Civil War

1102, Spring 2008

Unit 3

Overview: The culmination of Unit 3 is Essay 3, a research paper and the central project of all 1102 classes. We will be doing the essay in parts, using writing tools you’ve been practicing, and introducing new ones. Some of your research and thinking will be done alone, some in groups, some as a class, and all if it will of it is done in response to the research and thinking of your peers, just as research and thinking and writing is done by professional academics, and other professionals in the workforce. Ultimately, though, every student will write and revise his/her own research essay. In the lead-up to the essay, you will do group presentations, an annotated bibliography, and other exercises as needed to prepare you for the essay. Below are descriptions of the major parts.

Group Topics and Presentations: Group topics will be decided in class by Thursday, April 3. Topics will grow out of our discussion of the primary texts of the unit (TBA for April 3). The groups have three purposes: 1) to help individuals research and write Essay 3; 2) to find and present a source to the class; and 3) to compile an annotated bibliography that the whole class can use to write their individual essays.

The presentations will be a competition between the groups: Each group will select one critical secondary source it thinks the entire class should have to use in their research essays (just as everyone used Jeff Westover’s text for Essay 1). On Thursday, April 10, in a 15 minute presentation to the class, each group will try to convince everyone that their source is The One. These sources may only be from scholarly books or journals.***

When the presentations are finished, the class will vote to select the source everyone must use. Thus, the group with the best source and presentation wins. Because everyone will have to use this source, groups should select a widely applicable piece; it should NOT just be applicable to the group’s topic.

Because we cannot have duplicate sources presented to the class, as soon as your group locates it’s source, it needs to POST THE LINK or CITATION to WebCampus by 5pm on Monday, April 7 (in the “Sources for Presentation” link in the Discussion Board part of WebCampus).

How you present your source is up to you—you can use costumes, visual aids, hand-outs, games, whatever. Be creative! You are being graded, remember. No computers or power-point. I am happy to answer questions about how to do your presentation outside of class—in the past, I’ve had