Prewriting for the Explanatory Essay

This week, you are planning and prewriting for your Explanatory Essay.

To successfully complete your Unit 4 assignment, complete the following steps:

1. Examine the List of Approved Articles for Writing, and identify an article relevant to your life and goals. This article may pertain to your academic program and interests, your current or future career and goals, or one of your personal passions.
2. Read the article several times, taking careful notes on the article’s structure, concepts, and presentation of facts. Narrow to a single topic that sparks your interest in that article.
3. Begin your library research by going to the Capella Library and searching across all collections, using the Summon search tool. On your iGuide page, go to Library, and locate the Summon search box. You will use your search terms and once you have searched, check the boxes Items with full text online and Limit to articles from scholarly publications, including peer-review. This way, you will know that your results are both in full-text (so you will be able to read the entire article online), and that they meet the important requirement of being scholarly and peer-reviewed by other experts in the field.
4. Choose two forms of prewriting from the following: freewriting, mapping, listing, brainstorming, and directed questioning.
   Fully execute your two chosen techniques, with the goal of explaining your article’s topics to your reader, based on the points made in the article and on your own understanding of the article and topics.
   • Remember, this is your opportunity to explore different ways of potentially approaching this essay. Prewriting is a way to expand your thinking and record your initial ideas. You are not committing to a clear plan at this point.
5. Compose your prewriting for the Explanatory Essay as your assignment for this unit. Include the following:
   • The author and title of your chosen article.
   • Your full and complete application of the two prewriting methods you performed.
   • A statement of the organizational structure (illustration, chronological order, process analysis, or causal analysis) you will apply, and why you feel this structure will be effective to explain your article of choice and its topics.
   • For instructions and examples related to in-text citation and end referencing of articles from your book, please refer to the Explanatory Essay Sample, linked in the Resources
6. When you have finished your prewriting, submit the assignment as a Word document.

Prewriting for the Explanatory Essay Scoring Guide

Due Date: End of Unit 4.
Percentage of Course Grade: 5%.

CRITERIA	NON-PERFORMANCE	BASIC	PROFICIENT	DISTINGUISHED
Apply accepted conventions of prewriting that develop potential main areas of an explanatory essay and relevant sub-points. 30%	Does not apply accepted conventions of prewriting.	Applies accepted conventions of prewriting, but does not develop potential main areas of an explanatory essay or relevant sub-points.	Applies accepted conventions of prewriting that develop potential main areas of an explanatory essay and relevant sub-points.	Applies accepted conventions of prewriting that develop potential main areas of an explanatory essay and relevant sub-points, and explores alternative approaches for writing the essay.
Locate a peer-reviewed scholarly library source and an approved textbook article relevant to a chosen explanatory essay topic. 30%	Does not locate a peer-reviewed scholarly library source and an approved textbook article relevant to a chosen explanatory essay topic.	Locates a peer-reviewed scholarly library source and an approved textbook article, but they are not relevant to the chosen explanatory essay topic.	Locates a peer-reviewed scholarly library source and an approved textbook article relevant to a chosen explanatory essay topic.	Locates a peer-reviewed scholarly library source and an approved textbook article relevant to a chosen explanatory essay topic that provide a detailed explanation about the chosen topic.
Explain how a specific organizational structure supports the effectiveness of an essay. 30%	Does not explain how a specific organizational structure supports the effectiveness of an essay.	Explains how a specific organizational structure supports the effectiveness of an essay, but the explanation lacks relevance or consideration of other potential organizational strategies, quotations, or appropriate citations.	Explains how a specific organizational structure supports the effectiveness of an essay.	Explains how a specific organizational structure supports the effectiveness of an essay compared to other potential organizational strategies.
Apply proper academic writing conventions of grammar, spelling, and APA document formatting. 10%	Does not apply proper academic writing conventions of grammar, spelling, and APA document formatting.	Applies some academic writing conventions of grammar, spelling, and APA document formatting but includes persistent errors.	Applies proper academic writing conventions of grammar, spelling, and APA document formatting.	Applies proper academic writing conventions of grammar, spelling, and APA formatting and citation style consistently and without errors.

LIST OF APPROVED ARTICLES FOR WRITING

from The Prentice Hall Guide for College Writers, 11th edition.

• “Athletes and Education” by Neil H. Petrie, page 25.
• “Cesar Chavez Saved My Life” by Daniel “Nene” Alejandrez, page 42.
• “Why We Still Need Feminism” by Casey Cavanaugh, page 66.
• “Declaration of Sentiment and Resolutions (Seneca Falls Resolution)” by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, et al., page 76.
• “Plagiarism in America” by Dudley Erskine Devlin, page 85.
• “Coming Home” by Carolyn Kleiner Butler, page 118.
• “The Effectiveness of the Transportation Security Administration” by Tanner Fox, page 130.
• “Surfin’ the Louvre” by Elizabeth Larsen, page 156.
• “How Baseball Explains Modern Racism” by David Sirota, page 185.
• “How Male and Female Students Use Language Differently” by Deborah Tannen, page 199.
• “5 Ways to Avoid College Debt” by David Bakke, page 254.
• “Debt by Degrees” by James Surowiecki, page 260.
• “An Open Letter to George M. Philip, President of the State University of New York at Albany” by Gregory Petsko, page 266.
• “The Argument Culture” by Deborah Tannen, page 302.
• “The Internet: A Clear and Present Danger” by Cathleen A. Cleaver, page 312.
• “Cyberbullying” by Jennifer Holladay, page 316.
• “Bullying as True Drama” by Danah Boyd and Alice Marwick, page 320.
• “Does the Internet Make You Dumber?” by Nicholas Carr, page 330.
• “Facebook Wrestles with Free Speech and Civility” by Miguel Helft, page 322.