How to Do the 3 Parts of the Writing Assignment

Tip: Read over the table of contents below. Notice that there is an equivalent set of information for Your Paper and the Peer Reviews and then the Response.  Do the work following the information in order; then come back to these instructions to do the Peer Reviews and then the Response. If you need help, ask.

Caution: Why Do You See No Postings in the Discussion for Your Paper and Where Can You See Everything You Need to Do Your Paper?. 1

Caution: Some of the Parts Close at 8 AM and Reopen at 10 AM... 2

Part 1: Your Paper --Method, Requirements, Citation, Background, Rubric, and Grading (100 Points – 50 for Content and 50 for the 5 Good Habits for Evidence). 2

What Does Your Instructor Recommend As a Method to Do This Assignment?. 2

What Are Essential Requirements from Sources to Maximum Length to the Subject Line of Your Post?. 2

What Are Requirements for Citation for Your Paper that you post?. 2

What Is Essential Background for Success with These Primaries?. 3

What Is the Rubric Used to Measure Your Content and Your Following the 5 Good Habits for Evidence and How Does It Work?. 3

How Does Grading Work?. 3

Part 2: 2 Peer Reviews—Definition, Method, Requirements, Rubric, and Grading (50 each so 25 for Content and 25 for the 5 Good Habits for Evidence for each one). 3

What’s a Peer Review?. 3

What Does Your Instructor Recommend As a Method to Do This Assignment and What Are Its Requirements?. 4

What Is the Rubric Used to Measure Your Peer Review of the Papers of 2 Other Students and Your Following the 5 Good Habits for Evidence. 5

How Does Grading Work?. 5

Part 3: 2 Responses to 2 Peer Review(s)—Method, Requirements, and Grading (40 so 20 for Content and 20 for the 5 Good Habits for Evidence). 5

How You Respond—the Basics. 5

How You Respond—the Specifics. 5

How Does Grading Work?. 5

Resources Available as Links on This Webpage. 5

If You Want to Know Why We Use These Shortened Citations. 5

Brain Trick for Quoting and Avoiding Quotation Humiliation. 7

 

Caution: Why Do You See No Postings in the Discussion for Your Paper and Where Can You See Everything You Need to Do Your Paper?

Blackboard has several types of discussion. One requires that you make an initial post before you can see other’s posts. The discussion for Your Paper is that kind of posting.

You must 1st post your paper before you can see other students’ papers. That means you want to write that paper as carefully as possible and that means you need to work in the folder with the instructions and the primaries. The fastest way to get there is by clicking on Required Writing on the Course Menu. (You can also find it at the bottom of Lesson Units.)

Caution: Some of the Parts Close at 8 AM and Reopen at 10 AM

For the timing and the reason, see the Course Schedule.

Part 1: Your Paper --Method, Requirements, Citation, Background, Rubric, and Grading (100 Points – 50 for Content and 50 for the 5 Good Habits for Evidence)

What Does Your Instructor Recommend As a Method to Do This Assignment?

Read and plan carefully, being sure to record the exact page numbers as you plan so you can cite following the citation instructions in this link. Copy the questions below into your word processor file and add a blank line between each paragraph, with 3 short paragraphs being typical (with each paragraph covering a major issue you believe answers the questions). Type your answers and use the word processor’s word count feature to be sure you are within the maximum word count. Also run spell and grammar checking. Tip about the word-processor:  You can use any word processor that you have been able to use to compose a Learning Discussion and then copy and paste it into. You also need to run spell and grammar checking.

Print it and proof it. To proof means to compare side by side your paper and your source to be sure page numbers and facts and names and quotations and everything is correct.

When you are sure you are accurate, create a post in the 3-Part Writing Assignment. Then copy and paste your file into it. Tip: If you do not know how to post in a discussion, use Blackboard’s instructions. You can find Blackboard videos in a folder in Useful Web Links at the bottom of the Course Menu.

What Are Essential Requirements from Sources to Maximum Length to the Subject Line of Your Post?

Sources to Use

In the textbook, page 180 beginning with the heading "Slavery and Sectional Balance" through the end of page 181. Study the map with care. Page 252, the right hand column.

Use each of the 3 primary sources in the folder and listed under the next heading.

Use no other pages or sources–and certainly not your memory.

Question to Answer

Background of the question: The Missouri Compromise of 1820 is one of 100 Milestone Documents at Our Documents (URL: https://www.ourdocuments.gov/).

What does a freshman college history student need to know about the Missouri Compromise?

FYI: You have to reveal that you understand this fully, including Northern and Southern issues. As a prof I admired greatly put it, “You have to understand everything. You do not have to write everything. To teach honorably, you must select carefully what you teach.”

Citation

Covered under the heading below.

Format

Please do not try to do format within the Discussion Tool. The only format that works successfully is a blank line between paragraphs and perhaps an italic or bold a word if grammatically correct to do that italic or bold.

Length

300 words absolute maximumLess is better.

Punctuation

Make sure it is accurate, especially if you are quoting something. Keep it simple by using this Brain Trick (This link goes to the bottom of this webpage.)

Subject Line of Your Post

Click Create Thread in the discussion to create a post with this subject line:
Your Name –What Freshman College Students Need to Know about the Missouri Compromise

Example: if your name is Ana Joy, your subject line is
Ana JoyWhat Freshman College Students Need to Know about the Missouri Compromise

What Are Requirements for Citation for Your Paper that you post?

Do not use lengthy citation statements within parentheses () as is done with MLA. You are trying to teach history accurately to someone like yourself. You are not collecting research and quoting from it. You all have the same sources and so you do not want to get a lot of words get between you and your fellow students. Do these things for this writing assignment:

What You Want to Cite

Example of How You Would Cite

If the fact is from the textbook The Brief American Pageant

If your fact is from page 180 of the textbook, then immediately after your fact you write: (Pageant, p. 180)

If the fact is from All Issues in the Constitution about Slavery in 1820

If your fact is from that single page, then immediately after your fact you write: (Constitution, p. 1)

Reflections on the Missouri Question (1820), John Quincy Adams

Since this is a multiple page webpage, click Print or an equivalent command and your computer will show you its approximate page number. If your fact is from the second page of that source, then immediately after your fact you write:
(Adams, p. 2)

1820, March 6 - Missouri Compromise - Use only SEC. 8.

Since you only use SEC. 8 which is on page 3, then immediately after your fact you write:
(Compromise, p. 3).

Click here If You Want to Know Why We Use These Shortened Citations (This link goes to the bottom of this webpage.)

What Is Essential Background for Success with These Primaries?

Let go of your biases and assumptions. Study the map as though you were alive then and your future was at stake. Use the link at the top of the folder and ground yourself in math.

Tip: If you never looked at the links about these links when you did your Course Plan, do it now. This link defines the words primary and secondary history or covers History Department’s requirements for all instructors. Save yourself from unnecessarily low grades by understanding these words and these realities.

What Is the Rubric Used to Measure Your Content and Your Following the 5 Good Habits for Evidence and How Does It Work?

What is a rubric? Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary defines a rubric as “a guide listing specific criteria for grading or scoring academic papers, projects, or tests.” Frequently, rubrics are in a table:

·         With rows for each criteria (such as this one with criteria for Reading FOR Evidence, Writing WITH Evidence, Following Directions for Evidence, and Mechanics)

·         With columns for each grade level (such as this one with columns for “F” through “A.”

Click here for an explanation of the rubric and how to use it as a grader or as someone graded. (This is also available in several parts of the course including in Evidence Quiz 4.

How Does Grading Work?

For this assignment, I email my graded rubric to you. After you reply to my feedback, I enter the grade at My Grades. The point value is @ 50 points for content and @ 50 points for following all 5 Good Habits for Evidence

Part 2: 2 Peer Reviews—Definition, Method, Requirements, Rubric, and Grading (50 each so 25 for Content and 25 for the 5 Good Habits for Evidence for each one)

What’s a Peer Review?

Merriam-Webster Online defines peer review as “a process by which something proposed (as for research or publication) is evaluated by a group of experts in the appropriate field.”

In this course, you all can practice the skills needed to act like expert—and to make decisions that protect yourself and to get and keep a good job. In today’s world, we all have to learn to be experts about something. It is possible for you to think like an expert in this course:

·         Because you must all use the same sources

·         Because you all must cite all statements

·         You read the others’ original posts and chose the 1st post you want to review for content and for following all 5 Good Habits for Evidence.
Caution: Do it thoroughly but choose quickly because the maximum number of countable replies to one person’s post is 3. If you post after the 3rd person has already posted, yours will not be counted and you will have to do another. Tip: Because of the 2 maximum limit, it is probably safest to choose one that no one has reviewed yet.

What Does Your Instructor Recommend As a Method to Do This Assignment and What Are Its Requirements?

Look at the rubric before you start work and notice that you do not earn many points for saying “good job, I enjoyed it.”

Use part of the same method that you used with your own paper. Print the other student’s paper and proof it. To proof means to compare side by side your paper and your source to be sure page numbers and facts and names and quotations and everything is correct. Mark anything that is incorrect that you need to include in your peer review and mark any good things (such as following a Good Habits for Evidence that the student has done as well).

You evaluate the other student’s paper on the same requirements you followed for sources, questions, format, length, and punctuation.

When you are sure you are accurate, return to the discussion. Tip: If you do not know how to reply in a discussion, use Blackboard’s instructions. You can find Blackboard videos in a folder in Useful Web Links at the bottom of the Course Menu.

Subject Line of Your Post

1.       Click on the paper posted by a student. (Choose 1 that has not been reviewed or a least has only 1 review.)

2.       Click Reply with a Quote to create a reply.

3.       Change the Subject line to this:
Your Name – My Feedback to Help Your Content and Evidence

Example: if your name is Ana Joy, your subject line is
Ana JoyMy Feedback to Help Your Content and Evidence

4.       In the student’s paper, insert your feedback at the spot where you want to give feedback by doing these thing:

·         Make a blank line.

·         Type an opening square bracket [
and then your feedback
and then a closing square bracket ].

·         Make another blank line

 

Example: If your colleague in the class cited page 30 for a statement, but you found that fact on 29, you could write just below the citation for page 30

[Page should be 29.]

 

 

What Is the Rubric Used to Measure Your Peer Review of the Papers of 2 Other Students and Your Following the 5 Good Habits for Evidence

Click here for the rubric used to measure the 2 Peer Reviews. Caution: The rubric will be the same but it needs to change so they are both worth the correct points.

You review 2 (and only 2) papers posted by other students only on these 2 things

1.       Content (historical content as measured by what is supported by a specific page in our textbook or in resources provided by the instructor)

2.       Evidence (use of evidence as measured by the 5 Good Habits for Evidence)

Caution: This rubric also says that you need to participate from the beginning. If your work is in the last two days, your points will be lower.

How Does Grading Work?

For your two replies of peer reviews, I enter the reviews in an overall Blackboard Discussion rubric. For each of the 2 peer reviews, the point value is @ 25 points for content and @ 25 points for following all 5 Good Habits for Evidence—or a total of 100 points

Part 3: 2 Responses to 2 Peer Review(s)—Method, Requirements, and Grading (40 so 20 for Content and 20 for the 5 Good Habits for Evidence)

How You Respond—the Basics

Look at their evidence and put it side by side with the source before you are sure you are right. In writing, be as polite as though you had to share a house with these people.

How You Respond—the Specifics

If they are factually wrong in their statements and they had inserted that in your paper in a [], go to that spot and politely and briefly explain why they are wrong.

If they are factually wrong in their statements and they wrote them at the bottom of your paper, go to that spot and insert your own [ ] and politely and briefly explain why they are wrong.

If they are right, thank them.

How Does Grading Work?

For this assignment, I email my comments to you. I do not yet have a tested rubric for this, so I may just do comments first so that I learn what the common issues are. After you reply to my feedback, I enter the grade at My Grades. The point value is @ 20 points for content and @ 20 points for your following all 5 Good Habits for Evidence.

 

 

Resources Available as Links on This Webpage

 

If You Want to Know Why We Use These Shortened Citations

The reasons are:

·         All of your written assignments are brief and have a maximum word count. If you used traditional MLA citation which is written inline (within your lines of text), you would use up your word count much faster. You could end up with a paper that says little but is full of lots of long citation.

·         History’s standard, the Chicago Manual of Style, provides rigorous citation, but not inline. Instead, it uses endnotes (citation at the end of the paper) or footnotes (citation at the bottom of the page) to provide citation.

In other words, citation is there but it is not in the way of communication of the history. The citation is not written within your lines of text because of how historians write about history.

·         They are helping people understand the past.

·         That is your job in this course as well. Why? When you try to help someone understand history, you start to understand it yourself. If you want to understand something, try to teach it.

·         In this class, you use these shortened citation format so that citation is as unobtrusive as possible.

Offer: With the paper you submit through Turnitin, you may try endnotes. If you want to try that, contact me and I will make examples visible to you and answer your questions about the mechanics of making them in Microsoft Word.


 

Brain Trick for Quoting and Avoiding Quotation Humiliation

Click here for additional tips. (This tip is also available from the tutorial at the top of Evidence Requirements.)

The rules for showing what you have taken out (…) of the author’s words or put in ([ ]) are complex and for most of us they are not worth learning.

 

This brain trick lets you be accurate but avoid learning those rules:

  1. Choose 3 to 6 words to quote and change nothing (not an ing or an ed, not a comma, nothing) between the first and the last word.

  2. Put abefore the first word and a after the last word.

  3. Place those words with the “ ”within your sentence.

 

  1. If something sounds awkward about your sentences, then change your own words—the only words you have a right to change.

 

  1. Look at all of the words in the source. Be sure the meaning of the source remains in your quotation.

 

 

 

Copyright C. J. Bibus, Ed.D. 2003-2017

 

WCJC Department:

History – Dr. Bibus

Contact Information:

281.239.1577 or bibusc@wcjc.edu

Last Updated:

2017

WCJC Home:

http://www.wcjc.edu/