The Basics:

The 5 Paragraph Essay Format — The Fundamentals of Structure and Organization for a college-level paper.

Thesis Statement Definition — definition and example of how a thesis should function.

NEW: How to Structure and Organize an Essay — Explains to students the difference between structure and organization.

Grading Rubric — provides students with the criteria upon which their writings will be graded. Also establishes the teacher's expectation that students' work must be negotiated at an increasingly higher level as the semester progresses.

  For Peer Revision Workshops:

Peer Revision Worksheet & Guidelines for Essays — instructs students on the exact procedure to follow for a peer revision workshop. It is also a list of the terms (and explanations of those terms) most commonly used by teachers during the grading process. In effect, students are trained to identify in each others writings the same problematic instances their teacher will identify during the grading process.

Peer Revision Worksheet & Guidelines for Annotated Bibliographies — the same basic strategy as the above handout for essays, but with modified criteria that better applies to annotated bibliographies.

  Example MLA Citations and Tutorial Handouts:

Example citations for Annotated Bibliography (downloadable RTF file)

Example Works Cited Page (downloadable .RTF file)

How & When to Use Block Quotes (downloadable .RTF file) — teaches the difference between signal phrases that include/omit an attribution to the author, as well as the effect that such omissions/inclusions have on parenthetical citations.

The Signal Phrase — provides the following: a definition of the signal phrase; how to recognize and avoid redundancy in one's prose style; a list of transitional verbs.

Annotation that leads with a verb—an example annotation written in a prose style that leads with verbs.

In-Text Citations, Puntuation, and the Signal Phrase — a short and simple handout that explains how these aspects of documentation and prose style work together.

  How to do Research (Tutorial Handouts):

Getting Started on the Basics of the Research Process — very fundamental yet important instructions for students who are new to using a library as a research tool. Explains the expertise and role of a reference librarian; how books are shelved and how their shelving suggests a strategy for locating additional materials.

The Basics of the Research Process — This is the follow-up handout to Getting Started on the Basics of the Research Process. Includes the following: how to plan the library trip; doing a broad sweep of a few possible topics in order to determine the most researchable topic; mining bibliographies; how to recognize the heavy hitter scholars; demonstrating diversity of research; some advice on using mostly current research; a recap of all the above.

How to Evaluate a Scholarly Article — common sense advice on what to look for when evaluating a scholarly article.

  Power Point Slideshow Versions of Research (Tutorials):

Getting Started on the Basics of the Research Process — a Power Point version of the text handout listed above.

The Basics of the Research Process — a Power Point version of the text handout listed above.

Annotated Bibliography Project Guidelines — a Power Point version of the Project 3 guidelines listed below.

  Prompts and Guidelines for English Composition II
  Major Projects:

Connections Essay: the focus is on one primary text, and students research one outside source to support the essay's argument.

Project 3: this is in two parts: an annotated bibliography; a bibliographic analysis essay. Includes a checklist of each item that must be included in the final turn in.

Moveable Bridge Essay: a short argumentative essay that preceeds a much longer version. The pedagogical strategy is to give students the opportunity to turn in an essay worth only 5% of their final course grade, and receive commentary from the teacher before turning in the longer version worth 25% of their final course grade.

Argumentative Essay: sequenced as the final essay of the composition II semester. The research is derived mostly from their annotated bibliography project.

WWW English Discourse