Major Assignments

Letter of Introduction 

Write a professional letter to me about your life, your experiences, your achievements, your talents. What is your major in college and how does your major connect to your professional goal(s)? 

Where are you from? How do you want me to see you? Write about your challenges as well as your successes. How do you imagine your future place in the world of engineering? What are some of the engineering challenges you would like to be involved with?

Also include an experience that was meaningful for you, whether that had to do with something personal, social or subject matter.

Format:

Put the sender’s and receiver’s addresses on the top. Put the date. This is a formal letter, addressed to me (use the school address), and signed at the end by you. Write a letter that starts “Dear Ms. Davidow.” Use topic-focused paragraphs just as if you were writing an essay. That is, you should write about only one topic per paragraph.

Type in 12- point New Times Roman font, normal margins and double spaced.

Minimum 500 words

Grading Rubric:

HAVE YOU:

Structured your letter with the correct heading, spacing, and fonts? (20 pts.)

Written paragraphs with a topic sentence and connected ideas? (20 pts.)

Provided specific details? (25 pts.)

Written about a meaningful experience? (25 pts.)

Edited your letter, eliminated typos, and removed grammatical errors? (10 pts.)

Essay 1: Literacy Narrative

A literacy narrative reflects on a single event that took place during a relatively brief period of time:

*any early memory about writing or reading that you recall vividly

*someone who taught you to read or write

*a book or other text that has been significant for you in some way

*an event at school that was related to reading or writing that you found interesting, humorous, or embarrassing

*a writing or reading task that you found especially challenging

*a memento that represents an important moment in our literacy development

*the origins of your current attitudes about writing or reading

 

Make a list of possible topics, and then choose one that you think will be interesting to you and to others.

Keep in mind the rhetorical situation:

Purpose: Why do you want to tell this story?

Audience: Do your readers share similar experiences? How much do you want to share?

Stance: What attitude do you want to project? Affectionate? Neutral? Critical?

Media/Design: Do you want to include images? Do you want to use a particular font? What about headings?

Come up with a good title.

500-750 words (2-3 pages) plus 250-500-word reflection on your writing process

*Self- and Peer-Assessment criteria:

  • Have you introduced the topic you will be discussing within your first paragraph? 15%
  • Have you explored themeaning the event or place has for you in a way that will interest others by making connections between your personal experience and more general experiences that your readers might share? 15%
  • Is there a satisfying resolution to your story? 15%
  • Have you written using your senses: how the experience felt, how it sounded, how it looked, character descriptions, etc. 15%
  • Is there a recognizable structure? Are the various ideas in your essay brought together, or does the essay seem disjointed? 10%
  • Have you providedspecific details that help the reader understand your subject? Have you described people and events with adequate detail? 10%
  • Did youdesign your essay appropriately? Are there adequate visual elements? Have you considered the appropriateness of a Web text (for an essay that includes videos, for example)? 5%
  • Did youedit your essay, eliminate typos, and remove grammatical errors? 10%
  • Did you include a self-reflection? 5%

 

Essay 2: Expository Essay (to explain or describe)

In this essay, you’ll turn toward external sources to help you extend your thinking about a subject of your choice. Consider a topic that you’ve either read or heard about recently that has interested you. Contemplate the importance and relevance of this topic to you personally, your family, or your community. (If you are having a difficult time finding a topic, begin by thinking about any hobbies you have, subjects you find fascinating, or something you may have studied in one of your other classes.)

Remember: You are going to write about something that you feel is particularly meaningful for you.

Although the research you do in this essay will have an impact on your opinion, your goal will not be to persuade your reader of a particular point—you’ll do that in the next essay. Here, your goal is to gather information on a particular aspect of your topic so that you have a more informed opinion. Find a subject that has personal interest and find and evaluate some external sources. You will extend the theme of this essay in your next essay, a researched critical analysis.

For this essay, I want you to find at least three sources from magazines or newspapers on your subject. I want you to find them in CCNY’s virtual library. I’ll be able to tell, of course, because a correctly cited item will tell me the name of the database. I want you to use the database because the material you find in it has already been evaluated by experts, which isn’t usually the case on the open Web. You’ll also use the virtual library throughout your college career, so you should get an early start.

4-5 pages; 1000-1250 words plus reflection 250-500 words

Self- and Peer-Assessment

Use the following criteria for assessing your and your classmates’ essays. I’ll be using the same rubric when I grade the essays.

  • Do you have atightly focused topic? Have you kept your opinions out of the essay? 20%
  • Did youcite at least three magazine or newspaper articles on your subject? 20%
  • Whatstrategies did you use to organize your essay? Comparison? Cause and Effect? Classification? 20%
  • Did youdefine key terms or concepts? 10%
  • Did youdesign your essay appropriately? Are there adequate visual elements (colors, fonts, subheads)? Have you considered the appropriateness of a Web text (for an essay that includes videos, for example)? 5%
  • Have you used correct MLA citations both in text in the works cited page)? 10%
  • Did youedit your essay, eliminate typos, and remove grammatical errors? 10%
  • Did you include a self-reflection? (5%)

Essay 3: Researched Critical Analysis Essay-Arguing a Position

In this essay, you’ll extend the theme of Essay 2: Reporting Information, and you will use it to argue a position. Here, your purpose will be to try to persuade your reader to think or act differently as a result of your argument. (You may also choose to use a different topic, but you will then have to do new research.)

For this essay, you can rely on and even re-use the research that you did for Essay 2: Reporting Information. You’ll also want to extend your research to include at least three, peer-reviewed articles from professional journals. As these will likely be difficult to read, you should try to find articles of fewer than ten pages. Remember, too, that you’re being asked to consider opposing points of view, so keep in mind that you’ll need to find at least one article (either peer-reviewed or from a magazine or newspaper) that represents an opposite viewpoint.

5-6 pages; 1750-2000 words plus reflection 250-500 words

Self- and Peer-Assessment

Use the following criteria for assessing your and your classmates’ essays. I’ll be using the same rubric when I grade the essays.

  • Do you have aclear and arguable position? 15%
  • Have youincluded background information to provide a context for your argument? 15%
  • Have you providedgood reasons in support your argument and evidence in support of your reasons? 15%
  • Have youdemonstrated, through your inclusion of facts and your tone, that you are a reliable source? 10%
  • Have youconsidered others’ positions, and responded to them reasonably? 10%
  • Did youdesign your essay appropriately? Are there adequate visual elements (fonts, colors, subheads, graphs)? Have you considered the appropriateness of a Web text (for an essay that includes videos, for example)? 5%
  • Have you used correct MLA citations both in text in the works cited page)? 15%
  • Did youedit your essay, eliminate typos, and remove grammatical errors? 10%
  • Did you include a self-reflection? 5%

Essay 4: Theory of Writing Essay (and Portfolio)

750-1000 words (3-4-pages)

Theory: a belief, policy, or procedure proposed or followed as the basis of action

  • her method is based on the theory that all children want to learn

You will create a digital portfolio on CUNY Academic Commons, which will house all of your assignments this semester. The home page will be an essay called Theory of Writing.

Throughout the semester you have been developing your theory of writing/writing process and what your theory of writing means in terms of its relationship to your writing–i.e., you have been exploring whether you enact your theory of writing in your own composition. As a result of this, you have had the opportunity to create a knowledge base of writing and its practices. In this final reflection, you will be returning to your theory to discuss several questions, including (but not limited to):

  • Define your theory of writing.
  • What was your theory of writing coming into this class? How has your theory of writing evolved with each piece of composing?
  • What has contributed to your theory of writing most?
  • What is the relationship between your theory of writing and how you create(d) knowledge?
  • How might your theory of writing be applied to other writing situations both inside and outside the classroom?

For each of these questions, you will need to support your ideas with your previous writing in this course and, through these examples, interpret what you have learned. You will create a compelling argument for whatever you decide to write for this, supported by evidence and analysis of the work completed in class this semester.

This is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your increased knowledge in writing–the practices of writing, the key terms, and any specific skills you’ve acquired. Think of this piece as another move in the evolution of your theory of writing, and as a chance for you to fully explore yourself as a writer and maker of knowledge.

This assignment gives you a chance to reflect on what you know about writing, and how what you know shapes your decisions about how you write. Reflection gives you a better understanding of what you know about your subject. This semester we have used reflection in this way on several occasions. For this final assignment, you’ll use reflection to develop a theory of writing. Your theory of writing will serve as the introduction to your portfolio–it should be on the introductory page to your portfolio website. The digital portfolio should contain, at a minimum, all of the major writing assignments from this semester–the Art Literacy Narrative, the Analytical Essay, the Composition in Two Genres, and the Theory of Writing–plus anything else (reflections, work from other classes or your non-academic life, or something else) that will support the claims you make in your theory of writing.

Through your application of key rhetorical terms–rhetorical situation, audience, author, tone, purpose, genre, medium, stance, and language–you have been developing your theory of writing and exploring how it informs your practice of writing. We have also engaged in several writing strategies–brainstorming, peer review, and revision. As a result of your work with these rhetorical concepts and writing strategies, you have had the opportunity to create a knowledge base of writing and its practices.

You will also refer to the Course Learning Outcomes:

  • Explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations.
  • Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing.
  • Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations.
  • Engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes.
  • Understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences.
  • Locate research sources (including academic journal articles, magazine and newspaper articles) in the library’s databases or archives and on the Internet and evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness, and bias.
  • Compose texts that integrate your stance with appropriate sources using strategies such as summary, critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and argumentation.
  • Practice systematic application of citation conventions.

Theory of Writing Grading Rubric:

  • Have you defined your theory of writing? 15%
  • Have you compared your theory of writing now with one that you had at the beginning of the course? How has it changed or evolved? 15%
  • What has most contributed to the change? 15%
  • How has your theory of writing influenced how you’ve worked and learned this semester? 15%
  • How will your theory influence your other writing in the future? 10%
  • Have you referred to all of your uploaded assignments? 10%
  • Have you referred to applicable Course Learning Outcomes? Those you reached and those you did not? 10%
  • Did you edit your essay, eliminate typos, and remove grammatical errors? 10%

Portfolio Grading Rubric:

  • Have you made your Theory of Writing your home page? 10%
  • Have you uploaded all of your major assignments (and others that are applicable)? 15%
  • Have you referred to all of your assignments in your Theory of Writing essay? 15%
  • Have you referred to the Course Learning Outcomes in your Theory of Writing Essay? 15%
  • Have you made your site easy to navigate and read? 15%
  • Have you incorporated multimedia? 15%
  • Have you revised your essays and eliminated typos and grammatical errors? 15%