Writing 121
- Cora
Agatucci
English Composition [Expository Essay
Writing]
WR 121 Assignments (2)~ Fall 2001
See Fall 2001 WR 121 Course Plan
for Deadlines
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Short Cuts to Assignments
on this webpage:
Go to Assignments
(1) for Weeks #1 - #5
URL: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/wr121/assignments.htm
In-Class
Essay #3 Topic Choices
See WR 121 Course
Plan for deadlines and materials needed.
Choose one of the following topics for In-Class Essay #3.
Make sure your essay addresses the assigned topic and
is unified by a clearly stated thesis and a narrowed focus.
The essay must be well-developed with supporting examples, specifics, or
details collected from observation, experience, or reading. If you do any
reading on your topic, be sure to give credit to your source(s) within your essay.
TOPIC 1.
Compare and/or contrast a
computer mode of experience (such as playing a game, chatting, shopping,
writing, or doing research) with a non-computer mode of doing the same activity.
Be sure to use your comparative analysis to make a point.
TOPIC
2. Use the following
passage by Clive Barker as the springboard for an essay analyzing one or more
experiences of “dream travel” you’ve taken.
Use your analysis to respond to this question:
Do you think “dream time” is childish, or does it seem relevant to
the “real” business of adult living?
“As a child you are given dream time as part of your fictional life.
Into your hands go the books of dream travel, Dorothy's dream travel,
the Darling family's dream travel in Peter Pan, the children of Narnia.
You're given books in which children with whom you identify take
journeys which are essentially dream journeys.
They are to places in which the fantastical not only happens, but is
commonplace. Alice falls down a
hole, the Darling children take flight, the tornado picks up Dorothy's house.
These children are removed and taken to a place which is essentially a
place of dreams.
“And then, at the age of five or something like that, they start to
teach you the gross national product of Chile.
And you're left thinking, Wait! What
happened to Oz and Never-Never Land and Narnia? Are they no longer relevant?
One of the things you're taught is, No! they are no longer relevant.
They are, as it were, a sweet introduction to the business of living.
And now comes the real stuff--so get on with it.”
(-- Clive Barker, from
Writers Dreaming, 1993)
TOPIC 3. Collaboration
is a now popular mode of learning and working.
Considering one or more contexts in which you collaborated with others on
a specific project, evaluate the effectiveness of collaboration.
TOPIC 4.
Evaluate a job that you have held or a course that you have taken.
TOPIC 5. Classify
different types of non-verbal communication used in your culture, and explain
the significance of the communicative form(s).
Tips:
Use Cora's Handouts relevant to your topic choice to help you:
Comparison-Contrast Structure
Evaluation Essays
Organizing Classification Essays (below)
Example Classification Topic:
Classify different types of non-verbal communication used in your
culture, and explain the significance of using the communicative form(s).
Classification
essays begin by focusing on a group of related things that belong to a
common class. In the case of a
general class that might be unfamiliar to some (many?) of your readers, such
as “non-verbal communication” or “creation myths,” you would need to
define the concept before proceeding to identify different types within that
general class. On the other hand, a general class like “college
students”—a group with which your WR 121 audience would certainly be
familiar—you may not need to introduce any special definitions of the
concept.
The next step is decide upon a significant
classification principle to break down the general class into three or more
different types included in that general class.
In the case of “college students,” you can probably see immediately
that an immense diversity exists within this general class:
types of “college students” could be categorized based on identity
factors (e.g. age, gender, ethnicity, religion, socio-economic class, region);
the types of colleges they attend (e.g. community college or 4-year
university, urban or rural college); their reasons and/or purposes for going
to college (e.g. because their parents make them, because they want a better
paying job); their study habits; the social groups they belong to and/or
activities they participate, etc. In
the case of “non-verbal communication,” the general class can be broken
down into different non-verbal modes that communicate, such as (1) body
language (e.g. facial expressions; hand gestures; postures while walking,
standing, sitting); (2) proximics (e.g. how close or far people position
themselves when interacting with others, touching or not touching); (3) body
adornment (e.g. clothes, jewelry, tattoos, hair styles), (4) possessions
and/or behaviors that communicate messages (e.g. type of vehicles people drive
and how people drive them).
(BTW: Closely related to
Analysis by “Classification” is Analysis by “Division”—a kind of
“Analysis” that divides a single thing into its classifiable and distinct
parts in order to help us better understand that thing as a whole.)
A focused classification essay must,
therefore, select a relevant basis for subdividing a general class into three
(or more) distinct types within that general class.
This basis or unifying principle of classification should be a feature
that all members of the general class share, but must also be useful in
identifying and distinguishing different types (i.e. mutually exclusive
groups) within that general class. For
example, “reasons for going to college” could be adopted as a unifying
principle or basis for classifying the general class “college students.”
That is, all “college students” have “reasons for going to
college” (whether good one or bad ones), but these “reasons” are diverse
and can be different enough to help us break the general class “college
students” into three or more distinct groups: e.g., those who go only
because their parents are making them, those who go primarily because they
want to enrich their social lives, those who go because they want to gain
knowledge and skills necessary to get a good job in future.
For another example, the “Portfolio” of creation myths presented in
our textbook Dreams used “originating culture” as the basis for
subdividing the general class “creation myths” into types, and then the
editors applied this classification principle to select examples of creation
myths from different cultures to include in the “Portfolio.”
One might also restrict the subdivision of types even more
specifically: e.g. “non-verbal communication” could be narrowed down to
a particular subgroup and scenario—e.g. modes of non-verbal communication
used by people who drive on the road, and types could be distinguished by the
unifying classification principles of type of vehicle and/or driving behavior.
(BTW: This analytical process is very similar to the thinking
process you use to construct a comparison-contrast essay—the main difference
being that comparison/contrast focuses on two subjects from the same class,
whereas classification requires at least three types from the same class.)
But don’t forget that a classification
essay—like every other kind of essay--must have a thesis.
The unifying principle or basis of classification that you select
should be significant in some way that you can explain.
For example, our textbook editors selected “originating culture” as
their classification principle because they believed it would yield
significant similarities and/or differences (e.g. in portrayals of the
Creators, in attitudes toward women, in relationships between nature and
humankind, etc.)—stemming from the values and behaviors of the
“originating cultures” (classification principle) that would help us
better understand both “creation myths” (the general class) and their
cultures. Similarly, if you view
“reasons for going to college” as significant in affecting whether
students ultimately succeed or fail in college, you could use a classification
essay to assert and demonstrate this thesis opinion.
In other words, it is not enough to construct a classification system
for its own sake; you need to find a unifying principle of classification to
serve some theory of significance (thesis) that can be revealed by
distinguishing and discussing selected types within a general class.
Your imagined readers are always entitled to ask the question, “So
what?” Your thesis and theory
of significance should be offered to answer that question, and justify the
reader’s close attention to your classification system.
Developing
a Classification essay requires that you consistently apply your unifying
principle of classification, using it to define and distinguish the three or
more types or groupings within the general class under discussion.
The “types” must “mutually exclusive—that is, different enough
from each other to be clearly distinguishable.
Then you need to illustrate each of those types with well-selected
specific supporting examples. Sometimes
one good extended or “composite” example is sufficient to illustrate each
type; other times, two or more specific examples may be needed to define,
distinguish and demonstrate each type and make your point about it.
Organizational
Worksheet for a Classification Essay
|
General
class:
Studies
of ape communication designed to answer the research question, “Do
apes communicate?”
Unifying
principles
for classifying studies of ape communication:
Primatologists use systematic research
methods to study ape (gorilla) communication, and their
research findings all
conclude:
Yes, apes can communicate.
Apply
the unifying classification principles to distinguish (at least) three
different types
within the general class:
Type 1 &
Example: controlled
laboratory research method used by primatologist Francine Patterson to study individual gorilla communication (Koko); research findings: Koko learned to communicate with Patterson
using human
sign language.
Type 2 &
Example :
field research method used by primatologist Dian Fosse to
study group gorilla communication in their native habitat;
research findings: Fosse observed, and learned how to “speak”
in, the non-human “language” that gorillas use to communicate
with each other in the wild.
Type 3 & Example: combination of laboratory and field research methods
used by Prof. X, building upon the research of Patterson
and Fosse with gorillas; research findings: more complete
picture of how gorillas communicate individually and in groups,
in lab settings and in the wild, using both human
(sign) and gorilla modes of communication.
Thesis/Significance: Different types of research methods yield different types
of research findings. The
research of primatologists Patterson and Fosse have each been valuable
in giving us different pieces of the puzzle, but Professor X has shown
us how to put together a fuller picture of ape communication by
combining these different research methods and findings.
|
Writer's
Profile #3
(on Essays #1, Essay #2, & In-Class Essay #3)
1. Analyze and evaluate
your past experience with timed essay writing and, more specifically, your
preparation process and in-class time management for Essay #3. Then
explain what you would do the same and/or differently when you prepare and
write In-Class Essay #4.
2. Identify the types
of essays or modes of development (e.g. narrative, comparison/contrast,
analysis, evaluation, classification) that you used in Essay #1, Essay #2, and
In-Class Essay #3. State how much prior experience and instruction you
have had in these types (or combination of types) of essay writing. Then
identify strengths, weaknesses, special challenges that seem directly related
to the type of essays you were writing in each case.
3. Identify patterns of
strength and weakness that recurred in at least two or in all three of your
essays. In the case of recurring weaknesses or areas that you need to
improve, explain what you are doing--or plan to do soon--to improve or
strengthen that essay writing skill.
4. Review the list of
WR 121 course competencies (attached and also printed in our course
Syllabus). Reassess your skills in each competency at this point in the
term. Identify competencies in which you believe you have most
improved. Also identify competencies in which you need to improve
further and now target for special attention.
In-Class Essay
#4 Topics
See WR 121 Course
Plan for deadlines and materials needed.
Choose one of the following topics for In-Class Essay #4.
Make sure your essay addresses the assigned topic, has a narrowed
focus, and
is unified by a clearly stated thesis.
The essay must be well-organized, clear and coherent, and well-developed with supporting examples, specifics, or
details collected from observation, experience, and/or reading. If you do any
reading on your topic and/or use any outside source(s), be sure to give credit to your
source(s) within your essay.
TOPIC 1:
Classify different ways that people deal with stress in their lives. Be
sure to use your classification system to make a thesis point.
TOPIC 2. Write an essay analyzing the
cause(s) of lack of communication between pets and their owners, OR
between employers and their employees. Then propose at least one solution that
addresses identified cause(s) of the communication gap and that promises
improved communication will result.
TOPIC 3.
Drawing upon the following passage, define the meaning and importance
of "justice"—or, at least, a belief in "justice"—in
your own and/or others’ daily living.
Justice
is one of those palliative myths--like afterlife with acquired personality and
memory intact--that makes existence bearable.
As long as we can think that our experience of being periodically
screwed by fate is the exception to the rule we can hope for, as they used to
say in commercials, a brighter tomorrow.
As long as we can trust in an ultimate squaring of accounts, we can
suffer what we assume to be temporary setbacks, transitory stumbles on our
path toward redemption though good works and sacrifice.
When
I was a child we were told of a Golden Ledger in which God (or one of his
executive assistants) kept tabs on our every plus and minus, and as long as we
wound up in the black we were "in"--as in heaven for all
eternity. Our journey through the
years was a test that was passable, if only we stretched hard enough.
We were in control of our destinies.
We were, at worst, Job: Hang
in there, and you will be paid back with compound interest.
(Dorris,
Michael. "The Myth of
Justice." Outside the
Law: Narratives on Justice in
America. Eds. Susan Richerd
Shreve and Porter Shreve. Boston:
Beacon Press, 1997.)
TOPIC
4. Does gender matter? Focus
and develop your essay response to this question by comparing and/or
contrasting social expectations for male and female behavior in one or more
particular social situations.
TOPIC
5. Write an essay in
which you evaluate one of the following:
(a)
a public service
(b) a
local business
(c)
a product.
Fall
2001 WR 121 Syllabus
| Course
Plan | Links:
Writer Resources |
Assignments will be
webposted after they are discussed in class:
Assignments (1) | Essay
#1 | Assignments (2)
Cora's WR
121 Home Page | Past
Student Writing | Humanities
Dept Web: Writing
Home Page
You Are Here ~ WR 121
Assignments (2) ~ Fall 2001
URL of this webpage:
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/wr121/assignments2.htm
Last Updated: 26 July 2003
This webpage is maintained by Cora
Agatucci, Professor of English,
Humanities Department, Central
Oregon Community College
I welcome comments: cagatucci@cocc.edu
© Cora Agatucci, 1997-2001
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