First Paper for Crown 80A – Winter 2017.docx
First Paper for Crown 80A – Winter 2017
Dates will change in case of strike
[Draft due on Thursday, January 12 in hard copy.
Final version due on Tuesday, January 17 at the beginning of class – hard copy.]
Content: Please turn in the paper you wrote on Eggers’ The Circle before you came to UCSC. I would very much like to see an unedited, unrevised version of that paper. If you have a revised version that shows significant changes, I will be glad to look at it, too. In addition, please write a letter to your September 20, 2016 self, focusing on points connected to the paper you wrote and the thinker/ reader/ writer you were 3.5 months ago.
Here are some possible issues to write about:
· How you have changed as a reader – what you look for now, how you read, how you take notes. Think specifically about whether you would now read The Circle in the same way you did during the summer or how you might have different thoughts while reading it or a different method or different assumptions. As one example, what connections to other texts (films, stories, articles, lectures) might filter into your consciousness if you were reading The Circle now?
· How you have changed as a writer – did all the work on team writing affect your process? Would you now ask friends to look over a draft? Would you have thought about asking if you could co-write the paper with a friend? Have your writing goals changed? Are you becoming happier with your own writing or have you set your standards even higher than before?
· Looking at your paper alone, are you happy with it now? What additions, including illustrations, links to videos, or non-traditional format, might you use now? Or, if you are happy with it, what about the paper makes you proud? Be specific about your ability to write clearly, to use appropriate illustrations to support your points, to read analytically, to spell correctly and use appropriate grammar, etc.
· If you have changed from your September 20, 2016 self, what is the most significant reason for that change?
Form: Because your assignment is to write a letter, you may be as informal as you like in your prose. Write as if to a friend. Although I expect a minimum of two pages of new writing, I will read whatever you write, up to 40 pages. I will be looking at quality, not quantity, so be proud of the two pages or the four pages or whatever.
Grading: There will be comments but no grade. The comments on the summer assignment will be minimal.
Alternate Assignment for students who did not take Crown 79 during Fall Quarter, 2016.
Please write a letter to your younger self and focus on the same issues: yourself and the changes in your reading and writing skills. If you have a paper to show me that you wrote on your own at least 3.5 months ago, without a teacher’s assistance, then please include that paper along with the 2+ page assignment.