Take-home writing assignment 1

For your first take home writing assignment, you will need to read Linton et al. article titled Introducing Students to Disciplinary Genres, which is available at http://wac.colostate.edu/llad/v1n2/linton.pdf.

After reading the article, summarize its main and most important points.  The two types of points may not have a one-to-one and onto relationship.  (In other words, the most important points may not be presented as main points and vice-versa.)

This paper should be between two and three full pages.  A simple "three paragraph" style paper will be fine, where you introduce your points, expand each in its own paragraph, and then recap.  Again, your paper is to be a summary.  Do not editorialize.(1)  Pages 416-7 in your book does an excellent job of describing some of the main points of summaries.  Review them before and after you've written your first draft, and then rewrite portions of your paper, if appropriate.

Email your final paper to rufwork@gmail.com.  Use the name TakeHome1_LastName_20090819 for your file (file extensions are fine, of course), and repeat that name in the subject of your email.  RTF, html, .doc, and .odf are all acceptable file formats.


Unnecessarily Convolution for the Particularly Precise Student

(1) Any composition requires some sort of editorial agency.  What does that mean?  By selecting certain parts of the Linton et al article, you will be presenting an edited version of what was originally said.  This exclusionary process, where you select points based on your own feelings and comprehension, inserts you as an "agent" between what Linton, Madigan, and Johnson had in mind and what your readers will learn.

This sort of unavoidable editorializing is okay.  ;^)  Ensure that when you're doing your editorializing that you minimize the amount that it biases your reader in their understanding of the article.  Do you best to write a summary in the same spirit as the original.