Linguistics Writing Assignment

Linguistics 12 Writing Assignment 1:

Outline Due: Sunday, January 10th (beginning of week 2)

Rough Draft Due: Sunday, January 17th @ 11:59pm

Final Draft Due: Thursday, February 4th @ 11:59pm

Requirements:

· Word Count: 1200-1500 words

· Citation Style: MLA (must include works cited)

· No outside sources may be used

· You may only directly quote 1 time- choose your quote wisely! (you must paraphrase the rest in your own words)

· Please include 10 new vocabulary words from our unit 1 list and put them in red

Purpose of Assignment:

· Apply the concepts of our course readings to real world situations, including real-world assignments from past courses at UCSB

· Consider our past experiences and recognize which writing strategies may and may not be applied to university level writing

· Experience the entire writing process, from brainstorming (writing sample), to analyzing (through forums and ELI review), to outlining, to drafting, to revising, to providing peer feedback

· Improve vocabulary and language skills through the revision process

Task:

Situation and audience: You have recently joined OISS’s international student mentorship program. This program puts current UCSB international students (like you) in touch with incoming freshmen who want to know more about university life and studies. Your audience, therefore, is your new mentee whom you have never met before.

Purpose for writing: OISS has told you that your new mentee is interested knowing what they should expect in terms of university level writing. Therefore, your purpose for writing this letter is to 1. Introduce yourself to your mentee and 2. give this student a preview of what types of writing to expect in college by offering real examples from courses you have taken and 3. advice on how to successfully transition into university writing.

To accomplish this purpose, first, briefly introduce yourself and describe your past writing instruction that you received and explain how university level writing is similar to or different* from the types of writing required by the SAT, TOEFL, or other writing high school writing assignments.

After you have discussed this, evaluate, to what extent** your past writing instruction prepared you for university level writing. In order to support your argument, consider the types of prompts/assignments you received in high school with assignments you have been given at UCSB. Feel free to use language from the prompts (if you still have them) or simply paraphrase what you were required to do. As you discuss these assignments, draw on key concepts from our readings to develop your ideas.

*Depending on your experiences and opinions, you might only identify similarities or differences, but you may also choose to address both.

**to what extent = how much. In order to answer this, you want to use words like “greatly prepared, did not prepare, somewhat prepared” in your response

Sources & Citations:

Sometimes books contain chapters written by different authors. In our textbook, each chapter was written by different people. Therefore, when citing, you must cite the author of the chapter for your in-text/parenthetical citations and include the editors in the words cited page.

Also, please notice that the last names are listed first. Please use authors’ last names when citing them! DO not say “Dana say…” but rather, “Ferris says…”

De Oliveira, Luciana C, and Sharon L Smith. “Interactions with and around Texts: Writing in Elementary Schools.” Changing Practices for the L2 Writing Classroom: Moving beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay, by Nigel A. Caplan and Ann M. Johns, The University of Michigan Press, 2019, pp. 65–70.

Ferris, Dana, and Hogan Hayes. “Transferable Principles and Processes in Undergraduate Writing” Changing Practices for the L2 Writing Classroom: Moving beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay, by Nigel A. Caplan and Ann M. Johns, The University of Michigan Press, 2019, pp. 116-119.

Pessoa, Silvia, and Thomas D. Mitchell. “Preparing Students to Write in the Disciplines” Changing Practices for the L2 Writing Classroom: Moving beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay, by Nigel A. Caplan and Ann M. Johns, The University of Michigan Press, 2019, pp. 150-161.

Structure for your letter:

Introduction:

1. Begin with a greeting “Dear __,” (you may choose a name) and an introduction of yourself and reason for writing

· When introducing ourselves, we never say “I am + Name” (this is a common mistake among my students)

· Instead, say “My name is __, and I am __ (your mentor/ a fellow student etc.)

2. What was your previous writing instruction like before attending college? (what was taught, how was it taught, why were you taught this - description)

3. Thesis/argument: How effective was this instruction in preparing you for university level writing? Why? (somewhat effective, not effective, very effective)

Body:

4. To answer the “WHY”- analysis

· First, consider the types of writing assignments you were required to do in high school. Then, compare those to the writing assignments you have been given at UCSB (description)

· How are the assignments different? How are they similar? (analysis)

· How did your previous writing instruction prepare you (or not) for assignments you have received at UCSB? (argumentation)

· Use the readings to discuss expectations of certain disciplines (fields: ex. history, vs theater, vs music vs. lab reports) compared to your past experiences. Were you exposed to writing in various fields? or did you only write for one field (maybe English)? or in only one way (for example, TOEFL/SAT)?

· Use key concepts from our textbook to explain any similarities or differences between the two types of writing (from high school to college).

Conclusion:

5. End with suggestions, hopeful words of encouragement, or advice for your mentee

6. Remember that they are a fellow student- so maybe mentioning how you relationship might be once school starts

Tone: Remember you are writing to a real person! (Forget about Amy Joy!) While I do want you to be academic and polite, try to simplify the concepts of our reading so that a new freshman would understand them. Use your own words to paraphrase the ideas even if they use simpler vocabulary. English writing values clarity over fancy words and you can still be polite and academic without using extremely infrequent jargon. All in all, ask yourself, “would a new freshman understand this?” if the answer is no, try to simplify to make the point clear.

Criteria/Rubric: What Amy Joy is Looking For:

Assignment Element
Introduction (can be 1-2 paragraphs) includes a SHORT self intro and provides background information about previous writing instruction. The intro ends with a thesis statement that evaluates (argues) “to what extent” this writing instruction was useful for university level writing (greatly prepared, somewhat prepared, did not prepare)	10
Body paragraphs support the thesis statement by using examples of writing assignments from high school and UCSB to demonstrate how previous writing instruction might prepare/not prepare students for university level writing	25
Discourse frameworks and concepts from our readings/handouts are applied to the prompt analysis (knowledge transformation)	25
Conclusion offers unique insight, including but not limited to: suggestions, hopeful words of encouragement, or advice for your mentee	10
Language has been proofread and minimal errors are made in verb tenses, word forms, and clauses. Word choices and collocations appear to have been checked using Writefull. Sources have been summarized/ paraphrased by explaining concepts in your own words.	20
Cohesion devices and logical organization are used to express complex relationships between paragraphs and sentences. This helps the reader follow along and goes beyond “adding information” as seen in the cohesion presentation	10