McMahon 2018 Spring English 1A Syllabus
Office H121P; Phone Extension: 5673
Office Hours: Mon and Wed: 2:30-3:45; Tues and Thurs: 12:15-1 and 3:30-4:15
Email: [email protected]
Books and Materials You Need to Buy for This Class
Cooked by Jeff Henderson
Acting Out Culture, 3rd Edition, edited by James Miller
Rules for Writers, 8th Edition by Diana Hacker
1 Blue Book for in-class final writing exam
1 pocketed, flat folder for your Homework Portfolio
Work You Must Do in This Class
One. You will write 5 typed, 1,200-word essays in MLA format. The fifth essay, your capstone essay, will need 5 sources for your Works Cited. These essays will be uploaded on turnitin. Late essays are accepted for a week after deadline and are marked down a full grade.
Two. Instead of getting quizzed on the readings, you will write 3-paragraph reading-response essays to the readings. Each mini essay should have at least 3 signal phrases citing the text of the assigned reading. You will not be uploading these essays on turnitin.com. Instead, you will bring a typed hard copy to class and discussing it with your team of 3 or 4 students. Classes will typically start with a 20-minute discussion about the reading response while I mark them with a teacher’s stamp. The mini essay will be stamped with either an excellent top-grade mark or a middling mediocre mark. An unacceptable essay won’t be marked. You will keep these essays in a flat, pocketed folder, which I will grade twice a semester. Each grading period is referred to as Portfolio 1 and Portfolio 2. You cannot make-up missing mini essays. You should be motivated to show up to every class.
Three. Before the 1,200-word typed essays are due on turnitin, there is a peer edit session. You bring hard copies of your completed typed draft so your team can review your work, and you can review theirs. Like your mini essays, the completed draft gets a stamp, either a top-tier stamp or a middling one.
Four. During the last week of the semester, you will write an in-class Blue Book Final exam essay of 500 words.
Grading Based on 1,000 Points and 13,500 Words Written Over the Semester (about 110 words a day).
One. First four 1,200-word essays are 125 points each.
Two. Final Capstone Essay with 5 sources: 1,200-word essay is 250 points.
Three. Two Homework Portfolios include all your mini essays and peer edit drafts (kept in flat pocketed folders) 100 points each, for 200 points
Four. In-Class Final Blue Book Exam is 500 words for 50 points.
Grading Point Scheme
Total Points: 1,000 (A is 900-100; B is 800-899; C is 700-799; D is 600 to 699)
Essay #1 Options with 2 sources (Brooks and Henderson) Due 2-5-18
One. Apply the wisdom of Arthur C. Brooks’ essay “Love People, Not Pleasure” to develop a thesis that analyzes the personal transformation of Jeff Henderson rendered in his memoir Cooked.
Suggested Outline:
Paragraph 1: Summarize Brooks’ essay.
Paragraph 2: Summarize Henderson’s memoir.
Paragraph 3: Your thesis that shows how Henderson’s transformation illustrated Brooks’ ideas.
Paragraphs 4-8 will support your thesis.
Paragraph 9, your conclusion, will restate your thesis in dramatic form.
1,200-word total
Sources and Signal Phrases
You need only two sources, Henderson’s book and Brooks’ essay, but you must use at least 6 different signal phrases for using in-text citations in the form of quotations, paraphrase and summary.
Two. A wise man once said that when we think we're rising in life, we're really falling and when we think we're falling, we're really rising. In a 6-page essay, apply this wisdom, in all of its psychological complexity, to Jeff Henderson's journey and compare to someone from a personal interview. Use blog, book, and personal interview for your sixth page, your Works Cited page.
Suggested Outline:
Paragraph 1: Write a narrative of someone who thought he or she was rising but was actually falling.
Paragraph 2: Summarize Henderson’s memoir.
Paragraph 3: Your thesis analyzes how Henderson’s memoir is an illustration of the wise man’s adage with 5 mapping components.
Paragraphs 4-8 will support your thesis.
Conclusion, a dramatic restatement of your thesis.
1,200 words
Sources and Signal Phrases:
You need only one source, Henderson’s book, but you must use at least 6 different signal phrases for using in-text citations in the form of quotations, paraphrase and summary.
Essay #2 Options with Signal Phrases and Works Cited Due 2-26-18
One. In an essay of appropriate length, defend, refute, or complicate Cal Newport’s argument from his book excerpt (available online) from So Good They Can't Ignore You that the Passion Hypothesis is dangerous and should be replaced by the craftsman mindset.
Suggested Essay Structure:
Paragraph 1: Summarize Newport's argument.
Paragraph 2: Explain how you've been pursuing your career goals before reading Newport's book. Then explain how his book affects the way you might re-think your strategy and approach to your career plans.
Paragraph 3: Your thesis: Example: "Cal Newport's argument that should should shun the Passion Hypothesis and replace it with a craftsman's mindset is convincing (is not convincing) because ______________, ______________, _________________, and ______________________.
Paragraphs 4-7 are your supporting paragraphs
Paragraph 8: Counterargument-Rebuttal Paragraph in which you anticipate how your opponents will oppose your thesis and your rebuttal to their counterargument.
Paragraph 9: Conclusion: Dramatic reiteration of your thesis.
1,200 words
Sources and Signal Phrases
You must use at least 2 sources and 6 signal phrases for your essay.
Two. Sherry Turkle’s “The Flight from Conversation” and Curtis Silver’s “The Quagmire of Social Media Friendships” (444) allege certain pathologies result from social media. These pathologies include an empathy deficit, depression, narcissism, shortened attention span, online shaming, lost conversation skills, and even altered brain development. In an argumentative essay, support, refute, or complicate the assertion from Sherry Turkle’s “The Flight from Conversation” (online essay) that social media is harmful for our social, cultural and intellectual development.
Sample Outline
Paragraph 1 Summarize the pathologies explained in Turkle's and Silver's essays.
Paragraph 2: Write a profile of a person you know who is squandering his or life on social media while becoming afflicted with a myriad of social pathologies.
Paragraph 3: Write an argumentative thesis that either attributes these pathologies to social media, as is claimed in Turkle's essay, or argue that social media is not the culprit.
Paragraphs 4-7: Support your thesis with these body paragraphs.
Paragraph 8: Anticipate how your opponents would disagree with you (counterargument) and show why your opponents are wrong (rebuttal).
Typical counterargument goes like this: "My opponents claim that I am wrong because of _________; however, their claim fails to address ___________." Or, "My opponents will take issue with __________; however, their opposition is clearly misguided when we consider _______________."
Paragraph 9: Conclusion, a restatement of your thesis with powerful emotion (pathos).
You must use at least 2 sources and 6 signal phrases for your essay.
Essay #3 Options with 3 Sources Due 3-23-18
One. Refute, support, or complicate Asma’s assertion that green guilt is not only a relative to religious guilt but speaks to our drive to sacrifice self-indulgence for the drive of altruistic self-preservation and social reciprocity.
Two. Develop a thesis that supports, refutes, or complicates the assertion Debra J. Dickerson, who wrote the “The Great White Way,” would find Michael Eric Dyson's essay "Understanding Black Patriotism" a complement to Dickerson's ideas about race, power, and hierarchy.
Three. Support, refute, or complicate Debra J. Dickerson's argument that race in America is more of a social fantasy than a reflection of objective reality.
Four. Show how the Jordan Peele movie Get Out builds on Debra J. Dickerson's argument that race in America is a cruel invention designed to create a hierarchy of power, one that can be seen in all its horror in post-Obama America. For sources, see NYT review , The Guardian review, and the Variety review.
Five. Develop a thesis that analyzes the human inclination for staying within the tribe of sameness as explained in David Brooks’ “People Like Us” (very popular with students).
Six. Support, refute, or complicate Nicholas Kristof’s assertion that slashing food stamps is morally indefensible.
Seven. Addressing at least one essay we've covered in class (“The Wages of Sin” and “Eat Cake, Subtract Self-Esteem), support, refute, or complicate the argument that overeating, anorexia, and other eating disorders are not the result of a disease but are habits of individual circumstance and economics.
Eight. Support, refute, or complicate the argument that feminist-political explanations for anorexia, as evident in Caroline Knapp's essay, are a ruse that hide the disease's real causes.
Essay #4 Options with 3 Sources for Works Cited Due 5-14-18
One. In the context of “Our Baby, Her Womb,” support, defend, or complicate the argument that surrogate motherhood is a moral abomination.
Two. In the context of “The Flip Side of the Internet” and “The Evolution of Shaming,” develop a cause and effect thesis about the frenzy of shame that is evident in the age of social media.
Three. Comparing “Faces in the Mirror” and “The Flip Side of the Internet,” develop a thesis that analyzes the confluence of narcissism and celebrity worship.
Four. In the context of “Unspeakable Conversations,” defend, refute, or complicate Peter Singer’s position that there are moral grounds for infanticide or “mercy killings.”
Five. Develop a thesis that defends, refutes, or complicates Paul Bloom’s assertion that simple-minded notions of empathy are actually dangerous and diminish us as human beings.
Six. Develop a thesis that defends, refutes, or complicates the argument that the NFL is a moral abomination that must be boycotted.
Seven. Develop a thesis that defends, refutes, or complicates the argument that America’s history of racist kleptocracy is justification for reparations to African Americans.
Essay #5 Options: Capstone Essay with 5 Sources for Works Cited Due 6-6-18.
One. Support, refute, or complicate Alfie Kohn’s assertion from “Degrading to De-grading” that grading is an inferior education tool that all conscientious teachers should abandon.
Two. Support, refute, or complicate the inferred lesson from bell hooks’ essay, “Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class” that upward mobility requires a betrayal of one’s economic class and even family.
Three. In the context of one or more essays we’ve read about standardized testing, support, refute, or complicate the assertion that standardized testing is a money-making canard sodden with incompetence, corruption, and moral bankruptcy, and therefore must be abolished.
Four. Support, refute, or complicate the argument that “Against School” and any other essays we’ve covered persuasively evidence that American education is more about protecting private business interests, maintaining class bias, and asserting mass control than it is about promoting real empowerment such as critical thinking, independence, and freedom.
Five. In the context of John Taylor Gatto’s “Against School,” support, refute, or complicate the argument that that American education is more about protecting private business interests, maintaining class bias, and asserting mass control than it is about promoting real empowerment such as critical thinking, independence, and freedom.
Six. Bell Hooks sees the self-destruction from extreme self-abasement on one hand and extreme privilege on the other. She is on a quest for a healthy middle ground. These components of toxic self-abasement and toxic privilege, and the sick symbiotic relationship between the rich and poor, are evident in Hooks' essay, "Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class" (287). Toxic abasement and the sick symbiotic relationship between the rich and the poor are also evident in "The Consequences--Undoing Sanity" (342), "How the Poor Are Made to Pay for Their Poverty," and Linda Tirado's online essay "Why I Make Terrible Decisions." Develop a thesis that compares the toxic symbiotic relationship between the rich and the poor in the aforementioned essays and show that human redemption is from a sense of healthy, well-balanced privilege that doesn't exclude social conscience. (This prompt has the thesis embedded in it.)
Seven. Addressing Cathy Young's online essay "Linda Tirado's Poverty Tale: Not Quite Fake, Far from Accurate," develop an argumentative thesis that addresses the charge that Tirado is guilty of committing a "poverty hoax."
Your guidelines for your Final Research Paper are as follows:
This research paper should present a thesis that is specific, manageable, provable, and contestable—in other words, the thesis should offer a clear position, stand, or opinion that will be proven with research.
You should analyze and prove your thesis using examples and quotes from a variety of sources.
You need to research and cite from at least five sources. You must use at least 3 different types of sources.
At least one source must be from an ECC library database.
At least one source must be a book, anthology or textbook.
At least one source must be from a credible website, appropriate for academic use.
The paper should not over-rely on one main source for most of the information. Rather, it should use multiple sources and synthesize the information found in them.
This paper will be approximately 5-7 pages in length, not including the Works Cited page, which is also required. This means at least 5 full pages of text. The Works Cited page does NOT count towards length requirement.
You must use MLA format for the document, in-text citations, and Works Cited page.
You must integrate quotations and paraphrases using signal phrases and analysis or commentary.
You must sustain your argument, use transitions effectively, and use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Your paper must be logically organized and focused.
Late papers reduced a full grade. No late papers accepted a week past due date.
Peer Edit
You must do a peer edit. You must show up to class on peer edit day with a completed typed draft for 20 points.
You Can’t “Ride” the Class
If you’re “riding” the class, that is missing more than 10% of classes and not keeping up with assignments, you can’t fulfill the Student Learning Outcomes, and you will be dropped.
You Must Use turnitin to submit essay and bring hard copy on due date
Each essay must be submitted to www.turnitin.com where it will be checked for illegal copying/plagiarism. I cannot give credit for an essay that is not submitted to this site by the deadline.
The process is very simple; if you need help, detailed instructions are available at http://turnitin.com/en_us/training/student-training/student-quickstart-guide
You will need two pieces of information to use the site:
Class ID and Enrollment Password, which I will give you first week of class
Classroom Decorum: No smart phones can be used in class. If you’re on your smart phone and I see you, you get a warning the first time. Second time, you must leave the class and lose 25 points. Third time, you must leave the class and lose 50 points. The above also applies to talking and doing homework from other classes.
Tardies: It’s reasonable to be late a couple of times a semester, but some students consistently show up late to class, and this distraction compromises the learning environment significantly. Therefore, starting on the fourth tardy, 50 points must be deducted from total grade and another 25 points must be deducted for every tardy after that.
Homework for Your Portfolio
Your Homework Portfolio connects with a 20-minute class activity that begins the class in your team (of 3 or 4 people).
Your essays are of the “mini” variety: 3 paragraphs, 350 words long, and have at least 3 signal phrases citing the text in the form of direct quotations, paraphrase, or summary.
Almost every class-assigned reading has a mini essay that you will keep in your portfolio.
Every class, while you discuss the study question with your team, I will come around and put a stamp on the completed typed mini essay.
Even though I grade your Portfolio mid-way into the semester as “Portfolio 1,” keep all your subsequent essays in the same Homework Portfolio. In other words, don’t throw your hard-copies of your essay away after I grade “Portfolio 1.”
Course Catalog Description:
This course is designed to strengthen the students’ ability to read with understanding and discernment, to discuss assigned readings intelligently, and to write clearly. Emphasis will be on writing essays in which each paragraph relates to a controlling idea, has an introduction and a conclusion, and contains primary and secondary support. College-level reading material will be assigned to provide the stimulus for class discussion and writing assignments, including a required research paper.
Course Objectives:
One. Recognize and revise sentence-level grammar and usage errors.
Two. Read and apply critical-thinking skills to numerous published articles and to college-level, book-length works for the purpose of writing and discussion.
Three. Apply appropriate strategies in the writing process including prewriting, composing, revising, and editing techniques.
Four. Compose multi-paragraph, thesis-driven essays with logical and appropriate supporting ideas, and with unity and coherence.
Five. Demonstrate ability to locate and utilize a variety of academic databases, peer-reviewed journals, and scholarly websites.
Six. Utilize MLA guidelines to format essays, cite sources in the texts of essays, and compile Works Cited lists.
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this course, students will:
- 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.
- 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.
- Demonstrate logical paragraph composition and sentence structure. The essay should have correct grammar, spelling, and word use.
Students with Disabilities:
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.
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 class are among the disciplinary actions for academic dishonesty (AP 5520). Students with any questions about the Academic Honesty or discipline policies are encouraged to speak with their instructor in advance.
Attendance Policy: Students are expected to attend their classes regularly. Students who miss the first class meeting or who are not in regular attendance during the add period for the class may be dropped by the instructor. Students whose absences from a class exceed 10% of the scheduled class meeting times may be dropped by the instructor. However, students are responsible for dropping a class within the deadlines published in the class schedule. Students who stop attending but do not drop may receive a failing grade.
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 www.elcamino.edu/library/lrc/tutoring .The LRC also offers individualized computer adaptive programs to help build your reading comprehension skills.
- Student Health Center (Next to the Pool)
- 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.
Reading and Writing Schedule Includes Homework for Your Two Portfolios
February 12 Introduction, Syllabus, Portfolio, and Signal Phrases; find a team of 3 or 4 for your beginning class activity that will start our classes throughout the semester.
February 14 Cooked, read 1-50, comma splices; homework #1 due: write a 3-paragraph, 350-word typed essay that explains 3 ways Henderson’s childhood shaped his personality. Use at least 3 signal phrases in citing the memoir.
February 19 Holiday
February 21 Cooked, read 51-150, signal phrases, fragments; homework #2 due: write a 3-paragraph, 350-word essay that analyzes the causes of Jeff Henderson’s initial self-pity in prison. Use at least 3 signal phrases in citing the memoir.
February 28 Cooked, read 151-end, parallelism, MLA format; homework #3 due: write a 3-paragraph, 350-word essay that gives 3 reasons Henderson’s post-prison struggles were more difficult that his stay in prison. Use at least 3 signals phrases to cite the memoir.
March 5 Essay 1 Due, So Good They Can’t Ignore You excerpt
March 7 Cal Newport continued, dangling modifiers; homework #4: write a 3-paragraph, 350-word essay that explains 3 ways Newport’s thesis is relevant to your own career quest. Use at least 3 signal phrases to cite Newport’s excerpt.
March 12 “Flight from Conversation,” writing introductions; homework #5: write a 3-paragraph, 350-word essay that analyzes 3 ways social media kills conversation and degrades our humanity. Use at least 3 signal phrases that cite Turkle’s essay.
March 14 “Quagmire of Social Media Relationships” (444), “Exploring Facebook Depression”; homework #6: write a 3-paragraph, 350-word essay that offers 3 counterarguments to Curtis Silver’s claim (444) that online friendships are superficial. Use at least 3 signal phrases citing Silver’s essay (444).
March 19 Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?", "Facebook Isn't Making Us Lonely," "How Facebook Makes Us Unhappy" "I, Narcissist--Vanity, Social Media, and the Human Condition"; signal phrase review
March 21 Peer Edit, bring completed typed first draft to class
March 26 Essay 2 Due, “Green Guilt” (25); sentence variety; homework #7: write a 3-paragraph, 350-word essay that explains 3 reasons “going green” is a religion. Use at least 3 signal phrases addressing “Green Guilt.”
March 28 “The Great White Way” (68); “Understanding Black Patriotism (52); homework #8: write a 3-paragraph, 350-word essay that explains Debra Dickerson’s observation that race is both not real yet is America’s obsession. Use at least 3 signal phrases citing Dickerson’s essay.
April 2 “People Like Us” (62); homework #9: write a 3-paragraph, 350-word essay that gives 3 reasons Americans are self-segregating. Use at least 3 signal phrases that cite Brooks’ essay.
April 4 “Prudence or Cruelty” (172); counterargument templates: homework #10: write a 3-paragraph, 350-word essay that explains Kristof’s objection to those who want to slash food stamps. Use no fewer than 3 signal phrases citing Kristof’s essay.
April 16 “The Wages of Sin” (181), “Add Cake, Subtract Self-Esteem” (188): homework #11: write a 350-word essay that analyzes 3 reasons, according to Francine Prose, overweight people are often perceived as sinners. Your peer edit draft and Homework Portfolio 1 are due in 2 days.
April 18 Peer Edit, bring completed typed first draft to class; Homework Portfolio 1 Due. Bring to class.
April 23 Essay 3 Due, “Our Baby, Her Womb” (418); homework #12: write a 350-word, 3-paragraph essay that analyzes 3 causes for the immorality of surrogacy. Use no fewer than 3 signal phrases to cite the essay.
April 25 “The Faces in the Mirror” (31), “The Flip Side of Internet Fame” (90): homework #13: write a 350-word, 3-paragraph essay that explains how social media affects our notion of fame. Use at least 3 signal phrases to cite the texts in both essays (31 and 90).
April 30 “Unspeakable Conversations” (96); homework #14: write a 350-word, 3-paragraph essay that addresses the moral challenges many face when confronted with Peter Singer’s philosophy. Use at least 3 signal phrases citing
May 2 Online essays: “Against Empathy” by Paul Bloom; and boycotting the NFL; homework #15: write a 3-paragraph, 350-word essay that explains why, according to Paul Bloom, empathy in many cases can be dangerous. Use at least 3 signal phrases to cite Bloom’s text.
May 7 Online essays about reparations (Ta-Nehisi Coates) and the kleptocracy: homework #16: Reading the NYTimes discussion “Are Reparations Due to African Americans? https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/06/08/are-reparations-due-to-african-americans ) on the reparations debate, write a 350-word essay that supports or refutes reparations. Use at least 3 signal phrases citing the NYTimes discussion.
May 9 Peer Edit; bring your completed, typed first draft to class.
May 14 Essay 4 Due, “From Degrading to De-Grading” (238); homework #17: write a 3-paragraph, 350-word essay that gives 3 counterarguments to Kohn’s claim. Use at least 3 signal phrases citing Kohn’s essay.
May 16 Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class” (287), “Against School” (271); homework #18: write a 350-word, 3-paragraph essay that analyzes the bell hooks’ struggle with race and social class as she tries to climb the education ladder. Use at least 3 signal phrases citing hooks’ text.
May 21 “Everything You’ve Heard About Failing Schools Is Wrong” (252), online homework#19: In the context of Kristina Rizga’s essay (253), write a 350-word, 3-paragraph essay that analyzes the claim that standardized testing improves education. Use at least 3 signal phrases citing Rizga’s essay. "Why Poor Schools Can't Win at Standardized Testing"; John Oliver video
May 23 “The Consequences—Undoing Sanity” (342), “Fifteen Years on the Bottom Rung” (353), “How the Poor Are Made to Pay for Their Poverty,” online essay: Linda Tirado's "This Is Why Poor People's Bad Decisions Make Perfect Sense"; Cathy Young's "Linda Tirado's Poverty Tale: Not Quite Fake, Far from Accurate"; homework #20: Write a 350-word, 3-paragraph essay that analyzes the vulnerability men suffer when they’re unemployed as presented in “The Consequences--Undoing Sanity” (342). Use at least 3 signal phrases.
May 28 Holiday
May 30 Peer Edit; bring first typed draft to class.
June 4 Blue Book Exam
June 6 Essay 5 Due, Portfolio2 Due in Class
Sample Signal Phrases:
From ThoughtCo:
- Sample Signal Phrases:
- Maya Angelou said, "Start loving yourself before you ask someone else to love you."
- "Start loving yourself before you ask someone else to love you," Maya Angelou said.
- "Start loving yourself," Maya Angelou said, "before you ask someone else to love you."
- As Mark Twain observed, "Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions."
- According to Frito-Lay research, women snack only 14 percent . . .
- The candidate insisted that the tariff must be reduced to a "competitive basis" and taxes . . .
- Undernourished children have long been India’s scourge--“a national shame,” in the words of its prime minister . . ..
From GMU Writing Center:
Below are some guidelines and tips for using signal phrases.
- Signal phrases usually include the author’s name but can also include the author’s job title or background (“reporter for Washington Post,” “researcher,” “senator,” “scholar,” and so on) and/or the title of the source.
- Signal phrases usually come at the beginning of a sentence before the source material, but they can also occur in the middle of a source or at the end.
- To avoid monotony and repetition, try to vary both the language and placement of your signal phrases.
- According to Maxwell & Hanson, Some scholars have shown... In the words of researchers Smith and Johnson, “...” As legal scholar Terrence Roberts has noted, “....” “...,” attorney Smith claims. Smith and Robert offer a persuasive argument: “....”
- Choose a verb that is appropriate to the way you are using your source. Below is a list of verbs that can be used in signal phrases:
- acknowledges adds admits affirms agrees answers argues asserts claims comments concedes confirms contends counters counterattacks declares defines denies disputes echoes endorses estimates finds grants illustrates implies insists mentions notes observes predicts proposes reasons recognizes recommends refutes rejects reports responds reveals speculates states suggests surmises warns writes
Peer Edit for Typed Essay (First Draft)
First Page
- Do you have a salient, distinctive title that is relevant to your topic and thesis?
- Do you have your name, instructor’s name, the course, and date (in that order) at the top left?
Format
- Are you using 12-point font with Times New Roman?
- Are your lines double-spaced?
- Is your font color black?
- Do you make sure there are no extra spaces between paragraphs (some students erroneously use 4 spaces between paragraphs)
- Do you use 1-inch margins?
- Do you use block format for quotes of 4 or more lines in which you indent another inch from the left margin?
Introduction
- Does your introduction have a compelling hook using an anecdote, a troubling current event, a startling statistic, etc.?
- Do you avoid pat phrases or clichés? For example, “In today’s society . . .” or “In today’s modern world . . .” or “Since the Dawn of Man . . .”
Thesis
- Do you have a thesis that articulates your main purpose in clear, specific language?
- Is your thesis sophisticated in that it makes an assertion that goes beyond the obvious and self-evident?
- Is your thesis debatable?
- Do you address your opponents with a concession clause? (While opponents of my proposal to raise the minimum wage to $22 an hour make some compelling points, their argument collapses when we consider _____________, _______________, __________________, and ________________. )
- Does your thesis have explicit or implicit mapping components that outline the body paragraphs of your essay?
Questions from Your Reader (write on a separate page so you’ll have more room to write)
One. What’s most compelling about the essay so far?
Two. What is most needed for improvement so far?
Three. Something I would like the writer to explain more is . . .
Four. One last comment would be . . .
Five. What is the writer’s thesis?
Six. On a scale of 1-10, how compelling is the thesis and what could make it more compelling?
Seven. On a scale of 1-10, how effective is the title? Could it be improved? How?
Eight. Does the writer have well developed paragraphs with clear topic sentences?
Nine. Does the writer use a diversity of paragraph transitions?
Ten. Does the writer use diverse and appropriate signal phrases?
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