Week 8 (March 22 – 28)

Checklist:

• Read about paragraph focus, and use that info to check over your own paragraphs in rough draft of Essay 2. Once you have done so, add a note at top of essay so your peer partner knows its ready for review. Do this by Wednesday, March 24.
• Read info on plagiarism.
• Peer review of Essay 2. Due Sunday, March 28.
• Spend some time surfing the web to find some possible issues for your research project. Aim for at least 4. Write a post that briefly describes the issues you’re considering (or that others in your theme might find appealing), including at least one source for each issue (a link is sufficient–you don;t need to give full MLA citation).  Also, please include how you can imagine using images to develop some related topic, as required for Essay 4. Due Sunday, March 28.

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Plagiarism sample

Coherence (link for class)

1. Read these pages on paragraphs: Paragraph focus and topic sentences and Topic sentences.

2. Read Plagiarism.

3. Final draft of Essay 2 will not be due until April 4; peer review is due by midnight on Sunday, March 28. Please address the following questions in your peer review (to be posted as comment on your partner’s essay and as a separate post on your own blog):

• How is the essay structured, and does it follow assignment guidelines? (If not, explain why and give suggestions for revision)
• Is the summary complete and accurate? If not, please make suggestions.
• Does the writer handle source ethically? (check to make sure that paraphrases are not unacceptably close to original wording; is Works Cited included?)
• Are paragraphs focused, well-developed, and coherent? (Is there one clear main idea per paragraph? Identify any paragraphs that need revision for focus or coherence.)
• Is the response substantive? (Does the writer make interesting, thought-provoking points or connections?)

Here are your peer review assignments (based on what was posted by Monday–people who posted late, please let me know if you’d like me to try to find a partner, but no promises. To receive credit yourself for peer review, you may find and post on anyone’s essay who does not already have a review.) Note that I’ve tried to assign you to review someone who’s picked the same article you did.

Peer review partners

A09:

• Angel and Billy
• Freddie and Alec (from A10)
• Kerri and Sydney
• Kristen and Marguerite (from A10)
• Marie and Nekole

A10:

• Alec and Freddie (from A09)
• Crystal and Ryuto
• Marguerite and Kristen (from A09)
• Melissa and Vanessa

4. Pew Research Center has many research reports on various topics related to some of your themes (particularly family, education, technology).

Room for debate (from the New York Times) also has a collection of short pieces that argue different sides of issues–see list of topics at lower right of page (including education, food, environment, health, law, prisons, and technology).