Introduction to English 1A, 2-16-23

Spring 2023 English 1A Syllabus 

Welcome to English 1A

Hello, I'm Jeff McMahon, your English 1A instructor for this semester. I want to help you be successful in your college writing, not just for this class, but for any other college and non-college endeavors.

This class is divided into 4 units with each unit addressing a different 5-page essay assignment, so you will be writing 4 essays.

I won't be giving you any quizzes or tests. Instead, we will work on writing paragraphs that we can use to build our essays.

Here are the subjects we will be covering:

Unit 1: Is Following Your Passion a Fool's Errand?

Our first essay will address the argument that "finding your passion" is a cheap cliche that rests on several fallacies and may prove to be a faulty premise for embarking on a successful career. 

Unit 2: How Has Jim Crow Evolved Since Its Original Inception?

Our second essay will compare the original traits of Jim Crow after the Civil War with those rendered in Childish Gambino's viral video "This Is America’ and the Netflix documentary 13th. 

Unit 3: How Is the Loss of Critical Thinking Skills a Systemic Problem?

Our third essay will develop an argumentative thesis that addresses the forces that cause societal intellectual and emotional disintegration analyzed in Jonathan Haidt’s essay “Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid.” For research, we will draw from Jaron Lanier’s book Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma, “You’re Being Manipulated” by Peter Wehner, and, optionally, various works by Tristan Harris. 

Unit 4: What Is "The Sunken Place" in Jordan Peele's Get Out?

Our fourth essay will address the claim that Jordan Peele’s movie Get Out uses the horror movie genre to create a realistic horrific state of mind for victims of racism called “The Sunken Place.”

English 1A Essay Prompts

1A Essay #1 (Essay worth 200 points): Is Following Your Passion Bogus Career Advice?

Due on March 16 as an upload on Canvas.

The Assignment:

In a 1,200-1,500-word essay that adheres to current MLA format and provides a minimum of 4 sources for your Works Cited page, write an argumentative essay that defends, refutes, or complicates Cal Newport’s claim from his online article “The Passion Trap” that the career advice to follow your passion is dangerous and should be replaced by the craftsman mindset. Be sure to have a counterargument-rebuttal section in your essay.

An Analogy to Help Further Your Understanding of the Topic:

As you consider Cal Newport’s rejection of “Follow your passion,” it might be helpful to consider the analogy between looking for the ultimate career and looking for love. What Cal Newport is saying is this: Looking for your “dream job” is futile if you’re not a highly skilled dream employee. It’s like love. No “right” person can cure a selfish emotionally-challenged narcissist. Such a person will go through an endless parade of failed jobs & relationships & be perpetually bitter and angry because “nothing ever works out for me.” In other words, such a person might be well served to reach a point where he or she says, “The problem isn’t the job or the other person. The problem is me.”

The Purpose:

From a thematic level, the purpose of this assignment is for you--a college student embarking on a journey that will take you through higher education and help escort you to what is hopefully a rewarding career-- to take a deep dive into a principle that has most likely been drilled into your brain since you can remember: “Follow your passion.” It should seem self-evident that you would want to follow your interests and passions and veer away from those subjects that you find boring or even repellent. No one is arguing against that. What we are exploring here is the value in the mantra, “Follow your passion.” What, if any, is the value of “Follow your passion”? What possible dangers might lurk behind the slogan of pursuing your dreams? Therefore, you want to do a deep dive into the “Follow your passion” mantra and see if under scrutiny the principle has any kind of value that is proportionate to its popularity from counselors, gurus, teachers, educators, and other well-intentioned adults who tell young people or anyone having an identity crisis to follow their passion. What possible traps lie in following your passion? How might you avoid these traps? How could this essay actually affect your higher education and career plans? These questions are of paramount importance. That is why this is your first essay assignment for the semester. 

Your Essay Design & Structure

From a design and structure standpoint, you are learning to write an argumentative essay in the tradition of the Toulmin Model, named after philosopher Stephen Toulmin. In this essay, you will make an argumentative claim about how persuasive or not Cal Newport is in his critique of “Follow Your Passion.” Your claim will be followed by supporting paragraphs and before you arrive at your conclusion you will provide at least one counterargument-rebuttal in which you anticipate how opponents would disagree with your claim.  

Use MLA Format for Your Essay

Your essay should follow the conventions of the MLA format.

Essay #2 (Essay worth 200 points): Jim Crow 1.0 and Jim Crow 2.0

Due as an upload on April 13 on Canvas.

The Assignment:

In a 1,200-1,500-word essay that adheres to the current MLA format, provides a minimum of 4 sources for your Works Cited page, and presents either a block-paragraph or point-by-point paragraph comparison design, develop a thesis that connects Dr. David Pilgrim’s video presentation of the Dr. David Pilgrim’s video “The New Jim Crow Museum” as an explanation of “Jim Crow 1.0” to Childish Gambino’s video “This Is America” and the Netflix documentary 13th as a gut-wrenching picture of “Jim Crow 2.0” today. 

Your essay should explore the following: What are the parallels between Jim Crow 1.0 and Jim Crow 2.0? What new mutations do we see in Jim Crow 2.0? How has Jim Crow evolved to be in its current state that is in many ways less flagrant yet more insidious than Jim Crow 1.0? 

The Purpose:

In terms of content, I want you to understand the meaning of Jim Crow as a pernicious, bald-faced racist ideology that persisted in many parts of the country after the Civil War in which recalcitrant or unrepentant racists resented the downfall of the slave plantation economy and wished to resurrect oppression of African-Americans in any way they could. Additionally, I want you to see how Jim Crow morphed after the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s into a more sneaky beast, revealing itself through media stereotypes, mass incarceration, and normalized violence against African-Americans, as we see in Childish Gambino’s “This Is America.” By seeing how Jim Crow exists today, we can fight against its normalization and resist it becoming part of the mind-numbing “ambiance” of American society. 

In terms of writing skills, I want you to see how a comparison design, either block method or point-by-point, gives more depth, power, and detail to an important term such as Jim Crow.

For example, author Michelle Alexander in her magisterial nonfiction work The New Jim Crow, a book that focuses mainly on mass incarceration, devotes a lot of time in her book to the evolution of “The Old Jim Crow” with “The New Jim Crow.”

Moreover, a comparison expository design is an effective way to roadmap and organize your essay. We use comparisons all the time to help us weigh the value of similar things or to  understand how something evolves such as the early stages of Facebook, Twitter, or Netflix with their current state in order to understand what kind of trade-offs these changes make. 

1A Essay 3 Worth 200 Points: Analyzing the Systemic Forces That Erode Critical Thinking Skills

Due as an upload on May 11 on Canvas. 

The Assignment:

For a 1,200-word essay, develop an argumentative thesis that addresses the forces that cause a societal intellectual and emotional disintegration analyzed in Jonathan Haidt’s essay “Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid.” For research, you must draw from Jaron Lanier’s Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma, “You’re Being Manipulated” by Peter Wehner, and, optionally, various works by Tristan Harris. 

Special Note:

This is the only essay in which we will use the English 1A required book: Jaron Lanier's Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now. 

Essay Format: MLA

Your essay should follow the conventions of the MLA format.

Essay #4: The Sunken Place in Get Out (200 points)

Due as an upload on June 8 on Canvas. 

Develop an argumentative thesis that addresses the claim that Jordan Peele’s movie Get Out uses the horror movie genre to create a realistic horrific state of mind for victims of racism called “The Sunken Place.” Consider that this “Sunken Place” is the result of racist gaslighting, which can be defined as someone in power bullying, confusing, bewildering, and discombobulating the innocent victim, such as Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) and attempting to make the victim feel confused and guilty when in fact the bully is the culprit. 

As you consider the notion of gaslighting and systemic racism in the movie Get Out, you will want to watch the 15-minute YouTube video that addresses this theme, “The Philosophy of Get Out--Wisecrack Edition.” 

The brilliant video “The Philosophy of Get Out” analyzes several causes of “The Sunken Place”:

• How white liberalism and the romanticization of blackness perpetuate systemic racism in America
• How so-called “post-racial liberalism,” a form of white self-congratulation during the Obama years, was a hoax, a thin veneer that could barely conceal a racist agenda
• How white liberals going out of their way to be “not racist” make people of color feel weird and alienated
• How the romanticization of blackness by white people, elevating black people to being cool and super chic, is a way of both “lionizing and demonizing” people of color so that they never enjoy the feeling of just being normal
• How white people exploit the black body and use black people to satisfy white fantasies
• How white people are so intent on culturally appropriating blackness that they actually want to be black such as the case of Rachel Dolezal who is referenced in the video. 

You will need a minimum of 5 sources for your MLA Works Cited page. 

Your Participation Requirements:

This online course is the equivalent of an interactive how-to manual, which means you will be going through a sequence of reading and writing activities and getting feedback from me, your instructor, as you build your essay. With four 1,500-word essays over the semester, you will find yourself turning in parts of your essay as you go through the writing process in accordance with the timeline on the course calendar through your Assignments.  In a writing class, when we  build the essay, brick by brick so to speak, we call the process "scaffolding." The two smaller assignments that lead up to the completed 1,500-word essay are part of the scaffolding process. To earn full points, it is essential to turn in these assignments on time so you can keep up with the class and maximize your success.  

Instructor Communications Requirements: 

Part of your communications with me will be the feedback you get from your assignments, not just your completed essays, but the smaller assignments that go toward building your essays. You are also encouraged to contact me with any questions or feedback. Please email me at jmcmahon@elcamino.edu, and I will respond as quickly as I can, usually in 24 hours of time as I check my emails frequently. 

Student Must be Active in the Class Or be Dropped

Students must keep up with the assignments. If students haven't turned in the first two 5-page essays by Week 9 of the semester, they can be dropped. 

Required Materials:

Because this is an online class and you need to access the course as your time demands, you will of course need a computer with Internet access.

About 90% of all your material is online and I provide the required links for each assignment on the Canvas Assignments page.

As far as books go, English 1A does require that you write an essay based on a book, and the book I have chosen is Ten Arguments to Delete Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier. 

There are a total of 1,000 points for the semester. 

Each 1,200-word essay is worth 200 points for a total of 800 points.

Each 1,200-word essay is preceded by two smaller building-block assignments that can be used toward your completed essay, such as an introductory paragraph, a thesis paragraph, or a counterargument-rebuttal paragraph. There a total of 8 of these smaller assignments, and each of these assignments is worth 25 points for a total of 200 points.  

900 points is the minimum for an A grade; 800 points for a B; 700 for a C; 600 for a D.

What about late essays?

I give you 5 days of grace after the due date. After 5 days, I take a grade off the essay for being late.

You can’t snowball the instructor with assignments at the end of the semester:

You have to keep up with the class. Getting one or two assignments sometimes happens. However, what cannot happen is that you do nothing all semester and then upload the assignments during the last week of the semester. That is not the type of education that fulfills the Student Learning Outcomes of any college writing class. Therefore, the Canvas assignments are closed once we reach the next phase of assignments. 

Why would the instructor initiate a student drop?

To learn the writing process, the students are expected to keep up with the material. If students haven't completed the first two essays by Week 9, they are considered inactive and I will drop them. 

 

What if you are not happy with your essay and want to do a revision for a higher grade?

You can get feedback from me and resubmit once for a higher grade. 

 

How I Grade Your Completed Essays:

I grade your assignments based on how well you fulfill the course objectives and what are called Student Learning Outcomes. While there are some variations on how I break down the grading based on the type of essay (argumentative, cause and effect, extended definition, comparison and contrast), the grading is more or less the same based on the following model:

Each essay has a maximum 200 points. You earn points through the following:

One. A meaningful thesis statement that generates compelling body paragraphs a strong exposition driven by a distinct writing voice (authorial presence). This thesis produces meaningful content and a powerful writing voice that passes the “So what?” question, meaning that the writing matters, is significant, and elevates the reader to a higher understanding of an urgent topic. 80 points maximum.

Two. Clear organizational design, also called an expository mode, that has a logical sequence and follows a clear structure. 40 points.

Three. The use of signal phrases and correct MLA in-text citations whenever you cite paraphrased, summarized, or quoted material. 30 points.

Four. The essay has sound sentence mechanics, sentence variety, correct spelling, and correct grammar usage suitable for college-level writing. The most common grammar errors students make that diminish their essay grade are comma splices (Links to an external site.) and sentence fragments (30 points.

Five. The essay conforms to the updated MLA format for pagination, spacing,  and Works Cited page. 20 points.

How I Grade Your Smaller Assignments

These building-block assignments are much smaller and should and can be used to complete your 1,200-word essays. I grade them based on how useful they are to you and how well they conform to the requirements. Most of these smaller assignments are introductory paragraphs, thesis paragraphs, and counterargument-rebuttal paragraphs (if the essay is an argument). Since the point scheme varies, I will just give you an example of a typical 25-point assignment, which would typically be one paragraph long, sometimes two:

How I Break Down Your Grade for This Assignment of 25 Points

One. Clarity and usefulness of your paragraph for establishing the importance of the subject to your reader, 10 points. 

Two. Have sufficient details to establish a meaningful, authentic approach to the subject. A writer never wants to just “go through the motions,” that is to say, deliver a perfunctory effort. Deliver the degree of authenticity and meaning this subject deserves, 10 points. 

Three. Write full sentences and avoid sentence mechanics, spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. Be especially mindful of avoiding comma splice and sentence fragments, 5 points.

 

English 1A Student Learning Outcomes

1. Complete a research-based essay that has been written out of class and undergone revision. It should demonstrate the student’s ability to thoughtfully support a single thesis using analysis and synthesis. 
2. Integrate multiple sources, including a book-length work and a variety of academic databases, peer-reviewed journals, and scholarly websites. Citations must be in MLA format and include a Works Cited page. 
3. Demonstrate logical paragraph composition and sentence structure. The essay should have correct grammar, spelling, and word use.

If You Run Into Technical Issues:

Here are some important links in the event you have some technical concerns or problems:

El Camino College Online Digital Education 

ITS Help Desk

Students With Disabilities Resources:

It is the policy of the El Camino Community College District to encourage full inclusion of people with disabilities in all programs and services.  Students with disabilities who believe they may need accommodations in this class should contact the campus Special Resource Center (310) 660-3295, as soon as possible.  This will ensure that students are able to fully participate.     

Student Resources:

•   Reading Success Center (East Library Basement E-36)
•       Software and tutors are available for vocabulary development & reading comprehension.  
•       Library Media Technology Center - LMTC (East Library Basement)
•       Computers are available for free use. Bring your student ID # & flash drive.  There’s a charge for printing.
•       Writing Center (H122)
•       Computers are available for free use. Free tutoring is available for writing assignments, grammar, and vocabulary.  Bring your student ID & flash drive to save work. Printing is NOT available.
•       Learning Resource Center - LRC (West Wing of the Library, 2nd floor)
•       The LRC Tutorial Program offers free drop-in tutoring.  For the tutoring schedule, go to elcamino.edu/library/lrc/tutoring .The LRC also offers individualized computer adaptive programs to help build your reading comprehension skills.    
• Student Health Services
• Student Health Center (Next to the Pool) is closed due to Covid-19.
•       The Health Center offers free medical and psychological services as well as free workshops on topics like “test anxiety.” Low-cost medical testing is also available.
•       Special Resource Center – SRC (Southwest Wing of Student Services Building)

The SRC provides free disability services, including interpreters, testing accommodations, counseling, and adaptive computer technology.

El Camino College Policies on Academic Honesty and Plagiarism:

El Camino College places a high value on the integrity of its student scholars.  When an instructor determines that there is evidence of dishonesty in any academic work (including, but not limited to cheating, plagiarism, or theft of exam materials), disciplinary action appropriate to the misconduct as defined in BP 5500 may be taken.  A failing grade on an assignment in which academic dishonesty has occurred and suspension from the class are among the disciplinary actions for academic dishonesty (AP 5520). Students with any questions about Academic Honesty or discipline policies are encouraged to speak with their instructor in advance.

Contact Information 

If you have any questions, please email me at jmcmahon@elcamino.edu, and I will respond as quickly as I can, usually within 24 hours of time as I check my emails frequently. 

Office Hours Spring 2023

I will be in my office HP121 on Wednesday from 12:30-2:20 and Thursday from 12:15-1:15.

The Zoom hours are the following: Monday from 2-3:15

 

Due Dates of the Assignments Totaling 1,000 Points

Building Block #1 for The Passion Trap: February 23, 25 points

Building Block #2 for The Passion Trap: March 9, 25 points

Essay 1: The Passion Trap: March 16, 200 points

Building Block #1 for Jim Crow: March 23, 25 points

Building Block #2 for Jim Crow: April 6, 25 points

Essay 2: Jim Crow: April 13, 200 points

Building Block #1 for Social Media: April 20, 25 points

Building Block #2 for Social Media: May 4, 25 points

Essay 3: Social Media: May 11, 200 points

Building Block #1 for The Sunken Place: May 18, 25 points

Building Block #2 for The Sunken Place: June 1, 25 points

Essay 4 for The Sunken Place: June 8, 200 points

Grading Scheme

900-1,000 points is an A.

800-899 points is a B.

700-799 points is a C.

600-699 points is a D. 

1A Essay #1 (Essay worth 200 points): Is Following Your Passion Bogus Career Advice?

Due on March 16 as an upload on Canvas.

The Assignment:

In a 1,200-1,500-word essay that adheres to current MLA format and provides a minimum of 4 sources for your Works Cited page, write an argumentative essay that defends, refutes, or complicates Cal Newport’s claim from his online article “The Passion Trap” that the career advice to follow your passion is dangerous and should be replaced by the craftsman mindset. Be sure to have a counterargument-rebuttal section in your essay.

Be sure to have a counterargument-rebuttal section. 

When you write an argumentative essay, most likely you will be required to write a counterargument-rebuttal section in which you address your opponents’ objections to your argument. The following are templates for counterarguments followed by rebuttals:

• Some people may object to my point X, but they fail to see Y.
• Some people will take issue with my argument X, and I will concede their point to some degree. However, on balance, my argument X still stands because______________________________.  
• It is true as my opponents say that my argument fails to acknowledge the possibility that Y, but I would counter-argue by observing that ___________________. 
• I would be the first to agree with my opponents that my argument can lead to some dangerous conclusions such as X. But we can neutralize these misgivings when we consider __________________________. 

An Analogy to Help Further Your Understanding of the Topic:

As you consider Cal Newport’s rejection of “Follow your passion,” it might be helpful to consider the analogy between looking for the ultimate career and looking for love. What Cal Newport is saying is this: Looking for your “dream job” is futile if you’re not a highly skilled dream employee. It’s like love. No “right” person can cure a selfish emotionally-challenged narcissist. Such a person will go through an endless parade of failed jobs & relationships & be perpetually bitter and angry because “nothing ever works out for me.” In other words, such a person might be well served to reach a point where he or she says, “The problem isn’t the job or the other person. The problem is me.”

The Purpose:

From a thematic level, the purpose of this assignment is for you--a college student embarking on a journey that will take you through higher education and help escort you to what is hopefully a rewarding career-- to take a deep dive into a principle that has most likely been drilled into your brain since you can remember: “Follow your passion.” It should seem self-evident that you would want to follow your interests and passions and veer away from those subjects that you find boring or even repellent. No one is arguing against that. What we are exploring here is the value in the mantra, “Follow your passion.” What, if any, is the value of “Follow your passion”? What possible dangers might lurk behind the slogan of pursuing your dreams? Therefore, you want to do a deep dive into the “Follow your passion” mantra and see if under scrutiny the principle has any value that is proportionate to its popularity from counselors, gurus, teachers, educators, and other well-intentioned adults who tell young people or anyone having an identity crisis to follow their passion. What possible traps lie in following your passion? How might you avoid these traps? How could this essay actually affect your higher education and career plans? These questions are of paramount importance. That is why this is your first essay assignment for the semester. 

Your Essay Design & Structure

From a design and structure standpoint, you are learning to write an argumentative essay in the tradition of the Toulmin Model, named after philosopher Stephen Toulmin. In this essay, you will make an argumentative claim about how persuasive or not Cal Newport is in his critique of “Follow Your Passion.” Your claim will be followed by supporting paragraphs and before you arrive at your conclusion you will provide at least one counterargument-rebuttal in which you anticipate how opponents would disagree with your claim.  

Use MLA Format for Your Essay

Your essay should follow the conventions of the MLA format.

For MLA format, I recommend the following:

Jason Morgan’s video:

Formatting a paper in MLA style 

“Setting Up MLA Format Paper in Google Docs”

Setting Up MLA Format Paper in Google Docs

Support Your Essay with Sources Using MLA In-Text Citations:

Also be sure to use signal phrases for your correct MLA in-text citations, as explained in this Purdue Owl article. 

Kate Guthrie Caruso has made an excellent video on MLA in-text citations titled “MLA Formatting: In-Text Citations--Basics.”

MLA Formatting: In-Text Citations--Basics

Other Sources for Your Essay:

For other sources to help you further understand Newport’s critique of “Follow your passion,” you should read “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” (book summary) by Cedric Chin, “On Passion and Its Discontents” by Cal Newport, “Don’t ‘Follow Your Passion’” by Janie Kliever, “Why ‘Find Your Passion’ Is Bad Advice” by Terri Trespicio, “The Career Craftsman Manifesto” by Cal Newport, and the YouTube video “Follow Your Passion Is Bad Advice” by Cal Newport. 

Following Your Passion Is Bad Advice  

Your Introductory Paragraph

I recommend one of four approaches for your introductory paragraph. 

Approach #1: Write a paragraph in which you write an extended definition of what Cal Newport means when he critiques “The Passion Trap.” Then transition to your thesis paragraph in which you agree, disagree, or both agree and disagree with Newport’s claim. 

Approach #2: Write a personal paragraph about your struggle to find a career that you are passionate about on one hand and is practical for your long-term financial needs on the other. Then transition to your thesis. 

Approach #3: Write a paragraph about someone you know who started a career with minimum interest and passion but over time as the person became more skilled at this career the person’s passion sprung from the added skills and expertise. 

Approach #4: Write a paragraph about someone you know who pursued his or her passion and how this resulted in a Big Nothing Burger, a complete flop because the person’s pursuit of passion was done blindly. 

Example of Approach #4 Introductory Paragraph with Transition to Thesis Paragraph

Stanley was a big proponent of "follow your dreams." After he graduated from high school in 1977 and took some acting classes at a local community college, he dropped out to move to Los Angeles where he spent the 1980s working as a waiter and trying to make a break into Hollywood. He spent his money on coaches, mentors, acting gurus, body language masters, voice instructors, New Age positive thinking experts, all in an attempt to step up his game.  He landed a few small parts here and there, just enough work to make him feel he was on the verge of making it. His optimism grew in the 1990s when he met some film directors who gave him some small roles and hinted at getting him larger roles when the opportunity came. Feeding on these dreams while living in a squalid apartment in the 1990s, Stanley continued to live a life of abject obscurity and futility with the hope that he just had to follow his dream and be persistent and that these two qualities would guarantee his success. He remained inside this delusional bubble for nearly two more decades while he lived in a roach-infested apartment in downtown L.A. where he supplemented his income by delivering plasma and working as a masseuse, a job he had to give up when his hands become afflicted with arthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome.  At the age of 60, around 2018, Stanley got strep throat and couldn't afford antibiotics since none of his part-time gigs offered health insurance. Curled into the fetal position on his apartment's bare mattress with roaches crawling over him, he wept as he felt betrayed by the fact that he had done what the American Dream told him to do: He sacrificed everything to follow his passion and remained tenacious over four decades to bring his dreams to fruition, but he knew in that moment that he was a pathetic, miserable failure, and that his dreams had soured and curdled into rotten milk. 

This curdling of our dreams and the false promise of following those dreams is explored in Cal Newport's important book So Good They Can't Ignore You and his accompanying YouTube video "'Follow Your Passion' Is Bad Advice" in which Newport makes a persuasive case for replacing the Passion Hypothesis with the craftsman mindset. His claim rests on four compelling observations. Passion without spending time mastering a craft is worthless. Passion is not some low-hanging fruit that we pick from a tree, but an asset we develop over 10,000 hours of sustained hard work and tedium. Only 2% of the human race work at a "dream job." Most of us must find happiness because we are a "dream employer" who is valued based on the mastery of our craft. And finally, courage to pursue your dream without an honest assessment of your capital is dangerous and self-destructive. 

Unpacking the Above Thesis: Notice How Every Part Directs Your Body Paragraphs

The above thesis (your essay’s purpose statement) is, contrary to what you’ve been told, comprised not of one but of two sentences. It’s perfectly fine to write a one-sentence thesis, and this is the most common approach to thesis development. However, often I find students benefit from a second sentence, what is commonly called the clarifying thesis statement, which breaks down the reasons you’ll be explaining in your body paragraphs. 

So in the example above, we have the actual thesis statement in which I am making the argument that Cal Newport’s critique of “Follow your Passion” is persuasive:

This curdling of our dreams and the false promise of following those dreams is explored in Cal Newport's important book So Good They Can't Ignore You, and his accompanying YouTube video "'Follow Your Passion' Is Bad Advice" in which Newport makes a persuasive case for replacing the Passion Hypothesis with the craftsman mindset. 

Then in the clarifying thesis statement, I list my reasons for arguing that Newport’s argument is persuasive. 

His claim rests on four compelling observations. Passion without spending time mastering a craft is worthless. Passion is not some low-hanging fruit that we pick from a tree, but an asset we develop over 10,000 hours of sustained hard work and tedium. Only 2% of the human race work at a "dream job." Most of us must find happiness because we are a "dream employer" who is valued based on the mastery of our craft. And finally, courage to pursue your dream without an honest assessment of your capital is dangerous and self-destructive. 

Notice in the above clarifying thesis, there are mapping components that outline the essay’s supporting paragraphs:

• Paragraph: Passion without spending time mastering a craft is worthless. 
• Paragraph: Passion is not some low-hanging fruit that we pick from a tree, but an asset we develop over 10,000 hours of sustained hard work and tedium. 
• Paragraph: Only 2% of the human race work at a "dream job." Most of us must find happiness because we are a "dream employer" who is valued based on the mastery of our craft. 
• Paragraph: And finally, courage to pursue your dream without an honest assessment of your capital is dangerous and self-destructive. 

It’s possible that the above reasons may require more than one paragraph, but the point is the same: A clarifying thesis helps us outline or map our essay and gives us a clear direction. 

For an argumentative essay, providing compelling support paragraphs to make your claim or thesis persuasive is not enough. You also need a counterargument-rebuttal section. 

To earn credibility in an argument, good writers anticipate how opponents will disagree with their claim, so they actually provide an anticipated disagreement with their own thesis. Often they will write this counterargument-rebuttal section after their supporting paragraphs (and before their conclusion). 

To write an effective counterargument-rebuttal, good writers use a variety of sentence structures:

• Some people may object to my point X, but they fail to see Y.
• Some people will take issue with my argument X, and I will concede their point to some degree. However, on balance, my argument X still stands because______________________________.  
• It is true as my opponents say that my argument fails to acknowledge the possibility that Y, but I would counter argue by observing that ___________________. 

I would be the first to agree with my opponents that my argument can lead to some dangerous conclusions such as X. But we can neutralize these misgivings when we consider __________________________. 

Example:

My opponents will take offense to my argument that “Find your passion” is dangerous because they will accuse me of telling my students to sell themselves for money only and to be “soulless robots” who completely divorce themselves from passion as a consideration in their career choice. However, these critics are in egregious error, for they are twisting my words and failing to see what I am really arguing, namely that _____________________________________. 

Writing Your Conclusion

Your conclusion is about creating emotional power and finding a way to reiterate your essay’s purpose in order to maximize the strength of your persuasion. 

Since you want emotional power in your conclusion, you want to avoid cliches or overused (hackneyed) conclusion structures. 

Some conclusion transitions to avoid:

• In conclusion,
• As you can now clearly see,
• Before we get out of here let me just say, 
• To wrap things up, 
• Just in case you forgot, 
• To sum up what I just said,
• Sorry for this lousy essay, but just in case you didn’t understand what I was saying, 

Effective Conclusion Strategies:

• Use the “full circle” technique. If you begin with a story or image in your introduction, return to that story or image in your conclusion. 
• End on a rhetorical question.
• End with a gut-punching quotation.
• End with an indelible image. 
• End with a dire warning.
• End with a universal truth that applies to your specific argument. 
• End with an emotionally-powerful restatement of your thesis. 

Works Cited

After your conclusion, you will cite a minimum of 4 sources on a separate page for Works Cited using current MLA format as explained in this these videos:

Purdue OWL video for Word 

Purdue OWL video for Google Docs

Title for Your Essay

Make sure your essay has a strong title. Avoid a generic title like “Follow Your Passion” or “Essay 1.” Try to have a catchy title that is relevant to your focus. 

• Is the Passion Trap Really Trap?
• Is “Follow Your Passion” a Worthy Life Principle Or an Empty Cliche?
• “Follow Your Passion” Is the Most Dangerous Advice Ever Told
• Cal Newport Is Wrong About Passion

Time Needed for the Assignment

Of course, everyone is different, but estimating the time based on the assigned videos, supplementary material, note taking, first draft of a 1,500 word essay of about 8 paragraphs, making a Works Cited page, and then rewriting your draft for correct grammar, spelling, and format, I would say that over the course of 4 weeks you could very well spend 16 hours, or 4 hours a week, to get this essay to a polished state that is ready to upload. 

Content Resources:

Your main sources are the following:

• Cal Newport’s blog post “The Passion Trap” 
• Cedric Chin’s book summary post“So Good They Can’t Ignore You”
• Cal Newport’s blog post  “On Passion and Its Discontents” 
• Janie Kliever’s article “Don’t ‘Follow Your Passion’” by Janie Kliever
• Terri Trespicio’s article “Why ‘Find Your Passion’ Is Bad Advice” 
• Cal Newport’s YouTube video “Follow Your Passion Is Bad Advice”

Following Your Passion Is Bad Advice  

Suggested Supplementary Material

Talks at Google YouTube video: Cal Newport “So Good They Can’t Ignore You”:

So Good They Can’t Ignore You

How Points Are Earned on This Assignment

Essay 1 has a maximum 200 points. You earn points through the following:

1. One. Meaningful thesis statement that generates compelling body paragraphs of an argumentative thesis or claim and a strong exposition driven by a distinct writing voice (authorial presence). This thesis produces meaningful content and a powerful writing voice that passes the “So what?” question, meaning that the writing matters, is significant, and elevates the reader to a higher understanding about an urgent topic. 80 points maximum.
2. Two. Clear organizational design, also called an expository mode, that has a logical sequence and follows Toulmin Argument Model. 40 points.
3. Three. The use of signal phrases and correct MLA in-text citations whenever you cite paraphrased, summarized, or quoted material. 30 points.
4. Four. The essay has sound sentence mechanics, sentence variety, correct spelling, and correct grammar usage suitable for college-level writing. The most common grammar errors students make that diminish their essay grade are comma splices and sentence fragments. 30 points.
5. Five. The essay conforms to updated MLA format for pagination, spacing,  and Works Cited page. 20 points.

Essay Checklist to Maximize Your Success

1. Do you have a meaningful thesis statement that generates compelling body paragraphs of an argumentative thesis or claim and a strong exposition driven by a distinct writing voice (authorial presence).
2. Does your essay have a clear organization design that logically drives your exposition?
3. Does your essay correctly use signal phrases and correct in-text citations?
4. If your essay is a counterargument, do you have an adequate counterargument-rebuttal section to show you have addressed opposing views?
5. Does your essay have a Works Cited page with a minimum of 4 sources for the first three essays and minimum of 5 sources for your fourth essay? Do these citations satisfy requirements of authorship credit so that you are staying clear of plagiarism?
6. Are your sources credible, that is to say do they come from authors who have peer credibility as opposed to authors with a sneaky, biased, or strident agenda?
7. If your authors are biased, did you disclose that bias in your essay?
8. Is your essay free of frequent grammar and sentence mechanic errors, especially comma splices and sentence fragments?
9. Does your essay conform to the current MLA format? 
10. Does your essay have a distinctive title that alerts your readers to your tone and main focus? 
11. Does your essay have college-level paragraph transitions to make your essay flow and enhance its clarity? 
12. Do you have a conclusion paragraph that contributes to the expressiveness and/or persuasiveness of your essay?

 

Building Block Assignment #1 

Due as an upload on February 23 for 25 points.

Learning Objectives for Building Block #1 Follow Your Passion Essay:

One. Write an introduction paragraph for your first essay that frames the debate of whether or not we should follow our passion when we select a career.  

Two. Use this paragraph as a building block for your Follow Your Passion essay. 

Three. Show an authentic connection to your subject matter to make your readers care about your exposition. 

Assignment Description

Write an Introductory Paragraph

I recommend one of four approaches for your introductory paragraph. 

Approach #1: Write a paragraph in which you write an extended definition of what Cal Newport means when he critiques “The Passion Trap.” Then transition to your thesis paragraph in which you agree, disagree, or both agree and disagree with Newport’s claim. 

Approach #2: Write a personal paragraph about your struggle to find a career that you are passionate about on one hand and is practical for your long-term financial needs on the other. Then transition to your thesis. 

Approach #3: Write a paragraph about someone you know who started a career with minimum interest and passion but over time as the person became more skilled at this career the person’s passion sprung from the added skills and expertise. 

Approach #4: Write a paragraph about someone you know who pursued his or her passion and how this resulted in a Big Nothing Burger, a complete flop, because the person’s pursuit of passion was done blindly. 

Example of Approach #4 Introductory Paragraph with Transition to Thesis Paragraph

Stanley was a big proponent of "follow your dreams." After he graduated from high school in 1977 and took some acting classes at a local community college, he dropped out to move to Los Angeles where he spent the 1980s working as a waiter and trying to make a break into Hollywood. He spent his money on coaches, mentors, acting gurus, body language masters, voice instructors, New Age positive thinking experts, all in an attempt to step up his game.  He landed a few small parts here and there, just enough work to make him feel he was on the verge of making it. His optimism grew in the 1990s when he met some film directors who gave him some small roles and hinted at getting him larger roles when the opportunity came. Feeding on these dreams while living in a squalid apartment in the 1990s, Stanley continued to live a life of abject obscurity and futility with the hope that he just had to follow his dream and be persistent and that these two qualities would guarantee his success. He remained inside this delusional bubble for nearly two more decades while he lived in a roach-infested apartment in downtown L.A. where he supplemented his income by delivering plasma and working as a masseuse, a job he had to give up when his hands become afflicted with arthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome.  At the age of 60, around 2018, Stanley got strep throat and couldn't afford antibiotics since none of his part-time gigs offered health insurance. Curled into the fetal position on his apartment's bare mattress with roaches crawling over him, he wept as he felt betrayed by the fact that he had done what the American Dream told him to do: He sacrificed everything to follow his passion and remained tenacious over four decades to bring his dreams to fruition, but he knew in that moment that he was a pathetic, miserable failure, and that his dreams had soured and curdled into rotten milk. 

This curdling of our dreams and the false promise of following those dreams is explored in Cal Newport's important book So Good They Can't Ignore You and his accompanying YouTube video "'Follow Your Passion' Is Bad Advice" in which Newport makes a persuasive case for replacing the Passion Hypothesis with the craftsman mindset. His claim rests on four compelling observations. Passion without spending time mastering a craft is worthless. Passion is not some low-hanging fruit that we pick from a tree, but an asset we develop over 10,000 hours of sustained hard work and tedium. Only 2% of the human race work at a "dream job." Most of us must find happiness because we are a "dream employer" who is valued based on the mastery of our craft. And finally, courage to pursue your dream without an honest assessment of your capital is dangerous and self-destructive. 

List of Requirements for This Assignment

One. Your introduction paragraph effectively frames the debate of whether or not we should follow our passion when selecting a career.  

Two. Your paragraph either tells a compelling story about a person’s quest for connecting passion with career or gives a clear definition of what Cal Newport describes as “The Passion Trap.”

Three. Your paragraph should be between 150-200 words in length.

Four. Your paragraph should be uploaded on Canvas. 

How I Break Down Your Grade for This Assignment of 25 Points

One. Clarity and usefulness of your paragraph for establishing the importance of the subject to your reader, 10 points. 

Two. Have sufficient details to establish a meaningful, authentic approach to the subject. A writer never wants to just “go through the motions,” that is to say, deliver a perfunctory effort. Deliver the degree of authenticity and meaning this subject deserves, 10 points. 

Three. Write full sentences and avoid sentence mechanics, spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. Be especially mindful of avoiding comma splice and sentence fragments, 5 points.  

Read Your Feedback on Assignment Comments

When you receive your score, you will be notified through Canvas, and the comments will be delivered on the Assignments Comments page through SpeedGrader.

 

Templates for signal phrases, counterarguments and rebuttals, and concession thesis statements. 

Common signal phrases

We read in Author X’s essay that:

We read in Corbin Smith’s essay “Alan Ritchson’s ‘Reacher” Is a Gigantic, Unstoppable Force” that Jack Reacher embodies “The four virtues of Stoicism.”

According to Author X, and As Author X writes: 

According to Corbin Smith, the Stoical Hero balances his passion with his powers of reason. As Smith writes: “You are passionate, but not completely driven by your baser instincts.” 

Author X argues that and As Author X observes:

Corbin Smith argues that Reacher’s appeal rests largely in the sheer physicality of its star Alan Ritchson. As Smith observes: Ritchscon “is a slab of rock-hard marbled beef with an unnerving square jaw and blue eyes that cut holes through steel.”

There are many more signal phrases. When you use them in a research paper, you need to include parenthetical citations. For a brief primer, consult this video:

When you write an argumentative essay, most likely you will be required to write a counterargument-rebuttal section in which you address your opponents’ objections to your argument. The following are templates for counterarguments followed by rebuttals:

• Some people may object to my point X, but they fail to see Y.
• Some people will take issue with my argument X, and I will concede their point to some degree. However, on balance, my argument X still stands because______________________________.  
• It is true as my opponents say that my argument fails to acknowledge the possibility that Y, but I would counter-argue by observing that ___________________. 
• I would be the first to agree with my opponents that my argument can lead to some dangerous conclusions such as X. But we can neutralize these misgivings when we consider __________________________. 

Four. Using signal phrases to introduce textual evidence in the form of direct quotations, paraphrases, or summaries. For an elaboration of quotations, paraphrases, and summaries, you can consult this video:

The best video I have seen for integrating sources in your essay with correct format is the following:

Five. Correct MLA format for essays in a college writing class. I recommend you consult this video:

Six. You need reasonable authority and clear thinking about your subject based on developing an informed opinion. This informed opinion and clear thinking will result in confident, clear writing that has the whiff of someone who knows what they’re talking about. When you write with clear thinking and confidence, you present an essay that has the quality of authorial presence. You can only achieve authorial presence by reading, rereading, and comprehending the reading materials. 

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The Passion Trap: How the Search for Your Life’s Work is Making Your Working Life Miserable by Cal Newport

The Priest and the Parachute

It began with a joke.

In 1968, Richard Bolles, an Episcopal priest from San Francisco, was in a meeting when someone complained about colleagues “bailing out” of a troubled organization. To remind the group to return to this topic, Bolles jotted a clever phrase on the blackboard:  “What color is your parachute?”

The line got a laugh, but as Bolles recalls in a 1999 interview with Fast Company, “I had no idea it would take on all this additional meaning.”

Two years later, Bolles lost his job as a priest and was shuffled into an administrative position in the Episcopal Church, advising campus ministers, many of whom were also in danger of losing their jobs. Noticing a lack of good advice on the topic, Bolles self-published a 168-page guide to navigating career changes, which he handed out for free. Looking for a catchy title, he re-purposed his blackboard one-liner. The initial print run was one hundred copies.

The premise of Bolles’ guide sounds self-evident to the modern ear: “[figure] out what you like to do…and then find a place that needs people like you.” But in 1970, this concept was a radical notion.

“[At the time], the idea of doing a lot of pen-and paper exercises in order to take control of your own career was regarded as a dilettante’s exercise,” Bolles recalls. It was also, however, a period of extreme workplace transition as the post-war industrial economy crumbled before an ascendant knowledge work sector. Uncertain employees craved guidance, and Bolles’ optimistic strategies resonated. The book that began with an one hundred copy print run and a clever name has since become one of the bestselling titles of the century, with over 6 million copies in print.

This story is important because it emphasizes that one of the most universal and powerful ideas in modern society, that the key to workplace happiness is to follow your passion, has a surprisingly humble origin. What began as a quip jotted down on a blackboard grew into the core principle guiding our thinking about work. “What color is my parachute?”, we now ask, confident that answering this question holds the answer to The Good Life.

But when we recognize that this strategy is not self-evident — and in fact not even all that old — we can begin to question whether or not it’s actually right.

And when we do, it’s dismaying what we find…

The Passion Trap

Let’s summarize Bolles’ insight as follows: the key to a fulfilling career is to first figure out what you’re passionate about, and then go find a job to match. For simplicity, I’ll call this the passion hypothesis. We can think of the past forty years — the post-Parachutes era — as a vast experiment testing the validity of this hypothesis.

The results of this experiment, unfortunately, are not pretty.

The latest Conference Board survey of U.S. job satisfaction, released earlier this year, found only 45% of Americans are satisfied with their jobs. This number has been steadily decreasing from the mark of 61% recorded in 1987, the first year of the survey.

As Lynn Franco, the director of the Board’s Consumer Research Center, notes, this is not just about a bad business cycle: “Through both economic boom and bust during the past two decades, our job satisfaction numbers have shown a consistent downward trend.”

Though many factors can account for workplace unhappiness, a major cause identified by the survey is that “fewer workers consider their jobs to be interesting.”

Put another way, as we’ve placed more importance on the passion hypothesis, we’ve become less interested, and therefore more unhappy, with the work we have. I call this effect the passion trap, which I define as follows:

The Passion Trap
The more emphasis you place on finding work you love, the more unhappy you become when you don’t love every minute of the work you have.

I argue that the passion trap is an important contributing factor to our steadily decreasing workplace satisfaction. So far, however, my evidence for this claim is circumstantial at best. We need to dig deeper.

The Young and the Anxious

If the passion trap is real, recent college graduates should be the most affected. At this young age, before the demands and stability of family, their careers are more likely to define their identity. It’s also the period where they feel the most control over their path, and therefore also feel the most anxiety about their decisions.

This predicts, therefore, that the passion trap would make young workers the most unhappy. Not surprisingly, this is exactly what the Conference Board survey finds. Roughly 64% of workers under 25 say that they are unhappy in their jobs, the highest levels of dissatisfaction measured for any age group over the twenty-two year history of the survey.

To better understand why young people are so unhappy, let’s turn to Alexandra Robbins and Abby Wilner’s 2001 ode to youth disaffection: Quarterlife Crisis. This book chronicles the personal testimony of dozens of unhappy twentysomethings, and as the passion trap predicts, most of the stories revolve around uncertainty regarding the search for the “right” job.

Consider, for example, the tale of Scott, a 27-year-old from Washington D.C.:

“My professional situation now couldn’t be more perfect,” Scott reports. “[I] chose to pursue the career I knew in my heart I was passionate about: politics.”

Scott succeeded in this pursuit. Though he had to start at the bottom, as a volunteer campaign aide, within two short years after college graduation he had the “Capital Hill job I dreamed of.”

Rationally, he should be happy with his work: “I love my office, my friends…even my boss.” Yet he’s not. “It’s not fulfilling,” he despairs. He has since restarted his search for his “life’s work.”

“I’ve committed myself to exploring other options that interest me,” Scott says. “But I’m having a hard time actually thinking of a career that sounds appealing.”

The passion hypothesis was so ingrained into Scott’s psyche that even his dream job, once obtained, couldn’t live up to the fantasy. Unhappiness followed.

Story after story in Quarterlife Crisis follow this same script:

“I graduated college wanting nothing more than the ultimate job for me,” says Jill. Not surprisingly, she hasn’t found it.

“I’m so lost about I want to do,” despairs 24-year old Elaine, “that I don’t even realize what I’m sacrificing or compromising.”

And so on. The passion trap strikes again and again in these pages.

This all points towards a troubling conclusion: not only is the passion hypothesis wrong, it’s also potentially dangerous, leading us into a passion trap that increases our feelings of unhappiness and uncertainty.

Happiness Beyond Passion

These initial articles in my Rethinking Passion series have been negative. My goal was to tear down our assumptions about workplace happiness, because as long we cling to the passion hypothesis, other factors will remain obscured in its high-wattage glare. Soon, however, I’ll be taking on the positive task of figuring out what does matter.  I’ve written at length about the importance of ability and craftsmanship in developing passion for your work (see here and here and here), but I also want to explore equally important (and equally nuanced) factors, such as:

• authenticity (why are we attracted to the stories of people living simply in beautiful surroundings?),
• autonomy (what’s the importance of having control over when and how you work?), and
• mission (how vital is a cause for transforming work into something meaningful?).

Stay tuned for this discussion to continue, and in the meantime, I welcome your own reflections on the reality — not cliches — of finding fulfilling work.

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This post is the second in my series on Rethinking Passion, which tackles questions concerning the reality of building a deeply satisfying work life. Expect a new post in the series roughly once or twice a month. Here is the previous article in the series:

• The Dream Job Delusion