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Paper
Topics for English 100 NOW online – Fall 2019
Theme: Challenges,
Failures & Perseverance
All the writing you will be doing in this course is reading-based. This
means that every essay you write will be a response to and analysis of the
reading arguing a point of view about the reading. If you write an essay
that does not mention the reading or directly examine the reading, it will be
considered off topic and will receive little to no credit. You will not be
writing plot summaries. You will summarize parts of the reading to support
your argument, but summary should not take over your paper. Each paragraph
should serve to prove a clear and specific point and all paragraphs should
work together to prove one unifying, thesis (opinion on the reading). For all
papers, except the midterm and final exam, you will be creating your own
argument about the assigned
reading so that you are writing from a place of interest rather than duty.
You cannot pass this course if you fail to turn in one of the assigned
papers.
Follow standard paper guidelines and
know expectations as described in Chapter 3: Paper Topics: http://www.skylinecollege.edu/skyenglish/3Papertopics.htm
Paper topics come in all shapes and sizes, but in general for an English
class, you can expect to find the following requirements:
·
Meet stated page length
requirements.
Turning in papers that are under the required page length sends a message
that the assignment was not taken seriously and that a lack of time, effort,
and consideration was put into the project.
·
Adhere to due dates.
Plan ahead and break down the project into manageable stages, so you
don’t cause yourself
undue stress by doing things “last minute” or by hurting your grade through
missing due dates and not being able to turn
in assignments.
·
Use the stated paper formatting
standards. In an English class, the most common paper
formatting approach is MLA.
See Chapter 5 on MLA
Conventions.
·
Follow the assignment. It is essential that you follow the guidelines of
the assignment or else you risk receiving little to
no credit for your work. English
classes are also teaching students how to successfully complete college-level
tasks, so
take some time in the beginning to ensure you are doing what was asked.
·
Apply writing standards in your
paper. This Rhetoric walks you through the
fundamental essay components, so
apply these concepts to your writing.
There is also an Essay
Checklist in Chapter 4 that you can use to ensure you
have covered all the bases your instructor will be expecting in an academic
paper:
·
Seek opportunities for
additional help. Writing can be an isolating experience but
it does not have to be. Use campus
resources to help you formulate your writing plan and to get outside
perspective and feedback on your writing.
You can visit
your instructor during office hours at any stage in the writing process. You can also use the tutoring services
offered in the
Learning Center: http://www.skylinecollege.edu/learningcenter/index.php. Getting feedback is one of the most
effective ways
to focus and improve your writing.
Use the Essay
Checklist to make sure you have all the necessary essay elements but here
is also a quick guide of things not to forget:
·
MLA formatting: on the first page, include your own title centered at the top, the
course info (your name, the class, the instructor, the date)
in the top left corner and in the top right corner of each page, your last
name next to the page number. Typed,
double spaced throughout,
font 12, one-inch margins and be sure to meet the page minimum (Please note: 10 pts are removed for each page the paper is under the
required minimum length and 5 pts for half a page under. Don’t go solely by
word count but by actual length).
MLA Conventions (Rhetoric 170-183): http://www.skylinecollege.edu/skyenglish/5MLA.htm
·
Creative title: Creating a strong, clear, appealing title
is an important part of any writing task.
The title is the reader’s first
introduction to
your piece of writing, and first impressions matter. Therefore, you want to create a title which
pulls in your reader’s interest and makes him
or her want to keep reading. Make your
essay stand out from the others and draw in your reader.
Creating Effective Titles (Rhetoric
153-154): http://accounts.smccd.edu/skyenglish/rhetoric.pdf#page=153
·
Integrating Sources: When writing about texts,
you will want to include quotes and paraphrases and you want to make sure to
smoothly
integrate and properly document all your sources. Connect all quote to phrases that introduce
them (don’t drop quotes) and follow quotes
with the source information in parenthesis (usually the author’s last name
and the page number). Also, follow
quotes with your own analysis
explaining their significance.
Sources (Rhetoric 262-282): http://www.skylinecollege.edu/skyenglish/10IntegratingSources.htm
·
Works Cited: when
you are writing about a text, you will always include a Works Cited even if
you are only citing the text you wrote about.
If you did research, include all your outside sources on the Works Cited page
as well. List the sources
alphabetically by author last name or
by title if there is no author.
Creating Works Cited pages
(Rhetoric 177-182): http://accounts.smccd.edu/skyenglish/rhetoric.pdf#page=177
·
Revising and Editing: the best writing is rewriting so before turning in
an essay for a grade, use the advice on revising (making larger global
changes) and editing (making sentence level corrections) to ensure that you
have submitted your best work.
Revising (Rhetoric 143-152): http://accounts.smccd.edu/skyenglish/rhetoric.pdf#page=143
& Editing (Rhetoric 155-161): http://accounts.smccd.edu/skyenglish/rhetoric.pdf#page=155
·
Grading standards: every student should be striving for the ‘A’ paper
so know what criteria make an excellent paper by reviewing the
English department grading standards that your instructor will be using when
assessing your essay. Use the criteria
as the standard you are
using as you revise your essay.
Grading Standards (Rhetoric
197-198): http://www.smccd.edu/accounts/bellr/GradingMenu.htm
Five major papers will be written for this class:
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Paper #1 (worth 10% of
grade): 2-4 pages, 500-1000 words
Comparing an experience
in Rachel’s Camino Blog
to your own
Draft
due 10/28, Revision due 11/1
MLA Title page and Works Cited required
Compare a moment from Rachel’s Camino Blog to one of your own
experiences and in this comparison, include the following:
>What are the literal, metaphorical, emotional, physical, spiritual,
and/or conceptual connections and parallels between these two experiences?
>What are the differences, departures and/or contrasts between the blog
moment and your experience and what do the differences reveal?
>What does this comparison reveal about the larger themes in the course of
“Challenges, Failures & Perseverance”?
>From this comparison, what would you like your readers to better
understand or reconsider that they might be resistant to? In other words, what would you like to
convince your readers of through this comparison that they might not have
understood, accepted or appreciated before?
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Research Paper #2 (worth 10% of grade):
3-5 pages, 750-1250 words
Testing if one of Daniel
H. Pink’s theories in Drive can or
cannot work in a particular area
Draft due 11/12, Revision due 11/16
MLA Title page and Works Cited required with a minimum of ONE outside source
Describe and apply an aspect of Daniel H. Pink’s
book Drive
to an area of your choosing. In other
words, which of Pink’s more specific theories related to motivation (i.e. reward-punishment
motivators, intrinsic-extrinsic rewards, autonomy, mastery, purpose) do you
want to focus on and where do you feel this theory should or should not be
applied (a particular industry or company, a school, a branch of government,
the military, a sport)? Make it clear
what Pink argues regarding this theory and then tell how it could or could
not work in the way he claims in the field you selected. Use your own examples to prove the failure
or success of Pink’s theories (rather than using the examples Pink provides).
For Paper #2, you must
include a minimum of at least ONE outside source:
An important persuasive tool is effectively selecting and
integrating outside support to strengthen your own position and
argument. This is the function of research. The idea of research
is NOT to find information and ideas from “experts” to replace your own
ideas. In your writing, you are the authority and central voice, so
keep your argument as primary in the paper. You will use outside
research to further support, clarify, or in some cases provide alternative
viewpoints to show the weaknesses of a different position in order to
reaffirm/strengthen your own argument (this is providing
counterargument). Think of the research you will select and integrate
as evidence that will help YOU to strengthen YOUR argument, not to replace it
with someone else’s ideas. Never let research “take over” your
paper. Make your research work for you to further prove the argument
that you want to make about the reading.
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Paper #3 (worth 10% of grade): Midterm 90-minute essay exam
Analyzing
the collection of readings provided regarding mindset and motivational tools
and challenges
Tuesday, November 26th available 6am to
midnight
Open book, timed essay exam on the assigned reading
from Module 3. In 90 minutes, you will compose an essay to
a prompt about the reading that will be given to you on the day of the
exam. You will not need to include a
Works Cited or outside research. There
is no required page length but you will want to fully answer all parts of the
exam question in a focused, organized and well-developed essay using the
texts as the basis of your response.
Preparing for the midterm exam:
Before taking the exam, review Chapter 11: Timed
Writing (pages 274-285), http://www.skylinecollege.edu/skyenglish/11TimedWriting.htm). The best way to prepare is to annotate your
text and take a practice 75-minute exam before the midterm. There is a non-graded practice exam you can
take in Canvas. Click on Module 3 to
assess the practice exam.
Take the 90-Minute Midterm Exam: Tuesday November 26th
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Research
Paper #4 (worth 20% of grade): 4-6 pages, 1000-1500 words
Analyzing an aspect of Unstoppable:
45 Powerful Stories of Perseverance and Triumph from People Just Like You by Cynthia Kersey
Draft due 12/9, Revision due 12/13
MLA Title page and Works Cited required with a minimum of TWO outside sources
Make your own argument about an issue or idea raised in Cynthia Kersey’s book
Unstoppable. Do not simply summarize the text. Make an argument about an aspect of the
book that you would need to prove or convince your reader of.
For Paper #4, you must include
a minimum of at least TWO outside sources:
An important persuasive tool is effectively selecting and
integrating outside support to strengthen your own position and
argument. This is the function of research. The idea of research
is NOT to find information and ideas from “experts” to replace your own
ideas. In your writing, you are the authority and central voice, so
keep your argument as primary in the paper. You will use outside
research to further support, clarify, or in some cases provide alternative
viewpoints to show the weaknesses of a different position in order to
reaffirm/strengthen your own argument (this is providing
counterargument). Think of the research you will select and integrate
as evidence that will help YOU to strengthen YOUR argument, not to replace it
with someone else’s ideas. Never let research “take over” your
paper. Make your research work for you to further prove the argument
that you want to make about the reading.
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Paper #5
(worth 20% of grade): Final essay exam—2 ½ hours
Connecting
the course texts under the course theme “Challenges, Failures &
Perseverance”
Friday, December 16th (available starting at 6am)
Open book, timed essay exam on the assigned course
readings.
In 2 ½ hours (150 minutes), you will
compose an essay to a prompt about the reading that will be given to you on
the day of the exam. You will not need
to include a Works Cited or outside research.
There is no required page length, but you will want to fully answer
all parts of the exam question in a focused, organized and well-developed
essay using the assigned texts as the basis of your response.
Preparing for the final exam:
Before taking the exam,
review the advice in the Rhetoric, Chapter 11: Timed
Writing (pages 274-285), http://www.skylinecollege.edu/skyenglish/11TimedWriting.htm). The best way to prepare is to annotate the
texts and take a practice 150 minute
exam before the midterm. You can create possible final exam questions for
yourself which connect the works we have read through the course theme:
“Health, Disease and Wellness.” Take
at least one practice essay exam before the actual final exam. There is a non-graded
practice exam you can take in Canvas.
Click on Module 5 to assess the practice exam.
Taking the 2 ½ hour Final Exam: Monday, December 16th
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