Description of this Assignment

You will be submitting a final draft of Essay 1 here. It will include an introduction paragraph and two body paragraphs (you may include a conclusion paragraph, but it’s not required). Please review the following steps prior to completing them.

Through this Assignment, you will demonstrate the three skills that are critical in this class and other classes as well: reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. You can also review your essay to remind yourself of what you will do to be successful in this class (and in your other classes).

Instructions

Step #1

Please carefully review Supporting Material 1.6 — the essay prompt, videos, and other information presented on that page, as well as Supporting Material 1.7.

Step #2

Based on your review of Step #1 and your submission of Assignment 1.C, complete some pre-writing to help you generate ideas to integrate into your paragraphs. Make notes as to where you got the information from (which source it comes from — readings from Supporting Material 1.4 or 1.5).

Step #3

Complete a draft in response to the writing task.

Note:

• Keep your reader in mind. You want to make your ideas clear and thorough and easy to follow.
• To the best of your abilities, smoothly integrate your sources into your writing based on the sample provided to you in Supporting Material 1.6
• Ideally you would complete multiple drafts so that you can revise them before submitting the final draft.

Step #4

Before submitting your final draft, proofread it once more (Supporting Material 1.8) and review the document for proper MLA formatting (Supporting Material 1.9).

Note:

• Review your writing to ensure that you don’t
  • use “you” or “we” or any form of these words,
  • make announcements like “In this essay, I will …”,
  • ask direct questions.
• Come up with a creative title, one provides your reader with a preview of your essay’s content.

Done with your final draft?

1. Upload your doc/docx/PDF-saved file by clicking on “Start Assignment.”
2. Below the file upload area is a “comments” box.
   1. Please click on it, and
   2. Type an answer to the following questions thoroughly:
      1. 1. What are some strengths that you see in your final draft?
         2. If you had more time, what would you revise? Explain why.
3. Lastly, click “Submit Assignment.”

Final draft submitted!

Canvas Tutorials

Grading

Please review the grading rubric below.

Rubric

Essay 1

Total Points: 100

1.4 Preparing for “Online” Success

In order to be successful in this course, you’ll need to be comfortable with online learning, navigating Canvas (ELAC’s learning management system), and online communication. The information in each tab below will help you with these three items (if you are viewing a page with tabs from a mobile device, the content may render as separate sections).

Preparing for Online Learning

Here are some resources for you to review (you will definitely see repeated tips):

1. “” by Shayna Jouber from Northeastern University
2. “” by Ryan Lytle and Josh Moody from U.S. News & World Report
3. “” by Lauren Landry from Northeastern University
4. “” from the College of Arts and Sciences at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
5. Infographic titled “” from National University Library
   

   1.5 Critical Thinking and Reading Critically

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   On this page, you will be provided important information about critical thinking and critical reading. It’s a bit on the lengthy side, but it’s important for you to understand:

   • Who critical thinkers are
   • What critical thinking is
   • How one reads critically

   Who Critical Thinkers Are by James Materney published in Arguing Using Critical Thinking(Critical Thinking Skills. Los Angeles Valley College, 19 Feb. 2021, .)We are not born with natural critical thinking abilities. Critical thinking is a skill that can be developed. The good news is that we all have the ability to improve our critical thinking skills. We can become more effective decision makers and improve our self- confidence. Below are some of those Critical Thinking Skills that can be developed and enhanced:Critical thinkers are intellectually curious. This skill implies that the critical thinker is never totally satisfied with what they know. He or she seeks answers to various kinds of questions and problems. The critical thinker is concerned with investigating the causes and seeking explanations of events; asking why, how, who, what, when, and where.Critical thinkers are open-minded. An open-minded person is one who is confident enough in his/her abilities to accept new and contradictory ideas, which challenge his/her current beliefs. This is opposed to being tolerant where the dogmatic person may politely listen to other arguments, but their minds will not be changed.The open-minded person is one who is not only willing to listen to new ideas, but will alter an already adopted position if the new data dictates. The open-minded person is willing to consider a wide variety of positions and beliefs as possibly being valid. Open-minded people are flexible. They are willing to change their beliefs and methods of inquiry, if they are faced with a more valid argument. Open-minded people show a willingness to admit they may be wrong and that other ideas they did not accept may be correct. Critical thinkers do not just want to prove they are correct; they are open- minded enough to change their mind.Critical thinkers avoid Red Herrings. Critical thinkers follow a line of reasoning consistently to a particular conclusion. They avoid irrelevancies, called red herrings, that stray from the issue being argued. When Jim and his wife Suzy argue, and Jim feels he is losing, he looks at Suzy and says, You argue pretty well for a short person. He is hoping to draw her off the argument and send her fishing for the red herring, her being short. If she takes the bait the original argument fades away. Critical thinkers wont go after red herrings.Critical thinkers are aware of their own biases. All humans are biased, some more than others. Some know that they have biases, some are not aware of their biases. We all have biases that we are not aware of and the critical thinker strives to learn them, so he or she can be more in charge of their thinking. It may be too much of a challenge to eliminate the different biases we have. Instead a critical thinker needs to be aware of the bias and how it will affect the thinking process. Thinking about thinking is referred to as metacognition. A critical thinker looks at how he or she thinks and makes decisions in order to improve the process.The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.
   F. Scott Fitzgerald1

   
   

   Critical thinkers learn to handle confusion. People will do almost anything to avoid the mental pain that comes with lingering confusion. We bypass it, avoid it, and even try to pass it off to someone else. In this haste to avoid confusion we often make quick decisions based on limited data or overworked stereotypes. The critical thinker allows him or herself to be confused as they work through the argument towards a conclusion.Critical thinkers are able to control and use their emotions. Notice this does not say, Eliminate emotions. We gather all sorts of valuable data through our emotions, that we can use in the decision-making process. We just have to be careful not to let emotions dominate our critical thinking and argumentation. Nothing will destroy the critical thinking process faster than misplaced or misdirected anger, fear, or frustration.Critical thinkers are sensitive and empathetic to the needs of others. Critical thinkers need to pay particular attention to the needs of their target audience. The needs, concerns, and desires of your audience may be different than yours. The critical thinker is more effective if he or she can understand those concerns. They may not agree with them, but at least they understand them. The target audience may be the person trying to convince you of their argument or the person you are trying to convince with your argument. Persuasion usually takes place when an advocate is able to meet the needs of his or her target audience. In fact, your needs may be unimportant as it pertains to moving a target audience towards adherence to your point of view.Critical thinkers can distinguish between a conclusion that might be true and one that they would like to be true. Notice the use of “truth” with a lower case “t.” This “truth” refers to just what a person believes, not the ultimate correct position that would be indicated by “Truth.” A conclusion that might be true, is based on calculating the probability of its outcome, to see if it has a reasonable chance of becoming a reality. The second type, a conclusion that you would like to be true, is based more on your wishing, wanting, and desiring that it become a reality. The first can be put to the tests of critical reasoning, but the second cannot, and, therefore, is of little value in critical thinking. You may believe your child to be a great person, but the evidence might suggest otherwise.Critical thinkers know when to admit to not knowing something. An essential prerequisite to understanding is humility; to be able to admit when you dont know an answer to a situation. Although we want to protect our egos by believing we know everything, learning comes from questioning, not from knowing all the answers. When we can admit that we dont know, we are more likely to ask questions that will enable us to learn. By giving ourselves permission to admit we dont know everything, we can overcome the fear that our lack of knowledge will be discovered. The energy expended trying to cover up what we dont know diminishes our ability to learn. If we are always trying to disguise our lack of knowledge of a subject, we will never fully understand what it is we dont know about it. Feel free to say, “I don’t know.”Critical Thinkers are independent Thinkers. They have the confidence to state their opinions and point of view to others who might disagree. They use the skills of critical thinking to support their positions and make their arguments.Critical thinkers seek a dialogical approach to the process of argument. Dialogical thinkers seriously seek points of view other than their own. The ability to think dialogically would include the abilities to: analyze, synthesize, compare and contrast, explain, evaluate, justify, recognize valid and invalid conclusions, identify or anticipate or pose problems, look for alternatives, apply logical principles, and solve conventional or novel problems. These are many of the skills of critically thinkers.Stephen Brookfield in his book, Challenging Adults to Explore Alternative Ways of Thinking, writes,Critical thinking is only possible when people probe their habitual ways of thinking, for their underlying assumptions, those taken-for-granted values, common-sense ideas, and stereotypical notions about human nature that underlie our actions. 2We are looking at the process of argumentation and the type of person who can be most effective in an argumentative situation. You as a critical thinker will be both involved in an argument and an observer of an argument. We can improve our abilities to do both.References

   1. Thomas Oppong “F. Scott Fitzgerald on first Rate Intelligence,” 2018, medium.com/personal-growth/f…e-7cf8ea002794 (accessed on November 6, 2019)
   2. Brookfield, Stephen. Developing Critical Thinkers : Challenging Adults to Explore Alternative Ways of Thinking and Acting. (Baltimore: Laureate Education, 2010)
      

      1.6 Essay 1 Prompt

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      Essay 1 is due by 11:59pm on Monday, April 20.

      Description of Essay 1

      For this first essay assignment, you will be reflecting on and sharing what you will do to be a successful online college student for these 8 weeks. Your primary sources will be readings posted in Supporting Materials 1.4 and 1.5.In order to complete this essay task, you will

      • identify strategies or habits that you will use to be successful;
      • explain them and show how they could lead you to success.

      Here is a PDF of this first essay assignment. Please review it carefully and the information provided below, and message me any questions you have (via Canvas inbox, preferably; thank you).

      Purpose of this Essay Assignment

      This essay assignment is a diagnostic essay. You will use this first essay assignment to show me what your reading (comprehension), writing, and critical thinking skills are.This essay will be graded, and you will be given an opportunity to revise it at a later time during the term.Below you will find some information related to the two main parts of this essay assignment. Please read the information carefully, and I would encourage you to take notes. Please message me any questions you have (via Canvas inbox, preferably; thank you).

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      Introduction Paragraph and Thesis Statement

      Begin the introduction paragraph with some sentences to help catch your reader’s attention (hook). Use the topic of the essay as a starting point; the essay is about online learning, college online learning, success. (Note: Please do not start with a question.)The information you provide between the hook and the thesis statement: Think of your reader … What might your reader want to know? On the essay prompt are some suggested ideas; should you address those ideas, please make sure that they flow smoothly from one to the next.A thesis statement is the main idea of the whole essay. Use the essay question to guide you with formulating it. To keep in mind about the thesis statement:

      • Answer the essay question without giving away your paragraph ideas; in other words, for this essay assignment, don’t list out what you will actually be doing exactly to be successful in your thesis statement.
      • That sentence goes at the end of the introduction paragraph, the last sentence of the paragraph.

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      About Body Paragraphs Video (3:35 minutes)

      Each body paragraph, if fully flushed out, could be at least one page long (MLA formatted), if not 1.5 pages long.

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      Integrating Information from Assigned Readings Into Your Writing

      You will need to incorporate ideas from the assigned readings into your paragraphs. You may be asking how to do so. For each source provided in Supporting Materials 1.4 and 1.5, you want to locate the following information: title of the source, author of the source (if any), publication information.When you are ready to integrate your sources, keep the following in mind: The first time you mention a source, provide

      • author’s name (full name and title if author has specific credentials) and
      • title of the source (italicize title if it is a book; use quotation marks if it is an article or webpage title).

      With author’s nameProfessor of Communication Studies Jim Materney explains in his textbook Arguing Using Critical Thinking who critical thinkers are. [Blah blah blah …].OR According to Professor of Communication Studies Jim Materney in his textbook Arguing Using Critical Thinking, critical thinkers are [blah blah blah …].OR In his textbook Arguing Using Critical Thinking, Professor of Communication Studies Jim Materney states that critical thinkers are [blah blah blah …].If you cite this same author a 2nd time, you wont need to provide full title information or to identify the authors credentials. You would use the authors last name in the main part of the sentence (narrative citation), or you would use the authors last name inside parentheses (parenthetical citation):Narrative citation Materney explains that [blah blah blah ].ORParenthetical citation Critical thinkers are [blah blah blah] (Materney).Note:

      • Please use the following name and information for the text on critical reading:
        • The assigned text comes from the book Let’s Get Writing.
        • The author’s name is “Elizabeth Browning et al.” — yes, it has a period after “al.”
          • An example: According to authors Elizabeth Browning et al. in Let’s Get Writing, reading critically [blah blah blah].
          • Another example: Reading critically [blah blah blah] (Browning et al.).

      Without author’s nameAccording to the webpage titled What does it take to succeed in college?, published by Luna Community College, it is a good idea to [blah blah blah …].OR Published by Luna Community College, the webpage titled “How to Get the Most Out of Online Courses” [verb] [blah blah blah …].If you cite this source again, you wont need to provide title and publication information. You would use parenthetical citation in this case and include the first few words of the title of the source in quotation marks:Narrative citation It is a good idea to [blah blah blah] (How to Get).

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      Lastly …

      As you complete the essay assignment, remember that I am here to answer any questions you have and that you can also get assistance from the . And should you run into any tech issues on Canvas, click on the “Help” icon in Global Navigation (on the far left side of the screen).

      1.7 The Writing Process

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      Some of you might feel the way Lisa Simpson feels, and some of you might not. Personal story … Even after all those years of schooling and teaching, writing still doesn’t always come easy for me. While in college and in grad school, I would find myself spending at least 4-5 hours on a paragraph for an essay. The time I spent on it was worth it even when I was experiencing writer’s block.Even now, when I compose an email for work, it takes me some time because I tend to overthink and worry excessively about the content of the message. To help minimize the writer’s block, I allow myself to worry for a little bit, but after that, I go through the writing process. I think about what I want the point of my message to be, brainstorm and organize my ideas before I draft it. Then I draft and revise (proofread and edit) it as needed.I essentially learn to trust the process, the writing process. But there’s one thing that is very important to do before you go through that process when trying to complete an essay assignment or any written assignment. What is it, you ask!Well, you need to ensure that you understand the assignment itself. It is a bit challenging to complete a writing assignment properly without understanding it first.Anyway … Moving on …

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      The Writing Process

      The following information about the is published through the library at Defiance College.A process is a series of actions that are followed to some desired end result. In order for the result to be successful, all steps must be followed. Cooking is a process and a recipe is the directions you follow to get a positive end result. If you are baking a cake and skip one of the ingredients or forget to bake the batter at the right temperature, you will not have a tasty or successful final result. This is true for writing toowriting is a process that involves multiple steps that must be completed to create an effective essay. However, the writing process is more than a set of steps to follow in the right order. Some have broken down the act of writing into steps and tried to suggest a sequence to follow, but the act of writing doesn’t follow a straight line. For instance, you may come to your real thesis as you write your conclusion (causing you to backtrack almost to the beginning in the writing process sequence). Writing is recursive; it doubles back upon itself and leaps ahead. If you correct a spelling error as you write your first draft, you have done a proofreading act (a later stage) while you are drafting (an early to middle stage).There are generally five recognized stages in the writing process:

      1. Prewriting in this stage, you plan what you are going to write. You choose your topic, identify your audience and purpose, brainstorm ideas, and organize your information.
      2. Drafting in this stage, you start with a working thesis and then write your ideas in sentences and paragraphs. You follow your prewriting plan to create a first draft of your essay.
      3. Revising This stage involves making changes that will improve your writing.You focus on large-scale elements of the essay, such as, overall organization or logical flow of support, effective thesis statement, interesting introduction and concluding paragraphs, well-developed body paragraphs with clear topic sentences, appropriate tone and style for intended audience and purpose, etc.
      4. Editing and Proofreading this is the stage of your essay where you polish your essay. You focus on smaller-scale yet important essay elements, such as, clarity in sentence structure, appropriate word choice, correct spelling and grammar, and accurate document format.
      5. Publishing in this final stage, you choose a way to present your work to an audience (often this is indicated by your instructor).

      As already stated, these steps do NOT need to be completed in this exact order; frequently, in the writing process, you go back and forth between the different stages. A true visual representation of this process may be more circular than linear. It may look something like this example:

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      Prewriting

      The following information about the is published through the Writing Center at The University of Kansas.

      Five Useful Strategies

      Pre-writing strategies use writing to generate and clarify ideas. While many writers have traditionally created outlines before beginning writing, there are several other effective prewriting activities. We often call these prewriting strategies brainstorming techniques. Five useful strategies are listing, clustering, freewriting, looping, and asking the six journalists’ questions. These strategies help you with both your invention and organization of ideas, and they can aid you in developing topics for your writing.

      Listing

      Listing is a process of producing a lot of information within a short time by generating some broad ideas and then building on those associations for more detail with a bullet point list. Listing is particularly useful if your starting topic is very broad, and you need to narrow it down.

      • Jot down all the possible terms that emerge from the general topic you are working on. This procedure works especially well if you work in a team. All team members can generate ideas, with one member acting as scribe. Do not worry about editing or throwing out what might not be a good idea. Simply write down as many possibilities as you can.
      • Group the items that you have listed according to arrangements that make sense to you. Are things thematically related?
      • Give each group a label. Now you have a narrower topic with possible points of development.
      • Write a sentence about the label you have given the group of ideas. Now you have a topic sentence or possibly a thesis statement.

      

      Clustering

      Clustering, also called mind mapping or idea mapping, is a strategy that allows you to explore the relationships between ideas.

      • Put the subject in the center of a page. Circle or underline it.
      • As you think of other ideas, write them on the page surrounding the central idea. Link the new ideas to the central circle with lines.
      • As you think of ideas that relate to the new ideas, add to those in the same way.

      The result will look like a web on your page. Locate clusters of interest to you, and use the terms you attached to the key ideas as departure points for your paper.Clustering is especially useful in determining the relationship between ideas. You will be able to distinguish how the ideas fit together, especially where there is an abundance of ideas. Clustering your ideas lets you see them visually in a different way, so that you can more readily understand possible directions your paper may take.

      Freewriting

      Freewriting is a process of generating a lot of information by writing non-stop in full sentences for a predetermined amount of time. It allows you to focus on a specific topic but forces you to write so quickly that you are unable to edit any of your ideas.

      • Freewrite on the assignment or general topic for five to ten minutes non-stop. Force yourself to continue writing even if nothing specific comes to mind (so you could end up writing I dont know what to write about over and over until an idea pops into your head. This is okay; the important thing is that you do not stop writing). This freewriting will include many ideas; at this point, generating ideas is what is important, not the grammar or the spelling.
      • After you have finished freewriting, look back over what you have written and highlight the most prominent and interesting ideas; then you can begin all over again, with a tighter focus (see looping). You will narrow your topic and, in the process, you will generate several relevant points about the topic.

      

      Looping

      Looping is a freewriting technique that allows you to focus your ideas continually while trying to discover a writing topic. After you freewrite for the first time, identify a key thought or idea in your writing, and begin to freewrite again, with that idea as your starting point. You will loop one 5-10 minute freewriting after another, so you have a sequence of freewritings, each more specific than the last. The same rules that apply to freewriting apply to looping: write quickly, do not edit, and do not stop.Loop your freewriting as many times as necessary, circling another interesting topic, idea, phrase, or sentence each time. When you have finished four or five rounds of looping, you will begin to have specific information that indicates what you are thinking about a particular topic. You may even have the basis for a tentative thesis or an improved idea for an approach to your assignment when you have finished.

      The Journalists’ Questions

      Journalists traditionally ask six questions when they are writing assignments that are broken down into five W’s and one H: Who?, What?, Where?, When?, Why?, and How? You can use these questions to explore the topic you are writing about for an assignment. A key to using the journalists’ questions is to make them flexible enough to account for the specific details of your topic. For instance, if your topic is the rise and fall of the Puget Sound tides and its effect on salmon spawning, you may have very little to say about Who if your focus does not account for human involvement. On the other hand, some topics may be heavy on the Who, especially if human involvement is a crucial part of the topic.The journalists’ questions are a powerful way to develop a great deal of information about a topic very quickly. Learning to ask the appropriate questions about a topic takes practice, however. At times during writing an assignment, you may wish to go back and ask the journalists’ questions again to clarify important points that may be getting lost in your planning and drafting.Possible generic questions you can ask using the six journalists’ questions follow:

      • Who? Who are the participants? Who is affected? Who are the primary actors? Who are the secondary actors?
      • What? What is the topic? What is the significance of the topic? What is the basic problem? What are the issues related to that problem?
      • Where? Where does the activity take place? Where does the problem or issue have its source? At what place is the cause or effect of the problem most visible?
      • When? When is the issue most apparent? (in the past? present? future?) When did the issue or problem develop? What historical forces helped shape the problem or issue and at what point in time will the problem or issue culminate in a crisis? When is action needed to address the issue or problem?
      • Why? Why did the issue or problem arise? Why is it (your topic) an issue or problem at all? Why did the issue or problem develop in the way that it did?
      • How? How is the issue or problem significant? How can it be addressed? How does it affect the participants? How can the issue or problem be resolved?

      

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      Outlining

      Outlining is an important step before you start drafting. Doing so will help you organize the ideas you’ve come up through the previous step, the prewriting. The content and format of an outline changes depending on what your assignment is. But generally speaking, an outline needs to provide the following at the minimum:

      • Thesis statement
      • Topic sentences
      • Evidence

      Sometimes, you may be asked to provide explanations as well.In general, this is what an outline looks like:Thesis: __________________________________

      1. Topic sentence
         1. Evidence
         2. Evidence
      2. Topic sentence
         1. Evidence
         2. Evidence
      3. Topic sentence
         1. Evidence
         2. Evidence
            

            1.8 Some Resources on Proofreading

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            No amount of money can pay for my existence! LOL!At this point in the writing process, you would have dealt with global issues in your draft, issues such as content, organization, structure, and clarity. Now it’s time to review your writing for local issues, such as grammar, punctuation, and spelling — proofreading is what this stage is called.Here are a few resources related to proofreading:Video #1 — “The Proofeading Professor”Video #2 — “How to proofread your writing: 10 top tips”Video #3 — “Get the You Outta Here”Non-video resource: “” from The Writing Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

            1.9 MLA Formatting (Document Layout)

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            As you know, in this class, we will be following the Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines for formatting a document. Below is 10:01 minute video (by Prof. Jason Morgan from Shaw University) in which he shows the viewers how to format a paper following the MLA style (although this is specific to a Microsoft Word document, the formatting options are also present in Google Docs):

            • 1-inch margin all around
            • Font: Times New Roman; Size: 12
            • Header = Last name and page number
            • Double spaced (no extra space between paragraphs)
            • Top left corner = your name, professor’s name (spelled correctly), Name of class and section number, due date (day month year)
            • Title centered (just regular font and size; some letters are capitalized) — make the title interesting and creative — hook your reader to your essay with the title!
            • Each paragraph begins with an indentation.

            

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