thought piece prospectus paragraph
DESCRIPTION
/TRANSCRIPT
Ellen Greenblatt Skopje March 2015 [email protected]
THOUGHT PIECES are one-two page writing assignments designed to encourage you to consider what you think and why before you come to class. They are not meant to be revised (though they could become the basis for a more formal piece), and they receive credit but no formal grade (though I do assign them a 1-10 to reward your effort). You may be asked to read them aloud to the class. For thought pieces, you might begin by taking a line, a word, an incident, or an issue in the story and using it as an entry point into a discussion. You do not have to come to a major conclusion in a thought piece—you do not have to answer your question. You just have to think about it—on paper!
A PROSPECTUS PARAGRAPH announces the subject of your paper and introduces some of the evidence you might be using. You should also try to include a "so what" in your prospectus paragraph. The "so what" is your analytical or interpretive point--your interpretation or analysis of the evidence you introduce.Your prospectus paragraph does NOT appear in your paper. It is designed to get you thinking and organized before you begin writing the paper itself.Your prospectus paragraph should be strong enough to allow you to write a three-page paper.
*************************************************************ADVICE to Teachers:
I most often use the prospectus paragraph when students are preparing for a final written or oral assessment.
Students will probably have written thought pieces (a kind of reflection) earlier in the process.
Class discussion of the text or topic will have occurred.SO—The purpose of the prospectus is to announce to the teacher and the class how the student will approach the final assessment. The idea is that each student will read her/his prospectus to the whole class and will receive feedback BEFORE sitting down to write the first version of the paper.If a student’s idea or evidence seems inadequate, the prospectus allows her/him to receive feedback BEFORE spending time crafting sentences and paragraphs in a paper.