Final Exam Reflective Essay

Your final exam will be a reflective essay in which you write about your experience in this course. Your essay should have three major parts:

I. Response to theme.

First, read Lisa Cullen's article "It's Inconvenient Being Green." In the piece, Cullen suggests that the media-wide focus on "going green" has affected her in both negative and positive ways. You may quote from Cullen's piece in order to defend, argue against, or qualify her claim. In doing so, consider the ways that this sustainability-focused class has changed your perspective or reinforced old ideas about what it means to "go green." In this section of your essay, refer to specific things you've learned, where your research has taken you, and what changes you've made in your life (or hope to someday) regarding sustainability.

II. Rhetorical choices

One of the goals of this class is to become aware of the rhetorical devices that are in our everyday lives. Every day, we are saturated by commercials, brand names, and varying agendas that dominate our landscape. This occurs not only when we walk out of the door, but also when we turn on our computers, read a book, when we speak to others, read a magazine article, listen to music, or look at a webpage.

Write about your process of learning rhetoric in this class and how you used rhetorical choices to: 1. analyze scholarly sources and websites, and 2. read your chosen book and work on Essay #4.

How did you decide on your audience? How did this inform your composition process? (For writing, you can think of all the strategies that we discussed during the course of this class: appeals, fallacies, types of claims, defining terms, deepening claims, counterarguments, transitions, stylistic fluency)

Were you successful in achieving your purpose? Why or why not?
How did ethos, pathos, and logos affect your own pieces?

III. Composing process

Choose one of the major essays (Essays 1-4) you wrote and discuss your composition process. Here are some questions that you might want to consider regarding your composition process. You don’t need to answer “all” of them; there is no right way to discuss your learning/composing process.

• How did you choose your topic(s)?
• What did you learn about yourself while completing the project?
• What did you learn about composing? Be specific and give examples from your work to show what you learned.
• How did your vision change with your drafts? Why did you make, or not make changes?
• How was the conference helpful? How did your instructor's commentary change your work?
• What was the strongest part of your essay? Feel free to incorporate quotes from your essay.
• How did the premise of this class (sustainability) affect your composing process? You can talk about topic, research, etc.

In order to successfully compose this reflective essay, you should speak specifically about your experiences. Avoid vague and abstract phrasing. Refer to your work, to the sources you used, the lectures you heard, etc. The reflective essay should read like a cohesive whole, so use transitions to connect each section to the one that comes before. Tackle the three components in any order you think works best.

Feel free to bring all of your drafts, materials, sources, etc. to class on the final exam day. In addition, you may bring any notes and outlines that will help you draft the reflected piece during the final exam.

You should aim for roughly 1,500 words to adequately reflect on your experiences (about 5-6 pages).

Section 059 will have their final on Friday, April 2 from 9:00-11:30 am in room 3143

Section 092 will have their final on Saturday, April 3, from 9:00-11:30 am
in room 3130 (NOTE THE ROOM CHANGE! THIS IS NOT OUR USUAL LAB!)

CR # 7: A Plan of Action

For your last CR, please draft a plan of action for your final research paper. Your plan should include:

Your Issue: Identify the issue you will be researching. Describe its relevance to sustainability, and clearly state your position on it. Explain exactly which aspects of the issue you will and won’t address in your paper. Create a list of three to a dozen items that clearly identifies the points you intend to cover. Remember that fewer points, covered thoroughly, are better than more points, covered inadequately.

Your Purpose: Using an active, “key task” verb, relate the effect you intend to have on your target audience. (Examples of key task verbs include persuade, demonstrate, educate, inform, motivate, convince, teach, compare, contrast.) Make sure the verb matches your intended purpose. If you present factual information with little interpretation, “inform” may be appropriate. If you present information plus your interpret or agenda, “convince” or “motivate” will be more appropriate.

The Obstacles: First, identify any potential problems or barriers outside of the research paper itself that might interfere with your stated purpose. Why might your audience not go along with your position or carry out your recommendations on the issue? Obstacles could include an audience bias against your position; a lack of access to information necessary to make your point; inadequate funds, personnel, or time for your audience to carry out your recommendations; and laws or regulations prohibiting the course of action you suggest. Then, identify any potential problems or barriers within the paper itself. Will sources be difficult to find? Will an interview be tricky to negotiate? Etc.

The Source: Your paper will have numerous sources. One on which I hope you will rely on a great deal is the book you've chosen to read this semester. In this section of your plan, write a detailed abstract of that book.

The CR is due at the end of class.

Majora Carter

The video

Watch the speech by Majora Carter on environmental justice linked above. Then, in small groups, imagine that you must interview Carter for your research paper. Draft ten questions. Then see how they compare with the interview linked below.

The interview

Essay #4: The BIG One

The Set-Up: You’ve been asked to read a book-length work for this semester. Here is where the book comes into play. Hopefully, you’ve learned about a new aspect of sustainability from your book. . Much of the new thinking regarding sustainability requires a new way of thinking, too, or a different set of principals, if you will and the books you’ve selected reflect this new vision.

Prompt: Respond to the book in a 10-12 page research paper. The research paper assignment requires you to engage meaningfully with multiple sources and then organize, analyze, and synthesize information from those sources to develop an original argument.
You will need to use two scholarly sources, one website, and one interview, to support a claim that is original and argumentative about a sustainability issue.

Criteria: You should use MLA style, and Times New Roman 12 pt font. The paper should be 10-12 pages when double-spaced. You must have a proper Works Cited page which includes, minimally, two scholarly sources, one website, an interview, and, of course, your book selection.

An introduction and two body paragraphs are due for peer review on Wednesday, APRIL 16th.
A rough draft should be turned in at the end of class on Friday, APRIL 18th.
Conferences are Monday APRIL 21st-Wednesday APRIL 23
Paper is due on Monday, APRIL 28th.

Schedule Essay #4

SCHEDULE OF CLASS MEETINGS: ESSAY 4

M- April 7 Majora Carter Interview

W-April 9 “Eden Changes” p. 449

F-April 11 Meet in HC 3143 to work on paper plans/CR #7 due at end of class

M-April 14 “Second Coming” p. 412

W-April 16 Introduction and two body paragraphs due for peer review

F-April 18 Reenvision of Essay #3 due

M-April 21 Conference

W-April 23 Conference

F-April 25 Meet in HC 3143 to wrap up work on Essay #4

M-April 28 LAST DAY OF CLASS. Essay #4 due, final exam preparation

FINAL EXAM: ENGL 1120 092 Saturday, May 3, 9:00-11:30
ENGL 1120 056 Friday, May 2, 9:00-11:30

Essay #3: Consumerism

Skills: Using counterarguments
Website analysis/evaluation
Incorporating multiple sources

The Set-Up: Our readings for this section will focus on consumerism and how it affects sustainability initiatives. The accumulation of possessions is certainly an aspect of the American Dream, however, an endless appetite for material goods can throw a wrench into solutions for sustainability. In presenting arguments, each writer we will read will also address the counterargument. This is a good technique to adopt in your own writing. In speculating and writing about these issues, it’s usually a useful idea to bring out both the good and the bad aspects of a solution, though one will probably get greater emphasis.

Prompt: Essay 3 asks you to engage with two* of our readings for this unit, and then combine information from those sources with your own ideas to coherently and logically develop a thesis.

You may write about the essays directly, analyzing how the authors interpret similar data differently and/or employ different emphases to suit their purposes. Or, you may write about a related topic concerning consumerism and sustainability and use the two readings as support.

In addition, you are asked to use one website and one scholarly source in your paper as further support. You must also address one or more counterarguments to your thesis in your paper.

Questions to Consider: How does consumerism affect specific sustainability initiatives? How might consumerism be put to good use in regards to the environment? How have the realms of business and sustainability begun to overlap in contemporary U.S. culture? What do popular purchases reflect about contemporary culture? How has shopping online capitalized on an atmosphere that encourages ill-considered purchases? How is technology use linked to consumerism?

Example topics: You might compare the ritual detachment from one’s “stuff” at Yom Kippur (from Rabbi Schnur’s “Barbie Does Yom Kippur”) with George Carlin’s observations in “A Place for Your Stuff” in order to make a point about the wastefulness of American culture.
OR

You might think about the ways that a business like BP, for example, has made efforts to “go green” and use “Dirt: A Social History” by Terence McLaughlin and Richard Simon’s “The Shopping Mall and the Formal Garden” to argue that business and sustainability are two fields that can go hand in hand.

Criteria: You will need to search electronic databases for at least one scholarly source related to your topic, and scour the internet for a website that is also related to your topic. The website you choose should fit the criteria for a good source we learned about in class and in the library. Your paper will also need to refer to two of the pieces we read for class. Hence, your works cited page will have a minimum of 4 sources on it (2 from our readings, 1 website, and 1 scholarly source).

You should use MLA style, and Times Roman or Courier 12 pt font. The paper should be 6-7 pages when double-spaced. You must have a proper Works Cited page. A rough draft should be ready for Wednesday March 26th FOR SECTION 056 and Friday, March 28th FOR SECTION 092, and a final draft is due Friday, April 4th FOR BOTH SECTIONS.

*NOTE: While we will go over three specific readings in class, you should take the time to read all of the essays on the topic of consumerism we’ve collected for you. These will be made available to you as soon as possible.

Link for Book on Reserve (Essay #3)

Every Day, Every Where: Global Perspectives on Popular Culture is on reserve at the library for you, should you want to use the other essays in there (chapter 9). The link above will take you to the book's Amazon page where you can gather more info.

Here's what your MLA Works Cited should look like for each essay used:

Author of Essay. "Name of Essay." Every Day, Everywere: Perspectives of Popular Culture. Ed. Stuart Hirschberg, T. Hirschberg. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2002. Pages used.