*At the end of the quarter, you are required to submit all of the papers, drafts, and structure sheets for the final grade.*
You and your partner/s are required to deliver one chapter in Rhetorical Grammar to the class. The objective of this presentation is to establish an easy and active atmosphere to study and discuss grammar.
In the presentation, you should:
1. Clearly state the outline and main contents of the chapter. In other words, you should elaborate what the chapter is about, what is discussed in detail, what, as far as you are concerned, is the most important, and why.
2. Actively engage your classmates. In other word, you are teaching instead of telling the chapter. Thus, you should lead the class to think about the chapter, as well as raise and answer questions.
3. Effectively use visual aids and handouts. In other words, you need to create some materials to make your presentation clear and easy to follow. I will provide technical support if you need to use PowerPoint, internet materials, and so no.
4. Efficiently use the exercise materials in the chapter. In other words, you should do the exercises, figure out which ones are helpful to understand the chapter beforehand, and then use them in your presentation.
5. Cooperatively work with your partner(s). In other words, there are no major and minor roles, but equal partners. You and your partner/s should contribute roughly the same amount to the presentation.
Length: No less than 20 minutes and no more than 25 minutes.
Date: Assigned at the beginning of the quarter.
The grade of this paper makes up 20% of your writing grade, and accordingly, 14% of your final grade.
In this assignment, you are required to write a paper in which you “popularize” a term, a concept, or an important person, for instance, a scientist, which/whom you learn from the classes of your major, to the readers outside your major. This kind of writing is a genre named popularization, usually published in newspapers and magazines. Unlike your textbooks, which explain the concepts and facts in your majors, popularization aims to disseminate information about the developments and discoveries, as well as those who make major contributions, in order to make the public aware of them. Thus, such writings not only explain the terms or concepts in everyday language, but also, more importantly, tell why they are significant to both the field and our society, and what they have to do with our life. In other words, popularization must articulate the significance and social effects of what it popularizes. Particularly for this class, you can write about the concepts, terms, and scientists that we read in this quarter. They could be, for example, DNA, or the double helix, or the gene, or any concepts related to them, such as gene therapy, human cloning, or designer baby, or those scientists who discover or establish them. Moreover, you must have at least three publications on your reference list.
Focus: Awareness of Audience/Readers
Outcomes:
— 1st: Your introduction to the term, or the concept, or the important person should be comprehensive. In other words, you should write about the historical background
— 2nd: You should articulate the significance; or, the significance of his/her contribution, if you write about an important person.
— 3rd: You should elaborate the social effects; or, the social effects of his/her contribution, if you write about an important person.
— 4th: You writing should be clear and comprehensible to non-experts.
— 5th: In your writing, errors of grammar, punctuation, and mechanics are proofread and edited so as not to interfere with reading and understanding the writing.
Length and format:
4 to 5 pages, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins, 12-point Times New Roman font, and MLA format.
Copies to submit: 3
Draft due: Feb. 5, Tuesday.
Paper due: Feb. 7, Thursday.
The grade of this paper makes up 20% of your writing grade, and accordingly, 14% of your final grade.
In this assignment, you are required to write a review of Watson’s The Double Helix. A book review is not to re-tell the book, although you do need to provide a brief summary of the contents. A book review is, first of all, to contextualize the book historically, socially, politically, and sometimes intellectually, if the reviewer is interested in that perspective. Through his/her preferred critical angle, the viewer examines the book in order to tell readers why the book is, or is not on occasion, worth reading.
A decent book review should provide:
--a brief introduction to the author;
--the genre and style;
--the general and the specific contexts;
--the contents;
--most importantly, the viewer's criticism of the book, usually by analyzing particular language, style, passages, and psychological traits, as well as by comparing it with other related books.
A professional book reviewer usually also indicates the book’s importance to the author’s career, to the new perspective or revelation that the book brings to its readers, and to the historical and social moment.
Focus: Summary and Argumentation
Outcomes:
— 1st: Provide a comprehensive introduction to the book, which should include the first four points mentioned above.
— 2nd: Articulate and elaborate your criticism/argument about the book according to the fifth point mentioned above.
— 3rd: Use proper textual analysis to support your argument
— 4rd: Proofread to remove errors of grammar, punctuation, and mechanics so as to not interfere with reading and understanding the writing.
Length and format:
4 to 6 pages, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins, 12-point Times New Roman font, and MLA format.
Copies to submit: 3
Draft due: Feb. 26, Tuesday.
Paper due: Feb. 28 & Mar. 1, Thursday and Friday.
The grade of this paper makes up 60% of your writing grade, and accordingly, 42% of your final grade.
In this quarter, you have read books and articles surrounding the double helix: as a scientific discover, you have read the original publications that announce the achievements, as well as the personal, though controversial, account of how the discovery is made; as a social inspiration, you have read humanists' meditations and debates about the discovery through scrutinizing the lexical cohesion, rhetoric, and genre.
In this assignment, you are required to write a paper in which you present an argument of your own about the double helix. You can adopt one of the approaches that you have read; or, you can argue your opinion through your own approach, as long as you make it logical.
Focus: Argumentation
Outcomes:
— 1st: The structure of the paper is logical. In other words, the evidence supports the argument.
— 2nd: The argument is complex and analytical, as well as clearly stated.
— 3rd: The evidence should involve at least three articles and/or books.
— 4rd: Errors of grammar, punctuation, and mechanics are proofread and edited so as not to interfere with reading and understanding the writing.
Length and format:
4 to 6 pages, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins, 12-point Times New Roman font, and MLA format.
Copies to submit: 4
Draft due: Mar. 12, Tuesday.
Paper due: Mar. 21, Thursday.