English 110 Fall 2010

Writing Paragraphs: Week Five / 3rd Set Independent Exercises

Due, 1 October, by noon, to JT Olin box

The following are process work exercises you must complete independently toward the writing of your Week Five Polished Paragraph. “Hacker” refers to Diana Hacker’s A Pocket Style Manual, the course’s only required book; other readings are available online, through Penrose’s databases (like ProQuest) or e-reserves with the password “terry” or through an independent website. Please download this document and complete your independent exercises directly on the worksheet, saving a copy to your computer. The exercises are informal writing, designed to prepare you for a paragraph this week and essay next week. Although you will only complete one polished paragraph (200-225 words) for the week, you must complete and turn in all exercises. A polished paragraph is formal writing, and should reflect your best work in critical thinking based on a prompt, presentation and development of idea, and writing quality. Your polished paragraph should represent work you would include in the final draft of an essay. However, a polished paragraph should function like an essay-in-miniature; it contains an idea of limited scope, with perhaps only one example contained within to tease out the nuances of that idea.

Exercises to complete for class on Monday 14 February

1. Based on your work from your Week Four / Second Polished Paragraph & Worksheets, begin considering a working research idea. This idea should be inspired, supported, or complicated by the article (Harding, Ridgeway, or Steele) you focused on, not an idea that’s the same as that article. It should be relevant to – and grounded in – your chosen article, but need not draw from the article’s primary topic or limit itself to the same parameters. (For instance, consider a working idea limited to same-status peer groups, or sexism in graduate school, or schools in impoverished neighborhoods.)

2. Use a brief (5 minute) solo or oral timed freewrite to develop that working research idea. Type HERE:

3. Review the abstracts of the following readings.

Margaret Talbot, “Girls Just Want to Be Mean”, New York Times Magazine, 24 February 2002

Peg Tyre, “The Trouble With Boys” Newsweek.com, 30 January 2006

Elizabeth Weil, “When Should a Kid Start Kindergarten?” New York Times Magazine 3 June 2007

Elizabeth Weil, “Teaching to the Testosterone”, New York Times Magazine, 2 March 2008

4. Based on the abstracts, choose a second article that might contribute to your research idea. Again, you are looking for an article that complements your idea, not one based on the same idea. Read the full article.

5. Compile a list of at least ten (10) portions of that new article (Talbot, Tyre, or Weil) that inspire, support, or complicate your working research idea from step 1-2. (You may – and should – refine your working idea as you “research”, so your list may contain some stretches.) At least half the items on this list must be direct quotations (single words, phrases, or passages taken verbatim from the article, though preferably not from quotes within the article), but you may include up to five summarized impressions or conclusions about the article. Type your list HERE:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

6. Choose four items from the list – including at least two direct quotations – that are most interesting given your working idea. Remember that the connection between your working idea and what you’ve collected from this second article may be tenuous. That’s okay.

7. Using a brief (10-minute) solo timed freewrite, write “between” (to connect) your working idea and those four listed items. Type your work HERE:

8. Bring the above work to class on Monday, 14 February; remember we’ll be meeting in Penrose’s Center For Teaching and Learning (319). Pick up a dictionary (first) and a thesaurus (possibly) in the stacks (not the huge unabridged dictionaries sitting by the desk for display) to work with during class.

Exercises to complete for class on Tuesday, 15 February

1. Read Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts” and “Perfectionism” (e-reserves).

2. Get ready to write a shitty first draft exploring your working research idea. Review your step 7 freewrite from Monday’s prep and your paraphrases, and consider your interests as a “scholar”. Explore your interest in the topic as well as what your two chosen articles have said as if you were preparing to research on your own (because you will be, and soon). Don’t worry about grammar, style, language, continuity, or anything formal essays require. Just write. Get your ideas out. Try to keep going for at least ten minutes, and continue until you have exhausted your thinking. Type your shitty first draft HERE:

3. Bring all of your work to Tuesday’s class (back in our regular classroom).

Exercises to complete for class on Thursday, 17 February

1. Type your paraphrases from Monday’s class HERE:

2. Repeat the paraphrase exercise, but using one of the passages (or a section thereof) you identified in your first article (Harding, Ridgeway, or Steele) from the Week Four / Second Polished Paragraph & Worksheets. Type your work HERE:

3. Read Rosenwasser & Stephen’s “Evolving a Thesis” (e-reserves).

4. Review your work from the week, in and out of class, thus far.

5. Use your best paraphrases to complicate and evolve your working research idea in one more freewrite (either a 20-minute timed freewrite, an oral freewrite with a partner taking notes, or a shitty first draft). Consider this a first full draft of this week’s paragraph. Type your work HERE:

6. Bring all of your work to Thursday’s class.

This week’s polished paragraph must put forth a working research idea using (as inspiration, support, or complication) some input from two articles (Harding, Ridgeway, or Steele AND Talbot, Tyre, or Weil). The paragraph may not use more than five quoted words total (feel free to use less), which does count toward your word count, and must include at least one paraphrase per article.

Please remember: 3rd Polished Paragraph & Worksheets are due

by 4 pm (JT Olin Box) or 5 pm (JT office – 206 East Olin) on Thursday, 17 February

Please turn in a printed copy of this completed worksheet packet with your polished paragraph. Your polished paragraph should be stapled to the top of your packet with “please grade” or “please don’t grade” (or the like) noted clearly, followed by your reflection, and the process work from class and this worksheet. Your polished paragraph should be identified by an original title devised to illuminate your work. Please include the paragraph’s word count (200-225 words is the requirement), as well as correct documentation for any source used in your polished paragraph only (no documentation necessary for exercises because they are “informal” writing, though it’s not a bad habit to do so anyhow). There are no assignment-specific questions you must address in your reflection. Simply consider your polished paragraph in light of one aspect of the five-area assessment, and address anything about your writing process during the week that you think is pertinent.