What to expect tonight (Tuesday)

As you all know, tonight you need to bring a complete rough draft of your research paper to class. The virtual entirety of our session will be devoted to the workshop process tonight, so please come ready to dive in.

After a few announcements and directions, you will start the workshop. When you are done (this is not a brisk process), you will be able to either meet with me, or go work on your final draft.

I will be happy to meet with people after the workshop (I feel like last Thursday's open conferencing was very productive)--just know that my comments will be of a more broad nature, and not in "competition" with your partner's notes.

Looking forward to seeing you all then!

Thursday Night After-Class Work

After our work in tonight's class, please look at what you have so far, take a breath, and try to write a first paragraph. There is no pressure here...just a chance to ride with the training wheels on, so to speak. You might never look at this first step again...or it might be a key into the paper itself!

Post your first paragraph in the comments section (with your name) by midnight tonight. Thanks!

What to expect on Thursday

As you know, for Thursday, you will need to bring notes from all of your sources (and/or the sources themselves as appropriate). In class, we will complete a "building block" exercise designed to get your rough draft set up.

Since it will be an individual-work type of night, I thought you'd like to see the schedule, and plan accordingly.

6:00-6:15--Announcements, etc.
6:15-7:00--Building block exercises
7:00-7:10--Questions
7:10-7:15--Break
7:15-end--Conferencing (this is an opportunity to see me one-on-one to ask questions, share passages, etc. We will set up a schedule in class for this; please note that this portion is optional).

I want tomorrow to be all about you creating a rough draft...or at least the building blocks of one!

Tuesday Night In-Class Work

Please respond to the following in the comments section:


1. On a scale of 1-10, how far along are you with your research and planning for your paper?
2. Explain your rating.
3. What do you have left to do?
4. How much of that did you accomplish during class? (You should move up at least 1-2 "points" with the time!)

Coming up...

Nice work on the satellite topics, everyone! I've also heard from a number of you, and I'm glad to know researching these additional topics has helped expand your work, and put your GB in greater context...

For Tuesday, as you know, your prospectus is due. In addition, we will use class for some surface-level writing issues. Finally, I would like to have an open Q&A about your papers as we move into the final stage. Please come to class with any questions at all about your project--don't worry if the questions are very specific to your paper...that's what I want! We can all learn from each other's work...

See you Tuesday!

Satellite Research

As discussed in class, please post your "satellite" research here (if you haven't already done so in the previous post). Thanks!

In-class exercise, Tuesday

Now that the actual Research Paper is in our sites, it will be helpful to look at a successful one closely.

Go to this site: http://www.writing.ucsb.edu/faculty/dean/50/2008papers/aiello.pdf , which features an award-winning essay from one of my previous Writing 50 sections (it was named the best Writing 50 paper of the year!)

Read the paper closely, then answer the following questions. Give yourself plenty of time to read it, think about it, and express your ideas.

1. Why do you think this essay was singled out as a good example of a research paper?
2. What do YOU think is the best aspect of it? Why?
3. What do you notice about the research?
4. How does reading this affect your plans for your own paper?

Since you are getting class time to complete this, your response is due by 11 pm this evening.