Erie Community College

Title III

English Composition Assignment

Interdisciplinary Course Materials

Business Administration

Course: EN 021/EN 023 Improving College Writing
Course Outline Topic: Reflective Response Essay
Project Title: Buying Power
Project Description: Students will write a 2 page essay based on the ideas presented in “The Story of Stuff” film.
Author: Erika Hendra
Curriculum Expert: Maryangela Gadikian
Semester Created: Spring 2009
A. Essential Question: Can consumers have an effect on the way businesses are run? According to The Story of Stuff, businesses promote unethical and hazardous practices in order to protect the golden arrow of consumption. How can we as consumers change the current businesses practices? Furthermore, why should we foster change or keep the current practices?
B. Introduction: No matter your individual major or career, we are all consumers; we live in a world populated with advertisements: on TV and online, even in movie theatres and on highways. Everywhere we look, we are encouraged to buy things. This assignment asks you to examine your own buying habits and examine how you can influence current business practices.
C. Basic Directions: For this assignment, you are combining both reflective aspects of examining yourself with the analytical aspects of responding to a film. One of the goals of the project is for you to consider how the material presented in the The Story of Stuff is relevant to your life, specifically as a consumer. As you’ll see from the film, we all play roles in the production of material goods, and I’d like you to reflect on how you as an individual consumer can have an effect on how businesses produce and sell products.
D. Things to Learn Before Starting the Project: Remember that a reflective essay, although more informal than other types of writing, still follows many of the same conventions. You still need to have a thesis statement, and you still need to have examples to illustrate your ideas and point of view. The goal of reflections should be to allow the audience to share with the writer his or her discovery of the significance of the ideas.

A Reflective Essay explores how your prior experience has shaped your views on a topic. For example, in the case of this assignment, you’ll be reflecting on your experience as a consumer has shaped your response to The Story of Stuff. In order to fulfill the reflective criteria of the assignment, you’ll want to link some of the ideas presented in the film to your own experiences.

A Response Essay responds to a text or visual. To write an effect Response, you must of course, be familiar with the text you are responding to. In this case, because you are writing about a film, you may want to watch the film a few times outside of class. (I’ll provide you with a link to the film so you’ll have access to it as you are working on the assignment.)

A Response Essay requires that you limit what you are responding to; there are too many ideas covered in the film, so focus on the ideas that relate to you as a consumer. The examples that you use from the film or from your life need to be clearly related to your thesis. You don’t want your readers guessing about the connection.
E. The Project Assignment: The project is broken down into five stages. Although I haven’t assigned a specific percentage for the completion of each stage, it will show in your final grade whether or not you have taken full advantage of each stage.


1) Watching The Story of Stuff and discussing some of the basics ideas immediately following. Taking notes during the brief 20 minute film is essential for cogent and detailed discussion.
2) Invention (typically as homework): based off of some of the ideas raised in class discussion, write a journal entry (one handwritten page) explaining how you feel about your role in the golden arrow of consumption model presented in the film. Consider if you enjoy shopping and why (or why you don’t). Do you like having new things all the time, or are you the type of person who uses something until it is no longer useable?
3) Small group discussion and feedback: Break into small discussion groups to focus on the writing done as a journal entry. The point of the small group work is to offer feedback for developing ideas more. This can be handled in a number of ways: you can read your journal entry aloud and ask for feedback, you can make copies and pass them out to your group and ask for written feedback, or I may ask you to post your journal entry on ANGEL and garner feedback from your classmates on a message board. (I will let you know specifically which method you’ll be using in advance).

4) Drafting: After discussing and getting feedback, work on drafting a complete essay. We will spend time in class revising and conferencing, so make sure you bring your draft to class.

5) Revision: I strongly advise you to take your essay to a tutor in the Skills Center for additional help with revision. Although we will conference during class, we simply won’t have the time to address every aspect of your paper.
F. Student Resources: The Story of Stuff(http://www.storyofstuff.com/).


G. Faculty Resources: There are a number of resources on the film’s webpage that might be useful resources if you want to include outside research as a part of this project.

There are also a number of handbooks and textbooks that cover how to write either a response or a reflective essay.


H. Grading Rubric: A note about grading: When I set up my syllabus, I tell students that they need to have a solid C grade in order to pass to EN 110. I feel very strongly that if a student has been placed in a Developmental Writing course, they should earn a C so that he/she is ready for the rigors of EN 110. This rubric, of course, can be altered to include a D grade category if you prefer

Excellent
A / Good
B / Needs Improvement
C / Unsatisfactory
F
Content / Demonstrates fresh, original thought and ideas. Point of view is thoroughly explored and clearly expressed. / Essay shows thoughtful reflection. Writer’s point of view is apparent. / Contains some interesting ideas, but the writer does not explore them thoroughly. Lacks detailed explanation or supporting examples. / The writer simply restates facts rather than reflecting on his or her own experience. The writer’s point of view is not evident.
Organization / Organization enhances the main ideas. Supporting information is presented logically, with no extraneous details. Transitions are smooth. / Organization is generally good, but there may be some extraneous details or unclear transitions. / Includes an organizational skeleton (intro, body, conclusion), but often strays from the main idea. Lacks transitions. / No clear direction. Main ideas are vague and connections are confusing or incomplete.
Sentence Fluency and Word Choice / The writing flows and shows a high level of sophistication. Strong and specific words are used to convey meaning. / Generally applies standard English usage and appropriate word choices. Sentences are grammatical, but sometimes stiff or choppy. / Some errors in grammar and word choice. Sentences may be incomplete or rambling. / Contains frequent grammar errors. Sentences are choppy, awkward, and hard to follow. Vocabulary is limited and words are used incorrectly.
Mechanics / Proofreading is thorough. Correct spelling and punctuation throughout. / Contains occasional spelling, punctuation, and typographical errors, but the errors are not overly distracting. / Some distracting errors. Needs more thorough proofreading. / Frequent spelling, punctuation, and typographical errors. No evidence of proofreading.

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Erie Community College

Title III grant