MY THOUGHTS & OVERALL COMMENTS
ABOUT PAPERS & PEER REVIEWS IN GENERAL
I’m sending this to all peer groups. You can use this as you discuss papers, or you can use this as you revise. Just, please, use them…
REMEMBER:
You only need 2 essays when we get to the last 5 weeks of this course. Yes, you must write 4 but you’ll pick two and rewrite and revise and redo those two so you can pass this class. Passing is NOT riding on the first draft of essay 1 so take a breath. This is a DRAFT.
FILE NAMING
I spent a good 30 minutes renaming files today. Not a productive use of time. Please Please PLEASE name your files with your LastnameFirstname.doc or (.rtf is great too) LastNameFirstNameEssay1.doc. Something -- so that your NAME is part of your file name. It’s really important when your teacher is dealing with about 67 papers a week! Imagine them all named Essay1.doc. It’s not pretty.
DRAFTS
These are drafts. Not finished essays. They need work. And, they probably all need different things. It’s now that we can take a breath and say “Hey, I’ve got a start on paper and now my peers are going to help me make it better.” It’s a D R A F T. And, it’s written. Paper 1. Done. (Well, not “done done,” but down on paper.)
Right now, your peers are busy reading and writing up some comments for you. Then you’ll have 4 days to revise it --- before I see it and make comments on it. Your peers should return these to you on WEDNESDAY BY 5:00.
You can revise before it comes to me. And, you can revise it some more later if it’s going into your portfolio. I am all about revising. Weeks 10-13 are almost entirely devoted to revising.
BELIEFS
Take out “I believe” and “I think that…” These phrases do not belong in your papers!
· Faulty Sentence: I think that medical doctors should be required to complete
communication skills courses.
Corrected Sentence: Medical doctors could better benefit their clients by
completing a required communication skills course.
Most of the time, it’s an easy fix. In this example, you basically just drop the phrase “I think that” and all’s well.
Your papers can be about what you believe, but the phrase that you believe does not belong in there. I know, that’s a difficult distinction to make. Your LIVED EXPERIENCE is something to bring to a paper as evidence. Your personal belief is not. If you have personal beliefs you want to argue, that’s where some facts and your resources come in. Through the use of resources, a reader in your audience actually learns what you believe.
We actually cannot argue beliefs. My beliefs and your beliefs. They just simply can’t be argued. What we want to argue is for change in a policy or change in the way we treat people. Or even change in the way we perceive a breed of dog (all argument is rooted in potential change) – When you see your Faculty Handbook (.doc :: .pdf ) this week, you’ll see LCC faculty say “all argument is rooted in potential change.” But we can’t argue for a belief.
AGREEING & DISAGREEING
You KNOW we’re not all going to have the same opinions on these subjects. And—that’s good. That should help us give quality feedback when a paper is lacking on “the opposition.” We do, even though we don’t agree, have to respect another person’s opinion, and treat that opinion and that person cordially.
These papers aren’t about whether or not we agree. Or even whether or not we are swayed to a new way of thinking. They are, though, about realizing how another side has valuable points. They are about writing clear, concise, well-organized papers that make sense.
Your audience does not have to become a believer in your stance (stasis). They do though have to be able to say… “You know, I see their point.” Or “Hey, that does make sense.” Or, the greatest one of all… “I need to know more about this! This paper has sparked my curiosity.”
Anyway, I ask that you please respect one another’s views, and offer friendly, critical responses to help them improve their papers.
TITLES
Make sure you write a catchy title – one that lets your audience know a little something about your topic and that stirs up their interest. Many academic journal articles (scholarly articles, specialized sources—you’ll hear them called different things but you’ll be using them in papers 3 and 4) have pretty lengthy titles separated by a colon. Here’s an example of an arguable topic (I just made this up)…
CRIME IN SOUTH LANSING: A CALL TO ARMS
I envision a paper on the importance of residents purchasing guns for self-protection.
NO DEPOSIT / NO RETURN:
ADDING BOTTLE DEPOSITS TO WATER PURCHASES IN MICHIGAN
I just made that up too. Great topic though.
Titles should reflect what’s coming in the paper.
TOPICS
Both of my title examples are about our community. One, about a specific area in Lansing, and one about the state of Michigan. These kinds of localized issues will serve far better for our arguments than “Healthcare Reform in America” --- I’m not saying you can’t write on “Healthcare Reform In America” – it’s just that, like Ole’ Olbermann, you need a personal angle (if you are a nurse, if your parent is sick, if you are working in an assisted living facility, you by all means have experience and knowledge that can enlighten an audience on the topic and bring a new perspective to light). It’s not impossible to argue a larger policy like health care or gun control or right-to-life, but it’s easier if you have an “in.” For the most part, most of the time, you need to have some kind of lived experience in a topic area to make the best arguments. That’s something “I believe.”
SOURCES / CITING SOURCES
This paper—all papers—require sources. These short essays require 3 outside sources. The longer ones will require 6. You MUST use sources within the body of the paper and you must provide a Works Cited page at the end of your paper. I have several that don’t do one or don’t do the other and even a few papers that don’t do either! Fix this now! Make sure you USE your sources in your papers. Draw on them. Quote them. Paraphrase them. Credit them. And make sure you have a Works Cited page at the end of your papers. Without these, then, technically, you are plagiarizing if you are drawing on outside sources! In contrast, if you are not drawing on outside sources, then you are not writing to the assignment!
WRITING STANDARDS
The external review committee looks at these writing standards as they read your portfolios in May. I’m not sure how much looking at this will help right now because we haven’t talked about them yet, but I do want to call your attention to the 4 main categories of CONTENT, STRUCTURE, STYLE, and MECHANICS.
Here is a copy of the LCC Writing Standards for WRIT122
CONTENT: what the paper is about, what evidence it brings to bear on the topic and whether or not it’s suitable for a college-level audience.
STRUCTURE: this is your organization. Or, the flow of the paper. They look for topic sentences that describe what the paragraph is about. They want (we need) a logical flow through the paper.
STYLE: Whether or not to use a contraction (sometimes, when they are well-placed, they’re great!); whether or not to cuss; etc. Style is something that is reflected by your audience. Your audience is a bunch of academics. A bunch of writers. A bunch of academic writers. They don’t want to read a paper that sounds like you’re chattin’ up your best friend J.
MECHANICS: Punctuation, grammar, spelling and most of all---Citation. While it is NOT imperative that you used MLA citation for this draft, by week 14 when you turn in your portfolios, MLA citation—correctly executed—is a requirement. Here’s a 2009 MLA guide I really like. Your PSM text has a whole section (pages 104-154) that explains it. I have some resources coming up(in I think week 4) that explain it in an online video/PowerPoint. By week 14, you’ll get it. Please start trying now though. And, there are two other guides because your papers need to be DOUBLE SPACED! And, have 1” margins. And use the header for page numbers. These two links below will help you with that. They are pretty well done guides…
FORMATTING
If you use Office 2003, here’s a guide for how to set margins, headers, and Works Cited
If you use Office 2007, here’s a guide for setting margins, headers, and Works Cited.
You are responsible to format your papers according to 2009 MLA guidelines. Your PSM has devoted 50 pages to helping you do this (104-154). And, these links just above are also invaluable to help you learn to do this.
SAMPLE ARGUMENT
Here’s a sample paper, formatted and cited correctly as well as mighty well-written you can use as a model. It’s also in week 2 on your schedule page. Check it out…
THEY SAY / I SAY
They Say / I Say is a list of templates to help you incorporate source material, agree with sources, disagree with sources, transition, and generally add “sign posts” for your readers to help them stay interested and in-tune with what you’re saying.
A NOTE ON LENGTH
At the end of this semester, for portfolio, you are required to submit 1 short and 1 long essay. A short essay is defined as 900-1100 words using at least 3 outside sources. A long essay is defined as 1400-1600 words using at least 6 outside sources, 2 of which are specialized (from the LCC databases, basically).
Some of these “short essays” are not short. There are a variety of ways you can handle this. A few are: You’ll either need to write a short one next time, or cut cut cut to make this one a short one. But, the review committee will be looking to see that you are writing to two different prompts. They want to see that you can successfully narrow down a topic and argue it within those two restrictions. Sometimes the short essay is a much harder essay to write because you are so limited on space.
For now, no panic over length. I just noticed many a longer essay and wanted to make note that we’ll have to figure out a plan so that you each submit 1 short and 1 long on submission day.
PEER REVIEW GUIDE SHEET (.doc :: .pdf)
It’s a “guide” – you do not have to follow it specifically, but it should help give you insight into what areas to watch and what things to note.
Please, give your peers some valuable feedback. You have each other’s emails. Email each other. Make them a list. Write them a letter. Talk about the papers back and forth. Hold conversation. Hell, meet for coffee if you can. Use a chat or IM.
But, U S E each other -- as much as works for you. There is no better way to get a good grasp on writing than to discuss your writing with someone else.
REMEMBER
· Have the reviews returned to your peers by WEDNESDAY at 5:00 so everyone has time to revise.
· Turn in the finished essay to me SATURDAY (1-23) by midnight via email at with the subject line WRIT122 / ESSAY 1
· Do the other activities on your schedule.html page for week 2
Have a good week. Email or IM me if you have any questions. Remember, I’m guaranteed to be online on Thursdays from 9-12. I’m online lots in the mornings (MWThFSS). Let me know if you have questions.
--Sue
Damn. I got kinda long-winded. Sorry.