Major Paper
English 1101
DIRECTIONS
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Choose one of the two options
below.
Only one (ONE) of
these two options can earn credit for the Major Paper. Once the mandatory rough
draft is submitted for one of these two papers, the other paper will become
ineligible for credit. Both papers will be discussed in detail beforehand
throughout the semester.
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Option 1: The
Process Paper:
-
Through adhering to
the rules of the Process Paper, focus on a simple manual task to complete this
Process Paper:
instruct your
reader in 2nd person singular how to do something (how to perform a
simple
manual task with
a specific, replicable, guaranteed, successful end result), the
smaller the better; DO NOT write about
washing anything, being cool, preparing any food, succeeding in college,
anything to do with cars or machines,
mechanical devices, phones, apps, anything to do with sports,
anything to do with electronics, applying any beauty products, technological processes, study methods,
changing car oil or car tires, planting a garden, photography, job
interviews, baby showers, swimming, composing anything, perfecting a technique,
dancing, etc.; the smaller the scope the better,
so focus on a small manual task if nothing else comes to mind;
imagine that you are trying to have someone follow your steps while you have
that person on the phone (if the person does anything unprompted or pauses
unsure about what to do, the directions need to clarify these steps)
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Option 2: The Definition Paper
-
Through
adhering to the rules of the Definition Paper, present an extended personal definition of the
term of your choice. Your essay must have a strong personal take on the
definition. Consider these possibilities:
a)
choose a
document or ritual that is a significant part of your religious or cultural
heritage
b)
define
through a personal lens an
abstract term, for example, stubbornness, security, courage, fear, anger
c) define a medical condition through a
personal
lens: Down
syndrome, autism, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, ADHD
d)
choose a
term that is central to one of your courses, for instance, behaviorism,
authority, naturalism
e)
assume
your audience might be from a culture that is not familiar with modern
American pastimes; write a definition essay for this audience in which you
describe the form and function of a Frisbee, a Barbie doll, an action figure,
a parade, a video game, etc.
f)
in
your
opinion, what qualifies someone other than yourself as a hero (a real
person you personally know)?
Ask yourself the following questions: Why am I
defining this term? Why is this term important to me? What is my connection
to this term? What does this term mean to me? Flesh out three characteristics of the defined
term, one per argument paragraph.
-
Make sure that your thesis is
underlined, in italics or in bold print.
-
This
assignment MUST be
500-600 words (5 ¶s in a mature font).
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The opening paragraph will have two sentences, one of which is the thesis
statement.
-
The concluding paragraph will have one or two sentences.
-
No title
page is necessary, but title your essay in an original manner.
-
Include a brief heading
with your name, assignment, date, course and word count
in the upper left corner.
-
This is to be
your own, original work, without referring to any outside sources or
resources.
-
Consulting any outside sources or
resources might result in forfeiting credit for this assignment.
-
To be eligible for credit, the completed
assignment MUST meet all of the above conditions. If any
requirement from the prompt is not met, the assignment will be ineligible
for credit.
-
The
mandatory rough draft must be submitted through the D2L Brightspace
assignments dropbox under Rough Major Paper by the deadline for the
final draft to earn credit.
-
Feedback on the rough draft will be
available online.
-
Submit
your final version through the D2L Brightspace assignments dropbox under
Major Paper by the due date.
-
If the Process Paper is
submitted, the Definition Paper will not be completed. Likewise, if the
Definition Paper is submitted, the Process Paper will not be completed.
-
Detailed feedback about
the submitted paper will be provided in D2L.
-
The
content of the paper will be graded based on its organization, thesis,
paragraph structure, quality of arguments, analysis strength and lack of
summary. Each type (not each occurrence) of major grammatical errors (e.g.,
run-on, pronoun-antecedent agreement, fragment, misplaced modifier,
parallelism, verb form, subject-verb agreement, 3 x spelling errors) will
equal a deduction of 10 points.
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As
always, if you have any questions, please
utilize the
D2L forum.
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