Homework Due Monday, February 7

Part One: Print out and read (if you haven’t already) the Thurgood Marshall essay for Essay #1 (I emailed it to you & it is also in the box.net widget to the right of this page).  While reading (and, ideally, re-reading), choose a paragraph, section, term, or piece of evidence that you think is particularly important and/or interesting from the essay. Why is it important or interesting? Using one (or more!) of the elaboration strategies from pages 96-7, discuss the section you chose further. Think of this as a rough draft of the response section of your paper. Respond directly to the Marshall text using direct quotation and paraphrasing. The more you write now, the better. You should come in with at least one typed page in MLA format.

Re-read your elaboration. Using the topic and strategy you have elaborated on, and the advice from pages 98-105, write a preliminary thesis and at least one revision of the thesis statement.

Part Two: State the main point or thesis of Marshall’s essay in one or two sentences. List the three most important points that Marshall states in the essay to support his main point/thesis. Think of this as a brainstorm/outline for your summary. (Hint: your summary should probably include the information you are going to elaborate on in the response, right?)

Next, make a list of background information that your audience will need to know in order to understand Marshall’s thesis statement. An example of background information is that Thurgood Marshall was a Supreme Court Justice. (Hint: is it important that your reader know when he was a justice…?)

Part Three: Skim Chapter Five “Editing for Correctness” (pages 162-195). If there is a topic that discusses a mistake you make commonly, you should focus on that section and consider working through the exercises. However, you do not need to turn anything in for this part of the homework.