Matt King



English 102: Writing IIFall 2017Policy Statement – 2 Course Overview – 5 Schedule – 7Assignments – 9English 102: Writing IIFall 2017Professor: Matt King (he, him, his)Email: mrking@sbu.eduPhone: 716.375.2457Office Hours: Monday 1:30-2:30, Wednesday 1:30-3:30, and by appointmentOffice Location: Plassmann D6Class Website: Writing and Communication GoalUniversity Learning Goal 3: Students will develop competence in multimodal communication with special emphasis on oral, written, and digital communication, including an understanding of key issues relating to their use. Learning ObjectivesStudents identify and respond to contexts using appropriate processes and modes of delivery.Students use effective content and approaches to organization, style, and design that are appropriate for the discipline and genre of communication.Students demonstrate control of syntax and mechanics by using language that communicates with clarity, fluency, and minimal errors.Course DescriptionA composition course emphasizing writing as academic discourse, with attention to academic argumentation and expectations for research, structure, and style. Course assignments emphasize intensive research and disciplinary conventions, as well as professional and digital communication. (3 credits)Course GoalsStudents who successfully complete the course will be able to:Demonstrate an advanced writing process with attention to academic research, argumentation, structure, and style;Understand writing as a disciplinary endeavor;Analyze texts in terms of disciplinary conventions;Document sources in standard academic formats;Produce writing that addresses different audiences and purposes and makes use of different modalities. Deliver content through advanced digital media and modes.Class Texts- Bullock, Brody, and Weinberg. The Little Seagull Handbook, 3rd ed.- Other readings made available online as needed.GradingPaper 1 – Identity in Public= 20%Paper 2 – Identity in Scholarship= 20%Paper 3 – Identity Online= 20%Final Reflection= 15%Short Assignments= 15%Participation= 10%TOTAL 100%Papers are graded based on the quality of the final product as well as your writing and revision process work. The Final Reflection will ask you to reflect on the work throughout the semester and will draw on earlier informal reflections. Short Assignments will receive a completion grade. Participation is based on your preparedness for class and participation in class activities.Late Work. Excessive or unexcused late work will not be acceptable, and I reserve the right to penalize late work in such circumstances (generally, such penalties will be a letter grade for every day an assignment is late). If circumstances prevent you from being able to submit an assignment on time, you should discuss the situation with me ahead of time.Attendance. You should arrive to class on time with all assigned readings and papers for the day completed. You are allowed six absences throughout the semester without a grade penalty (although missing class can affect your participation grade and your ability to succeed in the class generally). If you have 7-8 absences, you cannot receive higher than a C for your semester average. If you have 9-10 absences, you cannot receive higher than a D for your semester average. If you have 11 or more absences, you will receive an F for the semester. For every 3 instances of tardiness, you will incur 1 absence. If you only have 0-1 absences, you will receive a 1/3 letter grade bonus on your semester average.For athletes, students who provide documentation for absences related to athletic competitions will be excused for all such absences. Student athletes can also miss two more class periods throughout the semester without a grade penalty. If you have three or more unexcused (non-athletic) absences throughout the semester, then all your absences will be counted toward the attendance policy. +/- Grades. Plus and minus grades will be used in awarding final grades for this course. The letter-to-percentage conversion is given below. Paper GradesSemester AverageA+ = 98.5A = 95 A- = 91.5 93-100 = A 90-93 = A- B+ = 88.5 B = 85 B- = 81.5 87-90 = B+83-87 = B 80-83 = B- C+ = 78.5 C = 75 C- = 71.577-80 = C+73-77 = C70-73 = C-D+ = 68.5 D = 65D- = 61.5 67-70 = D+63-67 = D60-63 = D-F = 55Less than 60 = FStudent Success CenterRevising and responding to feedback will be an invaluable and necessary part of your development as a writer this semester. Toward this end, you are strongly encouraged to visit me during office hours and to visit the Writing Center on the first floor of Plassmann Hall. Bring your work with you to your appointment. You will receive a 1/3 letter grade bonus on each paper that you workshop at the Learning Center. Academic Integrity Academic dishonesty is inconsistent with the moral character expected of students in a University committed to the spiritual and intellectual growth of the whole person. It also subverts the academic process by distorting all measurements. A list of unacceptable practices and procedures to be followed in prosecuting cases of alleged academic dishonesty may be found in the Student Handbook and here.Students with Disabilities Students with disabilities who believe they may need accommodations in this class are encouraged to contact the Disability Support Services Office (Doyle 26, 716-375-2066) as soon as possible to better ensure that such accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion. Documentation from this office is required before accommodations can be made. Please see the official SBU Student with Disabilities policy here.EmailEmail will serve as an official means of communication for this class, and you should check the email account you have registered with the university regularly. Feel free to email me with your questions and concerns. Title IXTitle IX makes it clear that violence and harassment based on sex and gender are Civil Rights offenses subject to the same kinds of accountability and the same kinds of support applied to offenses against other protected categories such as race, national origin, etc. If you or someone you know has been harassed or assaulted, you can find the appropriate resources at the Health and Wellness Center or at the Campus Safety Office. For on-campus reporting, see the Title IX Coordinator (Sharon Burke, Director of Human Resources) and Residence Life Staff (RAs, RDs, and other professional staff). The University's policy and procedures regarding gender-based and sexual misconduct can be found online.In the event of an emergency, call Campus Safety at 716-375-2525 or contact Nichole Gonzalez, Residential Living and Conduct, 716-375-2572, ngonzale@sbu.edu. Be aware that most university employees are mandated reporters.Course OverviewOur course works from the assumption that writing – even academic writing, even professional writing – is tightly bound up with questions of identity. Our writing and use of language draws on our attitudes, values, beliefs, assumptions, and investments; it draws on our experiences; and it draws on our capacities for expression, engagement, and response. Our identities have been shaped by other people, groups, and institutions that comprise our larger society, but our potential for being in the world also goes beyond anything we have inherited or learned. Writing can help us come to terms with how we have been shaped as people and how we can continue to grow.We will frame our approach to questions of identity in terms of diversity, privilege, and social justice. The following quote comes from Lee Anne Bell’s “Theoretical Foundations for Social Justice Education” in Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice, 3rd ed.Social justice is both a goal and a process. The goal of social justice is full and equitable participation of people from all social identity groups in a society that is mutually shaped to meet their needs. The process for attaining the goal of social justice should also be democratic and participatory, respectful of human diversity and group differences, and inclusive and affirming of human agency and capacity for working collaboratively with others to create change. Domination cannot be ended through coercive tactics that recreate domination in new forms. Thus, a “power with” vs. “power over” (Kreisberg, 1992) paradigm is necessary for enacting social justice goals. Forming coalitions and working collaboratively with diverse others is an essential part of social justice.Our vision for social justice is a world in which the distribution of resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable, and all members are physically and psychologically safe and secure, recognized, and treated with respect. We envision a world in which individuals are both self-determining (able to develop their full capacities) and interdependent (capable of interacting democratically with others). Social justice involves social actors who have a sense of their own agency as well as a sense of social responsibility toward and with others, their society, the environment, and the broader world in which we live. These are conditions we not only wish for ourselves but for all people in our interdependent global community. (1)I would add that this goal of participation, recognition, and respect extends to all people regardless of their relation to social identity groups. Some people might fit comfortably in their identification with such groups, but these groups do not exhaust our possibilities for being in the world, our capacities for expression, and our identities. While social identity groups provide a means of situating ourselves among others and articulating certain aspects of our identities, they necessarily obscure differences between and multiplicities within individuals. Our understanding of diversity must ultimately extend to individuals in their singularity regardless of their relation to social identity groups.At the same time, we can lose sight of how these social groups and social identities shape the world if we focus too much on individuality. For example, to say that “we are all individuals,” “we are all people,” “we are all diverse,” or “all lives matter” obscures the fact that some people have radically different life experiences and are treated differently because of their race, gender, sexuality, class, or another aspect of their social identity. The challenge is to engage with others in their individuality while being mindful of how social identity shapes their experience and our understanding of them. We can also do this with ourselves, recognizing our own individuality as well as the ways social identities and social thinking have shaped our understanding of the world.Regardless of our attention to these concerns – whether we take them up and pay attention to them or ignore them – they shape our use of language, how we communicate and engage with others, and how we write and what we write about. This class works from the assumption that we are all better off taking up the conversation, both toward the goal of social justice and so that our individual thinking and language is more authentically our own. To put it another way, while I hope you find this notion of social justice meaningful and worthwhile, this conversation has implications for you even if you don’t.This point echoes part of the quote from Bell above: this conversation confronts us with a sense of “social responsibility toward and with others” and challenges us to be “social actors who have a sense of their own agency.” Part of developing this sense of agency involves coming to terms with how our thinking, values, beliefs, attitudes, investments, and assumptions have been shaped by the world around us. Through our readings, discussions, and assignments, our class will help us develop this sense of agency and, I hope, a sense for our social responsibility as well.On a final note, I want to clarify that your grade and success in the course does not depend on you sharing my investments, values, and beliefs. You are welcome to disagree, and you are welcome to challenge my thinking. I have read and thought about these concerns quite a bit, but I still have room to grow and learn. That being said, the course will ask you to challenge your own thinking as well. Ultimately, your success in the course depends not on your individual beliefs but on your ability to produce writing that shows critical thinking and an understanding of academic writing conventions and expectations related to argumentation, research, citation, structure, and style.English 102 | Course ScheduleLS = Little Seagull HandbookDateMajor Due Dates; Homework (due day listed); In classM 8/28Introduction to CourseW 8/30Read LS 83-86, Burke (Moodle), and Lang (here, here, and here); NotesF 9/1Read Hunter, McIntosh;?NotesM 9/4Identity Mapping due; Read LS 2-10W 9/6Read Lakoff;?NotesF 9/8Short Analysis due (see LS 49-53 for guidance)M 9/11Read LS 89-118 and begin working on Public ResearchW 9/13Read smith, Fagan;?smith and Fagan activityF 9/15Public Analysis dueM 9/18Public Research due; read LS p. 10-29W 9/20Paper 1 due for peer reviews; Paper 1 RubricF 9/22ConferencesM 9/25ConferencesW 9/27Paper 1 due with final revisions; Complete paper reflectionF 9/29Read AhmedM 10/2Read Collins, “The Politics of Black Feminist Thought,” pgs. 1-19 of Black Feminist Thought (Moodle); Continue Ahmed ActivityW 10/4Reread Ahmed or Collins; Comparing Ahmed and CollinsF 10/6Short AnalysisW 10/11Read Rekdal;?Discuss epistemologyF 10/13Bring in source for Academic Analysis; Research ActivityM 10/16Academic Analysis;?Coherence activity and transitionsW 10/18Read Pauly, work on Annotated Bibliography; Epistemology revisitedF 10/20Annotated Bibliography due; Discuss introductionsM 10/23Work on Paper 2; Discuss Paper 2 Rubric and Comparison SamplesW 10/25Paper 2 due for peer reviews; APA WorksheetF 10/27ConferencesM 10/30ConferencesW 11/1Writing workshop: Paper 3 Editing ActivityF 11/3Paper 2 due with final revisions; Complete paper reflection and discuss Paper 3M 11/6Read Thom and Harris; begin Paper 3 research;?NotesW 11/8Watch Positively Trans videos, read McNamara and read through Unerased;?Discuss argumentF 11/10Bring Paper 3 research to class for Analysis ActivityM 11/13Read Molloy and Simmons;?NotesW 11/15Work on Paper 3; Argument ActivityF 11/17Paper 3 (Part 1) due for peer reviewsM 11/20Paper 3 (Part 2) due for peer reviewsM 11/27Work on Paper 3 revisionsW 11/29ConferencesF 12/1ConferencesM 12/4Paper 3 due with final revisions; Paper 3 Blog Post ActivityW 12/6Work on Final ReflectionF 12/8Final Reflection dueIdentity MappingOur first short assignment (700-1000 words) will help establish a foundation for future assignments. Our main papers will ask you to take up some aspect of your identity and analyze it in greater detail. This short assignment asks us to think about our identities more broadly as a starting point. You should submit your paper as an attachment via email before class the day it is due.In the paper, your identity mapping work should address at least two of the following categories (you are welcome to address more than two):RaceClassGenderSexualityReligionAbility (athletics, body size, mental health, learning disabilities, etc. – anything related to how your body and mind contribute to your identity)Culture (related to things you share with a cultural group or a personal interest in some aspect of culture: books, music, sports, fashion, etc.)Note that some of these categories intersect (see here for the origin of “intersectionality”) and shape one another, so you might find yourself looking at multiple aspects of your identity simultaneously. You are also welcome to consider some aspect of your identity not addressed in these categories.For each aspect of identity you discuss, your thinking should address the following prompts. Consider as many different aspects of your thinking and experience as you can, and be specific in your answers.Describe how this aspect of your identity shapes your experience. Are there any privileges or disadvantages that come with this identity?Describe how this aspect of your identity shapes your orientation in terms of your attitudes, values, beliefs, assumptions, investments, and expectations. Also, how does it function as a trained incapacity, limiting your thinking or experience in some way?Are there any tensions or conflicts between this aspect of your identity and other aspects?Describe how others (either people you know or society more generally) tend to view this aspect of your identity.What do you like most about this aspect of your identity? Least?Short AnalysisWe will take up rhetorical analysis –?a form of analysis that focuses on purpose, audience, context, and the rhetorical strategies a text employs to achieve its purpose – as one of our main writing genres this semester. This short assignment (600-900 words) asks you to analyze one of our class readings thus far: Burke, Lang, Hunter, McIntosh, or Lakoff. You should submit your paper as an attachment via email before class the day it is due. Your analysis should address the following prompts:What is the purpose of the text? We can approach this question in a few ways. What does the text aim to achieve? What does it encourage us to think, feel, or do? What is the main argument advanced by the text? What is the text about, and what does it have to say about what it’s about? What is the text’s orientation toward its main subject? (You don’t have to answer all these questions, just what seems most relevant.) Note that our understanding of purpose could depend on our understanding of the audience of the text, and there might even be different purposes for different audiences. So it could help to comment on possible audiences and readers of the text as well.How does the context of the reading shape your understanding of it and its purpose? Context could include a range of factors. When and where was the text published? Does the text draw on or respond to any specific sources, events, or conversations? What else has this author published, and how does this fit into their other work? You don’t need to include all this information just for the sake of including it, but you should consider whether it shapes your understanding of the text. If it does, explain how.Identify and comment on rhetorical strategies the text employs. A common rhetorical strategy involves developing a line of argument, a series of claims, reasons, and evidence. If the text makes an argument, what are the main claims, and how does the author support these claims? How does this line of reasoning help the text achieve its larger purpose? What about structure and style – how does the author’s organizational strategies and specific uses of language shape our understanding of the text? Are there any patterns worth noting?Assess the uses and limits of the text. In what ways is the text helpful and productive? What sorts of questions, situations, problems, or challenges does it help us address? What are the text’s limitations? What perspectives does it overlook? What are its blindnesses or trained incapacities?Even though these are framed as different prompts, you should aim to make connections between your thoughts so that your paper offers some larger insight into the text and how it works. Also, as you address these prompts, you should aim to incorporate specific quotes from the text in order to support and develop your analysis. You should include appropriate in-text citations and include a works cited page as well (the works cited doesn’t factor into the word limit). Our handbook has instructions for citations; use MLA or APA.Public ResearchThis research assignment aims to prepare us for the Public Analysis short assignment and Paper 1. Your research should focus on some aspect of your work and thinking from the Identity Mapping assignment, and you should find at least five sources related to this aspect of your identity that you can analyze further in our upcoming assignments. To submit your research work, write out MLA or APA citations for the five (or more) sources and email the document to me before class the day it is due.Through our research, we are hoping to find sources that offer some sort of perspective, insight, or argument related to some aspect of our personal identities. This could be broad – e.g., how have various people written about women, about whiteness or people of color, about the working class, etc.? It could be intersectional, drawing on multiple aspects of identity – e.g., how have various people written about latina women, about the white working class, about the black LGBTQ+ community, etc.? You could orient your research in a more specific direction – e.g., how have various people written about expectations and orientations toward women in the workplace, toward political identities in education, toward representations of gay men and women in the media, etc.? For our purposes, you can work with any source that gives you any insight or any way of discussing this particular issue or aspect of your identity, whether or not it is the main focus of the source.As you conduct research, you should look at a range of databases. You are welcome to draw on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing, but it will also help to look at more specific databases as well. For newspaper articles, use LexisNexis or the sites of specific newspapers, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, or The Guardian. Relevant magazines and sites for cultural criticism include The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The New Inquiry, Valid, Vox, and Medium. To find other relevant publications, do searches like “publications about people with disabilities” or “magazines about blackness,” or add search terms like “newspaper opinion” or “magazine opinion.”It will also help to try different combinations of search terms. Note, for example, the different results we get on The New Inquiry when searching for “white women,” “white feminity,” and “women education.” Willamette University offers helpful guidelines on how to generate search terms, particularly by taking one search term and thinking about other forms of the word (“class” > “classist,” “working class,” “middle class”), synonyms (“class” > “income bracket,” “social sphere”), and related ideas (“class” > “poverty,” “wealth,” “wealthy,” “economic privilege”). Try using this keyword generator too.Here are some other tools that can help with research:Pinboard and Delicious. These bookmarking sites allow you to save and tag online articles and websites.Hypothesis. This tool allows you to highlight and annotate online articles and websites.Skim. This tool allows you to annotate .pdfs (Mac only).Evernote. This software helps you organize research notes, class notes, or anything else along these lines.Public AnalysisThis short assignment (600-900 words) asks you to analyze one of the sources you find through your own research related to some aspect of your identity. Your work here will serve as the foundation for Paper 1. You should submit your paper as an attachment (preferably a .doc file) via email before class the day it is due. Your analysis should address the following prompts:What is the purpose of the text? We can approach this question in a few ways. What does the text aim to achieve? What does it encourage us to think, feel, or do? What is the main argument advanced by the text? What is the text about, and what does it have to say about what it’s about? What is the text’s orientation toward its main subject? (You don’t have to answer all these questions, just what seems most relevant.) Note that our understanding of purpose could depend on our understanding of the audience of the text, and there might even be different purposes for different audiences. So it could help to comment on possible audiences and readers of the text as well.How does the context of the reading shape your understanding of it and its purpose? Context could include a range of factors. When and where was the text published? Does the text draw on or respond to any specific sources, events, or conversations? What else has this author published, and how does this fit into their other work? You don’t need to include all this information just for the sake of including it, but you should consider whether it shapes your understanding of the text. If it does, explain how.Identify and comment on rhetorical strategies the text employs. A common rhetorical strategy involves developing a line of argument, a series of claims, reasons, and evidence. If the text makes an argument, what are the main claims, and how does the author support these claims? How does this line of reasoning help the text achieve its larger purpose? What about structure and style – how does the author’s organizational strategies and specific uses of language shape our understanding of the text? Are there any patterns worth noting?Assess the uses and limits of the text. In what ways is the text helpful and productive? What sorts of questions, situations, problems, or challenges does it help us address? What are the text’s limitations? What perspectives does it overlook? What are its blindnesses or trained incapacities?Even though these are framed as different prompts, you should aim to make connections between your thoughts so that your paper offers some larger insight into the text and how it works. Also, as you address these prompts, you should aim to incorporate specific quotes from the text in order to support and develop your analysis. You should include appropriate in-text citations and include a works cited page as well (the works cited doesn’t factor into the word limit). Our handbook has instructions for citations; use MLA or APA.Paper 1Our first major paper (1500-2000 words) asks you to put your thinking about some aspect of your identity into conversation with other writers who also take up this topic. Your paper should incorporate at least three sources from your research and should thus include MLA or APA in-text citations and a Works Cited or Reference page as needed. In terms of the main goals of the paper, we want to reach a better understanding of what others have said about this aspect of identity, and we want to put our own thinking into conversation with theirs in order to generate new ideas and insights. The main substance of your paper will come from analyzing your sources as you did in the Public Analysis, and you are welcome to draw on that work here. You do not necessarily need to address each of your sources in great detail; you are welcome to focus on the aspects of these sources you find most relevant. It could also work to develop a thorough analysis of one or two sources while using the other sources as points of comparison. In addition to those analysis prompts from the Public Analysis, you should also address the following:How would you compare these sources in terms of their understanding of and approach to this aspect of identity? How are they similar and different? Where do they agree and disagree? To what extent do they share a similar orientation?Which source(s) do you find most helpful in coming to terms with this aspect of identity? Least helpful? How so?What do you want to add to the conversation? How does your understanding of this aspect of identity compare to what others have said? What has been left out of the conversation? What could be emphasized or developed further?Through your work, you should arrive at a larger argument, conclusion, or insight about this aspect of identity and the conversation around it. Your argument should be supported by and emerge out of your analysis and comparison of the sources, and it should add to our thinking about the conversation, helping us see things in a new way. In terms of organization, your work can also go in a few different directions.The most straightforward (although perhaps less interesting) approach would be to go through this sort of progression: Introduction > Analysis of Source 1 > Analysis of Source 2 > Analysis of Source 3 > Comparison > Your perspective > Conclusion.Another possibility would involve identifying issues, concepts, or questions that appear across the sources and using these to structure your paper: Introduction > Issue 1 (drawing on multiple sources) > Issue 2 (drawing on multiple sources) > Issue 3 (drawing on multiple sources) > Issue 4 (drawing on multiple sources) > Comparison > Your perspective > Conclusion.Another possibility would involve foregrounding your argument or understanding throughout the paper. In this approach, each paragraph or section would be structured around your ideas, and you would incorporate the outside sources where relevant. You would thus be drawing on the sources to advance your own thinking rather than considering them separately.Short Analysis IIThis short assignment (700-1000 words) asks you to analyze one of our recent class readings, either Ahmed or Collins. You should submit your paper as an attachment via email before class the day it is due. Your analysis should address the following prompts:Academic articles situate their arguments in broader conversations around a particular issue or question. They describe this broader conversation and identify other sources that contribute to the conversation. For the first part of your analysis, describe the larger conversation that this article responds to and participates in. What is the main issue or question? Why is it important? What have others said about it?What does this author contribute to the conversation? What is their main argument?How does the author support this argument? What methods do they use to address the issue or question? What sorts of reasoning, analysis, evidence, or examples are offered?Keep in mind that academic arguments are shaped by disciplinary conventions and expectations. Sociologists make different sorts of arguments and use different sorts of methods, analysis, and evidence than historians or literary critics. To the best of your ability and knowledge, explain how this author’s argument, methods, analysis, evidence, etc. are appropriate for their discipline and academic field. If you are not sure about the disciplinary conventions, focus on describing the author’s approach to key aspects of the text: introduction and conclusion, structure, citations, etc.As you address these prompts, you should aim to incorporate specific quotes from the text in order to support and develop your analysis. You should include appropriate APA in-text citations and include an APA References page as well. Our handbook has instructions for APA citations.Academic AnalysisThis short assignment (700-1000 words) asks you to analyze a scholarly source you find through your own research. You should submit your paper as an attachment via email before class the day it is due. Your analysis should address the following prompts:Academic articles situate their arguments in broader conversations around a particular issue or question. They describe this broader conversation and identify other sources that contribute to the conversation. For the first part of your analysis, describe the larger conversation that this article responds to and participates in. What is the main issue or question? Why is it important? What have others said about it?What does this author contribute to the conversation? What is their main argument?How does the author support this argument? What methods do they use to address the issue or question? What sorts of reasoning, analysis, evidence, or examples are offered? Drawing on our recent conversation about epistemology, think about how the author develops a line of reasoning to make a larger argument. What premises support the larger conclusion or argument? What assumptions and beliefs inform the author’s thinking and approach to the topic?Keep in mind that academic arguments are shaped by disciplinary conventions and expectations. Sociologists make different sorts of arguments and use different sorts of methods, analysis, and evidence than historians or literary critics. To the best of your ability and knowledge, explain how this author’s argument, methods, analysis, evidence, etc. are appropriate for their discipline and academic field. If you are not sure about the disciplinary conventions, focus on describing the author’s approach to key aspects of the text: introduction and conclusion, structure, citations, etc.As you address these prompts, you should aim to incorporate specific quotes from the text in order to support and develop your analysis. You should include appropriate APA in-text citations and include an APA References page as well. Our handbook has instructions for APA citations.Annotated BibliographyPaper 2 asks you to analyze academic sources. Both the paper and the annotated bibliography need to include at least three academic sources (sources written by scholars and published in scholarly journals or academic presses). There is not a length requirement for this assignment, but you should present your research as an annotated bibliography (see The Little Seagull Handbook p. 74). You should submit your paper as an attachment via email before class the day it is due.In terms of structure, you should follow the guidelines from the handbook. Start the bibliography with a one paragraph statement of scope (p. 75) that explains what topic you are covering in your research. You are welcome to continue addressing the same topic from Paper 1, or you can focus on a different aspect of your identity. After the statement of scope, you should then include the following for each source: complete APA bibliographic information, a concise description of the work, and relevant commentary (p. 76). The annotations should be one or two substantial paragraphs.To find academic sources, look at a few different databases. Check out JSTOR, Project Muse, and Academic Search Complete on the library’s website and also try Google Scholar. For books, you can try the library’s book catalog. Once you find a helpful source, look through its works cited to see if any of those sources look helpful.Paper 2Our second major paper (1750-2500 words) asks you to take up some aspect of your identity by studying how academics and scholars have taken up this topic. Your paper should incorporate at least three sources from your research and should thus include APA in-text citations and a References page. In terms of the main goals of the paper, we want to reach a better understanding of how scholars have studied this aspect of identity, and we want to put their thinking into conversation with our broader social thinking about this aspect of identity. The main substance of your paper will come from analyzing each of your three main sources following the prompts from the Academic Analysis, and you are welcome to draw on that work here. In addition to those analysis prompts from the Public Analysis, you should also address the following:How would you compare these sources in terms of their understanding of and approach to this aspect of identity? How are they similar or different in terms of their methods and types of evidence? In terms of how they use sources and citations? How do they help us understand this aspect of identity in different ways?Along these lines, how would you compare these sources in terms of disciplinarity? How do they take different approaches to the topic based on the authors’ academic fields and the disciplinary conventions and expectations that go along with them? Do we get a sense for how different disciplines approach this topic in different ways?How does this scholarly conversation compare to broader social conversations about the topic? How do academics look at this topic in different ways than the general public or mainstream media? How does the academic conversation help us look at things in a new or different way? Does it challenge any assumptions or stereotypes in our society? For this question, you can draw on work you did for Paper 1, or you can use your own understanding of the broader social thinking about this topic.Through your work, you should arrive at a larger argument, conclusion, or insight about this aspect of identity and the conversation around it. Your argument should be supported by and emerge out of your analysis and comparison of the sources, and it should add to our thinking about the conversation, helping us see things in a new way. In terms of organization and formatting, your work should follow the expectations for an APA paper (see The Little Seagull Handbook for more information):Your paper should start with a title page (p. 204).The second page of your paper should be an abstract page (p. 205).The body of your paper should be organized into different sections: an introduction, a section analyzing the first source, a section analyzing the second source, a section analyzing the third source, a section comparing your academic sources and putting them into conversation with one another (see the first two prompts above), and a conclusion that considers this academic conversation in the context of our broader social thinking about this topic (see the third prompt above).At the end of your paper, you should include a References page with full APA citations for all sources cited in your paper (p. 207).Paper 3Our third major paper asks you to take up some aspect of your identity by studying how it is explored and taken up in the digital public sphere. Work on Paper 3 will be comprised of three steps.Paper 3 ResearchThis step does not require an official submission; instead, you should bring your work to class with you on Friday, November 10. To prepare for your work on Paper 3, you will need to find writing or other texts written by or about people with your aspect of identity (we will be analyzing this content in Part 1 of Paper 3). This will involve looking through for various digital spaces where people share their ideas, interests, and perspectives. These spaces could include blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, reddit, YouTube, forums, or anything else along these lines.For example, as a professor of writing, I could look at this blog by Alex Reid (he is also a writing professor, he writes about teaching and studying writing, and other writing professors comment on his blog posts); I could look at various hashtags on Twitter, such as #TeamRhetoric, #digped, or #nanowrimo?(writing professors and other people interested in rhetoric and writing Tweet with these hashtags); I could look at Feminist Ryan Gosling, a Tumblr. page with feminist Ryan Gosling memes. In each case, people are using digital writing and digital writing environments to share content related to this aspect of identity.To find this sort of content, your research will likely involve Google searches with search terms related to your aspect of identity and other relevant terms like “blog,” “hashtag,” “Tumblr,” “Facebook,” “meme,” etc. In this sense, you are not trying to find one specific article or text; instead, you are trying to find a digital space with a series of texts written by or about people with your aspect of identity. When you are analyzing this digital space, it will help to focus on and quote from specific blog posts, tweets, videos, etc., but your research work will involve looking through a series of posts, tweets, memes, videos, etc., to get a sense for how people contribute to this digital space more generally.Part 1The first part of Paper 3 asks you to produce a paper (1000-1500 words) that analyzes the digital texts and spaces you find through your research. You can focus on specific texts (a blog post, a video, a series of tweets, etc.) or a larger space or collection of texts (a blog, a video channel, a Tumblr. page, a hashtag, etc.). Your analysis should address the following prompts:What is the purpose of the digital text(s) or space(s)? What does it hope to accomplish? How does it contribute to a particular conversation or community?Analyze specific elements of the text(s) or space(s). What details do you notice in terms of content (language, images, audio, etc.), organization, style, and design? How do these elements contribute to the purpose?What do you find most effective about this text or space? What does it do well in terms of advancing an argument or perspective, or in terms of contributing to the identity of a community? In what ways is the text or space limited or ineffective?Compare how this aspect of your identity is taken up in this digital space to how it is taken up in other spaces. You are welcome to draw on your thinking from Paper 1 or Paper 2 here. If you are looking at a different aspect of your identity, compare the digital conversation to our broader popular and social understanding and assumptions.You should include in-text citations and a Works Cited or References page as needed. You are welcome to use MLA or APA, and keep in mind that you can cite all types of electronic texts: blog posts, videos, tweets, etc. (check our handbook and the Purdue OWL).Part 2The second part of Paper 3 asks you to produce a blog post (500-700 words) that advances an argument, position, or perspective about some aspect of your identity or an issue related to your identity and interests. Your post should address the following prompts:To give some sort of context to your argument, you need to ground it in some way. You can respond to a recent event, to another text (including anything you have worked with this semester), or any other reference point. In other words, even though you are welcome to advance your own argument, you still need to frame your thinking in terms of a broader conversation around this issue or aspect of your identity.Keep in mind your argument can go in a few different directions (remember our conversations about forwarding, countering, and stasis theory). Also, be mindful of how you support your argument through reasoning and evidence: what will persuade your specific audience?Since this is a blog post, you should also draw on the functionality of WordPress by incorporating images, videos, and/or links. For example, it would help to include links to sources that you draw on or respond to; it would help to include an image or video that supports your argument.You do not have to include formal citations in your blog post, although I would note that academic blogs normally do include them. Another option would be to embed links to any online sources you draw on. For example, I could link to Molloy if I were using her as a source in my post.Paper ReflectionsWhat do you like most about your paper? What aspects of your paper are most effective? Least effective?How would you describe the efforts you made on this paper? Consider both the amount of effort you put into the paper and how productive and effective this effort was. How much time did you spend on different aspects of the writing process – reading, researching, brainstorming, outlining, drafting, revising, etc.? Which efforts felt most productive and effective? Least so?How would you describe the context of your writing process? What was your writing environment like? What technologies did you use? How long did you spend on writing at a given time? How many writing sessions did you have for the papers?What goals do you have for the next paper? What aspects of your writing do you want to develop further? Do you want to make any changes in terms of the nature of your efforts or your writing process?Final ReflectionOur last paper of the semester (1200-1700 words) asks you to reflect on your work and development across the semester. Your writing can draw on the in-class reflection activities we completed earlier in the semester. Your thinking should address the following prompts:How has your writing changed throughout the semester? How has your understanding of writing changed this semester? What are the three most important/helpful things you learned about writing this semester?Where was your writing most and least successful this semester? What made this work particularly effective or ineffective? What were the main comments you received on your work, whether from peers, your instructor, or other outside help? What steps did you take to address these comments? How effective were the revisions? Did your approach to revisions change? What aspects of your writing do you want to continue to improve upon in the future?How would you describe the efforts you made in this class? Consider both the amount of effort you put into the course and how productive and effective this effort was. How much time did you spend on different aspects of the writing process – reading, researching, brainstorming, outlining, drafting, revising, etc.? Which efforts felt most productive and effective? Least so?How would you describe the context of your writing process? What was your writing environment like? What technologies did you use? How long did you spend on writing at a given time? How many writing sessions did you have for the papers?How has your understanding of your identity developed or changed throughout the semester? What sort of differences do you see in the way people take up this identity in public, scholarly, digital texts and spaces? ................
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