About this week

This week marks the third unit of the course, focused on writing in the Humanities. Like the last unit, where you learned about audience expectations and genre conventions for Social Science writing, in this unit, you will learn similar information for writing in the Humanities. Your work in this unit will be focused around the third major assignment: Project 3, The Argument or Persuasive Essay. In this essay you will further explore a topic you were introduced to earlier in the course; you will research that topic and will ultimately produce a thesis-driven persuasive paper. For this first week of the unit, in addition to being introduced to writing in the Humanities, you will also learn about prewriting techniques, and you will end the week by creating a proposal for your Argument/Persuasive Essay.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand qualities of writing in the Humanities
• Learn about claim and argument-driven academic writing
• Understand and apply prewriting/planning strategies 

Task List:

1. Consume this week’s required readings and media
2. Participate in Discussion #9: Prewriting and Inquiry
3. Review information about Project 3

Review Project 3: The Persuasive Essay

Required Readings

• Writing in the Humanities: This source provides a brief introduction to writing within fields of study within the Humanities.  
• Finding Your Way In: Invention as Inquiry-Based Learning in First Year Writing: This source will help you understand the important role of inquiry in the academic writing process.
• Writing Arguments: An Overview: Read this to understand the basic elements of written arguments.
• The Argument Paper: This source provides an overview of the typical structure of an argument paper and also explains each section in detail.
• Prewriting Strategies and More Prewriting Strategies: These sources offer practical, how-to strategies for getting started on an academic writing assignment.

Diving Deeper

• Humanities Research Databases: This is a list of some databases that house peer-reviewed work in the Humanities. Be sure to check the Newman Library at Baruch College to find these (and other) specific databases. Here is the direct link to the library’s list of databases by subject.

Instructions for This Week’s Discussion Board

ENG-101-DB-week-10Download

Week 10 Discussion

After you’ve reviewed the above materials, click the blue link above to go to the After you’ve reviewed the above materials, head to this week’s discussion. Respond to the prompt by Thursday at 11:59pm. Then read the comments posted by your classmates and respond to at least two of them by Sunday at 11:59pm. Do your best to fully engage with their posts by responding to a specific point they made. For more information, see the discussion rubric on the Rubrics page.