Essay #1 (Out of Class)

Writing 121 - Cora Agatucci
English Composition [Expository Essay Writing]

ESSAY #1 (Out-of-Class)
WR 121, Prof. C. Agatucci - Winter 2003
Worth: 20% of course grade - letter graded.
Revision Option will be offered if Essay #1 is turned in on time.
Late Essays #1 will be penalized 1/2 letter grade.
Recommended: Read Example WR 121 Student Essays (1) Online:
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/wr121/essayexamples.htm

DEADLINES: See WR 121 Course Plan, Weeks #4 & #5, for relevant deadlines.

This assignment will help you achieve these WR 121 learning outcomes (Course Competencies, as listed in WR 121 Syllabus):

*Learning Outcome 1 Write essays that . . .
    ...use a thesis to establish control over content;
    ...supply relevant and adequate supporting details drawn from observation, personal experience and/or responsive reading;
    ...employ the organizational strategies of effective beginnings, transitions, and endings; and
    ...conform to standard edited English.
Learning Outcome 4 Employ one or more sources responsibly (without plagiarizing) in a . . . writing assignment.

Learning Outcome 5 Demonstrate, in an essay, a sustained style employing rhetorically effective tone, persona, diction, idiom, and syntax [i.e. sentence style & word choice].

In addition, preparatory & follow-up assignments & activities--e.g. written plans, preliminary drafts & author's directions, writer's workshops--will help you achieve these WR 121 learning outcomes (Competencies):

Learning Outcome 7 Complete appropriate written critical peer reviews of student essay drafts, including suggestions for revision and editing.
Learning Outcome 8 Complete at least one (formal or informal) written review of the student's own writing strengths and weaknesses, including effective self-prescriptions for improvement.

Learning Outcome 9 Demonstrate, monitor, and articulate the complete idiosyncratic process that the individual writer uses to complete an essay, including such steps as invention, thesis formation, organization, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading.

(OUT-OF-CLASS) ESSAY #1 Requirements & Guidelines

1. Manuscript Preparation: Final/Revised draft (to be graded) must be typed / word-processed and double-spaced, or it will not be accepted for grading. Final Draft should be prepared in standard manuscript format (see WR 121 Syllabus): e.g. use a standard sized font and point size (e.g. 12-point Times New Roman or 10-point Arial), printed in black ink on only one side of standard-sized (8 1/2" X 11") white paper, with one-inch margins at top, bottom, and both sides. You should also use MLA-style Heading in the upper lefthand corner of page 1: NO separate title page is necessary! Use Running Page Headers in the upper righthand corners of page 2 and subsequent essay pages, including the separate Works Cited page at end of your essay.

2. Essay Genre & Topic Choice: A non-fiction, expository Essay controlled by a clear (explicit or implicit) Thesis / Purpose. Essay #1 Topic is your choice with these limitations:

(a) No Argument topics - for formal argument is difficult to do well and is taught in WR 122, not in WR 121. What is "argument"?--see Muller's discussion of "Argument" (36-37);
(b) Narration topics--i.e. telling non-fiction story/ies drawn from your personal experience--must have a thesis (focused to make a central point), serve an expository purpose (e.g. illustrate a principle, explain how something happened, explain why something happened and/or its consequences/effects). See also "Narration" (Muller 26-27).

Advice on Essay Topic choice & scope: Keep Essay Length (below) in mind as you choose and focus your topic, develop your thesis, and draft Essay #1. If you can't achieve at least 3 typed/wordprocessed & double-spaced pages (about 750 words), you need to either provide more specific development of your points, or expand the scope of your topic/thesis. On the other hand, if you have reached page 7 in drafting your essay and you still have much more you want to write to make your thesis point, you need to narrow down the scope of your topic/thesis.

Need Topic Ideas? Review Muller table of contents and/or the "Writing" & "Connections..." sections following Muller reading selections--though keep in mind the limitations given above under Genre & Topic Choice.
See also Student (out of class) Essay Examples from past WR 121 sections:
URL: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/wr121/essayexamples.htm

3. Essay Length: The Final/Revised Draft of Essay #1 itself should be 3-to-5 typed / wordprocessed and double-spaced pages long--or about 750 to 1000 words--not counting the separate Works Cited page at the end of your essay - see Reading Citation requirement below.

4. Source Citation, Works Cited, & Plagiarism Avoided: You must incorporate at least one in-text citation (summary, paraphrase, and/or quotation - see Muller 11-14, 699-700) from a Muller reading selection or other outside source into your essay. And you must, therefore, also prepare a separate Works Cited page, placed at the end of your essay, that presents a full MLA-style bibliographical entry for the reading(s) cited in your essay (see Muller 725 for a sample student Works Cited page - although your Essay #1 Works Cited may contain only one bibliographical entry.)

Advice on "incorporating" an in-text citation into your essay: Yes, this Essay #1 requirement is meant to be challenging (and also meant to prepare you for reading-based In-Class Essay assignments that lie ahead):

--You have to find and select a citation (summary, paraphrase, quotation) from a Muller reading selection or other outside source that is relevant to a point you wish to make or develop in Essay #1.
--You have to figure out where to place the citation in Essay #1 and how you can use or apply it--e.g. to introduce or express, develop or illustrate, provide a definition of or an alternative (contrasting) view on, one of your points (whether your thesis point and/or one of your supporting "body" points).
--You cannot expect a quotation to speak for itself: rather you must supply commentary to accompany the citation that explains explicitly how/why the citation is relevant to your Essay #1 point.
--You must follow MLA-style in introducing (e.g. use an "author tag" - see Formal Academic Summary & Rhetorical Analysis #1 directions) and parenthetically citing the summary, paraphrase, or quotation - in order to distinguish the citation from your own words & ideas, and to avoid plagiarism. Note Well: Even when you translate a source's words or ideas into your own words - i.e. paraphrase (indirect quotations) and summary - you must cite the source!
--You should try to integrate the citation into your Essay #1 text and sentences smoothly (considering flow, style, and grammatical correctness) - and for direct quotations cited, you may need to use ellipses (if you leave something out . . . of the original sentence/s quoted) and/or brackets (if you want to add [something] within the quotation).

Essay #1 Evaluation Checklist
WR 121, Prof. C. Agatucci - Winter 2003

Evaluation: (Out of Class) Essay #1 Name:_____________________________
Worth: 20% of Course Grade
WR 121, Prof. C. Agatucci, Fall 2002 Grade:_________________________

___ Submitted Late: ½ Grade Penalty
___ Submitted on time: Revision Option available.
Note Well: Original graded Essay #1 must be resubmitted with Optional Revision for regrading.

I. BASIC REQUIREMENTS are met (Yes or No) - See Essay #1 Requirements & Guidelines
___1. Manuscript Preparation
___2. Essay Genre & Topic Choice
___3. Essay Length
___4. Source Citation, Works Cited, & Plagiarism Avoided

__LEARNING OUTCOME 4: Employ one or more sources responsibly (without plagiarizing)…

II. ESSAY WRITING SKILLS (Out of Class, Free-Choice Topic) :______________
___Content, Author Engagement, Audience: college-level critical/creative thinking demonstrated (e.g. imaginative treatment, insightful analysis, relevant issues/complexity explored, does not oversimplify or ignore contradictions); clear sense of author engagement & topic knowledge; strong sense of audience: author is writing to communicate with targeted audience & general (incl. “uninformed”) WR 121 college-level readers.

___LEARNING OUTCOME 1: Write essays that [A] use a thesis to establish control over content;
[B] supply relevant and adequate supporting details drawn from observation, personal experience and reading; [C] employ organizational strategies of effective beginnings, transitions, and endings; . . .

___A. Title, Thesis/Purpose, Unity: thesis & purpose clearly established (or implied) & well placed; essay is unified by (sticks to) stated/implied thesis & central purpose, timely thesis transitions integrated to connect body points to essay thesis; effective title forecasts topic focus/thesis/theme.
___B. Body Paragraph Structure & Development: each body paragraph presents a clear main idea (explicit/implicit topic sentence) unifying the rest of the paragraph; good idea progression (unnecessary restatement and circling are avoided); effective balance of meaningful generalization and specific supporting development; specific development is effective to clarify, support, elaborate, illustrate, dramatize, make vivid the author’s general points--to "show" readers what the author means; body points important to support of thesis/purpose are accorded proportional emphasis & development, and are well explained/analyzed/interpreted; body content is well selected to achieve the overall essay purpose/thesis.
___Well-selected citation is incorporated smoothly and grammatically correctly into essay - using ellipses, brackets, block quotation if applicable. Commentary accompanies citation to interpret/explain its relevance to student’s essay/point.
___C. Organization & Coherence: Overall, organizational plan/arrangement of ideas is sound, logical, effective; introduction and conclusion are appropriate to thesis/purpose and effective; internal body paragraph organization is strong, and paragraphs breaks are logical and "readable"; reasoning is convincing and logical; strong coherence, continuity, clarity maintained in the essay--e.g., through explicit, accurate transitions, clear expression, few major sentence errors, grammatical consistency in person, tense, pronoun reference, etc.

LEARNING OUTCOME 3 Demonstrate ability to use a variety of expository essay patterns . . .
This Essay uses these strategies of development: _________________________________

III. GRAMMATICAL CORRECTNESS & STYLE :______________

___LEARNING OUTCOME 1 Write essays that . . . conform to standard edited English.

___LEARNING OUTCOME 5 Demonstrate, in an essay, a sustained style employing rhetorically effective tone, persona, diction [Word Choice], idiom, and syntax [Sentence Structure].

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Last Updated: 21 October 2003

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Writing 121 - Cora Agatucci English Composition [Expository Essay Writing]

Writing 121 - Cora Agatucci
English Composition [Expository Essay Writing]