Prewriting, Final Paper
Overview: To help you generate the most
original and imaginative topic, arguments, research paths, and thesis
statements, you must complete a formal series of prewriting tasks. By doing so,
you'll come up with ideas you wouldn't have had otherwise. These prewriting
ideas must be on our actual paper topic for the class, so make sure you have
visited the paper prompt and are familiar with it. Prewriting types are
discussed in Navigating America, 7-14.
Due: Monday, November 23
Tasks: Complete each of the tasks below in the order they are given.
Clearly label each question below as
you provide the answer!
- Listing. First,
generate a list of possible topics you could write your paper on. This list
must contain at least 20 different topics/subtopics. This may seem like a
lot at first, but once you get going, a lot of topics will evolve. The
sample on NA page 8 is a list of
twenty-two topics and subtopics, so it should be about that same length.
- Web Search. Next, do
some casual Net searches. For your answer, provide links and thorough
summaries of
three different reputable web sites on the topic(s) you are most
interested in. Note, these sites must be valid sites with trustworthy
information. (Sorry, no Wikipedia or non-scholarly encyclopedias.) These
sites don't need to be entirely scholarly since they are just intended to
help generate paper ideas--but if they are not, you should NOT use them in
your paper... NOTE: You must provide the complete URL, so I can double check
these sites.
- Note: The web search component must contain both a full summary of the
site as well as a full URL that I can use to check it out myself.
- Free Writing. Third,
you must write at least 250 words of free-writing to help you
establish a possible topic for your paper. This writing could be split
between two or three of the different topics you are considering and could
be MUCH longer than 250 words if you need the space.
- Note: I will not grade this on
grammar or punctuation, just the content and thoughts you’ve generated.
Relax and just get some thoughts on paper (or on the monitor in this
case...).
- Likely Topics: Once
you’ve done all of the above, provide the top two topics
you’re considering for the final paper, so I can give you suggestions on
them. Each topic must be provided in a full sentence; the more details you
give, the better the feedback I give…
MLA. This assignment must be typed and in MLA format. If
you don't feel creative when you type on a word processor, however, feel free to
do the freewriting and listing on paper and then type them up at the end, just
to put it in MLA format.