Assignments

English 1101: English Composition I Honors, Fall 2011

Section 01H (CRN 80382): 2:00-3:15PM, Bell Hall 340

In Class Activities

1. Evidence and Purpose

Break into six groups of three or four members. Use the evidence and purpose checklists on page 35 and 36 of Writing and Revising to evaluate the critical thinking processes of your group's assigned article, and then share your findings with the rest of the class:

  1. Sucheng Chang, "You're Short, Besides!" (86-93)
  2. Christy Brown, "The Letter 'A'" (94-100)
  3. Douchan Gersi, "Initiated into an Iban Tribe of Headhunters" (101-6)

2. Appreciation and Interrogation

Break into 6 groups of 3-4 members each then appreciate or interrogate your group's assigned essay.

  1. Appreciation: Helena Norberg-Hodge, "Learning from Ladakh" (192-6)
  2. Interrogation: Helena Norberg-Hodge, "Learning from Ladakh" (192-6)
  3. Appreciation: Tomojuki Iwashita, "Why I Quit the Company" (197-200)
  4. Interrogation: Tomojuki Iwashita, "Why I Quit the Company" (197-200)
  5. Appreciation: Jack Owens, "Don't Shoot! We're Republicans!" (201-6)
  6. Interrogation: Jack Owens, "Don't Shoot! We're Republicans!" (201-6)

Student Selections

Now that we've read most of One World, Many Cultures and essays picked by the professor, let's discuss global topics that you find engaging and texts that you find interesting. Assigned groups will find three sources that analyze and make an argument about a global topic of the group's choice:

  1. an audiovisual media source: radio, television, or podcast episode
  2. a text media source: newspaper, magazine, or blog article
  3. an academic source: scholarly journal article or book chapter

Pick high quality sources that have multifaceted ideas that the class can read and discuss. Provide a link or pdf on the selection due date so it can be shared on the online syllabus. On the day of discussion, groups will informally talk about why they chose the topics and selections as well as broach questions and issues for our discussion.

 

Group

Selection Due Date

Selections

Nathan Anisko

Courtney Bergman

Michelle Hanley

Karissa Martin

Julia Weinrich

W, 10-19

topic: Mexican Drug War

audiovisual: Mohan, "Mexico under Siege: Q & A" (especially especially the last section, "Sam Quinones on the drug war," but please look at other questions/answers as well!)

text: The New York Times, "Mexican Drug Trafficking"

photographic: Orlinsky, "Mexico's Drug War, Feminized"

academic: Carpenter, "Beyond Drug Wars: Transforming Transactional Conflict in Mexico"

Kaitlyn Black

Skylar Heys

Kristin Lukich

Madison Powers

Ashton Woodall

W, 10-19

topic: Global Population Growth

audiovisual: Rosling, "Global Population Growth"

text: Gillis and Dugger, "U.N. Forecasts 10.1 Billion People by Century's End"

academic: Southgate, "Population Growth, Increases in Agricultural Production and Trends in Food Prices"

Melissa Cobb

Kristin Keefer

Taylor Matthews

Logan Reitz

Lauren Sasine

Savanna Ziegler

W, 10-26

topic: Genetically Modified Organisms

audiovisual: Listverse, "Top 10 Bizarre Genetically Modified Organisms"

audiovisual: The Future of Food [24:00-38:30 if you don't have time to watch entire film]

text: Smith, "Say No to GMOs"

text: Genetically Modified Organisms Production, Regulation, and Marketing"

academic: Millis, "Genetically Modified Organisms"

Lindsay Duncan

Jordyn Farrell

Evan Hartz

Kristina Hensey

Heather Reynolds

Lindsay Yates

W, 10-26

topic: Child Soldiers

audiovisual: Ou, "Somalia's Child Soldier's"

audiovisual: Gettleman and Ou, "Somalia's Child Soldier's"

text: Irin, "Too Small to Be Fighting in Anyone's War"

academic: Angucia, "Children and War in Africa: The Crisis Continues in Northern Uganda"

Informal Writing

  1. Brainstorming the Personal Reflection Paper: The first six readings from One World, Many Cultures discuss family traditions (Bageant), learning emotional life lessons (Peters), the emotional economics of higher education (Psychology Today), culture shock (Dumas), religious rebellion (Kaur), and dating (Ha). For the first formal paper, you will reflect upon an important issue in your life. For the first informal writing assignment, spend 20 minutes simply brainstorming topics and freewriting about them. What are some subjects that have personally affected you and how so?
    • Due: Monday, August 22 by 2:00PM as either a print out or in GeorgiaVIEW > Assignments > Informal Writing 1
  2. Evidence, Purpose, and MLA Style: Type a 1-2 page informal response formatted to MLA style that begins to decide on the evidence for and the purpose of your personal reflection paper. In other words, use the checklists on pages 35 and 36 of Writing and Revising to help you evaluate your evidence and purpose in writing the personal reflection paper.
  3. Planning the Summary and Evaluation Paper: Choose one of the essays for Wednesday's reading (Walt and Bower, Holloway, or Burciaga) and pretend that you are going to write a formal summary and evaluation—an appreciation and interrogation—paper about that article. Plan your essay by 1) answering the purpose bullet point questions on the Planning Checklist in Writing and Revising 61 and 2) composing a few possible working thesis statements according to Writing and Revising 62-8.
    • Due: Wednesday, September 14 as either a print out or in GeorgiaVEW > Assignments > Informal Writing 3
  4. Outlining the Summary and Evaluation Paper: First, compose a working thesis for your summary and evaluation paper. Then, write a topic sentence outline that proves your working thesis. Use the remaining time to write your first draft; refer to chapters 6 and 7, "Strategies for Drafting" and "Strategies for Developing" to aide you in the writing process.
    • Due: To Be Written in Class on Wednesday, September 28 and submitted as either a handwritten copy or in GeorgiaVIEW > Assignments > Informal Writing 4

Peer Response

Goals

The dual goals of this course are for you to read and write about literature in a variety of manners. Informal writing and formal papers allow you to analyze the texts. Peer response sessions extend the reading and writing process by allowing you and your peers to engage in direct oral and written dialogue about matters of composition and interpretation, with the ultimate goal of improving your formal papers. You have the opportunity to revise two formal papers based upon comments by your peers and professor. You will provide constructive criticism to two or three other members of the class as will they to you.

 

Note: If a group member does not submit her paper in Word or RTF format at least two days before the peer response session, the rest of the group is not responsible for responding to her paper.

Paper 2 Summary and Evaluation Peer Response Process

  1. Writers upload their papers to both TurnItIn > Paper 2 Summary and Evaluation and GeorgiaVIEW > Discussions > Paper 2 Peer Group # by the start of class on Wednesday, October 5.
  2. Each group reads, take notes on, and prepares to respond to just fellow group papers before the peer response class.
  3. We will not be holding regular class during the peer response sessions. You need only attend class during your group's scheduled date and time, see below.
  4. For the peer response session, either bring your laptop or bring paper print outs of the papers. The peer response group will collectively complete the Paper 2 Summary and Evaluation peer response sheet for each writer, then upload the completed response to GeorgiaVIEW> Discussions > Paper 2 Peer Group #.

Paper 2 Summary and Evaluation Group Times

Paper 3 Analysis and Argument Peer Response Process

  1. Writers upload their papers to both TurnItIn > Paper 3 Analysis and Argument and GeorgiaVIEW > Discussions > Paper 3 Peer Group # by the start of class on Wednesday, November 2.
  2. Each group reads, take notes on, and prepares to respond to just fellow group papers before the peer response class.
  3. For the peer response session, either bring your laptop or bring paper print outs of the papers. The peer response group will collectively complete the Paper 3 Analysis and Argument peer response sheet for each writer, then upload the completed response to GeorgiaVIEW> Discussions > Paper 3 Peer Group #.

Paper 3 Analysis and Argument Peer Groups

Paper 1 Personal Reflection

In class, we've discussed issues of family and culture. In the first formal paper, reflect upon your own adolescence and emerging adulthood and compose a minimum five page personal narrative that conveys an issue that was and may still be crucial in your formative experience. "Before You Read" questions from One World, Many Cultures are a good starting point.

In other words, what is/was your own predominant coming-of-age issue? Choose one issue that has deeply affected your identity and world view, and analyze how it functioned in your life. Your personal and self-analytical reflective narrative essay should break the issue down in order to reveal its complex operations. Your paper should have a controlling idea, be well-organized, provide specific details to support its analytical claims, and follow the rules of standard written English.

Paper 2 Summary and Evaluation

In the first paper, the personal reflections in One World, Many Cultures inspired you to analyze a significant issue that affected your world view. In the second paper, you will fairly and accurately summarize a work and then evaluate it; you will both appreciate and interrogate it; and you will provide your own perspective. If, upon evaluating and interrogating the essay's argument, you agree with it, you should extend it with your own evidence and points. If you disagree with it, you should refute it with your own counter-argument and counter-evidence. The following bullet points define what your paper should accomplish; they are not intended as an organizational guide.

Throughout our reading of One World, Many Cultures, we have noticed the limits of our textbook's excerpts: How did Latifa Ali escape Iraq? How did Monique found and sustain her birthing clinic in "A Coming Storm"? For a more accurate summary and evaluation paper, obtain the entire work from which the essay is taken (the textbook's headnotes provide that information) by using either GCSU Library Catalog Exact Search by Title or Author, GIL Universal Catalog Exact Search by Title or Author, or ILLiad to obtain books or GALILEO or ILLiad to obtain periodicals. (In order to give yourself both possibilities and time to read them, order three original works by Wednesday, September 21.) Base your summary and evaluation paper not on the five-page excerpt in One World, Many Cultures but at least a 20 page selection from its original book or the entire original periodical article. If you wish to share books, here's a list of who ordered which books.

 

Students

Books

Kristin Keefer

Lauren Sasine

Julia Weinrich

Betrayed: Escape from Iraq

Evan Hartz

Don't Shoot! We're Republicans!

Heather Reynolds

Deer Hunting with Jesus

Ashton Woodall

Lakota Woman

My Left Foot

"A Coming Storm"

Kristina Hensey

Funny in Farsi

Voices in the Mirror

Taylor Matthews

Monique and the Mango Rains

Desert Flower

Explorer

Michelle Hanley

America's Other Children: Public Schools outside Suburbia

Drink Cultura

Lindsay Yates

Lakota Woman

My Left Foot

Funny in Farsi

Nathan Anisko

Don't Shoot! We're Republicans!

Betrayed

Kristin Lukich

Madison Powers

Monique and the Maingo Rains

Way off the Road

Paper 3 Analysis and Argument

In the first paper, Self, you analyzed how an issue or event affected your self, changed your view of the world. In the second paper, Self and Text, you summarized and evaluated an essay read in class. In this five to seven page dialogue between Text and World, you will summarize how one issue is globally theorized in one article from One World, Many Cultures or the student selections (but not an essay used in the prior two papers) and analyze and argue how you see that topic functioning in America today with the help of two scholarly publications (scholarly journal articles, book chapters, and books available through the university library). For example, you could briefly summarize Saitoti's idea of tribal initiation, and then analyze how young American men are initiated into manhood in America with the help of two scholarly journal articles or book chapters, and argue how Saitoti's global reality fits contemporary American reality. Or you could explain Holloway's issue of female reproductive health in Monique's Mali and analyze how America's health system functions for women of reproductive age, arguing how Holloway's ideas apply to America. What does the Text say about the issue, and how does the (American) World respond?

Paper 4 Research Project

In this research project demonstrating the full dialectic of Self, Text, and World, self-selected groups of three or four will select any global topic broached by the course texts, research that issue more deeply and more contemporaneously with the support of at least 5 scholarly sources per group member (at least 2 scholarly journal articles and at least 2 books/book chapters per group member) for a total of 15-20 source found outside the course reading list, and then present their findings and own analysis of the topic to the class in a 20-25 minute multimedia presentation with 5 minute question and answer period. Finally, each group member will compose a 7-9 page research paper integrating at least 5 scholarly sources, defining her individual (as opposed to her group's) analysis of the situation, and arguing her position for the world. For instance, a group interested in the contemporary issue of global poverty could research the government's obligations, nonprofit charities' actions, private industries' duties, and the impoverished themselves; and individual members could focus their papers on just one of those subtopics.

 

Timeline

 

Date

Due

October 24

choose groups

November 2

choose topic

November 14

15-20 source bibliography

plan of action

November 14

group 1-2: conferences

November 16

group 3-4: conferences

November 21

group 5-6: conferences

November 28

group 1-2: presentations

November 30

group 3-4: presentations

December 5

group 5-6: presentations

December 6

paper 4

A. Group Selection

Due Monday, October 24 : You will choose your three or four person groups.

 

Group 1

global public health

Melissa Cobb

Jordan Farrell

Skylar Heys

Group 2

global food crisis

Courtney Bergman

Lindsay Duncan

Logan Reitz

Group 3

global media effects on political worlds

Michelle Hanley

Taylor Matthews

Julia Weinrich

Ashton Woodall

Group 4

the supernatural in world religions

Kaitlyn Black

Kristin Lukich

Madison Powers

Savanna Ziegler

Group 5

versions of the global apocalypse

Nathan Anisko

Evan Hartz

Karissa Martin

Lauren Sasine

Group 6

global warming

Kristina Hensey

Kristin Keefer

Heather Reynolds

Lindsay Yates

B. Topic Selection

Due Wednesday, November 2 : Groups will finalize a topic.

C. Bibliography and Plan of Action

Due Monday, November 14. Groups will construct a working bibliography (15-20 scholarly sources, 5 sources per group member, composed of at least 2 scholarly journal articles and at least 2 books/book chapters per group member) and draft a plan of action dividing the research labor. Use the Composition Research Methods handout to help you navigate GCSU's Library Website.

D. Conferences

Due on the dates below, groups will meet with the professor to discuss the parts of their presentation, and individual group members will share their individual research paper's working theses and research questions.

 

Monday,

11-14
2:00

Group 1
2:30

Group 2

Wednesday,

11-16
2:00

Group 3
2:30

Group 4

Monday,

11-21

2:00

Group 5
2:30

Group 6

E. Group Presentation

Due on the dates below, groups will present their findings and analysis of the topic to the class in a 20-25 minute multimedia presentation (such as Powerpoint, website, or Prezi) with 5 minute question and answer period. If a group member falls ill and cannot present, class will meet during the exam time on Tuesday, December 6.

 

Your presentation will be assessed on organization and unity (how well the parts come together to make a coherent whole), analysis (how well the issue is examined), participation (how well individual members contribute to the speech), and length. The research project is 30% of the course grade; the group presentation comprises 5% and the individual research paper 25% of the total, respectively.

 

Monday,

11-28

Group 1

Group 2

Wednesday,

11-30

Group 3

Group 4

Monday,

12-5

Group 5

Group 6

F. Group Policy

Each group member is expected to attend meetings, respond to group communication in a timely manner, and complete the work delegated to her.

If a group member fails to attend meetings, keep in contact, and/or do her share of the work, a fellow group member may confidentially request that the professor speak to the group about group member responsibilities. If that does not resolve the issue, a group member may confidentially request that the group grade be made individual. In that case, the professor will ask each member to submit an evaluation of her personal performance in the group as well as her fellow group members' efforts and use these self and peer evaluations to determine individual member grades.

G. Individual Research Paper

 

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