Length: Up to you

Assignment:
Your assignment is to use your research to write about the one thing that most interests you—that you most want to learn more about and write about. For example, are you very interested in reading a new science fiction novel, but don’t have time? Do you like to cook but never have time to look at new cookbooks or test new recipes? Do you shop on-line and want to research how safe it is? Would you like a chance to study your family’s genealogy? Have you ignored your spiritual side or even a valued hobby since you came to college? The only criteria for this project are that you read (research), write, and revise a project on a topic that is of importance to you. (You can’t write about controversial topics unless you show me how these "issues" are your own story. This is your project.)

Your final product could be a formal, argumentative paper, a developed personal essay, a short story, a research report, a web site, a cookbook, a wedding planner, a brochure, etc. You decide what you will read, what you will write, how much work you will do, and how you will be graded. If you would like to do a collaborative project (probably a sort of magazine, newsletter, web site, linked hypertext, video, or literary anthology) you may do that—just make sure your group’s proposal explains to me who is doing what and how each group member would like to be evaluated. Keep in mind, though, that you will be revising this project to put it in a different format for an audience other than you and me.

Purpose:
This project will serve several purposes: it

• gives you a chance to design and propose a major project in an area of your interest.
• gives you a chance to tie the work you are doing in this class to your interests or work in other courses.
• provides you with an opportunity to pace and direct your own work.

• a reading component (a specific reading list of between 150-500 pages)

• a writing component (specific writing assignments of between 9-15 pages)

• an annotated bibliography that shows me the reading you’ve done on this topic

• a carefully constructed proposal in which you tell me what you will read, write, and revise as well as when you will turn materials in and how these materials should be evaluated.

1. For an A: 350+ pages of reading (your preliminary—for the proposal—reading list must include at least that much from 9+sources) 15+ pages of writing described in your proposal. This can be reading journals, typed notes, storyboarding, drafts, your final project (s), your revised work, just let me know in your proposal what to be expecting.
   
   
2. For a B: 250-350 pgs. reading (your preliminary—for the proposal—reading list must include at least that much from 7-8 sources) 12-15 pages of writing described in your proposal. This can be reading journals, typed notes, storyboarding, drafts, your final project (s), your revised work, just let me know in your proposal what to be expecting.
   
   
3. For a C: 200-250 pgs reading (your preliminary—for the proposal—reading list must include at least that much from 5-6 sources) 9-12 pages of writing described in your proposal. This can be reading journals, typed notes, storyboarding, drafts, your final project (s), your revised work, just let me know in your proposal what to be expecting.
   
   
4. For a D: fewer than 150 pgs of reading from 4 or fewer proposed sources. Fewer than 8 pages of writing described in your proposal. This can be reading journals, typed notes, storyboarding, drafts, your final project (s), your revised work, just let me know in your proposal what to be expecting.

Grading rubric for this assignment
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