Senior Project Orientation- Thesis and Writing Goals

Starter:
Based on what you read last night, how prepared do you think you are as a writer to tackle your senior thesis?  What areas are you confident in?  Where will you need to grow as a writer this semester to find success in the spring with your thesis?

Senior Thesis Examples
Get into a group of 3-4 students.  Have the thesis you read yesterday pulled up in front of you.  Discuss the following:

1. What stood out to you about the thesis you read?  
2. How well prepared do you feel for this task right now?  What do we need to focus on this semester to make you feel more prepared?
3. What did you learn from this example that you would like to apply to your own writing?
4. What questions do you have about the senior thesis now that you have read an example?  Write these down to ask Lori!

Debrief discussions, Lori answers questions when possible.

Writing Goals
Look at the Three Levels of Writing and my Writing Rubric as a resource (honors folks, see the Honors Rubric).

Develop three specific writing goals for yourself as a writer based on these documents and my feedback.  We're going to be using these goals for the rest of the semester to gauge your growth as a writer, and will use your end of semester writing reflection as a springboard for your senior project paper.  As you feel like you achieve your goals, we'll develop new ones!  Please try to keep the grammar/punctuation goals to only one of your goals.  It’s fine to have one goal of this type, but the others should be broader in scope. This reflection will be worth 30 points, and will go into the "Am I developing as a learner?" category. 

Write 3 Goal Paragraphs:  For each of those three goals, write a paragraph.  That paragraph should include:

1. What your goal is
2. An example from your sustainable classroom essay or your college essay that shows the need for that goal
3. Some ideas about how you can work towards improving this skill for your next piece of writing (if you’re stuck on this piece, try Google or talking to me!)
   1. Example:  Goal 1- Understanding the Text.  I will make sure that I thoroughly understand the text I am using in my writing before I use it as evidence.  In my "Habits of Highly Cynical People" writing, I used a quote that said "..........."  In my essay, I said that this quote meant "....quote from essay....." However, I misunderstood this quote because I didn't put it in the larger context of the argument Solnit was making.  In fact, the quote means (tell real meaning of quote here).  To improve this in future writings, I think I need to summarize the meaning of every paragraph of the reading in my annotations, and I need to ask questions more actively during seminar coaching.  If I'm reading it independently, I need to make sure I completely understand one paragraph before moving on to the next paragraph, rather than just continuing to read on.
   2. Example: Goal 2- Logical Flow.  I will  make sure that all my paragraphs logically flow from one idea to the next.  In my seminar reflection, my first paragraph was about how both the presidential campaigns oversimplify what the other one is saying, and my second paragraph was about how naive cynicism is bad.  I didn't connect these two ideas at all, so it was confusing for the reader to make that jump.  In future writing, I could do a number of things to improve this.  Early in my writing process, I could make sure that I have an outline, so that I've clearly thought through the logical flow of my paper.  I can also use transition sentences to show the reader the links between ideas.  Finally, I can references terms and ideas from the previous paragraph in the one after it to show the reader how the ideas from the preceding paragraph connect to the ideas in the next paragraph.
   3. Example: Goal 3- Semicolon Usage.  I will make sure that I'm using semicolons correctly in my writing.  In my college essay, I had written this sentence:  "....example of sentence from college essay that uses semi-colons incorrectly..."  In her feedback, Lori pointed out that I was using the semi-colon incorrectly here.  I looked up the rules on semi-colon usage, and found that I should only be using them to join two complete sentences- right now, the piece after the semi-colon is not a complete sentence.  In future writing, to make sure that I am doing this correctly, I can go through and circle every semi-colon I use, and then read the sentences before and after it out loud to make sure they can stand on their own as complete sentences.

HOMEWORK:

1. Writing Goals:  Finish writing goals (if you didn't finish in class) and email or share them with Lori before the start of class on Thursday.