Paper Topics for English 100 –Spring
2015
Theme:
Memoir—Adversity & Selfhood
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 172-176): 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.
The Writing Process (Rhetoric
153-154): http://www.skylinecollege.edu/skyenglish/4Writing.htm
·
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 253-273): 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.
MLA Conventions (Rhetoric 177-181): http://www.skylinecollege.edu/skyenglish/5MLA.htm
·
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) &
Editing (Rhetoric 155-161): http://www.skylinecollege.edu/skyenglish/4Writing.htm
·
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
Analyzing The Oracles by Pati Navalta Poblete
Draft
due 2/17, Revision 2/24
MLA Title page and Works Cited required
Make your own argument about an issue
or idea raised in Pati Navalta Poblete’s book The Oracles. Do not simply summarize her story.
Make an argument about the book that you would need to prove or convince your
reader of. Use questions like these to
guide you:
What stands out as most significant in this story and why? What do you think your reader can learn from
this story that he or she may not have
understood or appreciated before? What
do you feel is particularly important or revealing in this story? What is the larger impact of or what
outcomes can be achieved through reading this story? Is
your topic narrow enough to fully cover in a short paper?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Research Paper #2 (worth 10% of grade):
3-5 pages, 750-1250 words
Analyzing The Eaves of Heaven
by Andrew X. Pham
Draft due 3/17, Revision 3/31
MLA Title page and Works Cited required with a minimum of ONE outside source
Make your own argument about an issue or idea raised in Andrew X. Pham’s book Eaves
of Heaven. Do not simply summarize the story.
Make an argument about the book that you would need to prove or convince your
reader of. Use questions like these to
guide you:
What does this book reveal about the
larger themes and significance of war? Family? Colonialism? The history of
Vietnam? Revolution?
U.S involvement? What more do you want
to learn or argue about the aspect of the book you are interested in? What do you think of Pham’s
approach? What do you want to argue in
regards to what Pham has put forth on the topic? Is your topic narrow enough to
fully cover in a
short paper? What can you research
further on this issue that could add to an argument that you want to make?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paper #3 (worth 10% of grade): Midterm 75-minute essay exam
Analyzing
In the Name of Honor by Mukhtar Mai
Thursday,
April 16th between 6am and midnight (the latest you can begin the
exam is 10:45pm)
Open
book, timed essay exam on Mukhtar Mai’s In the Name of Honor. In
75 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 Mai’s text as the
basis of your response.
Preparing for
the midterm 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 your
text and
take a practice 75 minute exam before the midterm. There is a non-graded practice exam you can
take in WebAccess.
Click on the link that says: “PRACTICE
MIDTERM (75 min): non-graded writing practice.”
Take the
75-Minute Midterm Exam: Thursday, April 16th
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Collaborative Research Paper #4 (worth 20%
of grade): 4-6 pages, 1000-1500 words
Analyzing Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario
Draft
5/12, Revision 5/19
MLA Title page and Works Cited required with a minimum of TWO outside sources
Choose
an issue or aspect in the novel Enrique’s
Journey by Sonia Nazario, and write a collaborative research essay that
puts forth an argument about
an aspect of the story asserting your interpretation of its significance. Do not simply summarize the story. Make an argument about the book that you
would need to prove or convince your reader of.
Use questions like these to guide you:
What do you think your reader could learn or better understand
from reading this story? What do you think of the complex character of
Enrique? Did Nazario make a good choice
of a person to represent the challenges
of the migrant experience? Why do you think the author undertook this
project? What do you think of her
motivations and her approaches? What is
your
opinion on the migrant experience after reading this book? Should anything be
changed? How?
What is a
collaborative paper?
Students will select a partner (or we can assign partners in class) and write the
paper together in teams of two. I've
assigned this type of paper
in my classes for many years and consistently these are the strongest papers I
get over the semester. Working with another person can show you
your strengths and weaknesses and help you produce an excellent paper. As you work with a partner, is it vital that
you each work collaboratively
and equally. Also remember that you will
be completing a Collaborative Paper Evaluation on your partner and on yourself. Also, on the essay you
turn in for a grade, you will indicate who wrote which part of the paper to
ensure that the work was shared. If you
have any difficulties with your
partner, let me know immediately and we can have you write the paper
separately. I want this to be a positive
experience for everyone.
Names on the Paper
You and your partner need to
only upload one copy of the paper and it does not matter whose name you submit
it under. Just be sure that both of
your names are on the paper. As
this is a collaborative paper, you and your partner will write the paper
together but you will indicate which body
paragraphs each was the principle writer for (each student must write a minimum
of 2 pages each of the final paper). Indicate this information next
to your names on the first page. For example, the top left header will contain
the following information:
John
Ramirez (wrote paragraphs 1-4 & 7)
Jun
Chan (wrote paragraphs 5-6 & 8-10)
English
100
21
May 2014
And
for the page numbers in the upper right corner of each page, you will hyphenate
the last names of the authors, i.e. Ramirez-Chan 1
Uploading the Collaborative Partner
Evaluation on 5/19 before midnight:
(1)
Download the Collaborative Partner Evaluation:
http://www.smccd.edu/accounts/bellr/ReaderWorkshoppingCollaborativeMenu.htm
Complete both pages: assign both you and
your partner a grade on the project and then answer the questions.
If you did not have a partner,
submit a written reflection on your experience in writing the paper to get
credit.
(2) Log into WebAccess, click where it says “SUMBIT by 5/19: Collaborative
Partner Evaluation” and upload the completed file.
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Paper #5 (worth 20% of grade): Final essay
exam—2 ½ hours
Connecting the 4 course texts
under the course theme “Memoir: Adversity & Selfhood”
Thursday,
May 21st between 6am and midnight (the latest you can begin the exam
is 9:30pm)
Open
book, timed essay exam on The Oracles
by Pati Navalta Poblete, The Eaves of
Heaven by Andrew X. Pham, In the Name of Honor by Mukhtar Mai,
and Enrique’s Journey by Sonia
Nazario. 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:
“Memoir: Adversity & Selfhood.” Take
at least one practice essay exam before the actual final exam. There is a non-graded practice exam you can
take in WebAccess. Click on the link
that says:
“PRACTICE FINAL EXAM (2.5
hours): non-graded writing practice.”
Taking the 2 ½
hours Final Exam: Thursday, May 21st