Your Writing Assignments

College Seminar II/English 249
Bryn Mawr College
Spring 2005 Beauty: A Conversation between Chemistry and Culture
http://serendipstudio.org/sci_cult/courses/beauty

There will numerous writing assignments due throughout the semester and these will be collected as a portfolio at the end of the semester.

For more information about the paper assignments and the final portfolio submission.

Web papers

Within the broad area discussed in class and indicated on the syllabus for the particular paper assignment ...

• Pick a subject interesting to you that might be manageably handled within the page limit (see syllabus)
• Think about/read some additional material about that subject
• Write an interesting, accessible paper about what has changed in your understandings as a result of the preceding
• The paper should make it clear at the outset what its point is, provide in the middle material that supports that point, and end by showing how the material taken together does so, and what new questions that in turn raises.
• It is courteous to make attributions to sources for ideas that were useful to you. Such attributions may also provide useful guides for readers who want to further explore related issues. It is essential to make attributions and use quotation marks in any case where you use strings of words (sentences, paragraphs) that were originally written by others. This should be restricted to situations where you explicitly wish for some reason to call attention to how some particular person said something. In general, you should say things in your own words, since the process of creating words is an important part of thinking.

Papers need to be submitted both as hard copy and electronically. To facilitate this, write your paper as you normally would using any word processing program, but avoid complicated formatting (tables, lists, elaborate fonts/styles). Citations should be in a numbered or alphabetical list at the end. Items in that list can then be cited by parenthetical references in the text.

When you have completed writing your paper as you normally would, print it to turn in as your hard copy. Then make a second version of the paper by saving the original paper as "text only" and giving it some distinctive file name on your computer. This version will have lost some formatting characteristics (hence the requirement above), and is the version you will submit electronically.

Go to the paper posting area (NOT the class forum) for this paper:

• Paper #1
• Paper #2
• Paper #3
• Paper #4
• Paper #5

Below the spaces for address/name/title is a text entry window, much like that in the course forum except it appears with some normal text at the top followed by some capitalized text (repeating these instructions). Do not disturb the normal text at the top. The capitalized text should be deleted, either by selecting and deleting or by pasting over it in the course of the following:

• Copy from the text only version of your paper on your computer the text and reference list (leave out paper title and your name that have already been entered) and paste it to the text entry window in such a way as to leave intact the normal text material at the top and replace the capitalized text.

• Use the "preview" button below the text entry window to see how your paper will appear when posted. Check to be sure paragraphs are separated by an empty line and that there are no "funny" characters in your text. Make needed corrections by adding carriage returns and/or deleting and retyping in the text entry window. Repeat "preview" and correction until you are satisfied.

• Click on the "submit" button below the text entry window. You will not (as in the course forum area) be able to see your paper immediately (papers need to be further processed once they have all been received), but you will be congratulated for a successful electronic submission.

Stay calm. Look forward to being able to read not only your paper but the papers of others as well. Email adalke@brynmawr.edu if there are any problems.

Your Portfolio

Your final portfolio is due by 5 p.m. Saturday, May 7 (for seniors) and by 12:30 Friday, May 13 (for all others). In the portfolio, we ask you to collect and reflect on all the work you have done for this course. This portfolio project invites you to chronicle what has happened in your evolution both as a speaker and a writer during the fourteen weeks we've been thinking together, and to contribute to our evaluation of your work. So--

* Gather together everything you’ve written for this class: copies of what you’ve posted in each week's on-line forum, all your papers, and all the responses you've received from us. Arrange the material in a folder, chronologically, back to front, with your final paper, #5, on top. Remember that we also require this paper, like the first four, to be posted on the course website.

* You are welcome to revise any one of the papers. Be willing, in this process, to engage in major re-thinkings of what you have done already (although you may also find it satisfying to edit merely for stylistics and technicalities—and so are also welcome to submit a clean and corrected copy. Just remember to include the earlier version).

* Review all you’ve gathered together in the portfolio; ruminate for a while on what you’re seeing as you do so. Then write a short (2 pp.) essay tracing where you were when we began this process, where you are now, and what’s been happening in between. Be specific and descriptive, but also evaluative: How much effort have you put into each of these drafts and their revisions? What can you say about the quality of the final products?

* Review as well your participation in our group work. How frequently have you come to class? How present-and-contributing have you been in our discussions, both large and small, in-person and on-line? What role have you assumed in our group dynamics? (Have you organized our thinking? Played devil's advocate? Been inclusive--or clarifying--or withdrawn? These possibilities are drawn from a book called Freire for the Classroom: A Sourcebook for Liberatory Teaching, which calls attention to the roles people play in groups.)

In our responses to your portfolio, we’ll be giving you a grade not just for the quality of your written work, but also for class participation and process. Your self-evaluation will assist us with our own.

We very much look forward to seeing what you come up with, as well as what you have to say about it.

In gratitude for the pleasure we have found in the hard work, good play and great company we have found with one another.

Anne and Sharon

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