Assignment Sequence Objective:

Write an account of an author’s argument and the conventions and voices that comprise an academic text.

Student Learning Outcomes for Writing Project 1:

1. Develop an effective process of reading for comprehension.
2. Develop an effective writing process—including prewriting, drafting, revision, and self-evaluation.
3. Explore the significance of texts to oneself and one’s educational project.

Introduction:

For Writing Project 1, you have been given the task to explore certain conventions that writers (of texts for academic audiences) use to develop their arguments. Multiple conventions we will address over the course of this writing project are covered in the first three chapters of Graff, Birkenstein, and Durst’s text. And, you are expected to analyze one academic writer’s use of these conventions in her/his work.

Prompt:

Commence your response with an introductory section appropriate for an essay of this nature. Engage your audience, identify your topic, and briefly explain the scope of your response. Make sure your reader—who is educated but unfamiliar with Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”—is informed about the direction your response will take.

Then, to effectively analyze these writing conventions in Carr’s article, provide an understanding of the author’s most important and/or interesting claims that form the foundation of the text’s argument. Next, demonstrate which conventions of academic writing the author has used to make a case for the topic. Moreover, explain how or whether these conventions strengthen the argument he/she is making.

Finally, as a means of concluding this assignment, consider why other people should care about the topic addressed in Carr’s article. Specifically, contemplate why college students and recent college graduates should be concerned with his argument.

Considering the prompt’s expectations, to be successful on this assignment, you should expect to compose an essay of 4 MLA formatted pages. (Note: MLA format requires the use of 12-point font, 1 inch margins, double-spacing throughout the document, a proper heading and header, an appropriate title, and a Works Cited page.)

Criteria for Evaluation for Writing Project 1:

Essays that are successful will

1. Provide an introductory section that meets an academic audience’s expectations;
2. Identify the key claims and the author’s use of some of the different conventions of academic writing in her/his text;
3. Explain how these important claims and the use of these different conventions helps the selected author support her/his main point in her/his text;
4. Use an effective structure that carefully guides the reader, who is educated but unfamiliar with the text’s argument, from one idea to the next;
5. Conclude appropriate by considering the argument’s implications for others;
6. Be thoroughly edited so that sentences are readable and appropriate for an academic paper;
7. Meet MLA standards for format, style, citation, and documentation.