WR115, Warm-Up Essay:
Race & Ethnicity in America
Due Dates
Begin in class, Mon., Jan. 24th; completed in class Wed., Jan. 26th
FIRST DRAFT:
SHITTY FIRST DRAFT GROUP ASSIGNMENT: due Mon., Jan. 24th
SECOND
FINAL
DRAFT:
DRAFT:
due Mon., Jan. 31st
due Wed., Feb. 2nd
Assignment Description
You will write an essay of at least five (5) paragraphs in which you will discuss
race and/or ethnicity in America. In writing your papers, please look toward the
discussions presented (and feel free to use) in the wonderful essay we read in
class, “Colorblind,” the awesome website,
http://www.understandingrace.org/home.html , and your experience in taking the
implicit bias test provided by Harvard University
(https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/). You may also use other resources,
your own experience, the experience of your family, and films to illustrate and
provide examples for your paper.
In this essay you will introduce thesis statement in your introduction. It is
recommended that you introduce your thesis and frame your paper by relating a
racial or ethnic situation you have experienced or someone close to you has
experienced.
You will then transition your reader from your experience to a thesis
that makes a statement or recommendation, or advocates for a change.
thesis statement should be the last sentence or two of your introductory
Your
paragraph.
Your body paragraphs will each be introduced by a strong topic sentence that
directly develops the thesis statement.
You will use key words from the thesis
statement, if possible, in your topic sentences and throughout the paper in order to
tighten unity and coherence.
You will support your major ideas by providing
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examples, discussion of hypothetical situations that may illustrate your point, use of
authoritative opinions, or, if you like, reliable facts and statistics. You will use
transitions (“on the other hand,” “in contrast,” “in addition,” etc.) to help your ideas
flow smoothly. Please do include any direct experience you have had in the
situations you discuss!
And finally, you will write a short, summative concluding paragraph in which you
bring your readers full circle by re-iterating the thesis statement. No new
information or arguments will be included in the conclusion.
Essay Length & Formatting
Your essay will be composed of an introductory paragraph, three (3) or more body
paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph.
Your essay will be between 1.5 and 2.5
pages in length, double-spaced, with margins of 1.25 inches on both sides, and
use 10 to 12 point standard fonts. You will title your essay with a short
descriptive title, and your name, course and section number, and a page
number will be present on each page.
Your essay will contain show strong evidence of peer review and proofreading.
Proofreading errors such as homophone (HPHN), spelling (SP), punctuation (P),
and capitalization (CAP), will be few-to-none in number, and you will take care to
form complete sentences by avoiding fragments (FRAG) and run-together (RTS)
sentences.
Source Citations
You will cite the sources of all material that you paraphrase or quote, and you will
use quotation marks when you directly quote an author or source.
You will also
cite the source of any ideas you may use. You need not worry about a Works
Cited page or the use of a specific style (MLA, APA, Chicago) in citing your
sources. For this paper all you need to do is put your source in parenthesis
immediately after the sentence in which the quote, paraphrase, or idea occurs.
The concept here is for you to learn to give credit to others for their words and
ideas!
Getting in the habit of citing sources will help you avoid plagiarism.
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What Must Accompany Your Essay
Because we need to understand how you went about writing this paper, please
attach the following documents to your final draft:
 Brainstorm materials (freewrites, idea lists, focusing questions, reflective writing,
discussion notes—whatever works for you)
 Visual literacy materials (if you use them)
 Previous drafts (first and second)
 Peer review notes for each draft
o First draft—unity
o Second draft—coherence & transistions)
 Organizational materials—
o Linking sentences worksheet
o Idea maps
o Blueprint
How Will Your Paper Be Evaluated?
Please carefully review the unity & coherence rubric posted on the portal; we will
use it to evaluate your essay.
And please do call/text me with your questions or
concerns (503-784-1498) or shoot me an email at mary.kellyklein.mhcc@gmail.com.