IOM Future of Nursing Report and Nursing

Assignment Description:

For our final project of the semester, each student will compose a short formal analysis paper using some of the requisite writing skills required for success in university-level essays. This short formal analysis paper will offer a close reading of one of the works we have studied or discussed in some capacity during the semester, using tight, organized argumentation and insightful analyses to show us something meanwhile that merits our attention.

To start, choose an artwork that you enjoyed or maybe that you’ve written about already in some capacity for the class. Or maybe pick something that you have an interpretation for waiting and ready to rock. The skill being assessed here, beyond some of the formalities of academic writing, is being able to work between details and rich, deep ideas emerging out of the context, so one way to pick an art work would be to ask which would be easiest and best to use for this task.

From there, assemble notes and ideas from both Details and Context, as we’ve done all semester. Maybe even do a scant amount of internet research, being sure to take notes on your information so that it may be properly cited in the final paper. Maybe spell them all out or put them on note cards. Make a plan about what you’ll talk about in your essay and what doesn’t fit. Maybe put various ideas together and see what comes out.

Either way, you’ll have to arrive at a central idea here, which, in its final form, will serve as your thesis, your most important idea in the paper, the main claim your paper will prove correct in light of the artwork’s details.

Take, for example, the following theses one might work with for The Bridgewater Madonna:

- In The Bridgewater Madonna, Raphael updates the figures of Mary and Jesus in order to bring them out of history and into the living present.

- Raphael’s depiction of Mary in The Bridgewater Madonna depicts the mother as a sad, withdrawn woman, emphasizing the human cost of biblical feats.

- The treatment of Mary and Jesus in The Bridgewater Madonna shows them set off from the ordinary world, made divine by their distance from the world.

Note how all three of these theses make a direct statement connecting aspects of Raphael’s artwork to some larger idea or proposition about the world. You want to do something similar, making a clear statement about how the artist uses features of his/her work to say something larger about the world.

From there, I would need to organize my argument, figuring out how I will sequence individual readings of details in the paintings/texts to prove my thesis. I might organize by paragraphs, figuring out what each paragraph will argue in the structure of the paper. So, using the first thesis as an example, I might outline as follows:

I. Intro paragraph

A. Anecdote about X-Rays revealing new features

B. Discovery of the original background for Bridgewater Madonna (CITE SOURCE)

C. Reason for the change?

D. Thesis - The treatment of Mary and Jesus in The Bridgewater Madonna shows them set off from the ordinary world, made divine

by their distance from the world.

II. First body paragraph – Depiction of Characters Opposes Them

A. Clothed v. nude

1. Line about purity/nudity in Christian tradition

2. Point is that Mary is human, of earth, while Jesus isn’t

B. Opposing shoulders/body language

1. depiction seems to be of Jesus ready to fall

2. again emphasizes figures’ separation or distance (esp. in relation to maternal stereotypes)

III. Second body paragraph - Points of connection

A. Eyes

1. Intensity of look suggests some link, so it’s not that M is a bad mom

2. Eyes show the personal relationship but only in look, not touch

B. Shroud on M's head and J's hand

1. Shroud’s background (CITE SOURCE)

2. As a point of connection it emphasizes Jesus’ larger purpose

IV. Third body paragraph – Interior

A. Room seems closed off but window to exterior

1. Effect on the lighting, chiaroscuro effect

B. This a private moment for private concerns, but R dresses this sacrifice in the brightest, purest of lights, light from within human

sadness, that’s the sacrifice (or “passion”) that Raphael paints here.\

From this outline, I have the general order of my paper, along with many detail-specific readings tied directly to my central argument. Each paragraph makes meaningful connection between the image and my reading of it.

From here, I would write the paper, with the understanding that the written execution of the paper will likely change the argument and its individual sections. Changes to the thesis and tweaks to the internal organization of the paper are often necessary to clarify the argument.

But the devil is in the details, so make sure you’re taking us through readings and interpretations of specific details from the text. Walk us through your way of seeing it, make us understand where you’re coming from. Think of yourself as a tour guide taking the painting’s or text’s details apart and then rearranging them to show us something new about it.

Assignment Guidelines:

Your paper must be between 750-1000 words (about 2-3 double-spaced pages), not including your name, date, paper title, and other header elements.

The assignment requires students to use MLA formatting for both the paper’s general appearance as well as the formatting of any citations. Here is a link to the basic page appearance

(Links to an external site.)

. And here is a link to how to use the citation system

(Links to an external site.)

.

As a different level of writing relative to our test questions and discussion posts, the writing here should be put through drafts, edited and refined to a smooth flow of ideas. It’s worth noting here that even a first draft benefits from a once-over, even if only to read it out loud and catch broken sentences or other writerly improprieties.

Please note here that despite writing style being an element of presentation that comma errors will not sink you here. Each students comes in with different writing experiences, and many of you will hone your writing style over the next two years as you take the introductory composition classes required at the university. I write this because I don’t hold students to a universal standard for writing style and usage. I do, however, require students to write in complete sentences (so sentence fragments will see reductions in grade) as well as adhering to the class Revision Tips document

download

, which gives some basic writing rules that students should observe when writing in university classes.

In the end, your paper should clearly and confidently argue your central point, using a clear structure and specific details to connect the artwork’s specifics to a larger argument about what the artwork says or does.

Rubric:

Papers will be assessed for their argumentation, analysis, and presentation. Argumentation is inclusive of your thesis and the paper’s argumentative organization at both the macro level as well as in individual paragraphs. Analysis concerns the author’s use of supporting details and includes their work with the artwork’s fine details as well as any supporting evidence (which must be cited). Presentation covers the quality of the paper’s written prose and also covers formatting within MLA style.

Papers earning A-range grades will be immaculately argued, with a crystal-clear central thesis advancing a complex and nuanced argument about the artwork’s larger point. Supporting paragraphs will be oriented toward proving the thesis and will have a clear breakdown between macro-level argumentation and finer, more specific points. Analysis in A-level papers will attend to specific details from the artwork and clearly relate the details to the larger argument the author is making, networking these small details into larger patterns of significance. Finally, A-level papers will be free of typos, spelling errors, sentence fragments, and other issues identified in the Revision Tips list available on Canvas.

Papers earning B-grades will be close to A-range, but may exhibit a significant issue in one area, or lesser issues in one or more areas described above. Perhaps the argument is good, but poor stated in the thesis and loosely organized in individual paragraphs. Or maybe the argumentation is excellent, but lacks the necessary supporting details or is missing citations. Insightful analysis in these papers might be present, but might not be clearly related to the larger argument in meaningful ways. B papers will be largely free of major presentational issues, but might have slip-ups on revision tips issues or small issues of usage or phrasing.

Papers earning C-level grades will have significant issues in two or more areas. Such papers sometimes have insightful readings of the artwork but lack a clear central argument to orient those readings. Or perhaps there is an argument present, but one that is unclear or vaguely stated, or one that lacks sufficient use of painterly details in the course of its argument. Grammatical or usage errors will not automatically put a paper in C-range grades, but sustained errors in issues identified in the Revision Tips list or severe issues like sentence fragments can be enough to push an otherwise decent high-B paper into this range.

Papers earning D-level grades have major issues in all three categories, lacking a clearly articulated argument, clear or insightful analysis, and suffering from major issues related to the paper’s presentation. Papers earning failing or F grades will suffer more significantly from the issues described in D-level criteria.

Rubric Criteria:

1) Argument

This score covers both the paper’s central thesis as well as the argumentative organization.

With the thesis, what we’re looking for is a clear statement of the general idea. This thesis should come somewhere in the introduction and introduce the general point you’re getting across in the paper. The general point itself needs a compelling and essential idea about what the artwork is saying or arguing relative to one of its major themes or ideas.

Subsequent paragraphs should then be organized around proving the thesis, with clear support from well-organized paragraphs. The entire argument should read as a coherent whole, and the reader shouldn’t be confused at any point about how an individual paragraph relates to the larger argument.

2) Analysis

This score concerns the quality, complexity, creativity, and clarity of your formal analysis.

The key with formal analysis is to have a clear idea derived from the specific details of the artwork. A good formal analysis has a clear idea, but one that is threaded through the artist’s way of presenting things. In this kind of argument, the specific choices build out to larger ideas. Body paragraphs should engage directly with specific details from the artwork, exploring them creatively to offer up new ways of considering the artwork.

3) Presentation

This score covers the prose’s quality, formatting, and the presentation of your paper.

Because all writers enter the course with different writing backgrounds, it’s impossible to offer clear and hard-fast rules regarding the quality of prose. Do, however, check the revision tips list . This score is lowered with each infraction of those issues on the list, so please do due diligence and revise your prose according to those precepts.

As noted above, papers should be formatted in MLA style. This covers the formatting of name, course information, date, paper title, page numbers, etc.