Contributions to the Literacy Debate

Contribution Paper Assignment

Task

For your contribution paper, you will be extending the paradigm case you have chosen (or are choosing) into a line of argument. In other words, you will move from your paradigm case to a main point that will say something new in the literacy discussion. That means you need to go beyond simply stating your paradigm case and comparing and contrasting what other people might say with respect to it as in analysis. You will still need to position yourself, but you will be placing other authors on main, faulty and return paths. In addition, you will be developing your own line of argument along the three milestones: seeing the issue, defining the problem, and choosing a solution. Think of any of the authors we have read. Each of them offers something at those milestones. Some focus more on one or two, but they are typically all developed.

Purpose and audience

You need to think about where your readers stand in relation to the claims you will be making in your line of argument. Think of readers who do not understand your claims and who disagree with your claims.

Reading

There is no "required" set of authors for this paper. It is time for you to make your own selections from among the authors on the reading list. Your job is to use all the relevant authors we have read to this point in the semester as part of the available means of persuasion.

Requirements

Length. It will probably take most of you approximately eight pages to adequately argue your position. You should be less concerned with meeting some length requirement than with developing a cogent and responsible line of argument.

Grading Criteria

This assignment (like all previous assignments for this course) presents a set of criteria against which each paper will be judged. For this assignment the criteria are: