Discussion Group Mini-Essays (=MEs) and Classmate Responses (=CRs)

You will be assigned to a Polylearn discussion group of 6-8 students.  In your group's Discussion Forum, you will post most of your "lower-stakes" writing assignments.  These ungraded assignments include five mini-essays (=MEs) and ten Classmate Responses (=CRs). 

While ungraded, MEs and CRs are scaffolded writing assignments designed to prepare you to do well on higher-stakes, graded writing assignments (a 3- to 4- page expanded and revised Essay and the essay components of the Midterm and Final Exams).  Additionally, MEs and CRs count toward the 35% of your course grade based upon participation, intellectual engagement, and collaboration, and they are required for you to get credit for your 3-4 page graded Paper.  

Write your MEs using the ME Template provided on Polylearn to ensure proper formatting (and to consult the additional ME tips and pointers included on this template).

To receive credit for each of your MEs, you must submit TWO one-paragraph CRs (in response to two different MEs posted by other Discussion Group members) by the designated CR due dates.  These ungraded CRs put you into dialogue with other members of your Discussion Group about the texts you have been reading and are therefore included in the "participation, intellectual engagement, and collaboration" portion of your final grade.

MEs are due to your assigned Discussion Forum no later than midnight on the days indicated on the course calendar (for specific due dates, see class Calendar of Assignments).  For classes meeting MW or TR, MEs are typically due on Fridays; for classes meeting WF, MEs are typically due on Saturdays.  Start a new "thread" for each Mini-Essay.  The SUBJECT LINE for your ME posting should begin with the ME number followed by a colon and the title of your ME, which should make clear what work and topic you are writing about.

CRs are due to your assigned Discussion Forum no later than midnight on the days indicated on the course calendar (typically on Sundays for responses to MEs posted on Fridays, and on Mondays for reponses to MEs posted on Saturdays; specific dates are indicated on the course Calendar of Assignments).  To submit a Classmate Reponse, hit the "reply" key from within the text of the ME to which you are responding so that your response forms a thread directly linked to the ME of your classmate.  (Do NOT start a new discussion thread when submitting a Classmate Response.)
 

1) The point of an ME is not say what you liked or disliked about a reading, to criticize it, or to praise it.  Instead, you should demonstrate your understanding of the medieval reading on its own terms, in the medieval context. You might analyze how specific imagery is used by the author to achieve a goal, or explore how the structure of or key passages in the text reveal what the author was "up to" -- what message the author wanted to convey to the target audience.  Whether or not you personally agree with the author or would be persuaded by the text is an interesting thing to discuss over coffee, but it won't demonstrate your understanding of a medieval text within its own cultural and historical context.  The key here is to "unpack" the text in a way that demonstrates your understanding of its significance to our class.  

2) MEs are not research assignments.  The only citations in your essay should be quotations from the medieval literary work you are writing about.  Do NOT quote secondary sources (e.g. text introductions, footnotes, online readings, Wikipedia entries, etc.).  There is no need to provide documentation for background information presented in lectures or assigned background readings. That information is now "yours" and can be included in your ME without specific documentation.

Your introductory paragraph SHOULD include background information that is directly relevant to your claims (e.g. information about the work's author, date, and target audience; conventions of a specific genre), but don't fill your ME with "factoids" -- background information that is accurate but does not directly help you set up your argument and support your claims.  DO provide definitions of key terms that are necessary to your argument.

3) Mini-Essays are primarily intended to do two things:  get you to engage critically with a medieval text, and give you an opportunity to practice analytic writing skills through lower-stakes (ungraded) writing that will help prepare you to do well on the higher-stakes (and graded) assignments:  the essay sections on exams (together worth approximately 20% of the course grade)  and the 3-4 page expanded and revised Essay that counts for 15% of the final course grade.  Don't try to dazzle me with something new and original.  Aim instead to demonstrate your grasp of significant issues pointed to in the Study Guides and covered in our class meetings.   Once you have determined your focus, concentrate on articulating your specific claims clearly and explicitly in your opening paragraph and constructing a strong logical argument based upon close reading (analysis of specific passages in the text) to support those claims. Your paper should demonstrate your ability to

• understand a medieval work in its own context, on its own terms
• construct a logical argument (i.e. paragraph order should be carefully thought out)
• support that argument with well-chosen textual passages
• write clear, correct, formal prose which conforms to the stylistic guidelines indicated (and avoids common errors listed) on the the ESSAY EVALUATION CHECKLIST

Use the ME Template available on Polylearn to ensure that your ME is correctly formatted.  Note that this template also includes additional tips and pointers to help you write a strong ME!

Your mini-essay (=ME) should consist of an introductory paragraph which explicitly articulates your claims (it is not enough simply to identify the topic you will explore without saying what you will argue about that topic); 2-4 body paragraphs of argumentation based on close reading, i.e. textual support (aim for 2-4 quotations incorporated into each body paragraph) and analysis of the citations to back up your claims; and a conclusion summing up the argument and, if you wish, offering a final insight that points to issues beyond the scope of the ME (i.e. connecting the focus of the ME to larger issues in the work, making connections to other readings, or speculating about to the author's intentions or the way the work may have been received by its original audience).  

Your ME should engage the medieval text in a way that demonstrates you have thought about the study questions, paid attention to class lectures, and read the text closely.  Your ME must include citation from the primary text(s) (include appropriate documentation in parentheses following the quotation).  Each body paragraph should typically include at least 2-3 pieces of textual evidence to illustrate and support your claims.   MEs that merely summarize the text without demonstrating your critical thinking and close-reading skills will not fulfill the assignment!

Do NOT quote secondary sources (e.g. text introductions, footnotes, or online readings).  The information they contain is now "yours," and for the purpose of these assignments, you can mention it as relevant to your argument without specific documentation. Do NOT include every bit of background information you know about a given text or author, but DO include any background information that is necessary to set up your argument (typically, the work's date; what we know about the author, the target audience, and what the author was "up to" in creating the text).

MEs should adhere to the two-page target length. (so that you have room to revise and expand the ungraded ME of your choice into the 3-4-page graded essay).  They should be focused, well organized, written in grammatically correct, formal prose (no sentence fragments; no slang; watch punctuation and word choice!), and supported by well-chosen textual evidence (i.e. you must CITE THE MEDIEVAL TEXT to back up your claims in every body paragraph).  Document your textual support with page numbers (or LINE NUMBERS if the text has individually numbered lines) in parentheses immediately following the quotation.  Include a Work Cited at the end of the ME.

ME SUBMISSION: PLEASE FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY!!

• Create your ME using the ME Template on Polylearn.  Open this template in your normal word processor (so that you can use  the spell check and grammar check functions). Be sure to include your name, the date, and the class number and section at the upper left (the correct, single-spaced formatting is found in the ME Template).   Put the ME number followed by a colon and the ME title (centered) on the next line.  The title you choose for your ME should mention the author and/or title of the work you are writing about and give an idea of your focus and central claims.
  
• Save the ME as a .docx file under the filename "[yourlastname]ME1" (or ME2, ME3, ME4, ME5, as applicable).  You will upload this document as a .docx attachment to your Discussion Group posting so that a printable file is easily accessible to peer editors and to your teacher.  (A .docx file (not a .PDF) is required so that MEs may be added to the database used for plagiarism checks.)  
• When you are ready to submit your ME, go to your ME Discussion Group forum on PolyLearn and click on "Add a new discussion topic" to start a new "thread." 
  
• On the Subject line, put the ME number followed by a colon and the ME title. 
• In the "Message" field, use the copy and paste function to post the text only of your ME (introduction, body paragraphs, conclusion, and Work Cited) so that your classmates may post responses to it in a discussion thread. (No need to paste in the ME number and title, since you have included them on the Subject line; also no need to paste in your name, the date, or the class number that are at the top of the .docx file, since that information is provided by the posting itself.)  Note that formatting (underlining etc.) may not transfer from your Word Processor, so you will need to proofread your posting carefully and use the formatting tabs at the top of the Message box as necessary to reformat your ME.
  
• Finally, use the "Attachment" function to upload the .docx file of your ME which you previously saved under the file name "[yourlastname]ME#.docx"
• NOTE: There is only a 30-minute window in which you can make changes to your posting, so proofread your ME submission carefully before you click submit!
  

CLASSMATE RESPONSE GUIDELINES:

By midnight on the dates indicated on the Calendar of Assignments (typically, Sundays for MEs posted on Fridays and Mondays for MEs posted on Saturday), you must read the MEs posted by the other members of your discussion group and post Classmate Responses (=CRs) to two of them. Your CRs should be at least one thoughtful and substantive paragraph in length (no less than 100 words).  Because a CR is intended to open a substantive conversation with your classmate, begin by addressing the author by name.  Your CRs should either build upon or offer a counter argument to the ME you are responding to; be sure that you address both your classmate's ideas and the medieval text, WHICH YOU SHOULD QUOTE AT LEAST ONCE, using a citation which was NOT included in the ME to which you are responding.  You must post two CRs in order to receive credit for each of your MEs.

For your CRs, choose the MEs you feel you can respond to most substantively and fruitfully.  As a rule, you should choose the MEs which you find strongest / most interesting -- but you may also respond to an ME with which you disagree, provided that you do so RESPECTFULLY and that you back up your assertions with textual support.

The best CRs are neither mean-spirited nor lazy ("I agree with everything you said") -- it's not about criticizing your classmate's ideas, nor is it about praising them.  The best CRs build on your classmate's ideas or offer another way of understanding the the text which your classmate wrote about.  Be sure that you address BOTH your classmate's ideas AND your own thoughts about the text (which you should cite at least once, choosing a citation that was NOT quoted by your classmate in the ME to which you are responding).

Like your 5 ungraded MEs, your 10 ungraded CRs are "lower-stakes" writing that are not individually graded but factor into the 35% participation, intellectual engagement, and collaboration component of your final course grade.  But while they are not individually graded, please take them seriously.  MEs and CRs are "scaffolded" writing assignments designed to prepare you to do well on the higher-stakes, graded writing that counts for a significant portion of your final course grade (15% for the 3- to 4-page essay that is a revision and expansion of one of your first four MEs; one third to one half of exam points for the essay component of the Midterm and Final Exams, which together count for approximately 20% of the final course grade).