Class Cancelled Mon-Wed for Conferences/Source Checks

Our regular class meetings of English 106 are cancelled Monday and Wednesday of next week (Dec 3 and Dec 5) for individual conferences and source checks. You must pass a source check before I accept your final portfolio.

Please arrive on time for your conference time slot—if you miss your conference, you will be counted absent for the week!

The conference schedule will be posted on my office door (Chapel 031) and on the course blog (see below). You should do the following four things to prepare for your draft conference:

1. Bring to your conference a full draft of your research paper (at least five pages, plus a References page or Works Cited page), with key sentences highlighted;
2. Choose and boldface three citations from sources (paraphrases or quotes) that you've used in your paper, and bring the original books or articles in which you found the information. I'll check your paraphrase or quotation against the sources to make sure they're accurate and acceptable; and
3. Write down at least two goals for revising your paper, and at least one question that you want to ask me during the conference. We will begin the conference with your goals and questions.

Conference Schedule
MONDAY, Dec. 3
8:40 Kim
10:20 Sara
10:40 Megan
11:00 Drew
11:20 Zach J.
12:40 Samantha
1:00 C.J.
1:20 Katy
1:40 Sarah
2:00 Emily
2:20 Mike B.
3:20 Sophie

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 5
8:00 Kate G.
8:20 Matt
8:40 Michael B.
10:00 Marcus
10:20 Tyler
10:40 Clark
11:00 Juliet
11:20 Jameela
11:40 Salim
12:00 Claire
12:40 Adriel
1:00 Kendal
1:20 Jon
1:40 Michelle
2:00 Josh
2:20 Natalie
2:40 Veronica
3:00 Sal
4:00 Sam
4:20 Krystle
4:40 Dan

Please bring a copy of your final course participation self-evaluation (see Blackboard Assignments page) to our last class meeting on Friday, December 7.

Your final research portfolio will be due during the regularly scheduled exam time for your course section. See the Course Blackboard for specific guidelines for submitting the final portfolio.

They Say, I Say Templates

The following templates come from Cathy Birkenstein and Gerald Graff's They Say, I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing (Norton, 2007). Which one(s) might be best suited to state your main claim and develop your argument for the research paper?

Post as a comment below at least two main claims that you might develop in your research paper, using the following templates as a guide:

1. Although it is often said that [your topic: e.g., autism] ______________________________, I argue _______________________. [Disagree]


2. I agree with X that _____________________________, and I would add that _________________. [Agree]


3. When I first thought about ______________________________, I assumed __________________________. Now, however, having _____________________________, I’ve come to the conclusion that _______________________________. [I was lost, but now I’m found]


4. Group X argues _______________________, and I have mixed feelings about it. One the one hand, _______________________________. On the other hand, ________________________________. [Yes, but. . . ]


5. Researchers have long wondered about ___________________________, having been unable to determine _______________________. My research offers an answer: ________________________________. [Problem-solving]

6. ___________________________ seems so unproblematic that we fail to recognize ___________________________. [Sell your problem]

7. Debates over ________________________________________ dominate discussions of ____________________________________________. What such debates obscure, however, is the more important issue of __________________________________________. [Change the conversation]

8. Although fierce debates have raged over __________________________, the debaters agree on one important thing: ________________________________________. [Opponents really agree]

9. Up to now I’ve been suggesting that ___________________________________. But it’s really more complex than that. First, ___________________________. Second, ______________________. And third, complicating matters even further, ____________________. [It’s more complicated]

10. At this point you will probably object that ____________________________. Although it is true that _________________________, I nevertheless maintain that __________________________________________. [Insert a naysayer]

The Big Picture, Part II

For today's writing workshop, please start by completing the following sentence:

"Taken together, the sources I have consulted so far on my research topic reveal _____________________________________________________________.

The Big Picture

For today's writing workshop, please start by completing the following sentence:

"Taken together, the sources I have consulted so far on my research topic reveal ___________________________________________________________________________________."