Welcome to Composition II (COM102) at Moraine Valley Community College. This is Prof Mike McGuire's course. Come on in. Look around. Write. Think. Join a conversation.
Standing To Do
There are a few basic activities that you should be doing on an ongoing basis as part of this course. They are repeated activities and critical for your success here.
1
Post under “Research Journal” in the Conversation Center at least once a week, focusing on what you're reading, researching, hearing, and thinking regarding your area of focus in the course. Each post should center on your response to one cited information source and be at least 250 words long.
2
Publish a 1250 to 1500 word draft (or a revision) to your blog as assigned—in response to the given prompt. All major writing prompts will be posted here to the professor's blog as they are assigned.
3
During the week immediately following a major draft due date, read and comment on the posts that are categorized as “Ready for Review” published by the members of your review group. Respond to at least three peers.
4
As assigned throughout the course, complete a “Personal Action Report and Self-Assessment.” The report assignment will be made available to you here when assigned through the professor's blog and submitted privately to the instructor. It is an essential part of the course and should be done thoroughly and thoughtfully.
These are some of the key (and repeated) activities of our course. You'll get the feel for it. Consult the official course schedule for specifics.
Who's On Now?
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10 Recently Active
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Note: Regardless of the number of people in hour group, you need to respond to at least 3 peers during our peer review weeks. Work outside of your group as needed. Thanks.
Welcome to Week 15/Lesson 15. We are just about there with just two official weeks left of this course before finals week. Ok, I’ve given you as much time as I possibly could to work on your writing before it must be “graded.” (There’s that ugly word.) This week you need to focus your attention on pulling together the final portfolio for the course. It is due next week Monday, May 7 at noon. No late work will be accepted. Without a complete portfolio you cannot pass this course, and it weights heavily in determining your final grade (whether you can move from a B to an A or retain the C if you’ve broken the contract). Need I say more? Here’s what you need for the week:
In addition to the work above, as usual, you may want to offer some feedback to your peers on the final introduction/conclusion pieces of the project (or any of the portfolio work for that matter). This isn’t required, but you can request and offer feedback of one another at will. Turn your attention fully to getting your portfolio together. Use your time wisely. Good luck as you make final preparations with your portfolio. Of course, if you have questions, ask. Again all of this work is due Monday, May 7 at noon. (A few extra hours this time.)
As you are completing your final work for your course portfolio, you may want to turn your attention towards editing and proofreading–generally, the final step of the broader writing process. I’ll offer a few strategies here for you to do some editing of your final work. You can ask a friend, family member, classmate, or other trusted reader to help you with this final stage of your writing process.
Consider Your Leads
Leads are like flashlights that shine down into a piece of writing. They illuminate an aspect of the subject and establish the direction for the entire piece. When working with another, you can test the effectiveness of your lead. Write down the title of one of your portfolio pieces on a piece of paper. Also write the first sentence of your paper. Then, find a trusted reader to work with. Have this person look at your title and first sentence, and as honestly as possible answer the question “Does it make you want to read on?” The key here is brutal honesty. It’s for the betterment of your writing.
Now write the rest of your lead. (Your lead is the first one or two paragraphs.) Ask someone to look closely at your entire lead. Ask them to jot down responses to the following:
On the basis of the lead, predict what the piece will be about, what its focus will be.
If you can, make a list of questions raised by the beginning that you hope the piece will answer.
Describe the tone of the paper in a few words.
You can also discuss with your partner/reader some different, possibly more effective, ways to begin your piece. Talking about these points with a careful reader can be very useful, as you have at most the first two paragraphs to really capture your readers. If they are not engaged by then, chances are they will not continue reading. Remember, you can open scholarly and research essays in a way that not only engages the reader, but accurately frames what the purpose of the piece is going to be. By considering whether your lead does or does not help readers predict where the piece is going, you can see if you’re on the right track.
Feel free to try this exercise in the discussion area below this post if you’d like, in the Conversation Center, or work off-line with someone you trust to be thoughtful and honest with you.
Cut-n-Paste Revision
Another great editing activity is considering the organization and unity of your piece.
Give the following a try:
Take the printed copy of your draft and a scissors. Cut up your draft (literally with scissors), paragraph by paragraph.
Shuffle the pieces.
Go through the pile and find the “core” paragraph. (It’s probably the one with your thesis statement in the case of an essay.)
Set the core paragraph aside.
Make two new piles of the remaining paragraphs: those that are relevant to the core and those that don’t seem to be.
Play with the order of the relevant pieces. Notice any gaps.
Tape together any new order that seems promising.
The above activity may seem a little “out there,” but I’ve had students report that it really works for them. There is something different about manually manipulating the pieces of your draft. It can help you see it in a very different way. It’s a worth a try if you are so inclined.
Getting Rid of Clutter
I know what its like to try to write when you’re not sure even if you have anything to say on the subject. You are facing a deadline with a minimal number of words, so you begin looking for filler, or, as famed writer and teacher William Zinsser calls it, “clutter words.” William Zinsser tells us think of “clutter words” as “flutter words.” They may look pretty as they flutter around the substance of a sentence, but they are distracting. Clutter is “the laborious phrase which has pushed out the short word that means the same thing.” Fighting clutter is like fighting weeds—the writer is always slightly behind. Most people use word clutter carelessly, without intention, while other people use clutter in the hopes that they will sound more important or because they think it is expected in their profession. But in almost all cases, the use of such phrases should be avoided.This is yet another opportunity for you to do some final editing.
Try this:
Pick one printed page at random from your draft.
Cut at least 7 words from the page.
The “Impotence” of Proofreading
So the above offered some exercises to get you looking again at your drafts closer
Click to see Taylor Mali on proofreading.
to the surface level as they near completion for this project. The final thing you should do with any work of writing, though, is proofread it carefully. It doesn’t take long to read slowly through all your work (try reading it aloud), and it will usually pay off well, as you will find many typos, dropped words, misspellings, and so on. You’ll find things that are easy to fix–things that would otherwise bother your reader and undermine your credibility as a writer. The video to the right is poet and teacher Taylor Mali with his poem “The the Impotence of Proofreading.” It’s really funny and makes a good point.
Good luck as you continue to finalize pieces in preparation for the final portfolio. If you have questions, of course, don’t hesitate to ask.
As you know, your final portfolio of polished work is due by Monday, May 7. This portfolio is the culmination of the entire course (just about). It should represent the best of the work you have produced this semester. Specifically, it should include revised, polished work for the major writing prompts given to you throughout the semester along with a master works cited section for the entire portfolio.
Categorize the Portfolio Work Properly
By the due date, all the elements of the portfolio (as described below) should be categorized as “Final Portfolio.” When assessing your final portfolio, I will only consider the work that you have properly placed into this category on your blog. If you need help recategorizing your work on your blog, see my post on this: Recategorizing Your Work on Your Blog. (Note that this specific tutorial shows you how to place your work into the “Ready for Review” category, but the process is the same for the “Final Portfolio” category–just pick this category instead.) Also, make sure that when I visit your blog, I can easily select this category. The default theme you had when you first got your blog, had categories listed at the top. If you kept this theme, it should be fine. If you modified your theme or selected another one, just make sure it’s easy for one to select the appropriate category when visiting your site. (Change your theme or add a widget if you have to.)
An Alternative Way to Turn In Your Portfolio
Some of you have a good deal of “artifacts” from the field–photos, physical bits and pieces, drawings, and so on–that you’d like to include in your portfolio and have expressed a desire to create a physical (rather than electronic) portfolio. That’s fine. If you’d like to give me a physically bound portfolio, you are free to do so. Keep in mind, though, that all the same deadlines and basic requirements apply. Please let me know, though, in advance if this is what you plan to do. You can drop off a physical portfolio in my mailbox on campus located in D108.
A Reminder of What Your Portfolio Must Include
Again, your electronic portfolio for this course comprises everything you categorize as “Final Portfolio” on your course blog. It should include responses to all the major “project” portfolio writing prompts prompts plus a complete works cited area. Here it is in bullet point form.
Again, your portfolio must include the following:
An Introduction (the first half of the “Project #6: A Beginning and an End”)
Live? Die? Kill? (Project #1)
Service/Activist Guide to an Issue (Project #2)
Letter to the Editor (Project #3)
Critical Reflection of Service (Project #4)
Story of Service (Project #5)
A Conclusion (the second half of the “Project #6: A Beginning and an End”)
A Complete Works Cited Area*
If you want to look back at all assignment prompts for this course, here is a link: The Course Assignments.
*NOTE:All sources must be properly cited and documented with both MLA in-text notes and a works cited area for each paper/post. Your portfolio will not be accepted as complete if this is not done. It’s that important. If you want, instead of having a separate works cited area for each posted piece, you can create one comprehensive works cited post for the entire collection of final portfolio work. This should be the final piece of the those posted and categorized as “final portfolio.”
How Will This Portfolio Project Be Assessed?
What you are putting together for this portfolio is not merely five papers. Rather, it is a larger body of related scholarly work–related chapters of a small book, if you will. I want you to keep this in mind. I truly believe, here, that the whole is worth more than the sum of the parts, so I will approach assessment in this manner. Your portfolio will be assessed/graded holistically. This means that there will be no minute breakdown of each component, but rather an overall assessment of the entire project. Keep in mind too, the terms of the grading contract we are using this semester. Most of the grade for the semester is based on the degree of your engagement in the course from the very beginning (again see the terms of the contract). For those who are “on track for the B,” you could possibly earn an A if your portfolio meets the “A” criteria for written work as outlined on the grading contract. However, it is critical too that you understand it is still possible to fully break the grading contract and lose the chance of at least a B in the course with this final portfolio. Contract terms 6, 7, and 10 in particular are ones that are assessed with the final portfolio. If the portfolio fails to demonstrate revision, careful proofreading, and/or is in anyway incomplete, it could mean a full break of the grading contract and push you to a lower grade for the course. Make sure, then, that as an entire project the work is strong, united, well revised, meticulously proofread, and complete. Some things I will specifically be looking for, as they are particular requirements of this project, are as follows:
All six pieces included.
Each portfolio piece fully addresses the assignment to which it is in response. All the requirements as described in each major assignment have been met. All feedback from the instructor and peers has been considered with particular attention given to areas where the writing may not have fully achieved the aims of the assignment.
Proper audience awareness is demonstrated in all of the work, writing for an audience broader than just the instructor and classmates. In other words, adequate context is provided in the work so that anyone reading it would be able to understand it without having been in the class or having read the work of the class. In the case of the audience/style project, the piece meets the needs of the selected and targeted audience.
A strong controlling idea (i.e. a thesis) for each piece in the portfolio as appropriate. The narrative/ethnographic work of the course will likely not have explicit theses, but they should have significance as all stories should. A clear sense of what it all means and why you are telling these stories and writing these works is clear to your reader.
A strong, creative opener and a resonating close for each of the portfolio pieces.
All sources (from the class readings and beyond) properly documented using both MLA in-text notes and a works cited page/area.
All pieces are fully developed, and the entire portfolio is a minimum total of 5000 words of polished writing (the equivalent of 20 printed pages).
A descriptive, creative, and interest-catching title for each of the pieces contained within the portfolio. None of the titles should be the following: the title of the assignment as given to you, the word “essay” or “paper” with a number after it, the title of something your read from the book, etc. Find your own title.
SUPER IMPORTANT NOTE: Despite the value of the Final Portfolio the following holds true: The research component of this course, which is blended throughout the final portfolio work, is a state requirement. You cannot successfully complete this course without successfully completing the research component. Also, all major portfolio work must be completed in order to qualify to pass the course. It is also a state requirement that you write a minimum of 5,000 polished words (the equivalent of 20 pages) for this course. Any significant gaps in the Final Portfolio, will result in a grade of F for the course regardless of grade standing prior to the final portfolio submission. This is a Department rule in accordance with State mandates.
Due Date
This entire portfolio collection is due not a minute later than Noon, Monday, May 7. (Yes, I’ve given you four extra hours.) Note that late projects will not be accepted in accordance with the course policy, so get it in on time. The stakes are high.
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