Howard College Beautiful Speech Good and Bad Writing Works Discussion

Essay One:

1. Purpose:

• • Select between 1-3 “texts”: short stories, poems, presentations (TED talks, etc.), television shows, plays, films, songs, advertisements, or nonfiction reading articles. Any text you choose to write on must have written or spoken content.
  • Choose these texts to represent what you think of as good, bad, or beautiful examples of writing (or of the genre you have selected, such as films). You can choose one work to represent each category, or you can mix it up any other way you like.
  • Include clear criteria for evaluation, explaining whether what you chose is good, bad, etc., and why.
  • Here are some ideas I want you to think about before you write your essay: Are these works good, bad, beautiful, a combination of these evaluations, or what? The answer to this question should form most of your thesis, because basically, you are saying a text, poem, show, etc. is “good” or “bad” or even “beautiful” based on your criteria for good, bad, or beautiful works. Stronger essays will also consider how well or how poorly the author of each work you select uses the parts of the rhetorical situation and/or your other evaluative criteria to communicate ideas to you, the viewer, reader, or audience. You might consider what the author could do to make the work better, or worse, if anything.
  • Your thesis will state your ultimate evaluation of your chosen texts clearly and succinctly.
  • Your points will be composed of your criteria for evaluation. If your body paragraphs do not specifically explain why and show how, with vivid and concrete examples, your chosen works are examples of good, bad, and/or beautiful writing, your essay will not achieve a “C” grade or better.
  • You will need to use and cite direct quotations from your selected works in order to pass this essay.

2. Genre:

• Structure your essay as a typical expansion of the five-paragraph theme you learned long ago (covered in your handbook textbook reading assignment for the first week).

3. Audience:

• Your target audience is composed of your classmates (and your professor).

4. Stance:

• Your stance can be serious, funny, skeptical, etc., but it must be written correctly in Standard American Written English. If you are not sure, please ask!

5. Medium and Design:

• You are submitting this essay electronically, which means that you are free to include audio, video, and other visuals/graphics, if relevant to your essay. I am not requiring multimedia content for this essay.

6. Context:

• You will need to consider the larger context of ideas (how to evaluate and judge written content) when you analyze the item or items you choose for your essay topic.
• Your essay will not earn a passing grade (less than a C) if it is submitted without in-text citations, direct quotations, and a Works Cited page (these omissions will override the rest of the grade rubric assessment). These quotations/paraphrases must come from the work(s) you analyze.
• Ask me if you do not understand this assignment.
• Your essay must be at least 2.5 pages (this page count does not include the Works Cited page). Anything less will result in a substantial loss of points: you cannot earn a “C” or better if you do not meet this requirement. Development of ideas (with the balance of comprehensiveness and conciseness) is a key element of writing at the collegiate level.
• Follow MLA format as perfectly as possible, from paper formatting to in-text citations (“parenthetical documentation”) to the proper configuration of the Works Cited page. This material is a review of 101, so errors will result in a substantial loss of points.
• Errors in grammar and mechanics can and will lower your essay grade significantly (by as much as 31 points on this first essay). You might not pass the essay based on these errors alone.
• At the end of your essay, include the following statement if it is true: “I have abided by CCBC’s academic honor code on this assignment, and I attest that I have neither cheated in any way nor have I failed to give proper credit to all other sources of ideas and materials.”