English 001B draft

grade required: A

no plagerism

Essay Topic

Choose one of the following prompts, and write a three-page essay (minimum length) in response:

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. In Heidi Schreck’s play “What the Constitution Means to Me,” who makes the stronger argument to abolish the Constitution, Heidi, in Part 2, or Thursday, in the alternate debate?
            2. In Heidi Schreck’s play “What the Constitution Means to Me,” who makes the stronger argument to keep the Constitution, Rosdely, in Part 2, or Heidi, in the alternate debate?

Take into consideration each debater’s use of ethos, logos, and pathos as rhetorical appeals to persuade the audience, as well as any potential logical fallacies on the part of the debaters.

Remember

Your first finished draft should be finished, but it is a first draft. As such, the draft does not need to be as polished and won’t be judged as your final draft will be. The purpose of the first draft is to get ideas down on the page so that you, your peers, and I can evaluate how successfully the draft is developing.

Your peers and I will provide feedback to your first draft to help you improve the paper before you submit a revised draft.

Format Guidelines

Adhere to MLA-style in manuscript format and in documentation of source material.

To Submit

Save your file as a PDF and upload the document.

Peer Reviews

When you submit a draft of your essay, you will be assigned three of your peers’ essay drafts for you to read and provide feedback. (Consult the Student Canvas Guide that I connected you to earlier if you are unsure of how to find the peer reviews you are assigned.) For you to receive credit for this assignment, you must submit a first draft of your own and complete the three peer reviews. Note: You will not be assigned peer reviews if you do not submit a draft of your own by the assignment deadline.

Purpose

There are two parts to peer review: You put your essay in front of your peers and they provide you feedback, and you provide feedback to the essays of a few of your peers. The purpose of peer review is to support your peers’ work; in providing feedback, though, you also learn to look for specific things in your peers’ essays that you can then look for in your own essay. In evaluating the work of others, then, you become better at evaluating your own work as the peer review process allows you to compare your work to your peers. This gives you a sense of what you have done well and of what might need improvement.

Guidelines

Read each essay; then provide a written summary of your feedback in the “Comments” section of the assignment. Please take this activity seriously, and give your peers’ work your time and attention. Your comments should be specific, rather than general, and must be a minimum of 200 words for each review. I encourage you to provide well developed comments that fully explain your response to your peers’ work. You might highlight the major strengths and weaknesses of the essay as a whole or pick particular areas to focus on. For an idea of the areas to focus on, consult the essay rubric

Actions.

Please be supportive of your peers and encourage them in their work, but also please be honest. Sometimes, the least helpful comment you can make is “Your essay is good”–especially when you aren’t specific about what makes it good or, worse yet, when you are afraid of being honest so as not to hurt your peer’s feelings. Some of the best feedback sometimes just describes what you experienced as you read the essay: “I really could identify with the point you made here because…,” “I got lost in this section of the essay because…,” “I had trouble understanding your thesis because…,” “I really agreed with your conclusion because….”

A good rule for providing feedback is this: Provide the kind of feedback that you would find helpful to receive.

Criteria

For the First Draft/Peer Review assignment to be considered satisfactorily completed and receive credit (2%), it must meet the following criteria:

• • • • • Essay draft responds to the topic
        • Draft length of at least 2 full pages (Final draft must be a minimum of 3 full pages.)
        • Adherence to MLA-style in manuscript format and documentation of source material
        • Use of What the Constitution Means to Me as a source text
        • Three peer reviews of at least 200 words each

Due Dates

• • • • First draft is due Tuesday, Oct. 31, 11:59 p.m. PDT
      • Peer Reviews are due Thursday, Nov. 2, 11:59 p.m. PDT
      • NOTE: No late submissions of the first draft or the peer reviews will be accepted for credit.

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