Here’s a fun list of monsters from The Hairpin. Do you agree with their ranking? Check out the links if there are monsters you’re not familiar with.

You might think of this list (and other Halloween content on your favorite blogs and websites) as a push to brainstorm a bit about what you’d like to write about for essay 3. As we’ll discuss, this essay is pretty wide open, so you can write about a topic you’re already familiar with (even obsessed with) or you can use the essay to research a topic you’d like to know more about.

Bigfoot sighting

A bit closer to home, here’s a post about a monster just across the Hudson: the Jersey Devil. Of course, your essay will have to be grounded in credible sources—and purportedly real monster sightings are NOT credible—but you could definitely look into, for example, the history of cryptozoology (the study of mythical animals) or you could analyze representations of famous “real” monsters like Bigfoot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVgZaIxNIBI

Here’s the link to the film so that you can rewatch scenes or catch up. We stopped at the 40 minute mark in class on Thursday, and we’ll finish on Tuesday. Remember to keep an eye on the film handout (also here on the blog) so that you can be precise in your observations.

Since our sound cut out yesterday, here’s the link to the Thriller video:

And here’s the handout I passed out at the end of class, with some examples of analysis of the video from scholarly responses. We’ll talk about these at the beginning of class tomorrow.

In class today, we highlighted the three main elements this first essay should feature: argument, motive, and analysis.

Since we’re not meeting in person on Friday, we’re going to use this opportunity to look at a few smaller issues. We’ll subject your revised (or being revised) draft to a few tests to see if it’s ready for submission. Obviously, you’ll have more time to revise (the revision is due on 10/1), but think of this as a way of seeing what might be left to think about. It would be wise to complete this assignment after you’ve already done some preliminary revising, especially if you have work to do on your argument.

You, revising your essay

I’m going to ask to you go through a series of tasks with your most recent draft. When you’re done, email me a copy of that messy, marked-up draft as proof that you completed the assignment. (You don’t have to have made all of the revisions these exercises will point out, but you still need to have completed the diagnostic steps below.) In the body of the email, reflect a bit on what aspects of this revision were most revealing about your particular draft. (This will count as attendance and participation for 9/25.) Do this by Sunday evening (9/27). If you run into any problems, send me an email and ask for help.

1. EVIDENCE: Open your most recent draft in the Word processor of your choice. Using the highlight tool, highlight all of the quoted evidence you use in the essay. Look over the essay and think about the amount of quoted evidence you use. Do any claims seem unsupported? Are there too many big chunks of quoted evidence in a single paragraph? Check whether, as we discussed in class, you lead into those quotations with sufficient context and then use the space after them for explanation and analysis. Also take this time to check that you’re quoting accurately.
2. TRANSITIONS AND TOPIC SENTENCES: With a different color of the highlighter tool, highlight the first sentence of each of your body paragraphs. Does that first sentence help your reader understand what that paragraph will do? (Can you tell what the task of that paragraph is?) This is also a good time to check the whether any paragraphs need to be broken up (because they’re trying to do too much) and whether they’re in a logical order. Can you trace the logic of your argument by reading just those topic sentences? (This is your goal.)
3. TITLE AND HOOK: Check the title of your essay. Does it preview your argument (and not just the broader topic or the assignment)? Look at the very first sentence of the essay. Does it attempt to grab or excite your reader? Is it a sentence you would like to read?
4. COPY EDITING: With a different color of highlighter, highlight every proper name in the essay (including titles and character names). Are those names spelled correctly? Now read through and identify any grammatical or punctuation mistakes that you know you make repeatedly (missing apostrophes for possession? run-on sentences? problems with subject/verb agreement? something else?). Make a list of these at the bottom of the document and make time to proofread for them before submitting the final version next Thursday.
5. PLAGIARISM: Finally, go here to complete Baruch’s plagiarism tutorial, just to make sure that you’re clear on matters of academic integrity. If you have questions after completing the tutorial, just drop me a line. Before you submit the revision, make sure to add a works cited list at the end of your paper. (See the last page of the syllabus for formatting.) [Edit: when you go through the tutorial, check out the examples by clicking at the bottom of each slide. While the last slide will tell you to complete a tutorial on Blackboard, it looks like this is no longer working, so don’t worry about that step.]

Don’t forget to read the “Writing about Film” handout for Tuesday!

This is the course blog for Writing I. You’ll be able to find all of the readings and handouts for the course (under the “Readings” tab), and you can always check the syllabus if you have any questions. If you can’t find the answer to your question here, send me an email.