write several journal entries or very informal drafts that they choose from to revise for the portfolio, you should consider the assignment sheets linked under Portfolio 1.

You can also create a mix-and-match variation for the first half of the semester. You might, for instance, have students draft a single attempt at the personal essay, collect and comment on it, and return it for revision and submission in the portfolio in week 9. But perhaps you want to give students more opportunities to draft summaries and choose one to revise for the portfolio. Feel free to adapt the assignments and submission schedule.

Please note that the assignment sheets linked below specify a target audience. If you prefer to have students identify their audiences, just edit the sheets as necessary.

Personal Essay

If there's one thing you've had a lot of experience with at this point in your life, it's our class topic--education. You've been through at least twelve years of formal schooling, and you've probably had plenty of other life experiences that could be considered educational. This first piece is informal. Think of it as a chance to reflect on one of those experiences by writing about it.

The key question you'll answer is "How has this experience affected the way I think/feel about school or education?"

You're answering the key question for yourself and other members of our class. Think of this piece as your contribution to our conversation on the topic of education. Keep in mind the kinds of things your readers/classmates will understand already and what you'll need to explain and/or describe in greater detail.

Your goals as a writer include:

Strategies for completing the essay include these:

Summary

Now that you've written your own contribution to the class conversation, it's time to look at what some other people to say on the topic of education. As you know, one effective reading strategy is to write about what you've read, so that's what you'll be doing for this next assignment. You've already "summarized" lots of times: anytime you take a phone message, or tell a friend what happened on your favorite TV show last night, for example. The process for an academic summary is similar--to take in information (in this case, by reading something by another writer) and condense it (by identifying the important ideas in that piece).

The key question you'll answer is "What are the main points of this writer's essay?"

You're answering the key question for a reader who has not read the essay you're summarizing. Therefore, you'll need to think about how to represent all of the main ideas of the piece fairly. Keep in mind that your reader will want to know more than just what the essay is about. She or he will want to know what the author thinks about his or her topic and how each idea within the essay is connected to the rest of the author's points.

Your goals as a writer include this most important one: to read and understand the essay thoroughly enough to be able to represent it accurately to someone who has not read the original, say, someone who is joining our class conversation late and wants to "catch up."

Strategies for completing the essay include these:

Response Using Personal Experience

So far we've explored our own ideas about education and created a class text that summarizes the readings we've discussed as a class. Now it's time for you to situate yourself within that class text: where do your ideas about education fall in relation to those of one of the authors we've read? For this essay, again aimed at an outside reader interested in what's going on in our class, you'll briefly recap the main ideas of one author's essay and then explain how (and why) those ideas are similar to and/or different from your own expectations or beliefs.

The key question you'll answer is "What are the main points of this writer's essay, and how do the author's ideas differ from yours?"

You're answering the key question for an outside reader (say, an academic advisor) who wants to know how the class is coming along. S/he is interested in the kinds of essays you've been reading and in how you see them confirming and challenging your expectations.

Your goals: This is where you pull together all of the ideas about writing we've been exploring so far. Obviously your summary skills will come in handy. You'll also want to think about questions like these:

Strategies for completing the essay include these:

Portfolio 1

As I worked out a version of the syllabus (see Kate's sample syllabus), I built in multiple opportunities for students to write on topics that would fit the first two essay assignments. Typically, I give students less formal prompts, such as my Daily writing tasks, to get them started on this informal writing. I usually wouldn't give out the detailed assignments sheets linked below until after students have drafted one or two attempts at the general topic. Then I talk about how to revise the informal work to meet the specific goals of the assignment as outlined on the assignment sheet. You'll notice that because I ask students to specify their target audiences, I have revised this element of the assignment sheet, as well as some of the strategies for completing the paper.

Personal Essay

If there's one thing you've had a lot of experience with at this point in your life, it's our class topic--education. You've been through at least twelve years of formal schooling, and you've probably had plenty of other life experiences that could be considered educational. This first piece is informal. Think of it as a chance to reflect on one of those experiences by writing about it.

The key question you'll answer is "How has this experience affected the way I think/feel about school education or learning?"

You're answering the key question for an audience you identify. You might write to your classmates, in which case you could think of this piece as your contribution to our conversation on the topic of education. You might write to friends who are still in the high school you graduated from recently, in which case you'll need to remember that they haven't been reading and talking about the ideas we have in this class. You might write to a relative or close friend elsewhere, perhaps someone who shared the experience with you. Keep in mind the kinds of things your readers/classmates will understand already and what you'll need to explain and/or describe in greater detail. Please note your target audience at the top of each draft as you revise.

Your goals as a writer include:

Strategies for completing the essay include these:

Summary

Now that you've written your own contribution to the class conversation, it's time to look at what some other people say on the topic of education. As you know, one effective reading strategy is to write about what you've read, so that's what you'll be doing for this next assignment. You've already "summarized" lots of times: anytime you take a phone message, or tell a friend what happened on your favorite TV show last night, for example. The process for an academic summary is similar--to take in information (in this case, by reading something by another writer) and condense it (by identifying the important ideas in that piece).

The key question you'll answer is "What are the main points of this writer's essay?"

You're answering the key question for a reader you identify. You'll probably write for someone who has not read the essay you're summarizing. Therefore, you'll need to think about how to represent all of the main ideas of the piece fairly. Keep in mind that your reader will want to know more than just what the essay is about; she or he will want to know what the author thinks about his or her topic and how each idea within the essay is connected to the rest of the author's points. Please note as precisely as possible your target audience at the top of each draft as you revise.

Your goal as a writer includes this most important one: to read and understand the essay thoroughly enough to be able to represent it accurately to someone who has not read the original, say, someone who is joining our class conversation late and wants to "catch up."

Strategies for completing the essay include these:

Response Using Personal Experience

So far we've explored our own ideas about education and created a class text that summarizes the readings we've discussed as a class. Now it's time for you to situate yourself within that class text: where do your ideas about education fall in relation to those of one of the authors we've read? For this essay, again aimed at an outside reader interested in what's going on in our class, you'll briefly recap the main ideas of one author's essay and then explain how (and why) those ideas are similar to and/or different from your own expectations or beliefs.

The key question you'll answer is "What are the main points of this writer's essay, and how do the author's ideas differ from yours?"

You're answering the key question for a reader you identify. You might choose an outside reader (say, an academic advisor) who wants to know how the class is coming along. S/he is interested in the kinds of essays you've been reading and in how you see them confirming and challenging your expectations. Or your outside reader might be a family member who knows less about the academic context of our class. Or you might write for a classmate whose ideas have consistently differed from yours in our class discussions. (Hint: it's always easier to write to someone who disagrees with you at least a little bit.)

Your goals: This is where you pull together all of the ideas about writing we've been exploring so far. Obviously your summary skills will come in handy. You'll also want to think about questions like these: Strategies for completing the essay include these:

Unit 2 - Discourse Analysis

CAVEAT: You might want to give out only a generic explanation of Unit 2 (see Course Overview materials) at the beginning of the semester until you get to know your students and their strengths and weaknesses. As you think about ways to meet the goals for Unit 2--helping students learn how to find appropriate sources and integrate them appropriately into an academic paper--please remember that some papers will require more sophisticated writing and thinking skills than other types of papers.

In the Course Overview, you'll find explanations of how to adapt the course if you're using Frame Work, a text that lends itself to rhetorical analysis of discourse communities for the papers in the second half of the semester. The links below to Essays 4 and 5 as discourse analysis connect to assignment sheets tailored for this approach to Unit 2.

Please give Kate any assignment sheets that fine-tune the essay tasks for Unit 2 (especially if you work out any other options for this part of the semester).

Discourse Analysis

In Unit 1, we explored the issue of education as a class. In Unit 2, you'll be working in smaller groups, exploring an issue of your own choice. For this first essay, you'll again be developing a "group text" of possible sources. But this time, instead of just summarizing the ideas in them, you'll be looking at how those ideas are expressed and for what purpose.

The key question you'll answer is "How does this essay respond to its intended audience?" In other words, how does the writer organize and develop his/her ideas? How is the voice a response to the imagined/intended readers (its "discourse community")?

You're answering the key question for your group members, who are working with you to find a pool of sources that might be useful in the next essay for this class. They'll be counting on you for an accurate report on your source.

Your goals: Think of this assignment as preparation for the longer essay you'll be asked to write next (comparing and contrasting two essays on your topic written for two different audiences). As a group, you'll want to find as many different sources, targeted toward as many different audiences, as you can, so that when you sit down to write your essay you'll have plenty of essays to choose from. Individually, then, your goal is to "do your part" for the group by finding an interesting possible essay and offering a detailed analysis of it for your group to use.

Strategies for completing the essay include these:

Comparing Two Discourse Communities

In this essay, you'll be using the skills developed writing the Discourse Analysis to compare and contrast essays written within two different discourse communities on the same subject. When comparing/contrasting (a common request in college writing) you want to be sure to point out both similarities and differences. It's not very interesting to read a paper which shows how two things are "exactly alike" (especially if they're not), and if the two things are completely different, your reader might wonder why you're writing about them together at all!

The key question you'll answer is "How does the intended audience (or discourse community) affect these two writers' approaches to this subject?"

You're answering the key question for a professor of a class on your group's topic. She is trying to decide which of these two readings is more appropriate for the class to read and has asked you to read and compare them. You can either offer a suggestion (if one essay is clearly more appropriate) or just stick to showing their similarities and differences clearly enough for her to be able to make an informed decision.

Your goals: Once again, you'll want to use detail to support your claims about the two essays. In this case, the details will be examples from the essays themselves. You'll also want to focus your essay on a particular claim about how the two essays are alike and/or different. (Be sure to account for the similarities and differences by referring to the authors' different target audiences.) Finally, you'll want to carefully consider your organization so that you are able to talk about the two essays together without confusing your reader.

Strategies for completing the essay include these:

Unit 2 - Source Evaluation and Response

CAVEAT: You might want to give out only a generic explanation of Unit 2 (see Course Overview materials) at the beginning of the semester until you get to know your students and their strengths and weaknesses. As you think about ways to meet the goals for Unit 2--helping students learn how to find appropriate sources and integrate them appropriately into an academic paper--please remember that some papers will require more sophisticated writing and thinking skills than other types of papers.

Because a discourse-analysis approach in Unit 2 requires giving students more critical apparatus for doing a rhetorical or discourse analysis, you may decide to try a source evaluation and source-based response for the second portfolio. Assignment sheets for essays 4 and 5 using this approach are linked below.

Please give Kate any assignment sheets that fine-tune the essay tasks for Unit 2 (especially if you work out any other options for this part of the semester).

Source Evaluation

In Unit One, we explored the issue of education as a class. In Unit Two, you'll be working in smaller groups, exploring an issue of your own choice. For this first essay, you'll again be developing a "group text" of possible sources, but this time, instead of just summarizing the sources you'll be evaluating them to determine which are appropriate to an academic paper, which are not, and why.

The question you'll answer is "Is this article an appropriate source for an academic paper in which you will agree or disagree with a particular author's views? Why or why not?"

You're answering it for your group members, who are working with you to find a pool of sources that might be useful in the final essay for this class. They'll be counting on you for an accurate "report" about your source.

Your goals: Think of this assignment as preparation for the longer essay you'll be asked to write next. As a group, you'll want to complete the most effective research you can, so that when you sit down to write your essay you'll have plenty of useful sources on which to draw. Individually, then, your goal is to "do your part" for the group by finding an interesting possible source and offering a detailed analysis of that source for your group to use.

Strategies:

Response Using Sources

In this essay, you'll return to the response format you used earlier. Only this time, instead of using personal experience, you'll use other sources to support your agreement or disagreement with the author's ideas. This is a more common type of response in academic writing, and also one way that academic writers begin to make arguments of their own.

The question you'll answer is "Now that you've done some research on the topic, do you agree or disagree with the position your author takes in his or her argument? Why?"

You're answering it for a reader you identify. You might imagine the reader of this paper to be the professor of a class on your group topic. Based on the discussions we've had in class and your reading, what can you assume about his or her likely expectations for focus, organization, evidence, and style?

Your goals: This is your chance to pull together everything you've learned about academic writing. You'll use those summary skills one more time and, as in the last response paper, focus on agreeing or disagreeing with one of the author's main ideas. You'll also want to think about
  1. What will my audience be most interested in hearing?
  2. How can I select the sources that will best support my points?
  3. What kind of organization will be most useful for my reader?
  4. What's the most effective balance of my own thoughts and outside source material?

Strategies:

Unit 2 - Position Paper

CAVEAT: You might want to give out only a generic explanation of Unit 2 (see Course Overview materials) at the beginning of the semester until you get to know your students and their strengths and weaknesses. As you think about ways to meet the goals for Unit 2--helping students learn how to find appropriate sources and integrate them appropriately into an academic paper--please remember that some papers will require more sophisticated writing and thinking skills than other types of papers.

There are almost certainly other possibilities for papers that would meet our overall goals for this part of the semester. The third approach we've worked out so far--the Position Paper--attempts to lay out one additional way of viewing the work of Unit 2.

Please give Kate any assignment sheets that fine-tune the essay tasks for Unit 2 (especially if you work out any other options for this part of the semester).

Source/Position Evaluation

In Unit One, we explored the issue of education as a class. In Unit Two, you'll be working in smaller groups, exploring an issue of your own choice. For this first essay, you'll again be developing a "group text" of possible sources, but this time, instead of just summarizing the sources, you'll be evaluating them to determine which are appropriate to an academic paper, which are not, and why.

The question you'll answer is "Is this article an appropriate source for an academic paper in which you will position yourself among a range of views on your focused topic? Why or why not?"

You're answering it for your group members, who are working with you to find a pool of sources that might be useful in the final essay for this class. They'll be counting on you for an accurate "report" about your source.

Your goals: Think of this assignment as preparation for the longer essay you'll be asked to write next. As a group, you'll want to complete the most effective research you can, so that when you sit down to write your essay you'll have plenty of useful sources on which to draw. Individually, then, your goal is to "do your part" for the group by finding an interesting possible source and offering a detailed analysis of that source for your group to use.

Strategies:

Position Paper

In this essay, you'll return to use many of the techniques you practiced in your response paper for Unit 1. Only this time, instead of using just personal experience, you'll use other sources to lay out the range of positions on the issue you've focused on as well as to support the position you take on the issue. This is a common way to use sources in academic writing and also one way that academic writers begin to make arguments of their own.

The question you'll answer is"Now that you've done some research on the topic, where do you see your position within the range of possible ones writers take on this issue? Why?"

You're answering it for a reader you identify. You might imagine the reader of this paper to be the professor of a class on your group topic. Based on the discussions we've had in class and your reading, what can you assume about his or her likely expectations for focus, organization, evidence, and style?

Your goals: This is your chance to pull together everything you've learned about academic writing. You'll use those summary skills one more time and, as in the last response paper, focus on where your ideas fit into the conversation or argument on this issue. You'll also want to think about
  1. What will my audience be most interested in hearing?
  2. How can I select the sources that will best support my points?
  3. What kind of organization will be most useful for my reader?
  4. What's the most effective balance of my own thoughts and outside source material?
Strategies:

Unit 3

In Unit 3, we'd like to have students reflect on what they've learned during the course. The Course Overview calls for a final essay to capture this reflection; we have linked that assignment below as "Course Postscript." But you might also think about other alternatives to a final essay as you get to this part of the course.

For instance, depending on how much time you have left at the end of the term and how you have worked out the term topic, you might post some questions on the forum for class "discussion" so that students have an opportunity to synthesize how their reading and writing have changed their views of academic texts.

As another alternative to the full-blown course postscript, you might have students respond to postscript prompts focused only on the second portfolio. Or you might want to encourage more reflection about the revision process, so we've included a set of questions students might use to create a revision plan.

As you think of other ways to encourage reflection on their reading and writing skills at the end of the semester, be sure to contribute those to our compilation here.

Course Postscript

This is your final assignment in the course and your chance to show how your writing (and your knowledge about writing) has developed over the course of the semester. In this essay, you'll show why, based on this final assignment and your progress this semester, you think you are prepared for academic writing.

The key questions you'll answer are "How has your writing developed over the course of this semester? What have you learned about academic writing?"

You're answering these key questions for your instructor, who must evaluate your readiness to advance to the next composition course (CO150). Think of this as your "final exam," and be sure to think about what your instructor's needs and expectations are likely to be. Why might s/he want you to answer this particular question? What kinds of things will you need to show? What kind of development or support will s/he expect?

Your goals: to make a case for how much you've learned and improved in this course which is, in a sense, your argument for your desired grade. You'll want to provide a clear focus (thesis statement) and develop your thoughts with examples from your experience in class and the essays you've written. The main part of the development here will be evaluating your performance on one of the earlier essays, answering

Strategies for completing the essay include these:

Forum Questions

Today we'll write on the Forum to capture some of what you've learned about reading and writing academic texts this semester. Please write and post about one or more of the following questions. Then respond to at least five postings by classmates.

Portfolio 2 Postscript

One important measure of your success this semester is your sense of how you've applied what you've learned about academic reading and writing. Please take this class period to reflect in detail on the work you prepared for Portfolio 2.

  1. Evaluate your pieces based on the grading criteria we have agreed upon as a class. What are the key strengths and weaknesses of your portfolio?

  2. Evaluate your pieces based on the audience and purpose you specified for each paper. What are the key strengths and weaknesses of your portfolio?

  3. If you had "all the time in the world" (or at least a few more days), how would you revise/improve your pieces?

  4. What are the most valuable lessons you learned from compiling this portfolio?

  5. Is there anything else you would like me to consider as I read and evaluate your portfolio?

Revision Plan

If you had more time to revise one of the papers you wrote this semester, which one would it be? Why would you choose this paper to revise now?

As you think about the criteria for a successful paper, which elements of the paper would you revise and why--target audience, purpose, focus, supporting details, organization, or other elements?

What would you tackle first in your revision? Why would this element of your paper be most important to revise first?

What else would you revise?

Sketch what you'd like the paper to look like after you complete your revisions.

Teaching Materials

Because CO130 is new to the curriculum, we will compile teaching materials aggressively during the 2000-2001 academic year. Look for a much fuller collection of materials in December, 2000, and May, 2001.

Detailed Syllabi

As you work out your plans for teaching the course, please share your detailed plans with other teachers of the course.

Kate's Sample Syllabus

Week 1
Tuesday: Intro to course. Talk about writing rituals and myths. Ask what connections they see between reading and writing - start a list on an overhead we can add to over the next several weeks.
Read for Thursday: Chapter 1 in Frame Work

Thursday: "Bad girls": connections between stories, culture, and reading/writing in college. Work closely with the Donofrio piece and the embedded narrative of Waithia in Silko's piece. Are these stories about "bad" girls? How? Why? What difference does it make if we call Donofrio rebellious rather than bad? In what ways can we say these stories are about learning?
For Tuesday: Jot down a story of your own in which you tell about a significant moment of learning.
Read for Tuesday: FW pp. 35-36, 50-62, and a piece from the New York Times.

Week 2
Tuesday: How can we consider the Times piece as a story like those we read last week? (Is Venter a "bad" boy?) Will the "story" framework include all your reading in college? Where do you expect the framework to break down? Bring in examples next week from your textbooks so that we can look at other academic frameworks.
For Thursday: Jot down a story in which you tell about a time when you learned something about yourself either related to school or to informal education.
Read for Thursday: Ch. 3 in FW.

Thursday: Looking at student story drafts.
For Tuesday: Write a journal entry on one of the essay options on pp. 81-82.

Week 3
Tuesday: Who did you write your most recent journal entry for--yourself, teachers, classmates, parents? Why would the target reader matter? Who would you like to read your story eventually? Look at audience, purpose, and reading/writing connections in more detail. Are there any stories in texts you're reading for other courses? What do those readings look like?
For Thursday: Pick one of your three stories to workshop in class.
Read for Thursday: Ch. 4 in FW.

Thursday: First revision workshop on selected journal piece (to get closer to the personal essay for portfolio 1). Generate criteria for successful personal essay based on the strengths they saw in each other's drafts today.
Read for Tuesday: FW pp. 115-124.

Week 4
Tuesday: More reading/writing strategies--summarizing. Continue discussing academic discourse communities and their disciplinary expectations. Talk about the different kinds of summaries different fields might expect and why. Have half the class draft a quick summary of Kluckhohn for a friend still in high school and the other half draft for a teacher in an anthropology class. What kinds of differences do they see as they read the two versions? How are these differences related to target reader and that reader's purpose?
Read for Thursday: FW pp. 168-174
For Thursday: Draft a summary of Holland for a classmate who missed class on Tuesday.

Thursday: Look at draft summaries. Which are the best ones? Why? Generate criteria for good summaries written to students in CO130. How would these criteria change for different audiences?
Read for Tuesday: FW pp. 175-193 and draft summary of Shen article for a reader you identify.

Week 5
Tuesday: Who are the target readers for the Shen summary? How did you adapt your summary for your target reader? Look closely at the ways the target reader dictates details, organization, and style.
Read for Thursday: Ch. 8 in FW
For Thursday: Pick one summary to revise for the workshop. Be sure to note your target reader at the top of your draft.

Thursday: Revision workshop on selected summary
Read for Tuesday: Times editorial
For Tuesday: Think more about the Fan Shen article. Jot down points where you'd agree or disagree with him. Also jot down points where you'd agree or disagree with the Times editorial.

Week 6
Tuesday: Move into response: How might response draw on the strategies you used in your personal essay draft? What responses did you have other than those based on personal experience? How could you write about your response to the Shen essay or the Times editorial?
For Thursday: Start drafting a response essay.

Thursday: Response--variations for audience and purpose
For Tuesday: Revise your personal essay. Be sure to note your target reader on the draft.

Week 7
Tuesday: Workshop personal essay again
For Thursday: Jot down a revision plan for your personal essay. Complete the draft of your response essay.

Thursday: Questions about response/conference day
For Tuesday: Revise selected summary; revise response essay.

Week 8
Tuesday: Workshop on summary and on response essay.
For Thursday: Jot down revision plans for the pieces workshopped today. Revise at least one piece for Thursday.

Thursday: Final workshop for portfolio 1.
For Tuesday: Revise and proofread for portfolio 1.
**************************************************************************

Portfolio 2 is less clear in my mind still, so keep the goals for the unit in mind as you decide how you want to shape this six weeks of the course. I would use chapters 13, 15, and 16 in FW, but I keep debating with myself about what the final paper should look like. Given that warning, here's a general plan that I think would work.

In Week 9, I'd collect portfolios on Tuesday and begin collecting what the class knows about doing research. I'd assign Chapter 13 to talk about on Thursday. "Story Skeleton" can help students see how writers shape what we learn from them by what they emphasize, and then Lord can illustrate how writers use personal experience to question cultural "learning" v. academic "education" (a la anthropology). I'd hope to have enough time on Thursday to set up groups to focus topics within the subject area "education."

In Week 10, one class would be devoted to a library orientation, and students would read Ch. 15 and 16 to do more work on interrogating academic discourse and "education." I would also have ready a packet of 6-8 readings representing a range of approaches to various problems in education--a Times piece on education legislation, an excerpt from a polemical book on elementary reading instruction, a longer Harper piece on how high school teaches students to hate lit, an editorial on ratings colleges, maybe a piece (or two) on technology and education.

Now here's where my uncertainty really shows up. Because I think it's harder to do rhetorical or discourse analysis, if the group seems likely to struggle with that approach, I probably will want them to do source evaluation rather than rhetorical/discourse analysis. The selected pieces come from a range of journals and books, and the source evaluation would be interesting for them and me. But that almost certainly means they'll need to do a response paper ("argument" supported by sources) as the main piece in the portfolio, and that presents some problems because we don't really have much time to cover argument strategies in any detail. If the group is stronger, then they probably can handle the discourse/rhetorical analysis that Jill outlines in the part of your packet that discusses using FW in the course.

Weeks 11 and 12 would include mostly group work finding and evaluating sources; Weeks 13 and 14 will be given over to drafting and revising the major paper with some class time devoted to strategies for writing and revising the paper I'd set up for students.

Portfolio 2 would come in on Tuesday of Week 15, and students could begin the revision (almost certainly from portfolio 1) and course postscript to turn in during the final exam period.

(To complicate matters, I thought of a third option for portfolio 2: a position paper that asks students to argue for the ways they plan to interrogate their education and learning. This paper could focus on accepting or rejecting the storytelling framework presented by their text, could take up text analysis as Martin does it in Ch. 14, could look at cultural frames.... But, as you can imagine, this paper strikes me as even more sophisticated than the other two options.)

Worksheets

Unit 2 worksheets are among the most important ones you'll use in CO130. But as you develop other worksheets, please contribute them to this collection of materials.

Discourse Analysis Worksheet

These are some of the issues you'll want to consider when gathering data for your discourse analysis. Read through the article at least once before beginning to answer these questions. After reading it, you may want to read through again, either doing a "backwards outline" of the article (writing the main idea of each paragraph or section next to the paragraph) or summarizing it. Then, once you have a sense of the article as a whole, respond to the following questions.

Purpose/Context

  1. What is the article's topic? What is the general subject area that it covers?

  2. What is the purpose of the article? Is it to introduce a new idea, present research, make an argument, provide an overview on a topic, or something else entirely? How can you tell?

  3. What is the article's thesis or main idea?

  4. Who is the author of the article, and what do you know about him or her? What kind of authority does he or she have in this subject area?

Audience

  1. Where is the article printed? What kind of periodical is it in? Is it an academic journal, a professional publication (for people in a particular field), or a popular magazine? Does the periodical suggest a particular kind of readership (gender, education level, political stance, professional interests, level of wealth, hobbies)? (Hint: All magazines, in some way or another, limit their readership to a particular "target group." To find out who that is, don't limit yourself to looking only at your article. Flip through the table of contents to see what else is printed in the periodical. Look at submission guidelines, advertisements, editorials and cartoons as well.)

  2. Is the language technical (field-specific) or accessible to a more general readership? If technical terms are used, are they clearly explained?

  3. Does the article include a works cited list or some other form of references?

  4. Based on the information above, who do you feel the target audience is? What "discourse community" is addressed here? Why do you think so?

Organization/Development

  1. How does the writer develop his or her ideas? Does the author compare or contrast? Use statistics or other numerical evidence? Use personal anecdotes or stories? Develop by example? Appeal to authority (other sources) or to his or her own character/expertise? Describe a process? Evaluate?

  2. Explain why the text is organized and developed the way it is. What does the writer do first, second, third. Why? What does this suggest about audience?

Style

  1. How would you characterize the voice of this article? Is it formal or informal? Is it humorous or serious? Do you detect any sarcasm or irony? How does the author's choice of voice function to promote his or her purpose?

  2. How does sentence shape or rhythm contribute to your sense of the voice?

  3. Does the author refer to him or herself using the first person ("I")? Is the voice personal or more distanced and objective?

Evaluating

Now, based on your answers to the questions above, write an essay in which you make a claim about

You might choose to focus on one or two of the four areas listed above. Use textual examples to support your claim.

Source Evaluation Worksheet

These are some of the issues you'll want to consider when gathering data for your source analysis. You'll want to read through the article at least once before beginning to answer these questions. After reading it once, you may want to read through again, either doing a "backwards outline" of the article (writing the main idea of each paragraph or section next to the paragraph) or summarizing it. Then, once you have a sense of the article as a whole, read and respond to the following questions.

Purpose/Context

  1. What is the article's topic? What is the general subject area that it covers?

  2. What is the purpose of the article? Is it to introduce a new idea, present research, make an argument, provide an overview on a topic, or something else entirely? How can you tell?

  3. What is the article's thesis or main idea?

  4. Who is the author of the article, and what do you know about him or her? What kind of authority does he or she have in this subject area?

Audience

  1. Where is the article printed? What kind of periodical is it in? Is it an academic journal, a professional publication (for people in a particular field), or a popular magazine? Does the periodical suggest a particular kind of readership (gender, education level, political stance, professional interests, level of wealth, hobbies)? (Hint: All magazines, in some way or another, limit their readership to a particular "target group." To find out who that is, don't limit yourself to looking only at your article. Flip through the table of contents to see what else is printed in the periodical. Look at submission guidelines, advertisements, editorials and cartoons as well.)

  2. Is the language technical (field-specific) or accessible to a more general readership? If technical terms are used, are they clearly explained?

  3. Does the article include a works cited list or some other form of references?

  4. Based on the information above, do you feel the target audience is or could be an academic one? Why or why not?

Organization/Development

  1. How does the writer develop his or her ideas? Does the author compare or contrast? Use statistics or other numerical evidence? Use personal anecdotes? Develop by example? Appeal to authority (other sources) or to his or her own character/expertise? Describe a process? Evaluate?

  2. Explain why the text is organized and developed the way it is. What does the writer do first, second, third. Why?

  3. How credible do you think the means of support would be to an academic reader? Why?

Style

  1. How would you characterize the tone of this article? Is it formal or informal? Is it humorous or serious? Do you detect any sarcasm or irony? How does the author's choice of tone function to promote his or her purpose?

  2. Does the author refer to him or herself using the first person ("I")?

  3. Is the style appropriate/compelling to an academic audience? Why or why not?

Evaluating

Now, based on your answers to the questions above, write an essay in which you make a claim about whether this particular article would be credible support for an academic essay. You might choose to focus on one or two of the areas listed above (the last question in each section will be particularly helpful in evaluating). Use textual examples to support your claim.

Source/Position Evaluation Worksheet

These are some of the issues you'll want to consider when gathering data for your source/position analysis. You'll want to read through the article at least once before beginning to answer these questions. After reading it once, you may want to read through again, either doing a "backwards outline" of the article (writing the main idea of each paragraph or section next to the paragraph) or summarizing it. Then, once you have a sense of the article as a whole, read and respond to the following questions.

Purpose/Context

  1. What is the article's topic? Does the article fit with the focus your group has selected? If so, what position does the article take on your topic or issue?

  2. What is the purpose of the article? Is it to introduce a new idea, present research, make an argument, provide an overview on a topic, or something else entirely? How can you tell?

  3. What is the article's thesis or main idea?

  4. Who is the author of the article, and what do you know about him or her? What kind of authority does he or she have in this subject area?

Audience

  1. Where is the article printed? What kind of periodical is it in? Is it an academic journal, a professional publication (for people in a particular field), or a popular magazine? Does the periodical suggest a particular kind of readership (gender, education level, political stance, professional interests, level of wealth, hobbies)? (Hint: All magazines, in some way or another, limit their readership to a particular "target group." To find out who that is, don't limit yourself to looking only at your article. Flip through the table of contents to see what else is printed in the periodical. Look at submission guidelines, advertisements, editorials and cartoons as well.)

  2. Is the language technical (field-specific) or accessible to a more general readership? If technical terms are used, are they clearly explained?

  3. Does the article include a works cited list or some other form of references?

  4. Based on the information above, do you feel the target audience is or could be an academic one? Why or why not?

Organization/Development

  1. How does the writer develop his or her ideas? Does the author compare or contrast? Use statistics or other numerical evidence? Use personal anecdotes? Develop by example? Appeal to authority (other sources) or to his or her own character/expertise? Describe a process? Evaluate?

  2. Explain why the text is organized and developed the way it is. What does the writer do first, second, third. Why?

  3. How credible do you think the means of support would be to an academic reader? Why?

Style

  1. How would you characterize the tone of this article? Is it formal or informal? Is it humorous or serious? Do you detect any sarcasm or irony? How does the author's choice of tone function to promote his or her purpose?

  2. Does the author refer to him or herself using the first person ("I")?

  3. Is the style appropriate/compelling to an academic audience? Why or why not?

Looking more closely at the position

Most issues don't involve simple either/or positions or solutions. Rather, most issues are open to a range of positions that writers may take. Look closely at the position the writer of your source takes as you answer these questions.

  1. How could you restate the position the author takes in the article?

  2. How do you see this position expanding the range of views on the topic for your group?

  3. What kind of evidence does the author give to support his/her position?

  4. What parts of the argument for the author's position do you find most convincing? Least convincing?

Evaluating

Now, based on your answers to the questions above, write an essay in which you make a claim about whether this particular article would be credible support for an academic essay. You might choose to focus on one or two of the areas listed above (the last question in each section will be particularly helpful in evaluating). Use textual examples to support your claim.

Workshops

As you make up workshop sheets to help students with peer review, think about building complexity into your workshops slowly over the first unit. As Steve explains, less prepared readers and writers often cannot deal comfortably with the same kinds of workshop prompts that more sophisticated writers can. So you might want to have more prompts that call for students to label elements of papers on the first workshop sheets. As students gain confidence, they will be better able to identify strengths and weaknesses in peer's papers and, eventually, to suggest specific kinds of revisions for their peers.

Daily Prompts

Because each teacher will probably use slightly different reading assignments, please give me the textbook page numbers or titles for supplemental readings that your Daily prompts refer to. If teachers have questions about the supplemental readings--that we cannot post here because of copyright issues--please speak directly to the teacher whose name is linked to the Daily prompt below.

Supplemental Readings

As you come across readings that might work with our term topic, "education," please give me a copy of the reading. I'll collect a paper file and add the bibliographic information to the list below:

Alvarez, Lizette. "Partisan Differences in Senate Threaten Education Bill." The New York Times. Sunday, May 7, 2000; p. A18.

Barra, Allen. "'Amateur' Athletes Are Worth Millions--to NCAA." The Wall Street Journal. Monday, March 29, 1999; p. A26.

Fields, Suzanne. "Technology and Classic Ideas Warring Over Soul of Education." Arizona Republic. March 24, 2000.

Forstmann, Ted. "Break Up the Education Monopoly." The Wall Street Journal. Thursday, September 9, 1999; p. A26.

Karl, Jonathan. "The Great Campus Celebrity Contest." The Wall Street Journal. Friday, September 10, 1999; p. W13.

Prose, Francine. "I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read." Harper's Magazine. September, 1999; 76-84.

Taylor, D. (1998). Beginning to Read and the Spin Doctors of Science: The Political Campaign to Change America's Mind about How Children Learn to Read. Urbana, IL: NCTE. Selected excerpt.

Wade, Nicholas. "Rivals on Offensive as They Near Wire in Genome Race" The New York Times. Sunday, May 7, 2000; p. A18.

Portfolio Considerations

Instructors use portfolios very differently. This section includes rationales and notes for using portfolio grading from Anne Gogela, Marisa Harper, Christina Holtcamp, and Kate Kiefer. You might also see Randy Fetzer's discussion (in Steve Reid's office) of Laura Thomas' portfolio system as it was used in CO300 during the Spring, 1995 term. Kate also has an article on using portfolios to enhance revision as well as a variety of bibliographies on portfolio evaluation.

It is important to explain your portfolio system clearly and give your students something tangible to refer to. Most instructors put a brief description of the submission requirements in their policy statements. Nevertheless, come submission time, you will probably be barraged with questions about what the portfolio should include. Some instructors reduce the questioning by providing students with checklists that let them know exactly what the portfolio should contain and ask the students to submit the checklist (checked off) with their portfolio.

Even though students in CO130 will be doing a reflective piece at the end of the course (Essay 6), postscripts can be especially fruitful when using portfolios. Students have usually had a large amount of time to draft, workshop, and revise each piece they submit and usually have a pretty good idea of what the pieces do well and what they still need. Consequently, you can ask your students to consider their writing process in some depth and can ask them to direct your reading and commenting toward specific strengths and weaknesses in the portfolio as a whole.

If you'd like to see sample checksheets and postscript questions, please look in the OWC module on teaching CO300.

Traditional And/Or Portfolio Grading? (Gogela)

Come to think of it, I really don't like grading--at all, under any circumstances, ever. However, since Steve insists on this necessary evil, here are some of my thoughts on the issue.

While I've never tried portfolio grading in C0150, it has worked well for me in C0250 and C0301. Over the years, I've experimented with various assignments that culminated in a number of portfolios over the course of a semester. Currently, I'm using a system that combines traditional and portfolio grading to accommodate not only some of my students' needs but my own as well.

Obviously, there are disadvantages to traditional grading: a) Students are tempted to write for a grade. Once they have that grade, they're stuck--for better or worse. A student who receives an 'A' may rest on his or her laurels for the rest of the semester and not grow much as a writer. Worse yet, a student who fails the first assignments will be discouraged for the rest of the semester, hate writing. . . and my guts. What's a good teacher to do? b) Traditional grading can also lead to choppy assignments. I like to work with sequences that culminate in a major project, so it's difficult to smack a "grade" on bits and pieces of the process.

Alas, portfolio grading does not solve all problems, either.

a) No matter how well I explain the concept (in writing and rhetoric), some students don't understand that this is a GIFT. Every time I collect intervention drafts, for instance, a couple of dodos will say, "I didn't put much work into this because you're not grading it anyway." Grrrr! Most of the time, this is more of a self-discipline/time-management problem on the part of the student rather than a problem with the system.

b) Of course, instructors are not immune to time-management problems, either. Depending on the required content of a portfolio, how many classes/preps I happen to have that semester, and what else is going on in my life, I may have to do some serious juggling of priorities (--builds character).

Since both traditional and portfolio grading have advantages and disadvantages, I use a combination that's comfortable and manageable for me. In C0250 (Writing Arguments), for example, I assign traditional grades for about a third of the semester--with option to rewrite for students who struggle (but I don't advertise this in advance). By the time we start portfolios, we have established a learning routine and students are pretty clear on my expectations and standards. Now they can concentrate on writing without worrying about grades for every little chunk of work they do. In addition, students have more control over what gets done and when--as long as it does get done. At the beginning of a given unit, I distribute a check-sheet for work due at the end of the unit, so there's no ambiguity. The content of a portfolio is determined by the instructor. (Do you prefer several smaller portfolios--or a couple of more extensive ones?)

Portfolios: Promises, Problems, Practices (Kiefer)

Definition--Students collect of their best writing once, twice, or three times during a term. Some teachers set limits on the kinds of papers; some require certain number of pages.

Promises (Rationale)
As a teacher of comp, I struggled with ways to make practices match my preaching--I encouraged revision in writing process, but grading practices seemed to cut off revision prematurely. Then I discovered portfolios. They Problems/Solutions
1. Students wait until the last minute to begin writing.
Solution: Assign regular "due" dates or regularly scheduled workshops at which drafts are required and checked.

2. Takes too much time.
No Solution! When the final portfolios come in, it's like taking two or three sets of papers home at once. So portfolios definitely will not save time. But I spend much less time on intervention drafts than I used to on final papers, and if I've seen most of the final portfolio pieces in draft, I don't have to spend as much time on them as I would on a brand new piece.

3. If students don't take the initiative to ask for intervention, some students can go for a long time without feedback.
Solution: Regular workshops will give all students frequent opportunities for peer review. Another Solution: occasionally, I require and pick up an intervention draft from everyone.

4. I spend so much time on intervention drafts that I have doubled my total grading time.
Solution: Comment on only the most significant feature of a draft (the element that will result in the most significant revisions).

5. Students do only superficial revisions.
Solution: Suggest students do as much writing as possible on a computer so that revisions don't require a lot of re-typing. Since I've switched to a computer classroom, I haven't had this problem. You could also require revisions of genre, audience, purpose, etc., to encourage students to make global revisions.

Portfolio Explanation (Harper)

As you know, for the rest of the semester you will be compiling a second portfolio of your work. As we compile the portfolio, you will be learning about specific strategies for argumentation. While we will read, discuss, and write about some common topics, you will decide which media and "American" culture topic or topics to write your arguments about. You should, at this point, already be well on your way to writing on a particular topic or topics. You will have several opportunities for feedback from a number of sources: workshops, conferences, intervention drafts, etc. You will also have plenty of time for research and revisions, providing you keep up with deadlines.

On April 27, you will turn in all the work you have done (research, collecting, notes, homework, drafts, etc.), along with the final draft(s) of the paper(s) you have selected as your best work.

Why?

Research, but mainly experience, has shown me that writers learn and perform best when they have multiple opportunities to try, fail, learn, think, get feedback, and revise. I would also argue that the only way to learn to write is by doing so. Compiling a portfolio gives you such opportunities. You will have several weeks to write arguments as you learn more about argument. Then you will choose your best work, revise and polish it, and receive grades for both the work you do (process) and the quality of your best work (final papers).

What will be in the portfolio?
Everything you write between now and April 27. Your goal is to show the step-by-step process you took in learning and writing as you compiled the portfolio. All homework, freewriting, research materials, notes, drafts, and workshop materials get turned in. As always, you will identify your final draft(s) of your best work and include them as well.

How will the portfolio be graded?
You grade will have two parts. Part one is process, and that includes showing all the work you have done. There will be certain minimum requirements that will be discussed later. Some people will do more than the minimum. If you meet the minimum requirements, you get an 'A' on process. If things are missing or deadlines haven't been met, your grade will be reduced accordingly. Part one accounts for 20% of your portfolio grade. Part two is the final papers. These are worth the other 80% of your portfolio grade. The minimum requirement is 12 pages, as I have informed you. (You may exceed the minimum if you discuss your plans with me in advance.) You may meet the minimum requirement for final papers in the following ways:

These papers will be graded on criteria for effective argumentation and academic writing in general. We will learn about and develop these criteria as we go.

What kind of feedback will we get?
You will continue to work together informally and in planned workshops in class. You may also choose to work with classmates or others outside of class. These "others" may include Writing Center tutors. In addition, I will comment on intervention drafts. These are drafts you may submit to me for quick-turnaround, focused comments. You may submit intervention drafts to me on the dates specified. I will read these drafts quickly and make note of the one or two most important areas I feel you need to address first in revision. Consider my comments but one source among many, and please do not expect me to point out everything you might need to revise. The sheer volume of drafts to read precludes my spending more than 10-15 min. on any draft. And regardless of what feedback you get or from whom, remember that it's your paper and the decisions for its execution must necessarily rest with you.

Some important general requirements:

When do we begin?
You already have begun! Continue thinking about issues, problems, and controversies related to media and "American" culture. Reflect on what you have read and written so far this semester, and on future discussions, readings, observations and research.

Start keeping a record or log of assignments as they are assigned. This will help those of you who have a hard time staying organized and remembering "exactly what needs to be included."

When you have questions, write them down and ask me about them in person, in class, over the phone, by e-mail ... etc.

Portfolio Grading (Holtcamp)

I have become an advocate of portfolio grading for several reasons:

The following is how I present portfolio evaluation in the policy and procedure sheet:

Portfolio Grading - The first eight weeks of the semester you will be working on a portfolio. You must prepare one portfolio of your best work. The portfolio must include at least 12 pages and must include at least 2 pieces but no more than three pieces. Drafts must be submitted in each portfolio. As an instructor, I want to be able to verify that each student's writing is improving and that students are working to hone their writing skills and abilities. No credit will be given to portfolios that do not have drafts included and do not show that the writer has been revising the pieces throughout the course of the eight weeks. Each piece included in the portfolio must have been workshopped in class, and the workshop sheet must be submitted with the piece in the portfolio.

Drafts-in-progress - From time to time I will ask that you submit a draft-in-progress for me to comment on. When I read these drafts, I will suggest possible revisions for the most striking feature; I do not comment on every possible problem in the paper. Please remember that my comments are suggestions and not prescriptions. Note also, that you must revise for other problems or weaknesses that I may not have commented on. Even though I will comment on drafts and as a class we will have regular in-class workshops during which your classmates will also comment on your papers, remember that you are in control of your writing. You should consider the comments of your readers, but don't expect them to do all your rewriting for you. Failure to turn in drafts-in-progress when collected will result in the lowering of the portfolio grade. Please note that you may also submit intervention drafts anytime. I will arrange to turn them back to you the next class period or soon thereafter.

Commenting on Portfolios - Some Points to Keep in Mind (K. Kiefer)

Generally, I write less on drafts than I think many of you do because I focus on one or two key points to revise. That means that my marginal comments on the portfolio final drafts are likely to be fuller than the ones you write. If you've already given extensive feedback in the margins on the drafts, I don't think you need to repeat all of that on the final drafts.

I write one end comment for the portfolio, and I typically use a "sandwich" approach. I start with the overall strengths of the portfolio, particularly those strengths that appear consistently in all (or most) of the papers. Then I typically include a short review of the key points for each paper. Next I focus on skills students should concentrate on for the next portfolio (i.e., weaknesses to revise for next time). Finally, I try to list the specific skills--usually demonstrated strengths again--they can build on for the next portfolio.

I always write my end comments on the computer, and occasionally I can cut and paste sections from one end comment to another, particularly that last chunk of strengths/skills to build on. That can save a bit of time.