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Paper Topics for English 110
online – Fall 2021
Theme:
Challenge & Adversity
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
Selecting ONE of the assigned poems to analyze from The Best 100 African American Poems edited by Nikki Giovanni
(poetry reading will be provided by instructor)
Draft due 9/14, Revision due 9/21
MLA Title page and Works Cited required
Select
ONE of the assigned poems and write a paper that critically analyzes and
offers your interpretation of the deeper significance of this poem. Your essay will only use summary to support
your main argument (thesis) that you want to make about this poem. In writing about poetry, you will often be
quoting from the poem itself as the language itself should be a central part
of your analysis.
Review the section on poetry in Chapter 12 paying attention to the terms and
approaches used in analyzing poetry (305-315): http://accounts.smccd.edu/skyenglish/12Poetry.htm. Also, to begin a focused literary analysis
of your poem, I highly recommend you first complete a “Poetry Chart” breaking
down the poem (309): http://accounts.smccd.edu/skyenglish/12PoetryChart.htm. Your paper should be your own explication
of and analysis of your selected poem.
You are not summarizing the poem but rather arguing your point of view
about its significance. See also the
sample student paper modeling how to write literary analysis of poem (pages
312-315): http://accounts.smccd.edu/skyenglish/rhetoric.pdf#page=312
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Research Paper #2 (worth 10% of grade):
3-5 pages, 750-1250 words
Analyzing
ONE the assigned short stories from The
Decameron Project: 29 New Stories from the Pandemic by The New York Times
Draft due 10/12, Revision
due 10/19
MLA Title page and Works Cited required with a minimum of ONE outside source
Select
ONE of the assigned short stories and write a paper that critically analyzes
and offers your interpretation of the deeper significance of this short
story. Your essay will only use
summary to support your main argument (thesis) that you want to make about
this short story.
Review the section of Chapter 12 regarding fiction and drama (296-304) to see
the different terms and approaches used when analyzing this type of
literature: http://www.skylinecollege.edu/skyenglish/12Fiction-Drama.htm. Your paper should be your own analysis of your selected short story. You are not summarizing the story but
rather arguing your point of view about its significance. See also the sample student paper modeling
how to write literary analysis of a short story (pages 302-304): http://accounts.smccd.edu/skyenglish/rhetoric.pdf#page=302.
A note on choosing
and incorporating outside research:
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 play Sweat by Lynn Nottage
Tuesday, November 2nd between 6am and midnight (the latest you can begin the
exam and get the full time is 10:30pm)
Open book, timed essay exam
on the play Sweat. 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 the section of Chapter 12 regarding fiction and drama
(296-304) to see the different terms and approaches used
when analyzing fiction: http://www.skylinecollege.edu/skyenglish/12Fiction-Drama.htm. Also, it is important to review the advice
in the Rhetoric,
Chapter 11: Timed Writing (pages 283-294), 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 the link that says: “PRACTICE
MIDTERM (90 min): non-graded writing practice.”
Take the 90-Minute Midterm
Exam: Tuesday, November 2nd
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Collaborative Research Paper #4 (worth 20% of grade):
4-6 pages, 1000-1500 words
Analyzing Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
Draft due 12/7, Revision due
12/14
MLA Title page and Works Cited required with a minimum of TWO outside sources
Choose an issue or aspect in the novel Interior Chinatown, and write a
research essay that asserts your own analysis of the significance of this
text or an aspect of the text. Review the section of Chapter 12 regarding
fiction and drama (296-304) to see the different terms and approaches used
when analyzing this type of literature: http://www.skylinecollege.edu/skyenglish/12Fiction-Drama.htm. You are not summarizing the story
but rather arguing your point of view about its significance.
A note on choosing
and incorporating outside research:
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 counter-argument). 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.
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 2021
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 12/14 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 Canvas, click where it says “SUMBIT Collaborative Partner
Evaluation” and upload the completed file.
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Paper #5
(worth 25% of grade): Final essay exam—2 ½ hours
Connecting
the 4 course texts under the course theme “Challenge & Adversity”
Thursday, December 16th between 6am and midnight (the
latest you can begin the exam and still get the full time is 9:30pm)
Open book, timed essay exam on assigned poetry from The
Best 100 African American Poems edited by Nikki Giovanni, on the assigned short stories in The
Decameron Project: 29 New Stories from the Pandemic by The New York Times, on the play Sweat by Lynn Nottage and Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu.
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 283-294), 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. 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, December 16th
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