Final Exam

You will be asked to write answers of a few sentences each in response to eight questions chosen from the list below.

1.     Aside from the chickens themselves, who is harmed by factory farm production of chickens?

2.     What is unethical about most commercial dairy farming?

3.     What does it mean for eggs to be labeled organic?

4.     What is unethical about farm raising salmon?

5.     What are some of the benefits of buying produce locally?

6.     When is it less ethical to buy produce locally?

7.     What does fair trade mean?

8.     What are the benefits of organic farming?

9.     What are some ethical arguments for going vegan?

1.  In what ways are vegans better for the environment?

1.  Why is meat, particularly beef, an inefficient food source?

1.  What is ethical about practicing freeganism?

Facts About Your Research Paper

Research paper – English 101

1. This research paper should present a thesis that is specific, manageable, provable, and contestable—in other words, the thesis should offer a clear position, stand, or opinion that will be proven with research.   You should analyze and prove your thesis using examples and quotes from a variety of sources.  

2. You need to research and cite from at least five sources.  You must use at least 3 different types of sources.

o   At least one source must be from a library database.

o   At least one source must be a book, anthology or textbook. 

o   At least one source must be from a credible website, appropriate for academic use.

o   The paper should not over-rely on one main source for most of the information. Rather, it should use multiple sources and synthesize the information found in them.

3.  This paper will be approximately 6-8 pages in length, not including the Works Cited page, which is also required.  This means at least 6 full pages of text.  The Works Cited page does NOT count towards length requirement.  

4. You must use MLA format for the document, in-text citations, and Works Cited page.

5. You must integrate quotations and paraphrases using signal phrases and analysis or commentary.  

6. You must sustain your argument, use transitions effectively, and use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

7. Your paper must be logically organized and focused.

Prompt for research paper

Students, we will flesh out this prompt further in class, and I'll note any important changes here. However, this covers the territory I expect you to cover.

In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, we read that in the mid-1990s, when the Taliban first took power in Afghanistan, their arrival was welcomed by many people. Further investigation showed that within a couple of years, signs of that welcome were difficult to find. Investigate the conditions that once made the people of Afghanistan hopeful that the Taliban regime would bring about a positive change. Also investigate the changes that turned some of those same people against their so-called liberators in the Taliban. 

Write a six to eight page paper describing the welcome that came and disappeared, and the reasons behind it. You must use MLA formatting and citation guidelines, and at least five sources. Of those five, three must be from a newspaper or magazine article, one of which must be published by and English-language publisher based outside the United States; one must use video footage; one must be from a published book. 

MUST READ: Second Half of Semester

English 100

Mr. Tompkins

10/31/2014

I feel it would be helpful if I clarify my expectations for the class for the remaining weeks of the semester. 

November 3: Essay 2 is due

November 5: Research paper discussed

November 17: Research paper works cited due

November 24: Outline of research paper due

December 15: Research paper due

December 15: Final exam, including in-class essay about Ethics of What We Eat

In order to ensure that you will have an interesting, informative record of each class - I am asking that you take notes of everything we discuss in class each Wednesday between now and mid-December. I expect to see a record of the agenda for each class (copied from the board), and the material discussed in class. The quality of your notes will be weighted as if each week an extra homework grade has been added to your overall grade.

Until recently I have urged students to bring their digital devices to class to be able to search out information during discussions and to access class handout material during class. This is a college level class, and for that reason I don’t treat students as if they were high school students. It shouldn’t be necessary for a teacher to look over shoulders or to try to follow students’ digital footsteps during class time. However, it’s been brought to my attention that some students have been taking advantage of this. For that reason, I’m asking students to keep phones, iPads etc. in their backpacks unless we have a particular reason to bring them out. Students who aren’t wiling to cooperate will be asked to leave the class for the day.

I have dropped several students for poor attendance. Several others can not miss any more classes without being dropped.

Prompts for Kite Runner critical essay (Assignment 2)

Essay Assignment #2 – Literary Analysis of Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner

Write a four-to five-page literary analysis essay on one topic from the list below. 

1. Discuss the significance of kites in the novel. Consider both the function and symbolic significance of the kites. How do the traditions and practices of kite fighting and kite running portrayed in The Kite Runner express cultural values and replicate aspects of Afghanistan’s ethnic caste system?
2. Discuss the significance of giving and receiving gifts in The Kite Runner.  Consider both the function and symbolic significance of the gifts. How does the practice of giving gifts evolve over the course of the novel? How does the theme of gift giving enhance the main themes of the novel?
3. Compare and contrast the relationship between Soraya and her father with the relationship between Amir and his father. How do these relationships evolve from childhood through adulthood? How are these relationships affected by traditional attitudes about gender.

4. Could Amir and Hassan ever be true friends in the Western sense? What were the challenges their friendship faced: cultural, class, and personal? 

      5.  Hassan’s death could be looked as a suicide. He left his son without a father, which – given the hurt that missing parents caused both he and Amir – seemed like a bewildering and even selfish act. Defend or argue against this statement, using examples to make your point: Hassan had no choice but to return to Baba’s house where in the end he refused to flee the Taliban.

You may propose a topic of your own. However, you must get it approved by your instructor before you begin writing. 

Your essay 

• Should contain a clear thesis statement asserting your view, evaluation, or interpretation of a narrowly defined, focused aspect of your topic.
• Should abide by the conventions of writing about literature (e.g. use the present tense to describe fictional events and avoid attributing motive to the author).
• Should draw on detailed, concrete, specific evidence from the text of Kite Runner. Be sure to include in-text citations following direct quotations and specific text references. Example: According to Amir, “Winter was every kid’s favorite season in Kabul” (Hosseini 48).
• May include research material, as long as you cite your sources properly. However, you are not required to use research, and your evidence should consist primarily of your own analysis of the text.  

Due dates:

Draft October 29

Bring to class a reasonably complete draft of your essay, typed or neatly handwritten, which we will workshop in class. No points for late drafts!

Final draft – due Monday, November 3

Your final draft should be typed and double-spaced with all quotes and specific text references documented with parenthetical in-text citations in MLA (Modern Languages Association) format. Please include your prewriting/outline, draft, and peer review worksheets with your final draft. 

  

Bring a printed copy of your paper to class AND submit it electronically to Turnitin.com before class!

MLA Cheat Sheet

MLA Format Cheat Sheet

This handout provides a quick reference to the basics of using MLA style. For complete guidelines, consult MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7^th ed., call number: LB2369 .G53 2009. 

Major Updates from the New (7^th) Edition

·       MLA no longer requires underlining. Titles, such as books and periodical titles, are now italicized rather than underlined.

·       All entries in a reference list, whether print or electronic, must now include the medium in which they have been published (Print, Web, DVD, Television, etc.)

·       URLs are no longer required in citations. MLA recommends that writers only include a web address if the audience is unlikely to find the source otherwise.

·       New Abbreviations: Some sources do not have a date, publisher or pagination. MLA advises, where applicable, to write n.d. for no date, n.p. for no publisher, and n.pag. for no pagination given.

Formatting Basics

·       Double space throughout paper, with no extra spaces between paragraphs.  

·       Do not right justify.

·       Top, bottom, and side margins should be one inch.

·       Indent the first word of each paragraph by ½ inch or 5 spaces.

·       Do not use a title page for the research paper: instead simply type your name, instructor’s name, course number, and date. This should be flush with the left margin. 

·       Center the title of the paper. Do not underline the title, or put in “quotation marks,” or set in ALL CAPITALS. 

·       Number all pages consecutively in the upper right-hand corner, ½ inch from the top and flush with right margin.  Type your last name before the page number, and do not use “p.” before the number.

 

SAMPLE FIRST PAGE:

       

 Works Cited

MLA style requires that the list of Works Cited start on a new page at the end of your paper.  Formatting rules include:

·       Continue page numbering from the body of your paper.

·       Center the title “Works Cited,” one inch from the top.

·       Alphabetize entries by the author’s last name. If no author, alphabetize by the title (ignore A, An,The).

·       Use a hanging indent.

For books:

·       Name(s) of authors or editors.  If only citing one chapter within a book, the author and title (in “quotation marks”) of the chapter.

·       Title of book (including subtitle) italicized.

·       City of publication, name of the publisher, and year of publication.

·       Medium of publication.

·       Edition (only if 2nd ed. or later).

·       Volume number (if there is one).

·       If citing one chapter within a book, the page numbers of the chapter.

For print journal and magazine articles :

·       Names of authors.

·       Title of article in “quotation marks.”

·       Title of journal or magazine italicized.

·       Volume number (for a journal).

·       Issue number (for a journal, if available).

·       Date of publication (for journal article, note year only).

·       Page numbers of the article.

·       Medium of publication (Print).

For journal and magazine articles acquired using a library database:

·       Names of authors.

·       Title of article in “quotation marks.”

·       Title of journal or magazine italicized.

·       Volume number and issue number (for a journal).

·       Date of publication (for journal article, note year only).

·       Page numbers of the article as originally published in print journal.

·       Name of the database italicized.

·       Medium of publication (Web).

·       Date of access (day, month, and year).

For websites:

·       Name of author or editor (if given).

·       Title of the work italicized if the work is independent; in quotation marks if it is part of a larger work.

·       Title of the overall website italicized, if distinct from above.

·       Publisher or sponsor of the site; if not available, use n.p.

·       Date of publication (day, month, and year), if not available, use n.d.

·       Medium of publication (Web).

·       Date of access (day, month, and year).

Examples of Citations

Book with one author:

Steele, Timothy. The Color Wheel: Poems. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1994. Print.

Book with two or three authors:

Broer, Lawrence R., and Gloria Holland. Hemingway and Women: Female Critics and the Female

                  Voice. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2002. Print.

Book with four or more authors:

Jones, Terry, et al. Who Murdered Chaucer?: A Medieval Mystery.  New York: Thomas Dunne Books,

2004. Print.

Chapter in a book:

Naremore, James. "Hitchcock at the Margins of Noir." Alfred Hitchcock: Centenary Essays. 

Ed. Richard Allen and S. Ishii-Gonzales. London: BFI, 1999. 263-77.  Print.

Translation:

Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji .  Trans. Royall Tyler.  New York: Viking, 2001.  Print.

Print journal article:

Levine, June Perry. “Passage to the Odeon: Too Lean.” Literature Film Quarterly  

14.3 (1986): 139-50. Print.

Journal article acquired using a library database:

Letemendia, V. C. “Revolution on Animal Farm: Orwell's Neglected Commentary.” Journal of Modern Literature 18.1 (1992): 127-37. JSTOR . Web. 6 July 2009.

Website:

Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web.  7 July 2009.

Newspaper article:

Daker, Susan.  “No Happy Holiday for Refiners.” Wall Street Journal 3 July 2009: C10.  Print.

Film:

Chocolat.  Dir. Lasse Hallstrom.  Perf.  Alfred Molina and Juliette Binoche. 2000.  Miramax, 2003.  DVD.

Parenthetical Citations

•        References in your paper must clearly point to specific sources in your list of Works Cited.

•        In most cases, providing the author’s last name and the page number is sufficient: 

Medieval Europe was a place both of “raids, pillages, slavery, and extortion” and of “traveling merchants, monetary exchange, towns if not cities, and active markets in grain” (Townsend 10).

•        If you have several works by the same author, also include the title (abbreviated if long):

(Frye, Double Vision 85).

•        If no author is listed, use the title (shortened if long):

Voice of the Shuttle has many electronic sources.

•        If using the title, remember to use correct punctuation: italicize book titles, use quotation marks for journal articles, short stories, book chapters, etc.

•        The author’s name can be referred to within the sentence:

Tannen has argued this point (178-85).

         …or the author’s name can be referred to within the parenthetical reference:

This point has already been argued (Tannen 178-85).

For additional help

•        Consult Joseph Gibaldi’s MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7^th ed,
available at the Reference Desk and on Reserve.

•        Refer to the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/15/

•        Utilize bibliographic management tools such as…
                  -RefWorks - https://www.refworks.com/Refworks

                           - Zotero (Firefox only) - http://www.zotero.org/

         - Knight Cite - http://www.calvin.edu/library/knightcite/