PAPER ASSIGNMENTS
ENGL 101-B01:
Composition
Summer
Session B 2008
George Mason University
Paper #1: An
introduction to a current topic in your chosen field and an explanation
of
its
significance to those outside of the field
Audience: Intelligent and curious GMU
students who are not necessarily in your major; your English 302 teacher
Length: at least 1200 words, not
including bibiliography/references page
Purpose: To describe a
current topic in your field and to explain its importance to
your given audience. There are
two basic requirements of
this
paper:
1--You need to describe this development as clearly and
concisely as possible for the given audience.
2--You need to make a compelling,
specific, and explicit case
explaining the
reasons this development is important to those outside of your
field (meaning the members of your given audience).
We need to understand and be
responsible for the terminology we use
given the audience for whom we write. This means that you need to
decide for yourself how much an intelligent and curious GMU student (in
other words, and average GMU student) already knows about the topic and
its terminology, and how much
that student doesn't
know. This will help you in turn decide what kind of vocabulary,
detail, and tone will be appropriate for your writing.
You'll also need to decide what kind of
research is appropriate for
the paper. I
will be requiring a bibliography/references page for this paper. That
bibliography/reference page should include a decent variety
of source material so that your reader will understand that you are not
simply repeating one or two sources without considering audience and
purpose.
You will receive a provisional grade on
this paper. If you choose to revise this paper,
that provisional grade will be entirely replaced by the final grade on
the overall paper.
Paper #2: An argument rebutting a specific source (article,
paper, etc.) relating to your topic
Audience: Intelligent and curious GMU
students who are not necessarily in your major; your English 302 teacher
Length: at least 1200 words, not
including bibliography/references page
Purpose: To rebut an argument found in one or two
specific sources. This rebuttal must deal with some aspect of
your semester topic, but does not have "match up" exactly to paper #1
or paper #3. There are two basic requirements of this paper:
1--Your rebuttal must be opinionated but also reasoned, acknowledging
the validity of the opposing viewpoint while arguing against it.
2--Your rebuttal must be opinionated but also supported (in the form of
quotes and possibly paraphrased material) by at least 3 different
sources.
Your task in this paper is not to simply offer an opinion in opposition
to the source you've selected. Rather, you're to construct a reasoned
argument based on your opinion, meaning that this is not a "rant" or
series of thoughts on the topic. You'll need to choose your opposing
and supporting sources carefully and decide exactly what position you
want to take. Your writing will express your own individual viewpoint,
with the help of your supporting sources, and not vice versa.
I'll be requiring a bibliography/references page for this paper. That
bibliography/reference page should include a decent variety
of source material so that your reader will understand that you are not
simply repeating one or two sources without considering audience and
purpose.
You will receive a provisional grade on
this paper. If you choose to revise this paper,
that provisional grade will be entirely replaced by the final grade on
the overall paper.
Paper #3: An analysis
of one specific aspect of your topic
Audience: Intelligent and curious GMU
students who are not necessarily in your major; your English 302 teacher
Length: at least 1200 words,
not
including bibliography/references page
Purpose: To provide a close analysis
of a particular specific aspect of your general semester topic.
Analysis, broadly speaking, is the process of breaking down a whole
into its component parts in order to reach some particular conclusion
about the whole. Analysis is closely related to argument, in that it
does reach conclusions, but analysis attempts to reach those
conclusions by a process of observation and examination, staying as far
away as possible from overt bias or opinion. Pure analysis, in fact,
aims to produce a reasoned, logical conclusion whether or not that
conclusion fits the writer's own views and assumptions. (Easier said
than done, of course, and probably never 100% possible to accomplish.)
In many ways, the difference between argument and analysis is more
about tone and approach than about the fundamental
rhetorical goal.
This means you'll need to accomplish three tasks in writing the paper:
1--You'll need to choose a specific aspect, or "sub-topic," of your
semester topic to write about
2--You'll need to "break down" that sub-topic into important components
3--You'll need to decide what your observation and examination of the
components tells you about the sub-topic
I'll be requiring a
bibliography/references page for this paper. That
bibliography/reference page should include a decent variety
of source material so that your reader will understand that you are not
simply repeating one or two sources without considering audience and
purpose.
You will receive a
provisional grade on
this paper. If you choose to revise this paper,
that provisional grade will be entirely replaced by the final grade on
the overall paper.