Order 919383: Why people aren′t motivated to participate in service learning
WRTG 101-029(CB): Rewriting the Starfish Story
Professor Choutka
Spring 2017
Essay #2:
An Academic Essay on The Meaning of Service
“There may be a sheriff out there waiting for me with a gun, but if he gets me, I’ll die thinking: Dion, you actually did something – you were a part of something much bigger than yourself, and you saw people beginning to change, right before your eyes, and that was a real achievement’” (Coles 70).
Over the semester, we have read multiple accounts of service experiences, volunteer work, and service learning texts. Now, you will examine why individuals (such as yourself) choose to volunteer or commit their time to a community service project. This assignment asks you to incorporate your own service experience and research to create a meaningful argument on the nature of community engagement and service.
Assignment: Write an academic essay that presents your theory about why people volunteer for service and incorporate your service experience from this semester into your essay.
To do this:
· Examine your service experience to discern what it reveals regarding service overall (if it does).
· Develop an argument that doesn’t simply state what we already assume and know about community service, but instead examines the nature of service.
One way to approach this deeper meaning of service is to adopt a particular perspective, such as a sociological, religious, political, or a cultural studies standpoint. You do not have to do this, but you may choose this approach if you are having trouble focusing your research.
Integrating Your Service Experience and Research
Your service experience from this semester must be incorporated into this essay; consider the relationship between your experience and your thesis. Is there a connection between your service work and your argument on service? Did your service work influence or inspire your theory on service? And how have your assumptions about service work changed over the semester?
Valuing a Recursive Writing Process
As with our last essay, you will submit this essay through a step-by-step writing process. You will also attend a required draft conference and participate in peer review.
If you fail to participate in any major step of the writing process (such as peer review or a conference), your essay will drop a third of a letter grade for each missing chunk.
Goals for this assignment:
· Create and sustain a logical, complex, and original thesis that examines a deeper meaning for community service and engagement.
· Synthesize diverse research, which should include at least two academically acceptable sources and primary sources such as your service experience this semester, ethically to support and develop your thesis.
· Engage the audience with rhetorically effective and appropriate organization and style over 9-12 pages.
· Practice giving critical feedback to your peers’ writing as well as applying critical feedback to your own writing by participating in a peer review workshop with Professor Choutka.
· Employ MLA- or APA-style accurately.
Due: Monday, April 17th, printed and emailed by class
(Due dates for drafts are on our assignment schedule.)
Work Cited
Coles, Robert. The Call of Service: A Witness to Idealism. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993. Print.