Near the end of the semester, you will have the following assignment:

In small steps, you have spent a good deal of this course completing the "short paper" requirement. You will now need to tie up the assignment by compiling your Short Papers--all of which have been posted to the class listserv--and affixing to them a cover memo.  The cover memo should be approximately 500 words, and it should take the form of a personal  reflection on the papers in the packet.  You should discuss the papers in the packet (not necessarily one at a time nor in any order) in such a way as to reflect, synthesize, critique, and "continue the conversation" with yourself and with me.  You might choose to talk about some of the following:

• what you've learned from writing them; 
• what you like about them and why;
• what you dislike about them and why;
• how your thinking has developed in response to the readings, the discussions, etc;
• how you might write some things differently if you were to revise the short papers;
• which issues/ideas/theories/arguments/concepts struck you as the most fruitful;
• which of the above you will make use of in your final project, if any; and
• which of the papers will get incorporated into your final project, if any, and in what way.

You need not address all of the above, and you should feel free to reflect on the papers in other ways that you find useful.  Your cover memo should ultimately match the purpose behind the above list--which is directly related to the timing of the due date: I want you to revisit these papers and re-think them with the value of hindsight and further scholarship in the course at precisely the time when you are composing your final project.  I am hopeful that such timing will enrich your reading of the papers and re-engage you with potential ideas in them, thus helping you both pragmatically and conceptually as you develop your final project and as you work toward a more complex and informed position on the place of rhetoric in writing and thinking online. 

page last updated Fall 05