By Tuesday 11/12/13 at 5 PM, blog your responses to the Research-Project Worksheet, and then bring a copy of it to conference the next day.

By Sunday (10/27) at 5 PM, blog a few lines describing your topic for the research project and how you intend to handle it.

Research Project

Research Project

Length: 5-6 pages (about 1,500 words)

Due dates: see syllabus

Discuss a technologically based disaster or problem, giving a history of the event or a discussion of its causes. Analyze its implications for life on the planet and possible steps for preventing its occurrence in the future.

By the due date listed on the syllabus, complete and hand in a copy of the worksheet below.

Use at least five sources from at least three of the categories of sources (internet, books, newspapers, journals, magazines, and other reference works). Choose sources carefully to reflect the best, most reliable, and most recent information on the topic.

Narrow your topic, especially when the listed topic is a general problem rather than a specific disaster.

Create an argumentative thesis. Include at least one paragraph of refutation. 

Use evidence from the sources to support your arguments. Don’t over quote. 

No more than 20% of your essay should be direct quotation. Remember that quotation and paraphrase should be acknowledged with parenthetical citations in the text. Include a “Works Cited” page that lists all the sources cited in the text of your essay.

The following are some suggestions, but you shouldn’t feel limited to them:

The Hindenburg disaster

Three-Mile Island

Chernobyl

Love Canal

The Challenger or Columbia accident

The Exxon oil spill

The New York garbage barge

The Ferald nuclear power plant

The year 2000 computer problem

The Nimitz Freeway disaster

The energy crisis

The Amazon rain forest

International terrorism via Internet

The ozone layer

Global warming/ climate change

Acid rain

Toxic waste

Dioxin

Land fills

Genetic engineering

Electronic money laundering

Recombinant DNA technology

Biological/chemical weapons

Internet identity theft

Infrastructure failure (some aspect of it)

Nuclear power along the earthquake belt or some other specific problem with nuclear power)

Computer viruses/ spyware/ Trojan horses

Thalidomide babies

The spread of thermonuclear weapons among smaller nations

Cyber bullying

Music piracy (or some other form of piracy)

Criminality on the internet (narrow the focus to, for example, trafficking in slavery, identity theft, prostitution, child pornography, etc.)

Research Project Worksheet

Name:

Topic of your research paper:

Research questions:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Temporary thesis:

Key words:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Scratch outline:

Sources:

1.

2.

3.

4.

By Sunday, 10-13-13, blog the thesis of WA#4 and one of the body paragraphs (one that you have not written before). Bring a hard copy to conference on Monday or Tuesday. Conferences will be held in my office (Sturges 313).

WA#4 -- Response to a Single Source

Length: about 750 words

Due in class as a draft by Wednesday, 10/21

Due to be marked and graded, 10/23

Choose one of the essays we have discussed in class over the last few weeks and respond to it. Either confirm or refute its arguments but do so in a systematic way.

Start with an introductory paragraph, and then summarize the main arguments and the arguments that support the main argument. Then confirm or refute those arguments.

Here, blog some notes by Wednesday, 10/9/13.

PA#9 -- The Wiki

By Sunday, 9/29, blog a paragraph describing your wiki project. The paragraph should probably come in three parts:

1. A general description of the project that acts as your topic sentence. Don't forget to give the name of your group or the names of its members.

2. An explanation of the project in somewhat more detail than the first sentence.

3. Your particular place in the project. What are your responsibilities in terms of content? Do you have any responsibilities in terms of the writing process itself (research, drafting, revision, and/ or editing)?

PA#8

Take one of Bagaric's and Clarke's sub-arguments and respond to it. You may want to confirm. In that case, you can do the writers some good by providing evidence for their point of view. But first you must summarize their claim and expand upon it.

You may want to refute. In that case, first summarize their argument on that argument, state your own claim in response, and then provide evidence for your claim.

Please post your response by Tuesday 9-24-13 at 5 PM so that we can talk about them in class on Wednesday.

PA #7, cont.

Summarize the argument of the essay on pp. 196 - 200 of WFS. Start by mentioning the author and title and stating the main argument (its thesis). Then, outline the author's arguments for the thesis.

Don't state your responses to the essay yet. You'll get that chance when you write the essay.

Post the paragraph here by Sunday, 9-22 at 5 PM.

PA #7 (for notes)

PA#7

Okay, let's try this process again.

Read the essay on pp. 196 - 199 in WFS. Think in a systematic way about whether you agree or disagree with the writers' main argument (thesis) and the sub-arguments that support their thesis. Blog some notes here.

Bring notes to class on Friday, 9-20, and blog them here by Thursday 9-19 at 5 PM.

PA #6 -- Refutation

Find one small element (not the whole thing) of Carl Singleton's argument to disagree with and write a paragraph about it.

First, you'll have to state his opinion and explain it. Then, you'll have to state your opposing view and explain it. Finally, you'll have to find some valid source to support your point of view.

For now, use informal citation. ("According to Carl Singleton, 'blah, blah, blah'" and the like. See TSIS for appropriate transitions.)

Take some notes and bring them to class on Friday, 9/13. Blog the paragraph by Sunday 9/15 at 5 PM.

PA#5 They Say, Part 3 (Summarizing)

Read Carl Singleton's short essay on pp. 192 -94 of WFS. Summarize its main arguments in a paragraph.

The author's name and the title of the essay should appear somewhere in the first sentence. Early on, you should summarize or quote the main idea of the essay.

After that, summarize the main arguments that Singleton uses to support that main idea. Note that you are writing only a summary paragraph. Don't evaluate S's ideas. Note also that you must choose wisely the ideas that you decide to write about. Please concern yourself with the main facets of the argument and not the details and examples.

Bring notes for your paragraph to class on Wednesday (9/11/13). We'll write a draft that day.

By Thursday (9/12/13) at 5 PM, blog the paragraph. We'll look at some of them in class on Friday (9/12).

PA#4 -- They Say, Part 2 (Confirmation/ Downshifting)

Please bring notes for the assignment to class on Monday (9/9/13). We'll be writing a draft in class that day. Then blog the paragraph by Tuesday (9/10/13) at 5 PM.

The assignment:

Look at your notes from other classes. Find some small claim made by the professor in that class. I emphasize the word "small" here. You're writing only a paragraph and not an entire essay.

State the claim. Explain it. Then, provide evidence to support it.

Note that your opinion is valid here, but it does not argue. You need to build an argument with evidence from valid sources. Use them in the paragraph.

PA#3:  They Say . . .

For your third paragraph, consider a single piece of advice or evaluation about college that somebody gave you before you came to college. State that advice and explain it briefly. Based on your very limited experience, comment that advice or evaluation. Was it true? Did it help  as you started your college career?

Here's an example: My daddy told me that I was starting a new life. I could remake myself any way I wanted. I took that advice to heart. I had been a nerd, an awkward, anti-social geek. By the end of orientation, I was Mr. Popularity because I remade myself. In a paragraph I would explain all that in detail, and then tell the story of the single event that helped others to see me in that light.

As you write, consider using some of the transitional devices in TSIS. Their use will help you to construct a fully developed and well organized paragraph.

We'll review some of the paragraphs on Friday, so please get them on the blog by Thursday at 5 PM.

PA#2

Dear Students,

For your second paragraph assignment, you will be interviewing (and be interviewed by) another student in the class.

Please write a paragraph about that student. Make sure that you capture something -- not everything -- important about your colleague. Don't try to say everything. Narrow the focus to one critical quality.

That focus will allow you to provide the kind of evidence and detail that makes the paragraph real and engaging.

For example, let's say the student is on the golf team. Surely, the student experienced one moment that ensured that he or she would be a golfer forever. Describe the student's interest, but make it real. Capture that moment.

Here is a place to post your first essay if you wish to do so. Please keep in mind that you will be submitting the essay on Friday in person as a hard copy.

I have enjoyed very much reading your first paragraphs!

Tom Burns

Hello, students,

For your first blog assignment, I'd like you to consider your own writing process. Just what do you do when you write? How do you start? When do you start? What do you at subsequent stages? How does your approach to the writing process help or hinder your ability to write effectively (and on time)?

Check out the first three chapters of the Handbook. Is there anything there that can help you be a better writer? Or is the whole mess just a bunch of English teacher BS that you've heard a million times before? If you argue the latter, you'd better be ready to justify your claim. :-)