English 1121 Project

Reading Interactively: Creating Meaning
Reading Critically: Analyzing and Evaluating Sources

Goals:

• Practice reading as an interactive and creative process of exploration by experimenting with strategies that can improve comprehension and deepen understanding.
• Practice reading as a process of critical thinking by comparing and contrasting two models for analyzing arguments: the Toulmin model and P.L.A.C.E.
• Practice using these models to analyze and evaluate sources.
• In a process memo, describe your reading process.

Main Assignment:

This project has four main parts:

1. You will practice reading as an interactive and creative process of exploration by experimenting with strategies that can improve comprehension and deepen understanding. This will involve some detailed note taking as you read and discuss an assigned text.
2. You will practice the three strategies used to represent sources in our own writing: direct quotation, paraphrase, and summary.
3. You will practice reading critically to analyze and evaluate sources. We will practice using two models for rhetorical analysis: P.L.A.C.E. and the Toulmin model. Following this practice you will draft a rhetorical analysis of the assigned text.
4. In a process memo, you will describe your reading process.

TIP for Online students: If your try to grasp this whole project all at once, you may feel overwhelmed. This project has 10 steps in all. When this course is taught on campus, each of these steps represents one day's work -- that is, one hour of class time and the homework that follows. That's about two to three hours of work per step, and 20 to 30 hours for the whole project. So, if you do feel overwhelmed, do this project one step a day over a two-week period. Post your questions and comments about the reading on the class discussion page.

Plan for completing this project

The Reading Process

Step 1. Practice reading as an interactive and creative process of exploration by experimenting with strategies that can improve comprehension and deepen understanding.

• Read the New Century Handbook, section 2b.
• View the PowerPoint presentation "The Reading Process: Creating Meaning."

Step 2: Practicing reading -- Previewing and reading

The assigned text for this semester is the essay "In the Midst of Water: Origin and Destiny of Life." by Billy Wilson. (When you follow this link to the PTK Web site, you may have to log in as a GUEST.) Print out the essay and take notes in the margins.

• Previewing -- Begin by previewing the selection as a whole. By looking ahead, you will gain a general sense of what is to come. This sense will help you predict what to expect from the text as you read and will help you better understand what you are reading. Jot down in a notebook any first impressions and questions that occur to you during previewing. What do you know about this piece already? Do you know anything about the author(s)? What does its form (poem, article, story, math problem, etc.) lead you to expect from this reading? Does its place of publication influence your expectations? What is the purpose of your reading (study, research, information, entertainment, etc.)?
• First reading -- Read the text one stanza or one paragraph or one sentence at a time. As you read each section, write a detailed description of what you see in your mind.

Imagine you are writing a movie of your thoughts. Do not worry about whether your mental picture is right or wrong. Just be honest. Write what you actually are thinking as you read. The goal here is to study how you personally create meaning from words. The more accurate and detailed your notes are, the better will be your understanding of your reading process.

Pace your reading according to the difficulty of the material -- the more difficult the material, the more slowly you should read it. You may find that you need to take frequent breaks if the text is especially dense or contains a lot of new information. You also may find that you need to reread some passages several times in order to get the gist of the piece.

Step 3: Practicing reading -- Discussing

• Share your notes with the other members of your writing group who have just read the same text. Exchange ideas and add new insights you gain to the notes you already have. Together with other readers, explore the inferred meanings and evaluated meanings of the text (see Handbook, sec. 2b.1).
• Read the text aloud with a partner and discuss your interpretations. Reading aloud is another way of presenting an interpretation of a text. Think about all the different ways an actor can read a line of dialogue and how each reading can give the words a different meaning. Add to your notes after this oral reading.

Step 4: Practicing reading -- Reviewing

What do you know about the personal experience of the writer of the text? How does biographical and/or historical information affect your understanding? Add more insights to your notes after this class discussion.

Once you have completed a thorough reading and discussion, go back to the text and review it. Have the questions you had when previewing and first reading been answered? If not, reread the relevant passages and continue discussion with your classmates and teacher. Annotate the text as you do this reviewing. Your annotation should summarize the key ideas of the text (see the Handbook, sec. 2b.3).

Using Sources

Step 5: Writing about your reading -- direct quotation, paraphrase, and summary.

• Paraphrase -- A paraphrase restates the source in your own words. Select a difficult passage from the text. The passage you select should be one long paragraph or several short consecutive paragraphs all dealing with a single main point in the essay. Rephrase this passage in your own words (see the Handbook, sec. 11c).
• Summary -- a summary briefly states the author's thesis and main supporting points (see the Handbook, sec. 11d). Write a one page summary of the Wilson's essay.
• Direct quotation -- Choose the most memorable sentence from the assigned reading and incorporate this sentence as a direct quotation in your summary (see the Handbook, sec. 11b).

Rhetorical Analysis

Step 6: Practice using the P.L.A.C.E. model to analyze an argument.

View the PowerPoint presentation, "P.L.A.C.E. for Arguments." Use P.L.A.C.E. to analyze the rhetorical elements of this assigned text. Add the findings of your analysis to your reading notes.

Also see the web page for "P.L.A.C.E." You may want to print this page for future reference.

Step 7: Practice using the Toulmin model to analyze the elements of an argument.

View the PowerPoint presentation on the Toulmin model.
Also see the web page for the Toulmin model. You may want to print this page for future reference.

Use this model to analyze the same text. With the members of your writing group, compare and contrast your analyses using these two models. Add your findings to your notes. Also do a Web search for a short biography of Stephen Toulmin and more information about his theory of argument.

Step 8: Choose the model you prefer, PLACE or Toulmin. Using your notes from Step 8, draft a rhetorical analysis of the assigned text.

View the PowerPoint presentation, "Analytical Writing."

Step 9: Share your analysis and revise.

Share your analysis with the other members of your writing group. Based on their responses, review and revise your work. Proofread and edit your final draft before turning it in for credit.

Step 10: Write your process memo.

Process Memo:

After you have completed your study of the reading process and drafted your rhetorical analysis, you should write a process memo in which you describe your reading process. Give an account of how you came to understand or interpret the reading through the activities practiced in this project.

• How did you feel during the first reading and note taking?
• How did your understanding of the text change when you read collaboratively with your group? With the whole class?
• How was your interpretation affected by learning more about the contexts of the writers and the subject?
• What differences did you observe in the two rhetorical models we used (Toulmin and P.L.A.C.E.)?
• How will this project affect the way you read sources in the future?

Project Requirements:

To receive credit for this project, you must turn in:

___ your reading notes
___ your paraphrase and summary with a direct quote and correct citation
___ your rhetorical analysis
___ your process memo

Additional Readings

Scharber, Wendy. "Analysis of an Argument." Sample student paper, 14 May 1998.