Weekly Outcomes

(the layout below was for an 8-week summer course)

 

Week 1

Once again, welcome to English 102 online.  I hope you had the chance last week to go through the Week 0 module, and play around in the course a little bit.  If you didn’t, it might be a good idea to spend some time in that area now, to help you get started.

This class is scheduled into Modules, corresponding to each week of the quarter.  Each week we’ll have three due dates: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at midnight.  (This week, though, we won’t have work due on Monday, since we’re just getting started.)  Just because those are the due dates, doesn’t mean you have to wait until then to finish and submit the work.  The reason for multi-day interval is so that you can use the full time between due dates to complete tasks.  You’re always encouraged to turn in work early to avoid any last-minute glitches.

In Week 1’s module, we’re laying the conceptual groundwork for the course.  We’re investigating exactly what research is, and particularly scholarly research.  We all do research in our personal lives already–we’ll tap into those skills to build our academic prowess now.

 

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this week, you should be able to:

  1. Create and share a completed Google Doc, using Google Drive, with editing enabled
  2. Use the discussion forum to make an original post and submit replies to other students
  3. Identify research types
  4. Demonstrate the difference between a “homework” question and a “research” question
  5. Identify the thesis of an assigned reading for summary purposes
  6. Demonstrate “reading to write effectively” skills

 

For Further Practice

These sources are just suggestions for further exploration.  Use them at your discretion.

 

Finally, just for fun, a humorous overview of what an argument is (and is not!):

http://youtu.be/kQFKtI6gn9Y

 

Week 2

Now that we’ve got the fundamental ideas of what research is, broadly speaking, now it’s time to apply those ideas to a project of our very own.  As noted in the Research Essay Project Overview, you will be writing an extensive, persuasive, research-based essay of your own this quarter.  This week, we’ll play with ideas for possible topics, and settle on one to pursue.

 

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this week, you should be able to:

  1. Brainstorm potential topics appropriate for this course’s assignment.
  2. Use initial research to answer preliminary questions (“homework questions”) you have about a topic.
  3. Draft a working thesis statement on a topic of your choice.
  4. Analyze a source pertaining to your chosen topic.

 

FOR FURTHER PRACTICE

These resources are not (usually) mandatory, but will often prove valuable in helping you complete other assignments within the unit.   Use them at your discretion.

 

Week 3

This week introduces one big hurdle in getting the rest of the quarter’s work moving: deciding on a topic to pursue.  Hopefully you’ve had some time to weigh your options, and you’ve found the perfect match that will keep you motivated and interested.

After you’ve found your topic, the rest of the week is entirely about preparing your Source Evaluation Essay.  Because of this, the module is a little more full than previous ones, containing weblinks and sample documents.

Three former students’ essays are included in this module.  These samples are offered NOT as examples of perfect writing–you’ll probably spot small errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and citation as you look over them.  They ARE, however, good illustrations of the options of conclusions that are available to you as you make your determinations about your own particular source.

 

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this week, you should be able to:

  1. Formulate initial thesis statement for your own persuasive essay
  2. Punctuate material that appears inside quotation marks in a source correctly, when using it in your own writing
  3. Identify potential bias within a source
  4. Compare a source’s thesis to your own working research project thesis

 

FOR FURTHER PRACTICE

These resources are not (usually) mandatory, but will often prove valuable in helping you complete other assignments within the unit.   Use them at your discretion.

 

Week 4

The source evaluation is Priority 1 this week; the final draft will be due Monday night.  Once that’s done, we’ll take what we did in extended form for that essay, and shrink it down to apply to many more sources.

The Annotated Bibliography will be our next big step towards completing the Research Essay Project, and it will ask you to find, evaluate, and cite a number of sources.  You can incorporate the sources you’ve found so far and turned in for earlier assignments, so you won’t be starting from scratch.  It will be due in Week 6.

The other new element this week will be the “Discovery Draft” as a way to get the ball rolling on the research essay text.  This is a very free-wheeling assignment.  All I ask is that you dedicate one solid hour this week to work on your research project, in the form of this discovery draft.  Make sure to build time into your schedule to do this.

 

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this week, you should be able to:

  1. Provide an in-depth evaluation of a potential source for your research project
  2. Recognize differences between APA & MLA citation styles
  3. Brainstorm content, sources, and organizational ideas for your research project

 

FOR FURTHER PRACTICE

These resources are not (usually) mandatory, but will often prove valuable in helping you complete other assignments within the unit.   Use them at your discretion.

 

Week 5

Time always accelerates towards the end of the quarter, and pressure from all courses you’re taking is rising.  Keep your balance as best you can, because some significant projects will be due in this time.  Let me highlight the good news, though: the big projects you’ll be turning in are cumulative, building on what’s come before.

The first version of a rough draft is due this week, to reach at least 1000 words.  This can come directly from work you’ve done in the Discovery Draft and other assignments, to get you rolling.  What this looks like doesn’t matter; it’s all about getting words on the page.

The rest of the week will be devoted to preparing the Annotated Bibliography.  The “annotation” paragraphs that follow each source’s citations are like mini versions of the Source Evaluation essay, with a little summary thrown in.  You should be well-versed in these skills by now, and can quickly assess the relative value of each source on this list.  Remember, they don’t all have to be keepers.  This list is to value the whole research process, and we expect you to find a lot of junk along with the good stuff.

 

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this week, you should be able to:

  1. Analyze potential audiences for a project and select an appropriate one
  2. Write a rough draft of your research essay

 

FOR FURTHER PRACTICE

These resources are not (usually) mandatory, but will often prove valuable in helping you complete other assignments within the unit.   Use them at your discretion.

 

 

Week 6

The Annotated Bibliography is due at the beginning of the week.  This is just a “snapshot” of your research at this point in time.  You can continue to find new and different sources, and the ones you use in your final essay won’t necessarily have to come exclusively from this list.

Outlining is extremely important, especially with longer projects.  It’s hard to remember what you wrote on page 2, by the time you get to page 8, after all!  So the remainder of the week will be used to develop an outline, and begin applying our sources gathered into quotes and paraphrases to incorporate into drafts.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this week, you should be able to:

  1. Cite a variety of sources in polished MLA format
  2. Annotate your citations with brief paragraphs defining the relative value of a source to your own research goals
  3. Articulate a list of arguments supporting your side of a thesis, and anticipate opposition coming from opponents
  4. Draft a detailed outline of a research project

 

FOR FURTHER PRACTICE

These resources are not (usually) mandatory, but will often prove valuable in helping you complete other assignments within the unit.   Use them at your discretion.

 

 

Week 7

All right–we’ve gathered sources, we’ve got an outline, we’ve been trucking along with our drafting process.  Now it’s time to expand and polish that draft a bit, and get it in front of other people’s eyes for the first time.  The draft you submit this week will be used for Peer Review.

 

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this week, you should be able to:

  1. Complete a draft of your essay that’s ready to share with peers for their input
  2. Complete a Post Draft outline of your Research project, and use it to assess what structural changes should be made to your draft
  3. Provide peer review evaluation for members of your peer group
  4. Use peer review feedback on your own work to help guide revision

 

FOR FURTHER PRACTICE

These resources are not (usually) mandatory, but will often prove valuable in helping you complete other assignments within the unit.   Use them at your discretion.

 

Week 8

Almost there!  The final draft of the research essay will be due by Monday at midnight, and the Cover Letter assignment will be due Wednesday at midnight.  That cover letter is just describing your writing experience, so it won’t ask you anything challenging…hopefully it will be the easiest thing you do this week. It’s our version of a final exam.

I know I’ve pushed you hard all quarter long, but you’ve successfully met every challenge I’ve thrown at you, and then some.  You’ll be asked to write a lot of essays in future classes, and won’t always be given such detailed prewriting tasks to make sure they get done.  From here on out, it’s up to you to determine what the best steps are for you to take, in order to get a complete, comprehensive, well-written final essay turned in.  I hope you’ve found a few of the methods in this class particularly useful, that you can continue to draw on throughout your college career (and beyond!).

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this week, you should be able to:

  1. Detect and evaluate non-argumentative persuasive techniques – rhetorical devices such as irony, satire, anecdotal evidence, flattery and analogies, and logical fallacies – used to sway readers’ emotions.
  2. Use library research skills in electronic, print, and other sources to gather support for arguments.
  3. Recognize that different academic disciplines may rely on different kinds of arguments and assess what types of argument and evidence are appropriate for different fields of knowledge.
  4. Write arguments appropriate to audience, occasion and discipline.