Formal Writing Assignments
Each of the following essays involves some combination of researching, drafting, revising, and editing. They may require creating an annotated bibliography.
Essay 1: Analyzing rhetoric
Worth 10% of your final grade
(1000-1300 words)
Analyze 2 different works of persuasive writing using the three rhetorical appeals as a framework, and then argue which one would be more persuasive to an audience of Upstate South Carolina readers.
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Essay 2: Understanding your hometown
Worth 15% of your final grade
(1000-1300 words)
How does your hometown shape the people there? How has your hometown changed over the years? What are some of the major issues affecting your hometown right now?
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Essay 3: Finding Spartanburg
Worth 20% of your final grade
(1300-1800 words)
Identify an issue you care about, learn how that issue is important to Spartanburg, conduct some research, write an essay that explains what you have learned.
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Essay 4: Taking a Stand
Worth 25% of your final grade
(1800-2400 words)
Research a topic of your choice (ideally something that comes from Papers 1, 2, or 3), learn what experts have had to say about it, and then develop your own original argument about that topic.
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Class participation
Worth 10% of your final grade
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Classroom Activities
Workshops, Presentations, Quizzes, and other activities & exercises.
Worth 15% of your final grade.
PREFACE essays
You will write 2 short essays about PREFACE events.
Worth 10% of your final grade. (5% each.)
(300-600 words in length)
Each essay is due no later than 1 week after the event takes place.
The USC Upstate PREFACE program is designed to provide incoming students with a common experience of reading one book and attending their choice of a variety of themed events throughout the fall semester. This year, we will be reading Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich. You will have an opportunity to talk with this author when she comes to campus this semester.
In each essay you will
- Report on the basic details of the event: who, what, when, where.
- Evaluate the quality of the event. Was it a good complement to the PREFACE book? Did the audience get something valuable out of the experience? Did you?
As a piece of general advice, do not wait until the last minute to fulfill this requirement. Plan your semester so that you are not rushed or squeezed at the end. And please remember the following principles of appropriate behavior:
- Make sure watch alarms and cell phone ringers are turned off.
- Arrive on time. Do not leave early.
- Do not chat, read, or do homework. Instead, pay attention to the event, and contribute to any discussion that takes place.
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