Crossing Thresholds (CT) Assignment Overview
Throughout this semester we will be reading Naming What We Know (NWWK) which outlines specific “threshold concepts.” By “threshold concept,” we are talking about concepts that may be unfamiliar to you, or different from what you are used to. And that’s okay, because what we want to do is challenge our traditional ways of thinking about writing and share these new concepts with others.
Each week as you read, you will write a response to the threshold concept the chapter covered.
Audience and Purpose – Who you’re writing to:
For this assignment, assume you are writing articles for Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi’s newspaper under a heading “Writing for the ___ Major.” Your primary audience are the people within your chosen major (or the job field you plan on pursuing), however, your secondary audience can include any other students on campus as well as faculty or administration that may read the newspaper. Your purpose is to help your primary audience think about college writing differently and show them how writing is important in multiple fields.
If you do not have a chosen major, meet with me and we can discuss alternative ideas for this assignment that could be more general.
For each of the articles responding to the Naming What We Know readings, you will follow the prompts below to best achieve your purpose. In fact, you may use these as headings within your individual articles to keep your writing organized.
- Demonstrate understanding – Your audience may not understand the concepts from Naming What You Know, so make sure to clearly define and explain the concepts. Perhaps use personal writing experiences that may relate explicitly to writing your audience may have experienced.
- Analyze – Integrate sentences from the readings to show your audience explicit examples of what helped you understand the concepts. Be honest with your audience about if anything was confusing to you.
- Self-assess – Show your audience examples on how you have successfully adapted a new concept of writing, or “crossed the threshold”. If you are still struggling, be honest about it. No need to pretend to think of writing differently if you haven’t “crossed the threshold” yet.
- Reflect and connect – Explain to your audience how the concept relates to other concepts in NWWK or any of the other class readings/discussions.
Tips for success:
- Remember your audience. Write in a way that your audience will understand the concepts when you explain them.
- Explain very clearly which of the concepts you are referring to.
- Implement quotes/paraphrases in connection to personal examples.
- Use page numbers when you cite.
- Each Crossing Thresholds (CT) assignment will be saved in your “Crossing Thresholds” google docs folder which is in your class google docs folder.
- The naming protocol for your document will be your first initial, last name, followed by the assignment title abbreviation. For example, “VGentry_CT_1”, “VGentry_CT_2” and so on.
- See “Formatting and Documentation” for formatting requirements.