Paper One—Good Questions Can Lead to Good Writing
What:
As a means of finding your focus, begin by asking questions.
We discussed in class (and if we haven’t yet, depending upon when you read this, we will) the idea that asking good questions can in fact lead us to making good writing. So–for this first essay, I want you to do exactly that: Examine some idea from your daily life that you maybe haven’t yet given your full attention, and narrow your focus to a manageable question utilizing the narrowing process exemplified below:
I was watching a Cubs game (Sox fans, I mean come on–go Cubs!) last season or so, and a commercial break came on. As I was leaving the room to attend to something else, the song in the commercial caught my attention. I stood and watched the commercial to the end. Check it out hereLinks to an external site.. I have a background in Cultural Anthropology, so the idea of this product–23andMe–is super interesting to me. I talked with my wife about ordering a few test kits interested to see what we might find out about our backgrounds. They arrived in the mail a few days later, but as we prepared to take the tests, I started thinking about other ramifications–is it really a good idea? We never did complete / mail the tests in despite my curiosity. Here’s how I arrived at my decision–I began asking questions:
Why would I send it in?
1. I have a scattered family, so I really want to know more about that.
2. I’m interested in the way that people move around the world over time. But why do they lose touch?
3. What might I find out that I want to know?
4. What if I find out things that I maybe don’t want to know–sometimes the past is best left in the past.
5. Can I trust that the company’s mission is consistent with what they say it is?
6. How might a corporation misuse the information they gather from me?
I could keep listing questions, and I think you should do the same with whatever general idea you begin with. For the sake of this example, 23andMe is the general beginning, and for the purposes of demonstration, I can pick one of the questions from my list and begin offering answers and new questions as a means of making my general topic more specific–let’s go with number 6:
How might a corporation misuse the information they gather from me?
1. Well, I don’t know, and that makes me wary.
2. Is my doubt of corporate America strong enough to outweigh my curiosity?
3. What if they sell my information to other places like research hospitals? What consequences would that one day have for me if any?
4. I know I don’t trust corporate America to have my best interests in mind–I’ve seen too many examples of bad things they’ve done.
Etc. I can take one of the ideas I came up with in this list and keep questioning until I find something truly interesting to me that I might be able to write about. Now I want you to do the same thing with an idea of your own.
Let your essay answer the question upon which you eventually focused. Thinking of the example you just saw, 23andMe–a readily available product led me to the question, “Aside from the many benefits of learning about my own genome, can I afford to trust a corporation with my genetic information in light of the potential for misuse?” So I’ve gone from a very general topic that I noticed in my everyday life–23andMe–and narrowed it down to a more specific focus.
So what about you and your life and your experience–what can you question and narrow down to a more specific train of thought?
Avoid the urge to do research–in fact, don’t. If you write an essay that calls on research, you will be required to redo the entire thing. We will get into that can o’ worms later in the semester, so for now, keep your own mind, and think your way through your own ideas.
Why:
Now is as good a time as any to blow the doors off some of the old methods, approaches, habits, etc. that many of us picked up along the way–5 paragraph essays, writing to the “correct answer,” suppressing our own voice and ideas, etc. Instead, why not say something and truly mean it? Let your writing begin breaking down the misconception that school and our daily lives aren’t necessarily connected.
When:
You owe a complete draft of your essay–Peer Feedback and Drafting: Essay One–before the deadlines listed in the course calendar. Check the Course Calendar for specific dates.
The deadline is listed in the Course Calendar–submit your work via Canvas before the deadline.
Gloom and Doom:
Failure to post drafts / complete peer reviews by peer evaluation deadlines will cost you 25 points each from the course total.
This assignment link will become unavailable shortly after the final copy due date and time–any papers past that point must be turned in but will not be accepted for a grade; there simply isn’t enough time for you to turn your work in late.
What’s at Stake:
This first essay will be worth 100 points (10% of the course total). You will notice that the point values will increase as we progress through the semester, and they will do so for a handful of reasons:
If you don’t do as well as you’d like on the early essays, you can bring your grade up as we progress so long as you work to improve yourself.
This first essay is a good means of calibration for both of us–for me to see how you write, and for you to see how I grade. That’s a good time for a lower point value.
As your abilities increase, so should the value of the knowledge and understanding you’re gaining.
Requirements:
3-4 pages.
MLA format (including Normal margins, Times New Roman, etc.). Use the link to Purdue OwlLinks to an external site. in Modules as an example for proper formatting.
cover page with a copy of your thesis. MLA doesn’t call for a cover page, but I do; it’s sole purpose is for me to quickly identify your thesis so I can see if your writing matches what you’re attempting to communicate. No, this does not count toward the 3-4 pages of writing.
a completed self-evaluation should appear as the last page of your paper. You will find the directions as a standing document in Modules; please copy, paste, and complete the document to your file before submitting your work.
submit your paper and self-evaluation as a single document in a .doc or .docx format. You are required to use Microsoft Word for your essays–don’t use Pages (.pages), Works (.wps), Open Office (.odt), etc. If you don’t have Word, your tuition has paid for access to a download of Word OnlineLinks to an external site.–ask me for details if need be.
Assessment:
use your voice.
fully develop your ideas according to your thesis.
please review the department grading standard included in the syllabus–it certainly applies .
observe all minimum requirements.
there are no brownie points for exceeding the minimum requirements (honestly).
sentence level errors / mechanical errors should be kept to a minimum.
do not write the classic, five or six paragraph essay.
