Building Block Essay 2 Assignment Sequence

Reading Assignments:

Envision (Text and Companion Website): Chapters 4-6

Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum (WRAC): Chapter 7 and
parts of Chapter 11 (see below)

Writing Assignments:

JE4: Read Envision Chapter 5 (Text and Website). Read pp. 217-237 in
WRAC. Based on the WRAC readings, do the Argument Synthesis on pp.
213-14, consulting the rest of the section (pp. 211-17) and earlier
excerpts in WRAC (pp. 41-47 and pp. 176-82) as directed.

RP4: Respond to two of your groupmates’ JEs by amplifying or

rebutting at least one observation they have made about the sources
in WRAC Chapter 7, or by adding an observation of your own that they
may have missed. Comment on the manner in which they followed the
template recommended in the Argument Synthesis.

JE5: Read pp. 521-36 in WRAC. Read Envision Chapter 4 (Text and
Website), then do Writing Project 2 on p. 134 on the topic you have
tentatively chosen for your researched argument. Note: Classwide
readings for the rest of the term from WRAC will focus on
consumerism (for example, advertising and mall culture), education
(for example, legacy admissions and sleep deprivation), and gender
roles (for example, marriage, family and Cinderella retellings). Your
researched argument topic should intersect with one of these broad
areas. You may, as a result, want to read ahead in WRAC to Chapters
8, 10, and/or 12, assigned later in the term.

RP5: Respond to two of your groupmates’ JEs using the guidelines in

Writing Project 3 on p. 134.

JE6: Read pp. 551-67 in WRAC. Read Envision Chapter 6 (Text and
Website), then do Writing Project 2 on p. 217, building on and refining
the research proposal you developed in JE5 and RP5.

RP6: Respond to two of your groupmates’ JEs by reviewing at least

one primary or secondary source they have cited in their detailed
written outline. Amplify or rebut at least one observation they make
about this source, or add an observation of your own about this source
that they may have missed. Also comment on the placement of this
source in the larger outline of their researched argument.
Building Block Essay Draft 2: Refine the detailed written outline
into a draft of a researched and documented argument on a topic
relating to consumerism, education, or and/or gender roles.

Writer’s Memo 3: Discuss which of the course goals and objectives

you believe you have developed through your essay and explain how
and where your essay demonstrates that development. Include this
memo with the building block essay draft.

Two Peer Evaluations (3-4): After reading two groupmates’ essays

and memos, point out aspects of their essays that provide further
evidence that they have developed course goals and objectives and
indicate your suggestions on how they might enhance that
development through further revisions of their essay. Send each peer
evaluation by email to the groupmate and to me. Note: You will be
reading drafts from two groupmates whose drafts you did not read
during the first cycle or peer evaluations.

Writer’s Memo 4: Having now read two new groupmates’ building

block essay drafts and having received two peer evaluations and my
comments, plot a strategy for how you will develop this essay further
by the end of the term so that you will be able to use it to demonstrate
more fully your development as a writer and reader of texts.
Specifically, predict whether you will use the third building block essay
assignment sequence to develop the topic you have chosen or whether
you will apply the techniques you have developed
to a new or only loosely related topic.