This post is for students who feel “frozen” and have not yet produced a provisional essay, but it may be helpful for anyone. Read through the post and note where it surprises you.

Notice: a “provisional essay” is “code” for a zero draft (what many might call a “bad” essay, because it is not organized by a thesis and does not focus on arguing a thesis). If you followed my instructions for the annotated bibliography, you’re 75% finished.

Question: Why do I keep sending you back to your Annotated Bibliography and your Research Proposal?

Answer: Because this is an inquiry-based assignment, and to produce an inquiry I want you to really engage with your texts. 

Requirements for the Annotated Bibliography 

1. An introduction that proposes your research question and incorporates 4-5 source references supporting the relevance of your line of inquiry  (why it is important to readers). 
2. An exhibit that establishes a “local” example of your comparatively “global” problem. The exhibit may be a social media post, a news article, a blog post, or a personal story, and you may choose more than one exhibit to illustrate your intellectual problem. 

3. Each section of your annotated bibliography should have a summary and a reflection and quotes. Your reflection must include answers to the following questions: How does it help you analyze an exhibit and resolve an intellectual problem related to your seed text? Which 1-2 functions can it serve from the ExACT functions? How do you wish to engage with the author (confirm, contradict, complicate, or extend)? 

Main steps for producing your provisional paper: 

Paste your annotated bibliography into a new document. Between the introduction and the entries, introduce your exhibit and either a context, argument, or theoretical source that helps you analyze your exhibit (lens analysis). Extract the MLA citations from the annotated bibliography portion and paste them, in alphabetical order, into a Works Cited section at the end. Include any other references you use in your Works Cited section. With the remaining text, find points of intersection and write in transitions to show your reader how you connect the sources you’ve found with your research question. Your reflection is especially useful here. If you wish to reorganize your sections and text, do so, but resist the urge to polish it before you’ve finished the entire draft. The provisional essay is an inquiry-based exercise in thinking about a problem. It is a “bad” essay in that it does not need to flow or be completely resolved or polished.

Reflective Conclusion

Add a new section, likely toward the end of your document,  in which you answer the following questions: 

What tentative thesis have you come to, and was it the thesis you envisioned at the beginning of your research project? 

What gaps remain in your research? 

What new questions arose from your research and writing process? 

What next steps would you take if you had more time to research this problem? That is, what additional research would be required to further develop and strengthen your hypothesis? 

Getting to the finish: 

Once you have a full draft, read it over and make sure it is basically readable (spelling and grammar) and that all references are in MLA citation format (this is very important). Be sure block quotation formatting is used for quotations that are aprox. four lines or longer. 

Make sure it has a title. 

Make sure you’ve answered all of the questions in the reflective conclusion section. 

Resist the desire to make it perfect. Inquiry and insight are ten times more important than polish. If you found yourself getting repetitive, you didn’t engage with your sources enough and have likely wasted time writing for an imagined assignment rather than the one you have been given. 

Send me an email notifying me that you have finished the above activities, and have a well-earned and restful Winter Break. 

Watch this first:

Then, watch this:

Watch this if you’re still confused about identifying an exhibit source:

This is the handout from the video:

(you’ll need to be logged in and click on relevant doc link in window)

Know Your Meme makes an analytical argument about where “Yo Dawg, I heard you like X” meme gets its meaning, how it works, and why it caught on among internet users. I recommend watching for an example of how to construct a rhetorical analysis. Even though the presenter here does not use the key terms of a rhetorical situation, as you are expected to do in your essays, he offers a rhetorical analysis nonetheless because he identifies the key elements of the applicable exigences, the background knowledge involved in being its audience, assumptions about the internet and memes the make the meme relevant and timely (related to context, audience, constraints), how insiders and outsiders are identified in the meme audience through its use, and the necessary constraint of its basic formal structure, “You dawg, I heard you like X….” Your analysis, of Wang’s or Crawford’s presentation, or of “Critical Questions for Big Data,” is intended to be something like a “Know Your Meme” episode in that you will explain how the author produces a convincing perspective–that is, identify the intended effects (exigence) and the choices made to produce or achieve those intended effects–choices which are categorized according to the elements of a rhetorical situation.

Please watch:

Lessons this week are being posted as they are made. This week, you are revising your zero draft. Many of you are going to need to write more, and you may even wonder what else there may be to write. That’s not uncommon. The Rhetorical Analysis is an exercise in learning to find material to write about when it seems like there isn’t much to write about. I’ve given you a lot of options, but as you focus on the more specific points of finding a thesis and organizing your ideas you will uncover ways to produce more interpretive insights. Let’s start with working through the elements of an analytical thesis statement. Watch the following video and spend about 10 minutes working on your thesis to integrate the material covered in the lesson.

Notice:

The focused essays will be accepted for full credit regardless of their current condition as drafts (full, partial, outline, etc.). The final draft will be graded according to the expectations listed in the Overview and the Final Draft documents. Incomplete or failed final drafts will be need to be rewritten.

Lesson 5.1: Thesis statements!

Lesson 5.2: Developing your Paragraphs, a remote workshop.

Single lesson this week: Essay 1 Revision.

Watch the video and complete the activities assigned at the end of the video:

 

Discussion assignment: After reading the “viral argument” pages from Going Viral, find and link an example of a viral argument and an example of a meme within a discussion post in a comment to this week. Use this example to think through and explain the authors’ definition of a viral argument as well as the distinction they draw between a viral argument and a meme. Post your answer in a comment to this post.

 

 

NEWS

What exactly do you do this week? Complete steps 1-7 by Wednesday 11:59 p.m. Then, complete steps 8-9in time to share your zero draft in Workshop 3, next week.

1. Read: “How to Email your Professor (without being annoying AF).” This is important, because I’ve learned from several emails that students do not know this stuff, and it will make things hard for you with other professors.
2. Read: “Critical Questions for Big Data” sections 1-6 (665-676)
3. Don’t do: The “extra credit” assignment has been removed.
4. Lesson 3.1: Special Announcement and suggested viewing (step 10, below).
5. “In this class I will be asking you to try and find your style. I want you to use your slang, your sentence structures, your poetry, your many languages, your very self in your writing. In order to be better writers, we first have to know how we relate to our writing, how our writing develops from our very bodies and lives. But know not all professors are like me. They will ask you to write a certain way, judge your work according to certain rules, and demand you speak in intellectually sophisticated ways — whatever these things even mean. Your success, the grade or the job, depends on molding yourself to the criteria and standards they give to you, unfortunately. Going forward, please be aware of this when you are in these other classroom spaces. As much as I hate to say it: it is what is — for now.” Click here to read more or move on to complete lesson 3.2, on linguistic justice and writing.
6. Lesson 3.2:  Toward Linguistic Justice
7. Due Wednesday (11:59pm): Complete lesson 3.2 and complete process writing in the questions and discussion sections inside of the Ted Ed lesson. You will need to log in to Ted Ed in order to post your process writing.
8. Read: Essay 1 Overview
9. Homework for your next workshop: Essay 1 Zero Draft ** Read this assignment carefully. Be aware that your zero draft is not a formal draft, and a formal draft would be a failed zero draft.** You are invited to continue reflecting on the Ted Ed lesson, where it seems relevant to your rhetorical analysis, in your essay draft.
10. Helpful resource: Edited annotations of selections from “Critical Questions” that may help you understand key passages.
11. Suggested viewing–completely optional but highly recommended for everyone: I Am Not Your Negro, Raoul Peck’s documentary on James Baldwin can be accessed on Kanopy through QC library. 

Here is a supplement to today’s class.

What are you supposed to do this week?

First, turn in your revised workshop assignment here:  Turn in

==The link to turn in your workshop assignments, in general, is in the assignment schedule, linked on the Course Schedule page of this course site. Check out the pages in the menu above. 

Next, follow steps 1-5. They are ordered for your benefit. All work except homework for workshop is intended to be completed before the end of the week. Usually that deadline is Wednesday night, but this week it has been extended to Friday night. Step 6, the homework, is to be completed in time to share in your group’s workshop next week. This is the workflow that class will follow each week for the semester. 

For the analysis assignment: please use the link corresponding to your group, below. The forms have been fixed and your analysis should go through. 

1. Read: “Critical Questions for Big Data” Introduction (pages 662-665 top)

Complete the analysis form for your group (due Wednesday by 11:59pm) –EXTENDED TO FRIDAY NIGHT DUE TO TECHNICAL PROBLEMS: 

Group A form

Group B form

Group C form

Group D form

2. Watch: “Algorithmic Illusions.”Kate Crawford, see video embedded in this article. (video is roughly 17 minutes).

3. Lesson 2.1: Harvey’s “Elements of the Academic Essay.” <–See handout linked there <-and watch video here:

 

Complete assignment described at end of video in the comments section to this post.

I will post a second video with the assignment for you to complete NEXT WEEK.

4. Lesson 2.2: Reading rhetorically: between saying and doing

For workshop 2 assignment: Handout on argumentation. You will receive more instruction on argumentation in Week 3. For now, work from the handout and take notes on the questions that come up when you work this way. 

Homework: Workshop 2 assignment

Notice: I’ve added the following section in the syllabus, thanks to a student’s very helpful question. Thanks!

Late work and extensions

I take two points off process writing for late work,I do not give comments for late workshop assignments, and I take major assignments down one grade if they are turned in late after the one-day grace period. It is ultimately more important to turn in the writing–especially the major assignments, without which one cannot pass the class–than it is to turn it in on time. I grant extensions on a case-by-case basis. Please be in touch with me as soon as possible if you are struggling to finish or turn in an assignment on time.

Turning in late work

Because I do not check the turn in folders for work submitted after Sunday grading, please use this link to turn in past-due work. This way I will know to give you credit! 

Cut-off times for late work: All process writing leads to a major writing assignment . Once final drafts for that assignment are due, process writing for that unit will no longer be given credit. This policy is more than fair.

Turn in using this link: https://forms.gle/4nZqWaQ5ypXerCWC8

**UPDATE** I just saw that the major assignment descriptions that I have in my instructor’s syllabus were not in the student copy. I have added it to the syllabus document. See the table of contents to find it easily in the doc. It’s also now a page here on the site for your reference.