Assignment for Tuesday, March 31 and Thursday, April 1

For Tuesday: Complete your draft of the research paper.

For Thursday: Submit a complete draft of your research paper, including its title. Combine your exploratory essay with the research you've written, and compile the list of references. All citations should be complete. Submit these as one document.

Assignment for Friday, March 27

Write an additional page of the research paper. You should be up to thirteen pages by Friday.

Assignment for Monday, March 23

Write and email to me an additional three pages of your research paper. By that time, you should be up to twelve eleven pages of the research paper.

Assignment for Wednesday, March 18

Write one additional page for the research paper and email it to me before Wednesday's class. By Wednesday, you should have at least eight pages for the research portion of the paper.

Please Read This

[For your homework, see the next post down.] This article isn't an assignment, hence the "please" in this post's title. The coming weeks of the college admission season will bring happiness, heartache, conflicted feelings, and indecision. Read this article to gain some insight on the meaning and significance of this process. I can't make the link "live" right now, so you'll have to copy and paste it into your browser. After you read the article, share it with your friends and parents. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/opinion/sunday/frank-bruni-how-to-survive-the-college-admissions-madness.html

Assignment for Monday, March 16

Write at least two additional pages for your research paper. You will continue to work on it in class, and I will continue to meet with students. Add it on to the same document you previously sent to me, and email it to me (mrmontasmph@gmail.com) before class. Don't forget to also email to me the outline your worked on in class; if you didn't already finish it, you should finish it by Monday's class. 

Good Outline, Bad Outline

Here are the two examples of outlines that we saw in class. Click here for the good outline. notice how this good outline is clear about how the author will will write about the essay's topics. Click here for the bad outline. This outline isn't very helpful because it only mentions the topics to be addressed in the essay. 

For Thursday, March 12

Come to class prepared to work on your research paper. Bring any materials you need to work on it in class. The laptop cart will be available.

For Tuesday, March 10

You will write two essays that concern Luke Harding's The Snowden Files. One essay will require you to write a rhetorical analysis of a passage from Harding's book. Another essay will require you to write an argument about an issue raised by the book.

To prepare for the rhetorical analysis, review SOAPSTone, DIDLS, the rhetorical triangles, and the definition of exigence. Keep in mind that you should pay attention to these while you read the passage; don't start to think about them when you begin to write the essay. 

To prepare for the argumentative essay, you should review the issues raised by Snowden's case and the nuances of those issues. Any information gleaned from the Frontline documentary The United States of Secrets and Laura Poitras's Citizenfour can be used to supplement, not replace, information presented in Harding's book.

As we have practiced in class, you should lead with your points and avoid restating information in the passage or summarizing the book. Any information from the passage or the book should be used only to support the points you make in the essay.