WRT 109 Paper #5, Fall 2004

Rebecca Moore Howard
Office: 237 HB Crouse
Office hours: Mondays 1-3; Thursdays 2:30-4; and by appointment
Telephone: 443-1620
E-mail: rehoward@syr.edu
Home page http://wrt-howard.syr.edu


WRT 109, Practices of Academic Writing
Fall 2004
Time: TTh 1-2:20
Place: 213B HB Crouse
Course website: http://wrt-howard.syr.edu/Syllabi/109F04/Syl109F04.html


Assignment #5




Returning to Prior Conversations

In 4 to 10 pages, answer one of the following questions (generated in class on 11/16, as a development of the first draft of the assignment:

  1. How have blogs evolved, and where are they headed?
  2. How is the emergence of blogs affecting MSM coverage of events?
  3. How do your college writing assignments hinder or enhance your understanding of your area(s) of study?
  4. How might teachers achieve some sort of consistency in grading writing assignments?
  5. How does academic competition affect learning?
  6. How much competition is a good thing?
  7. What motivates academic competition?
  8. How does academic competition affect social dynamics?
Your paper should take the form of an argument, but it can be any of the following sorts of arguments:
  1. One that strives to persuade your audience of a belief you hold;
  2. One that explores an issue that you want to know more about; or
  3. One that speculates about or predicts what the future might hold.
Design specifications:
  1. Follow guidelines in Howard, Writing Matters, Chapter 7, "Formatting," sections 7b, 7c, 7d, and 7g (sent to you in PDF).
  2. Use automatic formatting (rather than tabs) to set paragraph indentations: in Microsoft Word, go to the Format/Paragraph menu.

Getting extra help while writing the paper:
  1. See suggestions on the course syllabus.
  2. Also, post questions to the class blog, where everyone can benefit from the questions and answers.
  3. If you don't want your question to be public, email it to me.
Timetable:
  • Outline or first draft due electronically by 6 p.m. 11/17; hardcopy (3 copies) in class on 11/18
  • Revised draft for your writing conference on 11/22 or 11/23
  • Final draft due 11/30
    • Submission procedures:
    1. Send me an electronic copy of the final draft: attach your file to an email.
    2. Hand in a print copy in class on 11/30. The print copy should be accompanied by your preliminary work: the first draft (or outline) that you prepared for 11/18; the revised draft that you prepared for your conference on 11/22-23; and any preliminary drafts of the final essay. Clip these all together, with the final draft on top and the earliest work on the bottom.
    Grading the paper: I'll take the following into account:
    1. How insightful, fair, and/or persuasive the argument is;
    2. How accessible the style and editing are;
    3. Whether the final draft is formatted according to specifications in Howard, Chapter 7;
    4. How well you deal with complex material without oversimplifying it. Invite your reader to join you in intellectual exploration of a challenging topic, instead of writing instructions for how to assemble a paper cup or offering a simple claim with three examples.
    5. How well-developed your preliminary written work (due on 11/18 and 11/22-23) is, and whether you prepared it on schedule.



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