This paper asks you to further revise Paper 1 or Paper 2 while adding a few twists along the way. Regardless of which paper you choose to revise, you will begin with a reflection paper discussing your work on the earlier assignment, and you will then revise and develop your earlier work further. When the assignment is due, you should submit both the Reflection and Paper 3 at the same time via email.
Reflection
To prepare for your revision work on a previous paper (Paper 1 or Paper 2), complete a reflection (minimum 400 words) addressing Harris’s questions on page 100 (he discusses them at greater length on pages 109-122):
- What’s your project? What do you want to accomplish in this essay? (Coming to Terms)
- What works? How can you build on the strengths of your draft? (Forwarding)
- What else might be said? How might you acknowledge other views and possibilities? (Countering)
- What’s next? What are the implications of what you have to say? How can you further clarify the significance and importance of your argument, particularly in the conclusion? (Taking an Approach)
Paper 3
For this assignment, start with the previous draft of the paper (the one that was submitted as either Paper 1 or Paper 2) and then address the following prompts.
- You should change the paper from MLA formatting and citations to APA formatting and citations. Check the Purdue OWL here, here, and here and this handout for specifics.
- You should revise your work based on the insights that came out of the reflection activity. That is, once you have a better understanding of your project in the paper, what works, what else might be said, and what’s next, you should be able to revise your paper to account for and reflect these ideas.
- You should proofread and edit your paper to ensure your citations are entirely correct and your paper addresses all the following grammatical concerns:
- Following Harris’s thinking on “taking an approach” from Ch. 4, you should develop a sense of “reflexivity” in your paper through your revisions. For Harris, the notion of reflexivity directs our attention to “those moments in a text when a writer reflects on the choices that she or he has made in taking a certain approach or in making use of a particular term” (85). He also draws on the concept of “metatext—text about text, writing about writing, moments when a writer calls attention to the terms he is using or the moves he is making” (90). Through your revisions, you should incorporate at least three such moments of reflexivity or metatext in your paper. You should highlight these sentences or put them in bold so that they can be easily identified.
- Harris also discusses acknowledgements in Ch. 4, a place for authors “not only to name the people they wish to thank but to specify what they want to thank them for” (95). At the end of your paper, you should include an “Acknowledgements” page that offers thanks to the various people who have helped you and influenced your work as a student. You can focus on this semester and this class or think about your learning and educational experiences more broadly. Be sure not only to thank these people but to articulate how they have helped and shaped you.
Matt King 