Essay two builds on some of the same ground that we covered in essay one: we’ll be writing about a topic that is personal and applicable to you, and we’ll be researching and integrating sources. However, where you got to choose your own topic in the first essay, the second essay will be about your major and the writing done in it. The title of this unit, “Writing in a Field,” is intentionally ambiguous—the word “field” can either refer to “an occupation,” or “an area with a lot of dirt.” Both are fitting, because we’re going to be rolling up our sleeves and getting our hands dirty by writing about your major/field, culminating in the kind of writing done. You will gather information by conducting interviews, observing specific locations, reading about your field, examining writing from your field, and/or distributing a survey. Once you complete your research, you will assemble the information you have found into an essay. In this essay you will analyze and examine academic and professional writing practices in your field. During this research process, consider these questions:
· What opportunities does graduating with my major afford?
· What type of work actually takes place in the professional setting of this field?
· What kind of writing does my major value?
· What do students/instructors/professionals in the field have to say about their work/writing?
· What skills (writing and other) do I now possess that will help me in my area of study?
· What will I need to practice and improve on? (These last two may help you make a good thesis)
NOTE: if you don’t feel like you have a “field,” this will be a great opportunity for you to get out there and try something out! Even if you randomly choose a major that you’re reasonably sure you’d never really choose, at least you’ll know for sure that you were right about it (or maybe even wrong) when you’re done.
Unit Writings:
Unit Two Essay—Due Tuesday, 3/15/16.
The Unit Two essay will consist of a 6-8 page extended analysis of the work done in your major (especially the writing) and what steps you need to take to become exceptional in your field. You’ll need to use at least five sources—I recommend around one source per page. Be creative and really try to adopt the voice, style, and genre of the field you analyze. Use the information you gather and generate from the interviews and assignments (described below) to provide focus for your essay. This essay should be a synthesis of all the work you’ve done analyzing your field of study: you will want to use the interview/survey information you’ve gathered, the academic essays you’ve analyzed, the materials you’ve read, and the online discussions you’ve participated in to put your writing in the context of your field. You may (/should) also use the questions in the introduction of this unit three sheet to further focus your writing. Demonstrate that you really have gotten your hands dirty in this field work! Here are some hints about effective and not-so-effective Unit Twos:
1) Most of this essay will be directly derived from the interviews, surveys, and observations that you write about (as described below). The higher the quality of your initial materials, the easier it will be to put them together into an essay. I strongly recommend setting up interviews well ahead of schedule, so there’s no room for error. People cancel, things come up, and if you don’t have enough time you’ll be finding yourself scrambling to get any material, let alone high quality stuff.
2) This essay should be thesis driven—the thesis sentence(s) should answer the question, “what do I need to do to excel in this field?” Part of the answer to that question should shed light on how writing will play a role in your future schooling and professional work. Also, if you want to write this essay in the format most respected in your field (so an engineer would mimic the form of a report, a lawyer might write a legal document using the appropriate kind of language, etc.), or in the formatting style (MLA, APA, etc.), I will give you extra points—up to ten points on the final draft.
3) Use this as an opportunity to really dig into your major! If you approach this project with a real curiosity about the kind of work you may be doing in the next portion of your life, it will make the essay more valuable for you, and more interesting for both of us. You may discover you’re ahead of schedule or over-prepared in certain ways—that’s an outcome you can analyze too. You may discover that you will be doing more or less writing than you initially suspected—that also is material to look at. Hopefully, you’ll be surprised by some aspect of your major/field: possible work you might do, subject matter you’ll need to know, and the attitude you’ll need to exhibit.
Examination of a Location/Website—Moodle post due by Tuesday, 2:00pm 2/23/16
For this assignment you will conduct initial research on your major or occupation. Go to your major's main building/department office OR a business/workplace of your occupation. Describe and analyze what you see there, paying attention to the people, the layout, the use of writing and images, the tools they use, etc. Then, analyze a website associated with your field (preferably one corresponding to the location you visited), paying attention to word choice, navigability, use of images, etc. The main question your post should answer is, “based on what I see, what can I tell about what this business/major values?” Still, as you write, consider these questions as well: What in the building and on the website is similar or different? What does that tell you? What kind of writing is done, and why? Around two pages or 600-700 words.
Student Interview and Analysis—Moodle post due Tuesday by 2:00pm 2/25/16.
Option 1) For this section of the assignment you have two options: you can interview a student in your major about the types of work/writing he/she encounters and his/her opinions about the major. This will preferably be a student who is further along in the major than you are. You should also ask them for a writing sample they have done, and/or a copy of the syllabus from a class in their field. Use the interview questions and answers to write a brief profile of the student and analysis of his/her responses. This interview must be done in person and should be two pages, or 600-700 words long.
Option 2) You can survey a group of students about your field. They can be students at random, students around where you live, or—preferably—students from your major; just make sure you survey at least 25 of them. We will do a practice survey in class so you can see what kind of questions work better than others and so you can get some ideas for questions you want to ask. You basically want to know from these students you survey what their pre-conceived notions about your field and the writing done in it and how that compares with the work they do for their field. When you are done you need to compile their answers, with commentary by you, into a two-page, or 600-700 words write-up.
Professional Writing Sample Analysis—Moodle post due by 2:00pm of Tuesday, 3/8/15.
For this assignment you’ll need use the tools we overviewed in class to find two of the following: an academic article, a writing sample from someone in your field, a trade newsletter or magazine, or a website related to your field in some way. Carefully read through these writing samples or the content of the site. These will be among the sources you will need to use in your unit two essay, so be thinking about how these relate to you and how you can use them. These readings will take the place of readings from our textbook for this unit.
Respond to the writing you have collected. What do they say about your field? What can you learn about the type of writing done in your field from these pieces? How might these writings compare to the academic writing that professors or students do who are majoring in this field? Based on the academic article(s), what sorts of things are being talked about by scholars? How does what you have learned about your field fit in with what other researchers have said about it?
Professional Interview and Analysis—Moodle Board post due by 2:00pm of Thursday, 3/3/15.
Option 1) You can interview a professor in your major about the types of work/writing he/she does as a professor in the field and about the types of writing he/she assigns. Again, we will brainstorm questions in class. You should also ask them for a writing sample they have done, a student of theirs has done, or a copy of a syllabus. You will use the interview questions and answer to write a brief profile of the professor and analysis of his/her response, as well as write a brief analysis of the writing sample/syllabus. This interview must be done in person. Two pages, or 600-700 words. Afterwards you will write a thank-you letter (or email), which you will send to this person and hand in with your Unit Two materials.
Option 2) You can interview a professional in your field. After contacting someone in your field, interview them about the nature of their work. What types of writing do they encounter in their daily job? Who do they interact with, and in what nature? What kind of writing do they do regularly? What skills do they think are important for their work? Do they have any samples of writing they have done, or others have done in or about their field? We will brainstorm further questions for you to use. Use the interview questions and answer to write a brief profile of the contact and analysis of their responses. This interview can be done in person, by phone, or by email, but should be two pages, or 600-700 words when you’re done. Afterwards you will write a thank-you letter (or email), which you will send to this person and hand in with your Unit Two materials.
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