BIS 367

Exploring American Culture:
Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration

Spring 2008

David S. Goldstein, Ph.D.

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Response Papers Assignment 

Response paper #1 due in midquarter portfolio no later than 1:00 p.m. on Monday, April 28;
response paper #2 due (online) no later than 1:00 p.m. sharp on Monday, May 26

The purpose of this assignment is to deepen your thinking about race, ethnicity, and immigration as represented in the historical record and in the form of fictional narratives (short stories) and to practice skills in critical thinking and academic writing.

Response paper #1: History

You will write a short response paper of 800 to 1000 words that addresses one or more of these prompts regarding the introduction and first two chapters of Defining America through Immigration Policy by Bill Ong Hing:

  • What surprised you the most about the information presented ?  Why?
  • What strikes you most when you compare the experiences of the early European Americans and the early Asian Americans?
  • What questions are raised for you in these chapters?
  • To what extent are you convinced by Hing's interpretation of the historical data and what alternative interpretations come to mind?

This response paper, like all work for this course, must be a Microsoft Word document and must follow MLA formatting.

    • If you wish to quote, do so sparingly, and only after reading Becky Reed Rosenberg's document, "Using Direct Quotation" at <http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/Quotation.html >. If you paraphrase or quote Hing, you can provide just a page number since it is obvious whom you are citing. Be sure you cite correctly according to MLA format according to the latest edition of the MLA Handbook.
    • Because all teachers have their own idiosyncratic preferences for writing, review what mine are by re-reading "Tips for Better Prose" at <http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/Prose.html >.
    • As a formal piece of university writing, your paper should be typed and double-spaced throughout, using a standard font (like Times New Roman) in 12-point size, and with margins of one inch all the way around each page. In the top, left-hand corner of the first page, place a heading that includes (using one line per item) your name, the course number (BIS 367), the date, and my name (Prof. David S. Goldstein). (See item #20 in "Tips for Better Prose.") Provide a meaningful but brief title for your paper (not "Research Paper" but rather a short hint of your paper's main argument) that is centered just one double space beneath the heading on the first page and in plain type (no underlining, bold, italics, or quotation marks). (See item #22 in "Tips for Better Prose.")
    • If I think your paper is at least a middle draft, then when I return your paper to you, I will indicate patterns of problems that I noticed in your paper, using a list of codes such as "T1," "T2," and so forth, which refer to the numbered items of the "Tips for Better Prose" document.  (If your paper is still in the early-draft stage, you will have more important things to focus on, and can take care of editing and proofreading after you do the major rewriting.  There obviously is no point in worrying about small matters of prose mechanics if you will be doing major rewriting.)
    • Do a final word count (in the Tools pull-down menu of Microsoft Word) to make sure you are within the stated word count requirements.
    • Needless to say, your work must be entirely original. Using another person's ideas or words without proper attribution, whether intentional or accidental, constitutes plagiarism, and will result in a zero on this assignment. Please review "Policy on Academic and Behavioral Conduct," which was the first reading assignment for this course.

This paper will be submitted electronically as part of your midquarter portfolio no later than 1:00 p.m. on Monday, April 28, for which instructions will be provided later.

Response paper #2: Short stories

You will write a short response paper of 800 to 1000 words that addresses one or more of these prompts regarding the short stories we read in Imagining America: Stories from the Promised Land, edited by Wesley Brown and Amy Ling.  You may not write about any story that your small group is covering in a small-group discussion.  I want you to be thinking about other stories.

  • Which story moved you the most ?  Why?
  • Which story raised questions for you?  Why?
  • How did one or more of the stories influence the way you thought about the history presented by the Hing book?

Please see the formatting instructions above.

This paper will be submitted electronically in the Catalyst tool called CollectIt, for which instructions will be provided later.

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Each of your response papers will be graded according to the following criteria:

Content 50 percent
Organization 10 percent
Reasoning 20 percent
Rhetoric 10 percent
Conventions 10 percent
TOTAL 15 percent of final course grade (each)

 

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This page last updated March 28, 2008.

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