Week 2 Assignment

Reading

• Marijuana is Safer: "Introduction"
  
• "MLA Overview"
  
• "MLA Paper Format"

Click on links to access assigned materials.

Web

• "MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics"
• "MLA Formatting Quotations"
• "MLA Works Cited Page"

Students will be able to:

• identify the thesis, summarize the text, recognize rhetorical devices such as parallelism, and comprehend metaphorical language.
  
• describe, evaluate, and question the purpose, audience, organization, and style of assigned readings, as well as determine a writer’s background, historical period, and cultural niche for discussion of bias, diversity or shifting perspectives.
  
• carry out a research plan which entails identification of research questions, location and evaluation of sources, selection of quotes, and avoidance of plagiarism.
  
• demonstrate control of college-level writing skills by crafting and revising cogent, lucid arguments. The student’s writing will exhibit logical, clear thinking, control of meaning, maturity of style, and appropriate tone.
  
• employ thesis statements, topic sentences, supporting data, introductions, and conclusions. They will effectively incorporate source material located during research.
  
• demonstrate appropriate skill in common writing conventions, including standard written American English, and correct MLA documentation and formatting.

Introduction

We're doing a bit of background learning this week, the sort of nuts and bolts basics that need to be reviewed before going forward. We're also going to begin Marijuana is Safer this week. It will be used for many of our discussions. It's available FREE online, which is why you have not been asked to purchase the book. The only real problem is that the entire book is on one web page, so it's necessary to scroll down a long list of pages as we get further into the book.

2a - Discussion: MLA Manuscript & Works Cited - Graded

Throughout this course, and likely throughout your education, you will be required to adhere not only to standard writing conventions but also to a style of presenting your ideas and documenting the sources of information you used to develop and support those ideas. This course uses MLA (Modern Language Association) style, though there are several other options such as APA, Chicago, Turabian, etc.

In this discussion we will be exploring the requirements of MLA style in setting up a paper.

2b - Discussion: Academic Conversations - Graded

Regardless of the subject or discipline one chooses to study, there is a whole body of theories, debates, and conclusions that have already been discussed. Learning that background information is what research is all about. Without understanding what's already been discovered, one might not even be able to get started. For instance, if a neurosurgeon didn't understand what had been learned about the anatomy of a brain, it would be impossible to effectively treat a patient.

In this discussion we will be exploring the importance of past as well as present to understanding of future and how that all comes together in academic discussions. That's where the introduction to Marijuana is Safer will come in. How does an introduction to a text help us to understand the background of an on-going subject discussion?