English 101 Assignment

wait! before the assignment (and, yes, there is a lot of information here; read it all, and remember to gloss the prompt)

In this class we will be re-using (upcycling?) and improving-upon things that you have already done. In the first Lecture you saw that this writing process is called "scaffolding," and it is a very effective way of developing college/university papers.

Some of you can juggle the steps in your heads (with more or less success), but for many pacing yourself, gathering thoughts/notes, thinking about what added information you need to locate, and building up the paper in stages WILL help you go from "I'm not good at English" to "This really is not so hard; it's a process that involves following simple steps and instructions."

In this stage you are going to add on to work that you have already done: your "Too Much Stuff" discussion gave you some material for your Stuff Exercise. Now you will add on to that TMS Exercise and turn it into a fully-developed paper.

when you say "add on," does that mean we can use the exercise word-for-word as the beginning of this essay?

The answer is, "Maybe." If you scored an "A" or a "B" on that Exercise, then why change it? It's a solid opening. But if you got a lot of feedback about needing to fix MLA-8 format or about missing your parenthetical citation or about having an overly-long introduction or (?), then you want to fix those things first before adding on more.

ok, so if the first page or so we did is solid, we can just use that word-for-word, though we will be expanding parts of it?

Absolutely. You wrote it. It's successful. Why waste it? UPCYCLE it making it the basis for your paper. As a reminder, here is what you should have so far:

ok, one last thing before we launch into the details of the rest of the paper...some basic requirements:

The finished paper must be at least three FULL (so not 2 1/2) pages of body text; that does not count pictures or the Works Cited. Any paper shorter than three full pages will not be accepted, and any paper that IS three full pages but less than four full pages is trying for a "C" maximum (so that is an option).
NOTE: four full pages is the typical length of a college essay, so I need to get you there.
Any paper that is not in MLA-8 format will not be accepted; you will be asked to fix it, and it will be a late paper with the late penalty (see Information on Writing Assignments page).
If you are unsure about format and how to set up your paper, please go back and RE-watch the set-up video and/or read the MLA Sample reference file you were asked to print out; you can also look at the Student Samples.
You need to use a minimum of two sources (you already have one) NOT from our class reading list. By "USE" I mean you need to quote detailed examples from them in your paper, follow those quotations with parenthetical citations, and have a correctly-done Works Cited entry for them on your Works Cited page.
I actually recommend that you use three or more sources here, and make sure the sources have a lot of detailed text, not just short tags with pictures.
About 1/3 of your paper MUST BE direct quotatoins from your sources; each direct quotation MUST BE followed by a parenthetical citation. If you are unsure about this, go back and re-read the lecture on Research; also, loook at the Sample Student Papers on Canvas.
The assignment will be submitted the same way you submit all of your essays--as attached .docx, .pdf or .rtf files attached to your e-mail and sent to me at JRCORBALLY@GMAIL.COM; if you have any questions about How to Submit Your Work or how to set up a paper in MLA format, please review the Information on Writing Assignments page for our class.

ok, enough introduction, on to the assignment

Note: There are five parts to this assignment, but do not number them. You will move from one to the next writing everything in sentence/paragraph/essay form. One paragraph will follow the next (not on separate pages) with smooth transitions between them. DO NOT include section titles in your papers. Of course the Works Cited page starts on a fresh page of its own.

The following is called a template; it explains what you need to include first, second, and so on; it also has information on transitions, how much material you need in each section, and so on. I strongly suggest you make a checklist from this and follow that checklist. Yes, part of this class is demonstrating you can follow step-by-step instructions (that's in the Reading part):

The first part you have done! It's your opening that leads to the background paragraph on upcycling.

IMPORTANT NOTE: this is just your opening paragraph, NOT the material on upcycling, not yet. It will likely open with something like this:

The oven door handle fell off, and I opened the kitchen junk drawer to find a Phillips head screwdriver to fix it, but when I opened the drawer, I was faced with such a mis-matched pile of random stuff, that I had to start digging. I found...
or
Needing my shin guards for soccer practice, I opened the closet door. Out tumbled an avalanche of...

Then list about half a dozen distinctive items the way you did in the Stuff Exercise. You get the idea :)

At the end of this this paragraph you can speculate on how to fix all this. "Maybe it is time to think about repurposing or upcycling."

This first paragraph should be abouut a page, no more.

The next section will begin the main body of your paper and will put this situation in context by giving some background on repurposing and upcycling. It will be at least one (possibly two) meaty paragraphs on the origins of upcycling and early examples of repurposing. The examples will come from sources you research, and they shhould be older, interesting/unusual, and detailed.

It should include:

a quotation on the origin of repurposing and upcycling, a definition, for example
early examples of repurposing upcycling
Yes, at least 1/3 of this section will be you quoting/citing from your sources. Pick the most interesting details from your research, and don't forget that you will need a Works Cited entry for each work you quote from.
Simple summary is NOT ENOUGH!
Consider using pictures in this section (they do not count towards page length, but they enhance the paper); if you do, you do NOT have to cite them (yes, there is a way to document them correctly, but let's not get too fancy at this point).

This section (one or two paragraphs) should be about one to two pages)

The third section will look at the various reasons repurposing, upcycling, and possibly even the newest decluttering trends (though this should MAINLY be about repurposing/upcycling) is currently so popular.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This trending section will the longest part of your paper, two or three (or more) paragraphs, with several direct quotations / citations / explanations that will show how a movement to re-imagine "stuff" and make it useable is a solid, broad-based, serious, creative trend, and what some of the benefits are (from cost savings to eco-consciousness to creating an outlet for crafting and artistic creativity)..

It will cover information on the following:

what drives the current trend to repurpose/upcycle household items, industrial items, things that might end up in a landfill, etc.
break it down (that's how you get your two-to-three paragraphs), so look closely at each one of these in a paragraph:
1. cost savings
2. lessening the ecological footprint
3. serving as an outlet for artistic expression
4. possibly as a means of decluttering and organizing
You do not need to do all four, and, in fact, if you have loads of really interesting examples of just one (say, turning trash into art) and you can expand on just that in two-to-three full paragraphs, that's fine.
be sure that at least 1/3 of this section is you quoting/citing from your sources; again, pick throught-provoking, interesting, very detailed examples

Reminder, you are not JUST explaining in your own words; you are explaining, yes, but you are locating detailed information from your sources that support and illustrate your own observations. And the order shown above is a logical one; after the introduction it goes from "what is it?" to "history" to "current trends" to "some unique examples.".

This section should be around two+ pages.

The fourth part is the conclusion.

Keep this short, one paragraph, about 1/2 a page. A couple notes on conclusions:

Successful ones do not usually re-state the thesis or summarize the paper (REALLY)
Most end with an example that typically rounds out the paper and adds human interest. It could be another really striking example; however, if you if you opened with that oven drawer falling off and you scrounging around in the junk drawer to find a screwdriver, consider something like this as part of that last, quick paragraph: "The oven door is still broken, and I feel like just buying a new oven. But I know that would be ridiculously expensive, and it's a perfectly good oven. It just needs a screw tightened. After I find the screwdriver and fix it, I'll go online and look up some inexpensive, creative ways to organize that drawer."

NOTE: it is (usually) OK to use first person in openings and closings (at least if the examples are about you), but DO NOT put first person in the main body of the paper.

Finally, create a correctly-formatted MLA-8 Works Cited page (Works Cited pages always start on their own page, but they still have the header 1/2" from the top right), that includes entries for the two (or more; I recommend more) sources that you quoted above. Again, DO NOT GUESS AT THIS (print out and refer to MLA-8 WORKS CITED INFORMATION file and the SAMPLE STUDENT PAPER and use both as models).

you can all do this, if...

...you follow the instructions.

Yes, I gave you a ton of instructions there; it is essentially a step-by-step how-to-build-a-paper manual. It's pretty much the opposite of a teacher standing in front of a class saying, "OK, go home and write me a four-page, correctly-done paper on upcycling." What would you produce? Where would you begin? How would you know if it was what the teacher wanted?

FINAL VERY STRONG RECOMMENDATION: gloss the prompt; be sure to create a checklist that you can refer to to make sure you have everything covered. If you need to review Lecture 3, well, review Lecture 3. It's still there for you. Go through the steps, and, "You got this!" :)