The critical essay will give you the chance to “talk back to,” or “talk with,” an author from Bad Ideas About Writing. You’ll either disagree with the author, extend or expand their argument in some way, apply their argument to some other context, or agree with part of what they say and take issue with another part.
In order to complete this assignment, you’ll first need to understand what the author has argued and fairly summarize the major points of their chapter. Then, you’ll need to make several debatable claims about what you think that they got right, what they got wrong, what was inadequately supported or explained, how they might expand their argument, and / or how it might apply to new situations.
In some ways, a critical analysis is really just an essay full of your opinions. But unlike in the Personal Reflection Journal, where you’re mostly using “data” from your own experiences to support your assertions, the Critical Essay asks you to consult a few outside sources to help you make your points. You’ll need to do a little bit of research to figure out where you stand (and who agrees with you). This will help you to develop your stance in relation to what the author is arguing, and then support the claims that you’re making with good evidence.
☑️ Requirements:
Remember that you must meet all 10 requirements to maintain an A (you can resubmit the assignment as many times as you’d like until you do this.)
To work toward a B, meet 8/10 requirements. To work toward a C, meet 6/10 requirements.
- Contains a draft of at least 600 words.
- Contains a peer review for your partner’s draft
- Final draft is between 1,000-1,250 words (about 4-5 pages)
- Final draft is in MLA, APA, or Chicago format (12 pt. font; Arial or Times New Roman; title; page numbers; name at the top; Works Cited or References list for the citations; etc.)
- Final draft discusses one chapter (not multiple chapters) from Bad Ideas About Writing
- Final draft incorporates (and cites) at least two additional sources (cannot be from Bad Ideas About Writing)
- Final draft contains some ideas about what you want to know next (research questions)
- First draft is submitted to the student’s personal Slack channel (i.e. mine would be #lindseyalbracht) with feedback instructions.
- Final draft is submitted to the student’s personal Slack channel with feedback instructions
- Final draft contains a 350-500 word reflection letter (not included in word count)
Deadlines
Please note that the deadlines for this assignment are different than what is in the video (which were the dates for the fall). You can find the assignment deadlines on the reading schedule (syllabus), or at the bottom of this prompt.
✅ Step one: Choose your chapter (March 8).
Choose one chapter title from Bad Ideas About Writing that was particularly intriguing to you (i.e. “There Is One Correct Way of Writing And Speaking,” or “Teaching Grammar Improves Writing”).
You do not have to agree with the idea for it to be “intriguing.” You can choose any idea from the whole book. It can be a chapter that we’ve already read, one that we’re going to read, or one that isn’t on the syllabus at all. However, I strongly encourage you to choose a chapter that interested you for which you’ve already written a PRJ: this assignment will be easier if you do.
🗣️ Step two: Summarize the “bad idea” from the chapter (March 10).
Before you can agree or disagree with the “bad” idea in the chapter, first, you need to know what it actually says. For this step, summarize the author’s bad idea about writing. This summary should be in your own words: avoid direct quoting, please. You should attempt to characterize all of the author’s major claims. Say why the author claims that the idea is bad.
You should strive to have finished a draft of your summary and to turn it in on Slack by March 10th if you would like to receive some early feedback on it.
📚 Step three: Develop your stance and your arguments.
Before you begin to look for outside sources, you will probably want to form a preliminary opinion about the chapter. You might want to do this by reviewing Hypothes.is annotations, thinking about our class discussions (or reviewing the recap video from the day that we held that discussion), reviewing any notes you’ve taken, and considering questions like this:
- What did the author leave out?
- What do I think that the author got wrong? Why do I think that? What evidence do I have?
- What arguments does this author not support very well?
- What was convincing to me? Why am I convinced? What kind of evidence does the author give?
- What do other people in the world have to say about this argument? (do a little Googling) Does everyone agree with this author? If not, why not?
- What else do I want to know about this topic?
This might help you to generate some keywords (see the video above for more information on this). These keywords should help you to find some source(s) that might help you to support the argument you are making for or against this chapter (or for AND against certain components of this chapter) .
You want to make sure that your source(s) pass the CRAAP test: that they are current, relevant, authoritative, accurate, and purposeful (we’ll talk about this in class). We’ll also be talking about how to locate, summarize, and incorporate sources in the weeks leading up to this assignment due date.
📚 Step four: Use sources to further develop your stance.
In class, and in the video above, we’ll be discussing Mark Gaipa’s “8 Strategies for Critically Examining Sources.” Use this list to choose a way that you want to develop an argument about this chapter.
To develop your stance (i.e. picking a fight, ass-kissing, leapfrogging, piggybacking, etc.), you’ll need to do a little extra research. What do other people have to say about this? Are there scholars, professional writers, teachers, or other people out there who really disagree or agree with your author? Or is there other kinds of evidence that you think might really help to better support the BIAW author’s point that they omitted in the chapter?
It might be that the Bad Ideas About Writing author has convinced you that a particular idea is bad, and you want to find other people who agree (and ass-kiss or piggyback with them).
It might be that you agree with some parts of what the chapter says, but there’s part of the argument that you don’t agree with, and you want to look to other sources to help you make the case about why this author is wrong (so that you can leapfrog).
It might be that you totally disagree with the chapter, and you want to show us why the author’s got it all wrong (here, you would pick a fight).
Whatever stance you choose, I suggest writing these paragraphs using the Claim-Evidence-Warrant or PEAS format that we’ll practice in class. So, this will mean that you have to make a claim about what you think, you’ll use the sources as evidence to support your argument, and then you’ll explain what the evidence means.
This part of the essay will probably be the most extensive. There’s no paragraph “requirement” — use as many paragraphs as you need to make your argument. But this section, generally speaking, should be longer than the summary.
🤔 Step five: Remaining questions
This is an important part of this assignment, because it will help you with the next assignment that we do in this class.
You should develop between 3-4 research questions that you have that are related to this topic, but that are not just a restatement of the topic. If the bad idea about writing is “Plagiarism should be punished,” the research questions could be:
- How do schools in other countries discuss plagiarism?
- Are there differences between plagiarism policies in schools that are wealthier or poorer?
- What are some alternatives to punishing plagiarism?
In a paragraph, list these questions and give a couple of sentences of explanation of why these interest you.
📝 Step six: Submit your first draft. Do a peer review. Submit your final draft with a writer’s letter.
The submission process for the Critical Essay should happen in a few steps:
First draft due: Monday, March 22
Today, you’ll submit the first draft of your Critical Essay to your personal submission channel along with feedback instructions to me on Slack and to your peer partner over DM. This should happen by 11:59pm.
In class on the day that the draft is due, we will discuss the peer review process and assign partners.
If your first draft already meets requirements, just like with the personal journal reflections, I’ll still give you feedback on whatever you request, but the scope of which revisions you decide to do will be up to you. If it won’t meet requirements for the final version, I’ll let you know what needs to change between the draft and the final version (no matter whether or not you give me feedback instructions). I will also address whatever you ask me to address in your feedback instructions.
Peer review submission window: Monday, March 22 – Friday March 26
This is the window to submit your peer review form to the website. When your peer reviewer submits their form for your essay, I will send it to you.
Conferences: Tuesday, March 23 – Friday, March 26
During this time, I’l be holding 30-minute (maximum) one-on-one conferences with all students instead of classes. We’ll discuss your draft. I can give you some verbal feedback (or we can chat about it on Slack if WiFi is an issue for you or if Slack is just more comfortable and convenient.) We’ll also take this moment to discuss your general progress in the class, where you’re at in the grading agreement, and what you need to do to either stay on track or get on track for the rest of the semester.
Final draft and writers’ letter submission window: anytime after your conference – Wednesday, April 7
You may submit your final draft of the Critical Essay any time after your conference and up until 11:59pm on Wednesday, April 7th.
Please note that in order to meet requirements, the final draft must contain a reflection that tells me about your revision process. You do not need to revise this essay beyond this draft, but if you would like additional feedback, please also give me feedback instructions. We will review some successful reflections in class together on Monday, April 5th.
