Major Projects

The quality of what you submit for a final draft will be assessed according to the Communication Department's evaluation criteria, but I'll post parameters for projects here as we get to them, and importantly, I'll have a specific rubric on Canvas for each project as we work our way through.

Unit #1: Reading Yourself
How well do you read your own behaviors, and in effect know what makes you tick? In this unit we'll explore personality typing, and consider ways popular science and scholarly science coexist. We'll work with the concept of questions as underpinning most writing endeavors, and use that to help you find a topic or controversy worth exploring under the umbrella of personality—and in particular getting to know our own better.

For the essay, you'll develop your idea and explore your topic, with the help of at least three sources. The quality of those sources—and how you work with them—will be a large factor in the project grade. In class we'll work on all of these steps together as we work toward a rough draft deadline of 8am Thursday, 7/13. The final version will be due (via Canvas) by 5pm Sunday, 7/16.

The Rough Draft

• should be at least 700 words
• should feature all three sources
• should feature a rough draft of the Works Cited page

The Final Draft

• should be 1,000 words
• should feature all three sources (with in-text citations) and the Works Cited page
• should present a clear, purposeful idea for readers and connect to the umbrella topic

Unit #2: Reading Others
In our second unit, we'll consider not personality so much as culture's impact on how we communicate with one another. We'll look into the way gender colors our communication styles; we'll explore the way technology use impacts them, too.

For this essay, I'm going to give you more of a prompt to respond to (or at the very least, some choices), so we can work more closely this week on how we present and argue our claims. Below are several options, all of which connect to the materials we'll explore. Pick just one:

• Tannen's theories about gender differences in communication were published in the late 1990's. Are they still relevant today? How so?
• Turkle's earlier research lauded the changes brought by social media and smart devices. She's since changed her mind and sees much more negative impacts. Do you agree with her current line of thinking? How so?
• After examining the impact of gender differences in communication styles as well as technological impacts, is there some other aspect of our culture or identities that you feel impacts our efforts to communicate with and understand one another? What is it? (For instance, maybe you're interested in cross-cultural communication, as this TED Talk explores?)

Just as with the first project, you'll develop your idea and explore your topic, with the help of at least three sources. You're welcome to draw upon your own experiences as a means of explaining your ideas. The quality of those sources—and how you work with them—will be a large factor in the project grade. In class we'll work on all of these steps together as we work toward a rough draft deadline of 8am Thursday, 7/20. The final version will be due by 5pm Sunday, 7/23.

The Rough Draft

• should be at least 700 words
• should feature all three sources
• should feature a rough draft of the Works Cited page

The Final Draft

• should be 1,000 words
• should feature all three sources (with in-text citations) and the Works Cited page
• should present a clear thesis in response to your chosen prompt, and clear claims and evidence throughout

Unit #3: Reading Art—Part I
Our last unit will explore reading art, and how the process of interpretation works and is different from what we've been doing up until now (which, for the record, has included synthesizing and analyzing information). First up is a brief project that explores your own thinking processes as you try to make sense of an artistic text; we'll call it the Reading Process Research Report, and the details are included here. The draft of the project will be due Tuesday, 7/25; the final version, Thursday, 7/27, 9:00 AM.

The Rough Draft

• should feature at least 500 words
• should feature at least a couple quotes from your fastwriting as well as the poem to illustrate your process of finding meaning

The Final Draft

• should feature at least 800 words—you'll likely write more
• should feature several quotes from your fastwriting and the poem, especially, so you can show readers how your thinking evolved
• should feature a Works Cited page—I'll show you how to create an entry for the poem

Unit #3: Reading Art—Part II

For this piece, you’ll find a single theme—some idea you see explored in Silver Linings Playbook—and analyze it. In the end, you’re trying to figure out “What’s it mean?” or "What's the film suggesting about that?" Your question could also be one of the "how" or "why" questions you generated, if you think it offers enough to write about. That answer will likely be your thesis, and your body paragraphs will present key points about the texts to help elucidate that thesis. You’ll quote quite heavily from the film, since quotes from artistic texts are the “evidence” that will help prove your ideas. Finally, you’ll find two other sources to help you push your thinking—both should be scholarly in nature.

In class we’ll see examples of this kind of writing, and we’ll talk about how best to organize your thinking, make points, and provide evidence from both artistic texts as well as outside research. You’ll prepare a draft for workshopping for 9 AM 8/1, and then revise that piece for the final deadline of 9AM 8/3. The final copy will probably fall in the 1,200-word range. The Works Cited page will include the film as well as the two additional sources you find to help deepen your thinking.

The Rough Draft

• should feature at least 700 words
• should feature several quotes from the film that you use as evidence

The Final Draft

• should feature at least 1,200 words
• should feature ample quotes from the film as well as a quote from your other two sources
• should feature a Works Cited page