Looking ahead, Brief Assignment 6

[Ryan]

Hey Folks,

Next week students will be writing 6 thesis statements (assignment
description pasted below) based on two topic areas (their 1.1 topic
and a new topic area).

The assignment description reads pretty straight forward so I don't
anticipate major issues with grading. Some of these recent assignments
seem kinda repetitive so please offer any suggestions you have for
teaching these assignments.

On a separate note, please also use this thread to respond to how well
the GoogleGroup is working for you...To be honest, it doesn't seem like
some are reading the short, one page final grading criteria that we
agreed to. I've had several documents flagged because the first grader
thinks the student is doing an excellent job, and the second grader
thinks the students produced failing work. This concerns me because
some disconnect between grading and grading criteria seems to exist.

Brief Assignment 6 Description

Objective: To develop a working thesis.

Description: Even after locating a topic that you would like to use
for an assignment, you have more work to do in order to develop a
thesis. For example, your general topic area might be something like
"World War II"; however, you've not yet developed a thesis to argue.
To do so, you must do some background research to find out what the
relationships between facts or aspects of the situation are. Then, you
can develop a thesis, which should state your point of view concerning
a topic and forecast the contents of the rest of the argument. A
thesis is an interpretation or response to a research question. It is
not a statement of the topic itself. That is, if you are using World
War II as your topic or subject area, your thesis will deal with only
one small aspect of your topic and express one point of view about
that aspect, such as "It was often more dangerous for Allied pilots
who flew on the Eastern front to parachute into Russia than into
Germany." The rest of your paper, then, would seek to show why this
claim was true.

For this assignment, identify two topic areas (one from your 1.1 draft
and one new topic) and conduct preliminary research about each topic
to develop possible thesis statements. Next, write three working
thesis statements for each topic area (for a total of six thesis
statements). You should write one explanatory thesis, one explanatory
but mildly argumentative thesis, and one strongly argumentative thesis
for each topic. (See "Using the Thesis to Plan a Structure" on pages
95 to 97 for more information on these three types of thesis
statements.)

After you list your topic areas and write your six working thesis
statements, write a brief analysis of each thesis below the thesis
statement. In your analysis, discuss the potential for locating
supporting evidence for each thesis statement. Lastly, discuss which
of the statements you have generated provides the most viable option
for development, including locating ample and appropriate sources to
develop the working argument. Your assignment should be about 400 -
500 words total.

[TTUEngl...@gmail.com]

"On a separate note, please also use this thread to respond to how
well
the GoogleGroup is working for you...To be honest, it doesn't seem
like
some are reading the short, one page final grading criteria that we
agreed to."

So far, GoogleGroup has been working for me. I check it when I can,
and can glean a lot of good stuff. I think I'll make it a habit to
post to the group in on Thursday/Friday and on Sundays. I kind of feel
like we aren't using it enough though, but I personally prefer this to
email correspondence.

Rather than designating pages, I think we should just make use the
most current assignment as the focal point for all our discussions. I
hope you don't mind, but I de-stickied the other posts, so that this
and the Peer Critique threads will be the most prominent. Once a
final grading criteria is decided, I guess the first person to post on
the thread (in this, it would be Ryan) can edit their post so the
grading criteria is at the top of the post. Is this ok with everybody
else? If anybody wants me to change it to the original format (re-
sticky the threads) let me know.

Compared to other groups, where would we fall in terms of consistency
with grading? I know from working in the Writing Center that a lot of
students (not from our sections) are having trouble with assignments
because it is not always clear what the instructor and online graders
want.

[TTUEngl...@gmail.com]

For the initial draft, I've not been counting off points for using
Wikipedia or other sources not quite as reliable as scholarly journals
or books. I am suggesting, though, that students look at academic
sources to support the analysis. I'm noticing that students are
relying on the internet for sources. We may have addressed this
issue, and I apologize if I've forgotten, but will students be
required to have academic sources for the final draft?

Thanks,

Shelley

[TTUEngl...@gmail.com]

In addition to posting the original assignment prompt for BA6 on my
instructor page, I plan posting (and teaching to) the following. If
you have any suggestions or comments, please let me know.

SUMMARY OF ASSIGNMENT:

1. Use your original topic

2. Now, pick another topic

3. Write 3 separate thesis statements for each topic for a total of 6
thesis statements. For each topic, you should write:
· one explanatory thesis
· one explanatory but mildly argumentative thesis
· one strongly argumentative thesis

4. Discuss each thesis statement, including the potential for locating

supporting evidence for each thesis statement.

5. Discuss which of the statements you have generated provides the

most viable option
for development, including locating ample and appropriate sources to
develop the working argument.

6. Your assignment should be 400-500 words and must follow the
designated format.

FORMAT-please copy and paste to your word processor and fill in the
brackets with your work

ORIGINAL TOPIC

1. Explanatory Thesis:
[Write your thesis statement here]
Analysis:
[Write your analysis of your thesis statement here]

2. Explanatory by Mildly Argumentative Thesis:
[Write your thesis statement here]
Analysis:
[Write your analysis of your thesis statement here]

3. Strongly Argumentative Thesis:
[Write your thesis statement here]
Analysis:
[Write your analysis of your thesis statement here]

SECONDARY TOPIC

1. Explanatory Thesis:
[Write your thesis statement here]
Analysis:
[Write your analysis of your thesis statement here]

2. Explanatory by Mildly Argumentative Thesis:
[Write your thesis statement here]
Analysis:
[Write your analysis of your thesis statement here]

3. Strongly Argumentative Thesis:
[Write your thesis statement here]
Analysis:
[Write your analysis of your thesis statement here]

FINAL ANALYSIS OF ALL THESIS STATEMENTS
[Write your final analysis here]

On Oct 19, 8:38 pm, TTUEnglish1...@gmail.com wrote:

[kandkg...@gmail.com]

I'm okay with Google Groups. It seems to be a nice place where we can
stick our final summary of our grading criteria. But in terms of
discussion, it's not so helpful for me for two reasons.

First, I don't check Google Groups as often as I check my email
because I never know when something new is posted. I usually check it
about three times a week. I would turn on the email notifications, but
that sends notifications to my shared Gmail account with my husband.
Turning on the email notifications also kind of defeats the purpose of
having everything on Google Groups. Second, Google Groups seems a more
formal place to hash things out, so I'm less likely to post something
that I feel is of minor importance. Also, I think that the more we
post things, the harder it is to find the latest postings.

Anyway, I think those are my reasons for not contacting the group as
much as I did when we were emailing each other this information.

Thanks, Mark for moving Ryan's latest posting up on the list. I think
that was you. Also, thanks for posting what you plan to talk about
with your students. I will keep that in mind. Also, thanks, Ryan for
bringing this discussion up.

The next assignment does sound a little tedious. I would rather have
students just work with their thesis statement that they used for the
Draft 1.1. That way they can spend the majority of their time
improving their thesis for their Draft 1.2. Would that help narrow
things down? Would they still have enough to say to meet the word
count on the assignment description?

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[Ryan]

You make an interesting point, Katherine. There's nothing that says we
can't just make students revise their thesis from the 1.1 and ignore
the part about them having to research and write 3 theses on a second
topic.

I think students should write more than one thesis statement however.
Off the top of my head, what about this? Students write three thesis
statements around their 1.1 topic, with each thesis written from one
of the three ethical lenses. This approach would also reiterate the
importance of the ethical lens for 1.2 and get students to consider
multiple perspectives.

-Ryan

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[Walki...@gmail.com]

I really like Ryan's idea. Especially because my students (at least)
have begun to complain that they feel the BAs are becoming repetitive
and not particularly helpful. What do you all think? Three versions of
their thesis statement? Or, we could ask them to include three
versions of the thesis and three topic sentences? I'm at a loss with
this assignment...

-katie

[kandkg...@gmail.com]

Well, I've already got my lesson plan worked out for tomorrow and I
know that Mark looks like he's already worked on his. So I guess I'd
like to stick with the assignment description on TOPIC. I've opted
instead to do an activity that is more helpful for them in class.
We'll be discussing what makes a good thesis over a not so good thesis
while I cover the three different types of thesis statements. I'm
going to make it apply more to their thesis statement that they will
use for their Draft 1.2 since we really didn't get enough time to work
on that before their Draft 1.1. Is that okay? Ryan, you have a good
idea there. I'm thinking that it might be best to not re-invent the
wheel this week.
Thanks,
Katherine

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[TTUEngl...@gmail.com]

although i'd prefer to stick to the assignment on TOPIC (and the
structure i posted above), i'm definitely willing to adjust the
students' assignment. the idea of rewriting their thesis does have a
very practical appeal or me.

if the group decides on an alternate and posts up instructions, i'll
adjust my class plans accordingly.

mr

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[Walki...@gmail.com]

I tried to add my supplementary instructions or class information on
the BA#6 page, but couldn't. Is this where I'm supposed to post that
information?

Anyway, I just wanted to give everyone a heas up about two things I
told my classes:

#!. For their "mildly argumentative thesis: I told them to acknowledge
both sides of an issue, but pick one. I hope this works. I myself
wasn't quite sure how to write a mildly argumentative thesis, so I
hope this is close.
#2. I had students respond to one of Stanley Fish's blog entries from
the New York Times. I told students they could use this as their
second topic for the assignment. So, if you see a number of
statements about preaching liberal values in the university that's
why.

Thanks,
Katie

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[Ryan]

Katie,

You just need to click the "Edit Page" button at the bottom of the
screen. I've gone ahead and added your above info to the page.

-Ryan