UOFM Descriptive Writing on The Forbidden Wonder of Birds Argumentative Essay

Completing this assignment provides you opportunity to:

• apply critical reading practices to two articles
• demonstrate your ability to write concise and accurate summaries for academic purposes
• locate your relationship to the article by examining your personal response
• identify and evaluate the ideas, perspectives, and writing strategies article

Writing Tasks

Write a summary, analysis, and response for Helen MacDonald, “The Forbidden Wonder of Birds Nests and Eggs (Links to an external site.)” and one other article that we’ve read so far (E. Shelley Reid, “Ten Ways To Think About Writing: Metaphoric Musings For College Writing Students (Links to an external site.)“; Helen MacDonald, Introduction to Vesper Flights; Harvard Library, “Six Habits of Reading (Links to an external site.)”; Rita Carter, “Why Reading Matters ” (TEDx talk); Gita Dasbender, “Critical Thinking In College Writing: From The Personal To The Academic (Links to an external site.)” — either DasBender’s essay OR the model student essay she provides; Annie Dillard, “Living Like Weasels“.

Each summary, analysis, and response should be three paragraphs with the following requirements:

Paragraph One: Write a summary in which you:

• Introduce the author (using their full name) and the title of the essay.
• Identify the author’s main argument or thesis.
• Provide a 3 sentence summary of the author’s primary reasoning in support of the thesis.
• Quote a key passage from essay using MLA format and appropriate signal phrases. Example: “More specifically, Simnitt writes _______.” This passage is important because _____.

NOTE: The second paragraph in the model student essay in Gita Dasbender, “Critical Thinking In College Writing: From The Personal To The Academic (Links to an external site.)” is a good example.

Paragraph Two: Write an analysis in which you write several sentences about ONE of the following:

• Describe the exigency or purpose for writing. Why is this article needed? What does it add to the world?

OR

• Identify at least one way the author develops a relationship with the audience. Use details from the article to elaborate.

OR

• Look at how the author uses transitions between paragraphs and ideas. How does the author make connections? What can you apply to your own writing?

Or

• Identify a stakeholder in the issue whose perspective is missing from the article. Why is that stakeholder needed? What would they add?

Paragraph Three: Reflect on your personal response to the essay. Choose one of the Personal Response strategies from DasBender’s article:

• Tell a story that you are reminded of after reading the essay.

OR

• Focus on an idea or quote that is personally meaningful to you and explain why.

OR

• Write a short letter to the author in which you

PARAGRAPH FOUR: Reflect on your learning by answer the following two questions:

• What was most challenging about the assignment?
• How did completing this assignment help you work toward your goals for this class?

CHALLENGE ASSIGNMENT FOR AN EXTRA WILD CARD

To earn an extra wild card, complete one additional summary, analysis, and response for another article available on the Case Study page of our textbook module. You might wish to watch and create a summary/analysis for Rita Carter, “Why Reading Matters ” (TEDx talk). You can submit the challenge assignment in the same document as Drafting Lab 2.

Criteria for Evaluation