AF: The MVA Rationale

The Rationale is turned in separately from your actual MVA, but it IS a part of your overall word count.  Do a good job with this assignment!

The Rationale for the Multivoiced Argument Project

Please answer the following questions and submit it to Turnitin.com by midnight on March 30, 2017.   This part of the assignment is worth 30 points, or 15% of the entire project; I am looking for thoughtful, complete answers.  Please type your paper, number your answers, and answer as fully as possible.

1.    What is your research and persuasive goal?

2.    Who is your audience for this project?  Describe in detail.

3.    What do you most want readers to see in your project?  How did you get this “thesis” across?

4.    How did you choose your genres and why are they appropriate for your audience and persuasive goal?

5.    How do the genres work together to form a unified whole? How did you determine what types of transitions to use between sections of your paper and what types of strategies did you use to achieve unity and clarity?

6.    How did you use your researched sources in your pieces?  How does a reader know how you used your research?

7.    Where did you take the most risks?

8.    What do you like best about your paper?

9.    What would you improve if you would have had more time?

10. Offer advice to new readers of multivoiced texts.  How might they best make sense of your project?  Offer advice on how to enter the text, how to move through the text, and how to come out on the other side with understanding.  (This is the main content of your Dear Reader Letter.)

11. Compare this paper in style and approach to other research projects you have tackled in the past.  Did multigenre style shape how you see yourself as an arguer?

12. What am I not seeing in this paper?  What did you not include?  What is behind the scenes?  Did you enjoy writing this paper?  Did you struggle with procrastination?  Did you write something that you were not able to use?

13. What advice can you offer next year’s writers of this assignment?

14. What advice can you offer me as a teacher of multivoice argument?  May I keep your paper?

MVA Help

As I was struggling to do the MVA, I googled for some help and I found this presentation that gives different types of genres that are very helpful. It also gives other advice for the paper in general.
Hope it helps!
http://photos.state.gov/libraries/india/13974/libpdfs/TheMultigenreResearchpaper.pdf

AF: Alfred Green, and vocab due date

OK, this is what I said and what I want:

I want the essay typed, and double spaced.
You should have an introduction that we wrote in class.  Feel free to revise.
Please write out two more paragraphs of analysis in your notebook.  Write carefully.  Look closely.
Then type it all up, and finish:  another paragraph of analysis, and a conclusion.

All told, introduction, 3 paragraphs of analysis, and a conclusion -- 5 paragraphs.

Features:
Please include one sentence that has 2 or more independent clauses, correctly joined with a semi-colon.
Please include one very short sentence -- 3 to 4 words max.  Use this sentence for emphasis.

To repeat:  a typed, double-spaced 5-paragraph essay, featuring an introduction that sets up the context, 3 paragraphs analyzing Green's persuasive moves, and a conclusion.  One compound sentence featuring the correct use of the semi-colon, and one short sentence of 3 to 4 words for emphasis.

We're working on this in class tomorrow, so bring your highlighters.

Also, vocab quiz and vocab notebook check on MARCH 23, one week from Thursday.

AF: Question Analysis -- due Tuesday

from Reading Rhetorically

DUE TUESDAY, March 7 Copy/Paste these questions into a Google Doc, and answer. Please print so that I may keep your thinking handy in my MVA 2017 Folder.

Prompts for Question Analysis

1. What question do you hope to investigate -- and answer -- in this paper?
2. What makes this question worth pursuing -- to you and others?
3. What kind of expert would be able to provide good answers or the current best thinking about possible answers?
4. Where do you expect to find particularly good information about the matter?
5. How recent must materials be to be relevant? What factors might make information outdated?
6. What individuals or interest groups have a major stake in answering your question in a particular way?
7. What kind of bias do you need to be especially alert for on this particular question?
8. What words or phrases might be useful for some initial searching?  

(Bean, Chappell, and Gillam 2011, 108)

AF: Today's Assignment -- the annotated bibliography

As you zoom in on your research question, please begin an annotated bibliography.

If you are one of the 6 students (out of 72) who have started a document and shared it with me, you can just use that same document to start your annotated bibliography...the remaining 66 of you have to begin a new document and share it with me.

Please name your document as follows:  MVA/Lastname

An annotated bibliography looks like this:

MLA citation
brief paragraph summarizing the content of the source material


Here's an example.

Alcindor, Vamiche. "Rough First Week Gives Betsy DeVos a Glimpse of the Fight Ahead."New York Times 19 Feb. 2017: Print.

Betsy Devos, the Trump administration's controversial pick to head the US Department of Education, is off to a rocky start in her new cabinet role as Secretary of Education.  On her first day, she was blocked by demonstrators from visiting a local Washington DC school; later in the same week, Devos offended teachers whose classrooms she visited.  Saying that she would be satisfied to "work herself out of a job," she is among those in the administration who seek to dismantle the US Department of Education, thereby transferring decisions surrounding curriculum to states and local districts.  A vocal proponent of school choice programs, DeVos is widely considered to be unqualified for her job, having never worked in any capacity in the public schools, and faces stiff opposition from teachers and unions across the nation.

Let's see how many of these you can finish in the time you have allotted.  I am thinking you could probably pull 5 sources today.

Some of you are still looking at multiple topics.  This is fine.  I don't care at this point whether your sources are in one subject area or not.

However, by next week, you will want to have made your decision, and have your research question formulated.  Keep working on it.  See you on Monday.

AF: The Letter from Birmingham Jail

Kids, read this article published at the 50-year anniversary!

AF: Happy New Year

It makes me a little sad to see that this blog has gone to seed.  But the great thing about seeds is...they contain entire worlds of new growth within!  So let's see what we can get going out here.

I was just poking around on the internet and found this wonderful collection of essays about journalism and technology -- an essay competition that is a part of South by Southwest.  I  always thought SXSW was only a music festival, but now I see that it is a blossoming of all kinds of creative and intellectual work.

Take a look at one or two (or five) of these as part of your "Getting Smarter Every Day" program for 2017.    What is one way to prepare for the AP Exam in  May?  By constantly reading good thinkers and good writers -- by seeking them out, and sharing them here.  Read today, and come back tomorrow.  There may be more interesting stuff tomorrow.

Your fan,
Alexandra Fletcher