Major Assignments – Writing I

Narrative Assignment

Note: You must thoroughly read and refer back to this page regularly throughout the writing process to keep its requirements fresh in your mind as you make progress.

Context: You’re asked for this assignment to write an autobiography about your literacy acquisition. We discuss in this unit how personal, political, linguistic, and socio-economic factors influence one’s literacy acquisition. We address multiple literacy practices and relate them to our own. Doing this assignment will allow us to use our experiences and expertise, using what we learned through our readings, to describe the story of our literacy acquisition process.

Sample Writing Scenarios: What follows are some options for your writing’s rhetorical situation.

Suppose that you are writing a story to middle school kids who are in ESL classes in Brooklyn. As you may know, some of these kids may feel shame for being in an ESL class. They might be bullied for being in this class. Write about how your experiences and our class readings inform your main message to the kids. For example, questions you may address might include why the kids should not feel ashamed, and why an ESL class is an asset to build better communication and learn an extra language.
Another option is to imagine that you are submitting your story to this NPR Show. Keep in mind the rhetorical situation of the show to help you prepare your story for a national NPR audience. For example, you can try to convince Americans to learn more languages.
Finally, you may choose to write about your personal history of how you acquired financial literacy, business literacy, technological literacy, a combination of these or another form of literacy with which you may have had an interesting story. Suppose that you want to inspire fellow Baruch students to pursue that valuable form of literacy and lay a foundation for yourself to build upon at Baruch. You may aim to publish this story in a Baruch student magazine such as Refract.
Here’s a Literacy Narrative Assignment Sample to consider as you prepare yours. Make sure your story is unique, however.

Requirements: You are required to write a narrative/story about your literacy history (i.e. learning to read and write) in the languages that you know.

Write a 1,500-word story (personal literacy narrative)
Use rich and descriptive language, such as interesting adjectives to describe a setting.
Give specific examples of experiences from your past.
Use Dialogue in your paper, which would enhance your story and allow the reader to really understand your experience, as opposed to making generic claims.
Show the reader exactly what happened in a given setting rather than making general statements. Describing the setting with detail is a must.
You can choose to organize your narrative chronologically, starting from as far in the past as you would like, or thematically, focusing on one theme in your literacy history.
It is highly encouraged that you interview parents, relatives, teachers, or anyone who might enrich your story by describing experiences of yours that you may not recall.
Use evidence from 2-3 sources to help you discuss how local, political, linguistic, and/or socio-economic factors influence you personal literacy narrative.
Use proper formatting and document layout (12 point and Times New Roman font). Follow APA Guidelines.
Write a reflection letter: The letter should be addressed to me and show the following: 1. Discuss how our course readings informed the main theme(s) in your story; 2. Describe on your writing process; 3. Describe the rhetorical situation you envisioned (especially Audience, Purpose, and Publication Medium); 4. State what you learned from this unit and how you may apply it in your expected future writing. Choose how long your reflection should be as long as you answer these questions. Please follow proper formal letter formatting, with sender and recipient addresses (use Baruch’s general address for you and Baruch’s English Department address for me), date, subject, greeting, and salutation.

Project Objectives: 1. Draw connections between our literacy experiences and theories of literacy; 2. Value our personal literacy practices and build confidence in one’s ability to write; 3. Develop literacy in the narrative genre of writing

Submission Deadlines and Guidelines: Check the course schedule for due dates. Put the letter at the top of your paper. First and second drafts are a result of your drafting process and they are due in your team’s Drafting Document in our class Google Drive folder. Please always make sure your latest draft is in the shared document at all times. Download and keep a personal copy for your records whenever you make changes on the Drafting Document using peer or instructor feedback. Make sure comments and suggestions are deleted after prompt revision. To submit the final draft, select File> Download as> PDF (.pdf) and save your downloaded paper from your team’s drafting document to your computer, naming it “[First Name Last Name Assignment Name].” Then upload the PDF file of your paper to the Google Drive Folder called “PDF Final Drafts”. Your reflection letter should be in the same document as your literacy story.

Keywords: Literacy; Language; Narrative; Dialogue; Show, not tell

Bonus Points:

For up to 5 extra points, submit by email an MP3 audio file of no longer than 3 minutes in which you tell your literacy acquisition story as if you are submitting it to This I believe (http://thisibelieve.org/). The software Audacity could be used to edit your recording.
You can also earn another 5 bonus points by conducting and reporting quotes from at least one interview with a parent, relative, former teacher about your literacy history (i.e. your story of learning to read and write in the languages you know).

Analysis Assignment

Description: You are asked to put together a Reflective Annotated Bibliography and submit it with a Synthesis Reflection Letter. A bibliography refers to a list of citations of sources, an annotation refers to the summary of those sources, and a reflection refers to the analysis of those sources. A synthesis refers to the analysis of the connections between the sources together. Here’s an excellent student’s analysis sample demonstrating how to do the assignment.

Requirements:

Your primary purpose in this assignment is to read, learn, analyze, and synthesize. You must keep an open mind about the issue you are investigating and avoid formulating an argument or a strong opinion for now about what you think. Your task is to understand and evaluate information, and building a foundation for the research-based Argument paper in the next unit.
You are asked to use the APA formatting style. Always refer back to the Purdue Online Writing Lab, make an appointment to work with a Writing Lab Tutor, or ask the professor when you are in doubt about how to properly use citation to avoid plagiarism.
Use the Reflective Annotated Bibliography Handout as a guide to complete your assignment. You must create at least four entries like the example in this handout (300 words per entry).
Use at least two scholarly sources (at least one book chapter and at least one academic journal article) and two reliable non-scholarly sources (news sources, government, commercial, and educational websites/reports). Non-scholarly sources must be detailed, thoughtful, and reliable.
Write a Synthesis Reflective Letter: In at least 350 words, using proper letter formatting (Model-Letter), I ask that you write a rationale addressed to me that answers the following questions:
1. Does your letter include a central claim/interpretation about the main thing that the sources you read are doing? Make sure that your letter includes a central interpretation of everything you read before elaborating on the relationship between the sources. Your main claim in this letter is not the same as an argument of what you think about the issue. It is instead a claim of what you think is the main idea of all the sources together.
2. Explain how the information you learned will help you address the problem you chose as your topic and how to achieve your purpose with your audience thanks to this information. Explain how the information you learned add to a ‘conversation’ about the problem you’re investigating to fill gaps in the knowledge about your problem.
3. How is each source related to the other? For example, one source provides more details than another on a particular issue, discusses the definition of an important concept, builds on the definition of the concept in another source, addresses the causes or consequences of your issue, approaches the same issue from a different perspective, or provides a solution to a problem raised in a different source.
4. You must refer to ALL FOUR sources in this letter so that you can explain the logical relationship between the ideas of each source. You should also refer to the fifth and sixth sources if you do the Bonus Points task (See description below).
5. Include this letter at the top of your reflective annotated bibliography entries.

Assignment Objectives:

Develop the ability to synthesize information from different sources and authors.
Identify reliable and relevant sources on a research topic.
Learn to quote, paraphrase, summarize, and analyze information.
Develop strategies to provide accurate in-text and reference list information.

Rubric, Deadlines, and Submission Guidelines:

Please check the course schedule for draft deadlines.
This is the rubric used to grade this assignment.
Drafting and revising always occurs in the Google Drive, where the latest draft should always be available.
While ideally you want to have a complete first draft, it is not necessary to have all entries for Draft 1. But Draft 2 should have all four of them. You must bring at least two complete sources when the first draft is due. For the third and fourth sources, you must bring the citation of the sources so that I know you at least found the sources. The second draft must be full with all project requirements listed above.
The final draft should be submitted in Google Drive as well. To submit the final draft, select File> Download as> PDF (.pdf) and save your downloaded paper to your computer, naming it “[First Name Last Name Assignment Name].” Then upload the PDF file of your paper to the Google Drive Folder called “Final Drafts”.

Bonus Points: Conduct primary research in the form of an interview with an expert on your topic or a survey and incorporate findings in the form of a fifth entry in your synthesized reflective annotated bibliography for up to 2.5 additional points toward this assignment. You can earn another 2.5 points by adding a sixth source that you read and summarize in another language you may know.

Optional Resources for Review: To further elaborate on concepts discussed in class or if you need further assistance in preparation for successful completion of the assignment below, please read/watch the following resources: 1. The Process of Choosing an Issue to Research; 2. Choosing and Developing Topics; 3. Developing a Topic 1; 4. How to Read Effectively in the Social Sciences; 5. Amy Chua’s Article;

Argument Assignment

Description: For this assignment, you will need to take a position on an issue within your topic or problem area and argue for a position on the debatable issue or for a solution to a problem. That is, you will need to provide evidence to convince your readers of the soundness of your position. Please find here sample argumentative essay.

Requirements: Your argument paper should include:

An introduction in which you orient your readers to your topic with a hook, relate the hook to a description of the problem or the sides of the debate, and finally produce a one-sentence thesis and organizational statement that states your position and previews the rest of your paper.
A body in which you provide support for your position and address the counterargument. Each body paragraph must include a topic sentence, evidence, a warrant (explaining why the evidence supports the claim), and a concluding sentence.
A conclusion in which you briefly summarize your argument and suggest what you think needs to be done to improve the current situation.
Use APA for in-text citations and create an APA list of references which lists the sources you have used in your paper. Regularly refer to the rules in the Purdue Online Writing Lab to proofread your citations.
Use at least six sources: The four sources of your reflective annotated bibliography must be used + 2 more sources must be used as part of additional research to learn more about your issue/argument.
Reread your Synthesis Annotated Bibliography and use quotes, paraphrases, summaries and analyses from it in your argument paper.
Consider a specific audience (ex. fellow college students) and purpose (what you are trying to accomplish) for this paper. Consider all of the elements of a rhetorical analysis in your textbook as you craft your argument to convince your audience to achieve your purpose.
The length of your paper must be 1500 words, double spaced, and using APA for formatting.
Please note that you must use quotes minimally (no more than 50 words total in your essay should come from quotes).

*Adapted from: Leki, I. (1998). Academic writing: Exploring processes and strategies, Second edition. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Rubric, Deadlines, and Submission Guidelines:

Please check the Course Schedule for draft deadlines.
Review the Argument Evaluation Form, which provides details about how this assignment is graded.
Drafting and revising always occurs in the Google Drive Drafting Document, where the latest draft should always be available.
Your first draft must be a detailed outline of your paper. Your second draft must be a complete paper.
The final draft should be submitted as a polished copy before class on the date it’s due. To submit the final draft, select File> Download as> PDF (.pdf) and save your downloaded paper to your computer, naming it “[First Name Last Name Assignment Name].” Then upload the PDF file of your paper to the Google Drive Folder called “PDF Final Drafts”.

Bonus Points:

Instead of a PowerPoint Presentation, create a 1-3 minute video like this one about Predatory Loans by John Oliver. Instead of the problem, debate, and research about Payday Loans, use the one about your topic. You can show us this video instead of a PowerPoint presentation.
You may also choose to produce an audio podcast. Here’s an excellent example of models you can aim to imitate: ETF Edge Podcast. You can simply replace the topics with your topic.