Elephant Paper due tomorrow
As you prepare and polish your papers for tomorrow, don’t forget a few things:
- Revise your paper!
- Make sure the MLA format is correct. I will not take papers written in pencil or that are single-spaced. Presentation may not be as important as your thesis and the depth and complexity with which you deal with your argument, but it does reflect on your effort and attention to detail.
- Vocabulary test tomorrow
- 1st graded argument timed write tomorrow
Wow, I didn’t plan it this way (Bwuhahaha), but it seems that much is converging on this Friday. Makes me think of that Flannery O’Connor story, or at least the title, Everything That Rises Must Converge.
JFK Paper Due Date
I’m going to be gone at a conference on Thursday. If we’re going to move the paper due date, we may as well move it to Friday since I won’t be there to pick up the papers on Thursday anyway.
Before you cheer too much and make further plans to put off working on your papers, you will still have the homework I’d planned for you Wednesday and Thursday nights. That is not moving. It’s not onerous, but it’s still 12-15 pages of reading from an argument textbook each night. For some of you, it will take a while to work through and understand what you’ve read.
Call it a mixed blessing and use it to your advantage, but don’t let things get out of hand as you may very well have homework in other classes.
JFK Paper Rough Draft
The rough draft for your JFK paper is due on Monday March 9.
Reminders:
- Respond to the prompt on page 57 of our textbook. You may use the sample thesis above the prompt if you wish.
- 900-1200 words
- Due Wednesday March 11, 2009
- Use MLA format with the following caveats: 1) Single-space your heading 2) Leave the page number and last name off the first page. Format examples are here and examples of the above-noted modifications are here.
- I WILL NOT accept papers that are written in pencil, single-spaced, or with the heading on the right. Pay attention. I’ve been lax the first couple of papers as we learned what was expected. Papers that are not in MLA format will be returned ungraded for corrections and will be counted as late.
JFK Paper Thesis
In preparation for our writing time in the computer lab, you need to come to class tomorrow with a thesis sentence in response to the prompt on page 57 of our book. Though you may use the sample thesis in the book for your paper, you must have your own for this assignment.
Also, create at least two topic sentences for that thesis. If you have any questions concerning thesis statements or topic sentences, follow the links below.
The idea is that when we’re in the lab tomorrow and Wednesday, you’ll be ready to write. Ideally you’ll have most of a rough draft at the end of those two days and can do some revision before the paper is due (March 11th.)
Thesis links from my three favorite online writing labs:
Mid-Winter Break…uh, 4-day weekend
Remember that your Chesterfield paper is due on Wednesday when we return. Use the FHS English Department standards as your formatting guide for this one. We didn’t end up talking about how to format your header in order to not have your page number on the first page, so if you you don’t know how to do that, don’t worry about it. If you do know how, go ahead and do it correctly. I have some notes on formatting page numbers in the post for the metacognition paper if you don’t remember how to do the page number with your name.
You can find the original post about the Lord Chesterfield paper below.
Have a great long weekend and remember the plan for success I gave you the other day:
You have a 4-day weekend coming up! You’re probably not even going to start until 8 o’clock in the morning on Saturday! Of course you’ll finish sometime on Sunday, probably meet with someone Monday to peer review and revise (maybe do this over email), and then have a day to relax on Tuesday.
See you Wednesday!
Sweetheart Friday
We have 30-minute periods tomorrow. Here’s the plan:
- DGP
- rhetorical vocabulary quiz
- return meta-cognition papers
- Fun with analyzing Super Bowl commercials
There is no homework other than to do DGP and study for the vocabulary quiz (oh yeah, and work on your Chesterfield paper!
Who am I kidding? You have a 4-day weekend coming up! You’re probably not even going to start until 8 o’clock in the morning on Saturday! Of course you’ll finish sometime on Sunday, probably meet with someone Monday to peer review and revise (maybe do this over email), and then have a day to relax on Tuesday. 
Lord Chesterfield’s Values
Homework tonight is to read pages 35-38 on analyzing style then annotate the Lord Chesterfield letter. We’ll use both the reading and annotation in class tomorrow and the reading should also help you with your annotation.
As was mentioned last week, your next paper will be to answer the 2004 analysis prompt concerning a letter Lord Chesterfield wrote to his son. You’ve already written an initial rough draft in the practice timed write we did on that question. Now, with what we’ve learned in that process and the whole class discussion we’ve done on the letter, your task is to write to this prompt as a take-home essay.
Vital Statistics:
- Due Wednesday February 18th
- 600 words long, give or take 10%
Paper Due Tomorrow!
Remember that your papers are due tomorrow (2/4/09). As I said in class, you can get the MLA formatting instructions from the MLA at OWL link on the AP menu to the left. I (and Ms. Robison who you’ll likely have for AP or College English next year) prefer that you NOT double-space your heading or include your name/page number in the heading. Here are a couple of examples of what that would look like.
To do page numbers, use the insert page number function in your word processor to put a page number in the upper right hand corner. Then edit the header and type your last name followed by a space in front of the page number.
If you are technically challenged and this poses a major cognitive meltdown, breathe. The technical difficulties with the Activeboard in the lab today prevented me from demonstrating how to do this, so this format will not be required until the next paper. Just try to get it as close as you can.
Also, please remember to bring your books tomorrow. As noted in class on Monday, you should read pages 4-9 in your book by class tomorrow.
