to contact instructor with or without identifying yourself. (My e-mail address is provided in class. No telephone calls, please.)
You have two options for this writing assignment.
Option 1: Formal essay on The House on Mango StreetOption 2: Formal report of a visit to an ethnic-related cultural site
The purpose of this writing assignment is to help you use writing to think about the major themes of Sandra Cisneros's novel, The House on Mango Street, to appreciate (although not necessarily to like) the complexity of its narrative structure, to provide you the opportunity to develop further some ideas discussed in class, and to practice your academic writing skills.
Start by selecting one of these "prompts" (the questions that are intended to stimulate your ideas):
Now, in a formal, argumentative essay of 1000 to 1250 words (according to the word count tool in Microsoft Word), respond to the prompt. To do this, develop a thesis (main argument) that answers the prompt. The rest of the essay will comprise your attempts to convince your reader of the veracity of your thesis. See below for further instructions regarding the paper.
Please note that if you choose this option, you still need to visit an ethnically-related cultural site (look under Option 2 for a list of acceptable sites). Rather than submit a formal site visit report, however, you will submit a very brief summary, listing the site you visited, the date on which you visited, and one thing that you learned, which can be as short as one sentence. This summary can be informal, either typed and submitted in person, or e-mailed to me no later than 8:45 a.m. on February 18, the due date for your paper. Spelling, grammar, and punctuation do not matter, as long as I can understand what you have written. I will not grade it, but will mark it with a check if it meets the requirements. This brief summary is considered part of your Essay 2 assignment, so if you do not submit it by the deadline, then two points will be deducted from your Essay 2 grade for being less than fully complete.
The purpose of this assignment is to encourage you to learn more about a major American ethnic group and to practice your academic writing skills.
First, choose at least one of the sites listed below and visit it for at least two hours. You are welcome to go with classmates, although you must write your reports individually. Dates, times, and duration of these exhibits vary, so check with the institutions for up-to-date information. The sites listed in bold are especially recommended.
You also can choose an alternative site, but please ask me about it well ahead of time to make sure that it is acceptable.
Remember that the purpose of your visit is to learn about an ethnic American culture, so make sure you do not get distracted by other exhibits that are irrelevant to that purpose, such as an exhibit on Mexican or Japanese culture in those countries. Stick to ethnic American cultures.
Then, write an argumentative critique (or review) of the exhibit or site that you visited. Start with a main point that you want to make, and then provide supporting evidence, citing specific features of the site that you visited. I have posted in the "Course Documents" area of Blackboard at <http://bb.bothell.washington.edu> an example of a professional, scholarly exhibit review, which you can use as a model or example. Note that the author goes beyond saying, "This is what is in the exhibit," or "I liked this but not that." Rather, she makes an overall argument--with a thesis--about the exhibit.
Because all teachers have their own idiosyncratic preferences for writing, you should review what mine are by re-reading "Tips for Better Prose" at <http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/Prose.html>. Re-reading this document is a required part of the assignment. When I return your paper to you, I will provide a tally of common errors, 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. Of course, it would be better for you and for me if you pay close attention to the document so you can avoid some of the mechanical errors that I commonly find in student (and even professional) writing, rather than have them pointed out to you afterward. I recommend printing that document, and, after you finish writing your paper, check the items off one by one to make sure your paper is as mechanically sound as you can make it. Although the mechanics of writing are less important to me than the ideas expressed (which is evidenced in the proportion of your grade allocated to each of these aspects of your paper, as described below), the mechanics inevitably improve the effectiveness of your communication of ideas, which, after all, is your ultimate goal with each piece of writing that you do.
As a formal piece of university writing, your paper should be typed and double-spaced throughout, using a standard font (like Times) in 12-point size, and with margins of one inch all the way around each page. Use MLA style, as described in the fifth edition of The MLA Handbook (available in the Bookstore and in the reference section of the Library). 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 (BLS 379), the date, and my name (Prof. David Goldstein-Shirley). (See item #20 in "Tips for Better Prose.") Provide a meaningful but brief title for your paper (not "Essay 2" or "Site Visit Report" but rather a short hint of your paper's main message) 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.") Please use just one side of each sheet of paper, and avoid paper with punched holes. Please write or type, at the end of your paper, the final word count (according to the word count in the "Tools" pull-down menu in Microsoft Word).
The body of your paper, beginning with an indented paragraph, should start exactly one double space beneath the title. In other words, there should be one blank line between the bottom of your heading and the title, and then one blank line between the title and the first line of your paper's body. Just before you print your final draft to submit to me, do a final word count (in the Tools pull-down menu of Microsoft Word) and write the total number of words at the end of your paper. Please do not use a cover page, footnotes, or a bibliography. If you wish to quote, do so only after reading Becky Reed's document, "Using Direct Quotation" at <http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/Quotation.html>.
I have posted an example of a very good essay (written in a previous literature course but on a different topic) in the "Course Documents" area of Blackboard at <http://bb.bothell.washington.edu> You may read it if you want to see an example of an essay that I have liked. Note especially how the author lays out a specific argument (thesis) in the opening paragraph, and uses each subsequent paragraph to directly and explicitly support that thesis. I regret that I do not have a sample site visit report, but I have posted in the "Course Documents" area of Blackboard a museum exhibition review published in a major American studies journal, which can serve as a model for your site visit report. Note that it explains to the reader what the exhibit's major features are, comments on those items, and relates them to ideas within and outside of the exhibit, all within an overall argument or main point.
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 re-read "Maintaining Academic Integrity" at <http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/Integrity.html>.
Your essay or site visit report is due in class at 8:45 a.m. sharp on Tuesday, February 18. Please do not submit it at 8:55, 10:50, or any other time. I expect it at 8:45, and I do not want to hear reasons for lateness. I strongly urge you to complete your paper a couple of days early so you have time to deal with any unforeseen problems, and to be sure to arrive in class on time on the due date.
I will accept late papers which must be Microsoft Word documents submitted in the Blackboard "Digital Dropbox" (click on the "Tools" button), but late papers will incur a late penalty: I will deduct four points for papers received by 8:45 a.m. on February 20 and ten points for papers received by 8:45 a.m. on February 25. I will accept no late papers after 8:45 a.m. on February 25. These deadlines and penalties stem from our need to move on to other work, and to ensure an equal amount of work time for everyone in class. Late papers will be ineligible for revision because I will need to take time away from other grading to grade late papers.To submit your late paper in the "Digital Dropbox," first name your document (the Word file itself) using your last name and the number 2, followed by the ".doc" extension like this:
Lastname2.doc (but using your own last name, like this: Husky1.doc)
and then, when submitting it to the "Digital Dropbox" (using the "Send" command), label your document using your last name and the number 1, like this:
Lastname2 (but using your own last name, like this: Husky1)
Optional Essay 2 or Site Visit Report Revision: If you like, you may revise your essay or site visit report after getting your graded paper back if it was submitted by the original deadline. You will still adhere to the length and formatting requirements outlined above for your original paper. Remember to include the word count at the end of the revision as you did for the original paper. Then, when you submit your Learning Portfolio, include both the graded original (with my comments) and the revision. I will grade the revision using the same criteria below, and will replace the Essay 2 or Site Visit Report grade with the average of the original and the revision grades. (This new grade will be independent of, and unrelated to, your Learning Portfolio grade.)
Criteria for grading Essay #2 or Site Visit Report: Please carefully read "Criteria for Assessing Writing" at <http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/WritingAssess.html> for an explanation of these items:
Content 50 percent Organization 10 percent Reasoning 20 percent Rhetoric 10 percent Conventions 10 percent TOTAL 45 pts.
Let me emphasize that I expect your best effort in this and every exercise. Your most serious work now will enable me to provide the most helpful comments, which in turn will improve your grade on later assignments. In other words, this assignment helps determine your grade in this course both directly (with the score it earns) and indirectly (with its capacity to teach you how to improve your writing), so it is worth the investment of your time and effort to do the best you can.
Some additional advice:
This page last updated January 14, 2003.
