Course Recap for Tuesday, November 29, 2016

First Draft of Research Paper

Make sure that your draft attempts to do the following things: 

1. Prove your community has a problem.  What is the issue?  Why should people care? Where's the proof that this is happening in your community? 
2. Provides solutions.  What can we do to fix this issue?  How do we know this solution will work?  Is there any research to back up the effectiveness of the solution?  Remember for those of you exploring issues that deal with issues of public policy and law to give at least one solution that YOU as a member of your community could do to help the issue.  Let's say your issue is poor sex education in the school system.  Getting a better curriculum implemented in the schools is a solution but what can the students do to help the issue.  Maybe they could form some sort of anonymous online group where students can safely ask questions and receive answers from professionals.  We want to call everyone in your community to action on this issue not just the people in charge.
3. What are the counterarguments? What are the potential obstacles that could prevent you from implementing your solutions?  What reasons might people give for why your issue shouldn't be addressed?  Looking again at poor sex education, you might have people who argue that the current curriculum is fine or that the curriculum you are proposing will promote promiscuity.  How can you handle these objections?  This does not necessarily have to be a section of its own.  Many of you will address these issues when you answer questions 1 and 2 but you want to keep it in mind as you write.
4. Try and have at least one source for each of the 3 questions above. What tends to happen with this paper is people pack all of their sources in one section of the paper (usually the one addressing the problems).  If your solution is to form a smoking support group, find a source that talks about the effectiveness of support groups.  If the issue is the wrestling team is underfunded, what are the benefits of funding the wrestling team?  What does being on the wrestling team do for students?

Second Genre

While I want your research paper to be the main focus over the next couple of days, it is time for you to think about your secondary genre.  Your secondary genre piece's goal is to complement your research paper.  It's purpose is to help your audience see your issue through a different form of writing.  Under Class Documents there is a list of Genres of Writing. Look it over and think about what other genre of writing best fits your topic and will help you further prove your point.  Your genre might focus primarily on illustrating the problem, for instance, a powerful magazine ad that talks about the effects of domestic violence or a play that illustrates gender fluidity, a poem expressing what it's like to have anxiety and depression as a college student, or it might look at the solution: greeting cards to give to students who are suffering from homesickness, a month long menu of healthier cafeteria options, an illustrated how-to guide on proper running form.  All the examples, I gave are things students have done in the past.  Come to class Thursday with some ideas of what you want to do that you can bounce off of me.

Homework

• Read Letter from Birmingham Jail page 121 in Readings for Writers Due Thursday December 1
• Think about what second genre you want to do. Due Thursday December 1 
• First Draft of Research Paper Due Friday December 2 via Google Docs and ELI Review