This past term alone, I had to flunk a crapload of them for not drawing from the required number of academic/scholarly sources in their final paper - which, by the way, was a whopping TWO! A minimum of two sources and a number of snowflakes couldn't even do THAT! And yes, I had spent quite a bit of time going over, explaining, and stressing academic/scholarly sources, and the importance of, over the course of the semester. One particular snowflake even complained that the assignment sheet simply did NOT stress how important it was to support her arguments and to cite properly! WTF? I just assumed that the "two minimum sources required" statement would suffice (as it has done so the previous three years), and that proper citation just goes without saying (although I did stress this as well). But apparently, not anymore.
At any rate, she is in dire need of some writing exemplars:
In the mindset that good writing is informed by reading-good-writing, I would like to create a list of readings to support the first year students in this course.
Here is a bit more on what I am looking for:
1. Good examples of fine writing in different writing styles - prose, fiction, academic, organization/framework structures, informal and formal, etc.
2. Writing for different channels - journals, books, Wikis, Blogs, scripts (theater/podcasts/interviews), Twitter, webpages, emails, white papers, etc.
3. Topics are broad but would love a focus on information and communication issues.
Any suggestions?
By ChrryBlstr
You could ask a similar question here:
ReplyDeletehttp://lists.asu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=WPA-L
or
https://lists.asu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=WPA-L
Chrry, email me and I will send you a handout I made for my students on Basic Essay Structure that you can feel free to tweak to your heart's content.
ReplyDeleteWe just had a meeting yesterday about doing a WAC (Writing Across the Curriculum) SOTL (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning) project to address this very issue--even the students who are required to take a writing course aren't transferring the skills learned in our comp courses to their other classes. (In my Uni system, every single student who gets a BA has had at least one comp course; some campuses are starting to require 2--the basic comp and a "writing in the discipline" course).
Good luck.
@ MA - thanks!
ReplyDelete@ BC - Sorry. I'm fairly new to this blog. How do I e-mail you? When I click your name, it just takes me to a blank page. How do I find out your e-mail info?
profbchrome@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteThat's weird about the blank page--it should take you to my profile, which, while sparse, should have a way to contact me...
I ask the authors of the best essay(s) from each semester if I may use their paper as a sample for future students. If they agree, I ask if they want their name kept on the essay, or would prefer to be anonymous. Most of them love that their papers are good enough to serve as examples, and say they want their name kept on it. They email me a copy and I upload it to our LMS, and we read and discuss it in class when I assign the paper. It helps because while I tweak assignments each term, students get examples of almost the exact assignment that I am asking them to complete.
ReplyDeleteI have done something similar to Mestopholita (always offering anonymity), but I have also contacted friends in other departments for swapping such papers and we all have a pretty good portfolio built up. I tried writing one myself, but found it hard to get just the right mix of alcohol, tobacco, quetiapine and lorazepam to put my mind in the proper state.
ReplyDelete@ M and S - keeping actual exemplars from previous students IS a great idea! It's too late for this bunch since I've already returned all of their papers, but hopefully there will be more from the incoming ones this semester. Thank you!
ReplyDelete@BC - I've sent you an e-mail. Thanks!
I do the same as M and S, and appreciate Steve's recipe.
ReplyDelete@ CherryBlstr: "Topics are broad but would love a focus on information and communication issues."
You set off my alarm bells. Be careful of assigning a prompt that's already out there in the Plagiasphere. Try Googling your topic and see how many links come up with detailed discussion boards and/or papers for sale. The more narrow or specific the assigned topic, the less likely that students will find it prefab.
But, you say, students will be more engaged if they pick their own topics, and you'll be more engaged if you don't have to read 30 of the same damn thing. A compromise is to offer a limited menu of topics that you've vetted.
This has worked for me for a number of years. A bit of a time investment beforehand, but worth the reduction in paperwork to the Dean of Few Consequences (quoting Frog and Toad).
@Eskarina: I don't want your post to get buried without extolling the neologism you created: "Plagiasphere." That's an awesome term, and I highly encourage its inclusion in the CM Glossary.
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