Critically examine the argument behind a scholar's manifesto

Critical Reading Assignment (CRA) Writing Assignment #1

Fall 2017 Page Length: Two pages of summary, plus your scan of the annotated essay Value: 5% of course grade Due Date: Beginning of lecture on Tuesday, October 17 (Week 3). After this time, late penalties

will apply (see Guidelines for MMW Papers). A late paper must be submitted before section of Week 5, after which time it will be considered “not completed” and will result in a grade of F for the course. Any exception to this deadline must be approved with specific and legitimate documentation in advance by your TA.

Learning Goals and Outcomes In this assignment, you will:

 learn UCSD’s policy for integrity of scholarship and what violates the policy

 refine your critical reading and analytic reasoning skills by carefully identifying the components of an academic argument in s scholarly source.

 summarize, in your own words, the main points of an academic argument.

 learn the components of an academic manifesto. In this assignment, you will critically examine the argument behind a scholar’s manifesto. You will seek to fully understand what the scholar’s argument is, and to describe how the scholar constructs the argument. You are being asked to slow down and “listen” to what one scholar is arguing before rushing to judgment or expressing your opinion. In this assignment, you will read an assigned essay, identify the components of the argument with annotations, and summarize the argument in your own words without evaluating it. Do not use any outside sources, and do not bring in any outside material. In the process of annotating the text and summarizing the argument, you will improve your critical reading and paraphrasing skills. You will continue to develop all of these skills in the next writing assignments, and you will use them to evaluate scholarship, make your own arguments, and write better research papers in MMW 122 and other courses.

Part I – UCSD Library On-Line Plagiarism Tutorial (3 modules) Before you submit your first writing assignment, you must learn more about UCSD and MMW’s expectations for academic integrity and what constitutes plagiarism. During Weeks 0-2, you must complete all three modules of the UCSD On-Line Plagiarism Tutorial: Module 1 (Define), Module 2 (Prevent), and Module 3 (Cite). These are posted to your class TritonEd site. Each module takes approximately 20 minutes to complete. You must complete all three modules before your CRA is due. Your TA will not grade your CRA until all modules are completed, and your CRA will accumulate late penalties.

Part II (40%) – Annotations: Identify and Label the Components of a Scholarly Argument You may electronically annotate the assigned CRA Manifesto document posted to your TritonEd site, or you may download and print the assigned essay and annotate it by hand. Whichever method you choose, you will scan/save the annotated document as a PDF or .docx file and submit it to your Section TritonEd site with the Summary below . As you read, annotate the text by writing labels and brief comments in the left and right margins of the text, noting how each paragraph contributes to the scholar’s argument. See the “Sample Annotated Essay” posted to your class TritonEd site.

Left margin: In the left margin next to each paragraph of the text, comment on what each paragraph says about the topic of the essay. Right margin: In the right margin next to each paragraph of the text, comment on what each paragraph does to structure the argument. Ask yourself, “What is the purpose of each paragraph in making the scholar’s argument? You should locate and label any or all of the following that apply. Make brief notes in the margin that illustrate answers to the Questions to Consider below:

Label Questions to consider . . .

Topic/Background What is the topic of the essay? On which issue does the author focus? What background information did the author find it necessary to provide?

Problem What problem does the author raise and attempt to solve? How does this problem lead the author to ask the following question?

Question What question does the author pose (implicitly or explicitly)?

Thesis/Declaration What is the answer to the author’s question or the solution to the problem that is posed? Where does the author state/re-state the thesis?

Claims What claims does the author develop and support in making the declaration?

Evidence What evidence is provided to support each claim? (In writing your summary, be specific when naming the evidence used by author.) Is this evidence: facts, examples, metaphors, case studies, statistics, testimonies? Something else?

Counter-evidence/ Counter-argument

Does the author refer to points of view different from their own? Where are counter-evidence or counter-arguments addressed? Label the evidence.

Rebuttal Does the author give reasons to explain the weakness of the counter-evidence/ counter-argument, or explain why their claims are stronger than others’ claims?

Action plan What action does the writer propose to address the problem?

Significance/impli- cations

Does the author explain why the question or thesis is significant or suggest implications of the manifesto?

Cited Research How does the writer author incorporate cited research to strengthen the argument?

Part II (60%) – Summarizing the Argument (2 pages) Now that you have identified what the scholar is arguing and how the argument is constructed, you will write a summary, in prose, of the argument in your own words. State the main ideas and key points of the argument simply, objectively, and accurately in your own words in order to demonstrate that you understand the problem and question that the author raised and the argument made to address the problem or answer the question. Do not judge or evaluate the scholar’s argument, just explain it and all of its relevant components: the problem, question, thesis/declaration, action plan and main claims and evidence used to support the thesis. Pay attention to counter-arguments/evidence, and how the author addresses the evidence supporting these alternative hypotheses, incorporates cited research, and discusses the significance/implications of the thesis.

Paraphrase and Citation To demonstrate that you understand the argument, your summary must be written in your own words. If you find it necessary to include a few of the author’s exact terms or concepts, you must signal these with quotation marks and in-text citations. You may not, however, include sentence-length or numerous quotations; rather, you should paraphrase the author’s ideas (still in your own words). You will cite all paraphrased material or data as necessary with in-text citations indicating the page number(s) from which this material comes, and you will include a Works Cited page to give you practice for final paper. If you are not sure of the difference between a quotation, a paraphrase, and a summary, or if you need help to determine when to use citations, please ask your TA, re-take the Library Plagiarism Tutorial, or see Easy Writer (5th ed.), pp. 193-198. Requirements: All MMW papers are held to the requirements, policies, and penalties outlined in the Guidelines for MMW Papers. It is your responsibility to read and follow Guidelines Handout before submitting any MMW paper. _____________________________________________________________________________________

Paper Submissions: An assignment that is missing one or more of the components below will be considered late and will not be graded until all of the components have been submitted. If you fail to submit the CRA assignment within two weeks of the due date, you will fail the entire course. What/How to Submit the CRA assignment Scan all documents (Annotations and Summary with Works Cited) as PDF or .docx documents and attach as separate files in the following order via the Assignment Submission link on your Section TritonEd site. Do not submit until ALL files are attached – you will only be allowed one submission on TritonEd. Paper Submission (One Submission, several attachments) ___ Complete all three Plagiarism Tutorial modules by due date ___ Two-page Summary and Works Cited Page

 Scan and save as one PDF or .docx file and label it “Summary”

 Click Submit Assignments  then CRA Annotations and Summary

 Click Browse My Computer and upload scanned “Summary” document ___ Annotations

 Upload as above by clicking Browse My Computer for your scanned/saved Annotations file ___ Grading Rubric. Download the grading rubric from your TritonEd site, save as a PDF or .docx file,

and attach it as a separate file, as you did the Annotations attachment above. Turnitin.com Submission (One Submission) ___ Submit only your Summary (not Works Cited nor Annotations) by going to Assignment Submissions

 then Turnitin CRA Summary Your TA will not grade your assignment until all of these have been submitted. Late penalties will apply until the assignment is completely submitted. (9.5.17 hkl)