Essay II: Feature Article
Write a 7-10 page essay about a current, interesting topic. You must use secondary sources and field research (interviews, observations, etc.) to support a theme.
Due Dates
02/26 in-class writing: short assignment III (abstract)
03/09 Short assignment III due
03/12 workshop on field research
03/16 library research
03/23 draft of short assignment 4 due (interview or observation)
03/26 short assignment 4 due
04/16 draft of article due for conference
04/20 feature article due for writing group
04/23 writing group meeting
04/30 feature article due in folder containing 2 copies of final draft, conference draft, writing group draft, writing group letters, and copies of all secondary sources cited).
Grading Criteria
Content
- Do you have a unique angle on a current, interesting topic?
- Do you bring expert or insider knowledge to the topic?
- Do you support a theme about a current, interesting topic?
- Does this theme deal with the complex political, social, and/or economic issues that animate this topic?
- Do you show the human face of this topic?
- You must use secondary sources (at least two) and field research (interviews, observations, etc.) to support this theme.
- Do you integrate supporting quotes and paraphrases smoothly and correctly into the argument (make sure quotes are accurate)? Interviews should be written as dialogue.
- Do you include your informants’ perspectives? Are you fair to your informants’ perspectives?
- Do you adequately addresses opposing evidence?
- Do you eliminate unnecessary information?
- Do you bring the topic alive with sensory and descriptive detail?
- Do you conclude somewhere near the bottom of page 7 (or on a subsequent page)
- Do you demonstrate revision (there should be substantial differences between the first and final draft)?
Organization
- Do you have an introduction that adequately introduces the essay? Drawing the reader into the article is especially important in feature articles.
- Do you have a conclusion that adequately concludes the essay?
- Is the essay, as a whole, logically organized into well-developed, well-organized sections?
- Do these sections have titles to make paper organization clear for readers (optional)?
- Do you use transitions between paragraphs and transitions between sentences?
- Do you avoid unnecessary repetition?
Style
- Is the essay clean stylistically, using clear and graceful prose?
- Have you addressed, in at least one paragraph, the three main style issues I noted in essay I?
- Have you drafted and revised with your own style guide in mind (the 5+ style rules in short assignment 5)
- Is the essay grammatically correct, using commas with an introductory phrases, using a comma and a conjunction to connect two independent phrases (phrases that can stand alone as sentences), using only a conjunction with compound verbs.
- Do you employ a voice and tone appropriate and conscientious word choice appropriate to the rhetorical situation and audience?
- Is your essay be formatted correctly? (1inch margins and Times Roman 12inch font) ?
- Do you include a works cited page, in correct MLA format, that lists the texts to which your paper refers?
