who am i and how did i get here

Assignment: In a planned and developed multi-paragraph THESIS-DRIVEN essay, please address the following prompt. (Note that you may opt to submit this assignment as a powerpoint-style presentation, if you like, but your next assignment will have to be an essay, if you choose to do a presentation this time).

“As a college writer, discuss what you do know so far about writing for a college audience. What is different about writing in college versus writing in high school? How can you leverage your understanding about writing in other genres that you are familiar with? These genres can include social media, texts, personal letters or notes to loved ones, journaling, resumes and college essay applications, etc. Finally, if you had to advise your fellow classmates about what their writing should do and look like, what would you say to them, at this time?

How do you go about this? Read on:

Thesis|
Beginning writers are often taught a five-paragraph style essay, and if this is your first college essay, you may wish to start here, but note that by the end of the quarter, when you complete your portfolio, you will be expected to expand this essay beyond the five paragraph format. Note that most students are expected to expand essays turned in for this course in order to meet the 25 page requirement for the portfolio. Please see the portfolio assignment for more info. Below is a review of the five paragraph essay format (remember that for most students, this is for reference only–I am not asking for a five-paragraph essay):

I. Introductory Paragraph (Possible clever “hook”) Provide broad context for the topic Narrow topic down to a specific argument, often referred to as a THESIS with 3 sub-claims following because in a separate clause (Thesis w/3sub claim example: “It is better to buy Brand Y coffee over Brand X because it is more ethically harvested, is a better value, and lists a roasting date for a fresher cup.”) Body Paragraph 1 (Specific evidence and arguments to prove sub-claim 1, “ethically harvested”) Body Paragraph 2 (Specific evidence and arguments to prove sub-claim 2, “a better value”) Body Paragraph 3 (Specific evidence and arguments to prove sub-claim 3, “fresher taste”) Concluding Paragraph Restate Thesis in different words (ex: “Brand X coffee is the superior brand for discerning consumers who won’t find a better value on ethically sourced coffee that just tastes great.” Re-broaden topic to general/universal statement, call to action, or revisit hook

The idea here is unity of an argument and developing the argument into sub-claims. Often there will be many more than three, so the trick is to word the thesis broad enough to cover all sub-claims, but specific enough to exclude arguments or ideas that are too broad. If we go back to our example of coffee brands, perhaps I also want to mention that Brand Y has a wider variety of blends than Brand X, but my thesis is already getting wordy and long, so I want to think of a way to word my thesis to incorporate that idea, but maybe ignores arguments like availability in the supermarket or sustainability practices or anything else that does not fit into my more limited scope. (Remember that an essay should always have as limited a scope as possible, so that you can focus on developing details as in depth as possible given the length of your essay. If you want to cover every aspect of the coffee roasting industry, you would need to write at least an entire book). So my sample thesis in this case, with the four sub-claims I have identified is now: “Brand Y coffee is superior to Brand X in terms of taste and quality while providing an excellent value without compromising global ethical standards.” 

Notice that the above example thesis offers specific points to be argued. A reader would be able to expect that I’d present some arguments about the flavor of the coffee and it’s freshness as well as the its impact on the pocketbook and perhaps the environment and possibly labor. This means that I have potentially five or six sub-claims to write about now as “taste” could mean variety but also is tied to the concept of quality and freshness, also subjective experience of flavor; value might be a relative argument about quality vs. cost (the word “quality” while not necessarily vague does a lot of heavy lifting in this sentence); and ethics could mean how ecological the growing and harvesting processes are as well as the fairness of the labor practices. Each one of these concepts could easily incorporate one to several paragraphs, so we see that the five paragraph essay is just too limited in scope.

The thesis is broad enough to incorporate all of the ideas we wish to argue, but narrow enough to exclude ideas that are related but not part of the essential argument such as availability, whether the business is local, or whether they have storefronts to purchase coffee at. There is a lot we could include, but we only have so much space and want to create the most compelling argument. We could also decide as we write the essay that “global ethical standards” is too broad as it could also include charitable donations for example, or that we only have space to focus on labor, so when we finish the essay, we will need to revise that part of the thesis. Often, when you are thinking through or “brainstorming” an argument you will likely come up with more ideas than you end up using, but that is a good thing.

Structure|
Once you have determined your thesis and have some ideas for your argument, you may wish to outline your ideas. It’s always best to have some idea of how you will group your claims, but some writers feel stuck with an overly detailed outline. The five paragraph structure, even though it is limited, is still useful in that it validates the connection between thesis and body paragraphs. Each paragraph should focus on one aspect of the thesis. If a sub-claim can be further divided (such as not compromising “global ethical standards,” then a paragraph can be devoted to each of these ideas. A single sub-claim if there is enough content (evidence, logical analysis, useful quotations) may take more than one paragraph. Just be sure that there is a place to logically break the paragraph. Paragraphs are there to help organize your work to make them easier for the reader to comprehend, so make choices that aid the reader in following your thought process. If you prefer a more detailed outline, try using . 

If you are presenting your argument visually (rather than as an essay), it is best to start with bullet points and talk through the ideas in your presentation to keep the balance of visual and text clean. It is probably best to take good notes, but you do not need to share these with your audience. I like to personally think of a presentation as an outline, and I make notes–both written and mental–as I am designing the slides and practicing my presentation.

If you are creating an artistic representation, you may want to still think about organization in terms of how each aspect of your piece represents the argument or points you are making. An expression is an expression; there may be different ways in which arts relates ideas to an audience, but the point of the whole assignment is to use a particular form of expression to reach your audience with your message. So you should do some brainstorming about ways in which your piece conveys your argument. For example, if you are working on a visual representation what structural aspects of the image relate which ideas? How do convey ideas through color, or depth? Even if you don’t normally think these things through when creating, you should still be aware of how this is working, at least enough to walk your audience through as you “present” your piece. It is not simply enough to have the artwork “speak for itself,” at least for our purposes.

Milestone Presentation Options:

1. The Essay

Essays are at the core of what we do as scholars and students. Most scientific research is finalized in articles in scientific journals, but will often go through a few presentations first as data is gathered or collected from experiments. In the humanities, likewise, ideas are often tested at conferences with the long term goal of publication in journals or ultimately books. Even chapters of books take the form of essays, and graduate students who write dissertations an theses will often compose each chapter or section as if it were an individual essay, so that thesis driven essay structure is very important for first year students as well.

For this course, you will write at least one essay from the beginning to the end. And since presentations are essentially the same structure as an essay, the presentation itself has an ultimate goal of an essay. When you write your essays for this course, make sure you are clear about your purpose: what do you want your reader to know about your topic, and why does it matter. Let this purpose guide the choices you make as you gather your argument. In this course we are reinventing the college writing course, so our audience is each other and any potential future students. Finally, your prompt is driven by your topic. What is essential about what you’ve learned and what is useful to writing students who are navigating academic writing?

Essay Guidelines

• Focus your essay on one topic (or one reading assignment’s topic) from one of our discussions
• Spend time creating and later revising a clear thesis that informs the entire essay
• Use MLA Format (double spaced, 12 point, Times New Roman Font, 1″ margins, a title, and in-text citations
• A good length for an essay is somewhere around 5-6 pages (you can expand shorter essays for the portfolio)
• A works cited page is not necessary for the first essay, but do be sure to be clear what source(s) you are using and to quote and cite appropriately (there is a whole week’s worth of discussions devoted to this topic)
• While you aren’t being grades specifically on grammar, please be sure to proofread and that the tone you are using is appropriate for your audience (think about vocabulary choices and primary use of third person perspective while avoiding a casual or colloquial tone)

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