College Composition II Unit 2 In the season one finale of the television series, Mad Men, advertising executive Don Draper evokes nostalgia by flashing a series of his family photographs to sell the Carousel concept to Kodak. In just a couple of minutes, he reduces a man to tears and leaves everyone in the room amazed by his pitch to rename a product. This pitch is so successful because Draper has considered his audience and what will move them, and he has prepared for the presentation. If you wish to see Draper’s pitch, go to YouTube and search “Mad Men the Wheel” to access a link to the scene. For this week’s project, you will begin laying the foundation for your own “big idea” by creating a provisional thesis statement, describing your research strategy, and creating a brief “pitch” to a selected audience. The project should be at least two to three well-developed paragraphs. First of all, you will revise the provisional thesis statement that you generated in the Unit 2 Invention Lab. Make sure the thesis is concise (1-2 sentences) and clearly expresses a persuasive argument related to your topic. Then, discuss why you think this thesis will be an effective one and what challenges you might face in supporting this thesis. For more on creating effective persuasive thesis statements, review the following Writing Center resources: · Give Your Paper Direction: Developing a Strong Thesis Statement · Writing a Thesis for a Persuasive Essay Next, describe a research strategy for finding sources that could help you to support your thesis. What library databases might be helpful? What organizations or government web sites could have useful information? Have you thought about interviewing anyone? How will you avoid biased research that uses logical fallacies? You can review the Writing Center resource on creating a logical argument here: How to Support an Argument and Avoid Logical Fallacies,and for more on using the Kaplan Library, review this workshop. Once you have established a possible thesis statement and outlined your research strategy, write a paragraph creating a “pitch” for your big idea. Imagine that you have an audience for only a minute or two; how, in that space of time, can you persuade them of the value of your “big idea”? You could target your pitch to a local organization such as a PTA, a larger one like a state legislature, or the audience you imagine you could have on your blog. Be sure that you include a title page and that your project is double-spaced and uses 12 point font size. Unit 4 This project will focus on the primary and secondary research that will help you to develop and support your big idea to an audience. The assignment has 3 parts: a pre-interview worksheet, a discussion of secondary sources, and an APA-formatted references page. Use the Reflecting on Sources worksheet posted in Doc Sharing and be sure to follow instructions carefully. Part 1) Successful interviews are results of completing pre-interview tasks, s.

1. College Composition II
Unit 2
In the season one finale of the television series, Mad Men,
advertising executive Don Draper evokes nostalgia by flashing a
series of his family photographs to sell the Carousel concept to
Kodak. In just a couple of minutes, he reduces a man to tears
and leaves everyone in the room amazed by his pitch to rename
a product. This pitch is so successful because Draper has
considered his audience and what will move them, and he has
prepared for the presentation. If you wish to see Draper’s pitch,
go to YouTube and search “Mad Men the Wheel” to access a
link to the scene.
For this week’s project, you will begin laying the foundation for
your own “big idea” by creating a provisional thesis statement,
describing your research strategy, and creating a brief “pitch” to
a selected audience. The project should be at least two to three
well-developed paragraphs.
First of all, you will revise the provisional thesis statement that
you generated in the Unit 2 Invention Lab. Make sure the thesis
is concise (1-2 sentences) and clearly expresses a persuasive
argument related to your topic. Then, discuss why you think this
thesis will be an effective one and what challenges you might
face in supporting this thesis. For more on creating effective
persuasive thesis statements, review the following Writing
Center resources:
· Give Your Paper Direction: Developing a Strong Thesis
Statement
· Writing a Thesis for a Persuasive Essay
Next, describe a research strategy for finding sources that could
help you to support your thesis. What library databases might be
helpful? What organizations or government web sites could
have useful information? Have you thought about interviewing
anyone? How will you avoid biased research that uses logical
fallacies? You can review the Writing Center resource on

2. creating a logical argument here: How to Support an Argument
and Avoid Logical Fallacies,and for more on using the Kaplan
Library, review this workshop.
Once you have established a possible thesis statement and
outlined your research strategy, write a paragraph creating a
“pitch” for your big idea. Imagine that you have an audience for
only a minute or two; how, in that space of time, can you
persuade them of the value of your “big idea”? You could target
your pitch to a local organization such as a PTA, a larger one
like a state legislature, or the audience you imagine you could
have on your blog.
Be sure that you include a title page and that your project is
double-spaced and uses 12 point font size.
Unit 4
This project will focus on the primary and secondary research
that will help you to develop and support your big idea to an
audience. The assignment has 3 parts: a pre-interview
worksheet, a discussion of secondary sources, and an APA-
formatted references page. Use the Reflecting on Sources
worksheet posted in Doc Sharing and be sure to follow
instructions carefully.
Part 1) Successful interviews are results of completing pre-
interview tasks, such as identifying the interviewee, doing
research on the topic and interviewee, choosing a location or
method for the interview, and developing a list of questions.
This information will help build your confidence in
interviewing, along with helping negotiate a difficult interview.
While you are not required to conduct the interview and/or
include the information in your draft and final project,
preparing for the interview will enhance your knowledge about
your chosen topic.
Use complete sentences and Standard American English as
needed. The interviewee you have chosen should be someone
who can effectively contribute information to your final project;
this primary research will play a significant role in persuading
your audience to accept the ideas of change that you are

3. proposing in the final project.
Part 2) Writing at least one well-developed paragraph about
each source, summarize, assess, and reflect upon 3 secondary
sources related to your big idea. At least one of these needs to
present challenges and/or disagreements that you will have to
acknowledge and address as you develop your argument.
Compare and contrast the approaches these authors take towards
this issue, and determine which sources will be helpful and
why.
Part 3) Create a references page that lists the sources discussed
in part 2. The citations should be in APA format. Review the
Writing Center resources on APA manuscript style and
citations:
· Common Citations in APA Format (updated October 20, 2011)
· APA manuscript style
· Sample APA Research Paper
· APA: The Easy Way, Basic Citation
· APA: The Easy Way, Formatting
· Citation Guidelines
· Citing Web Sources with Ease
Unit 6 Project Description
Blueprint for Progress
This week’s project is your first version of the essay component
of your final project. You will present your big idea in a
persuasive and research supported manner and include your
revised thesis statement. The style of the essay should be
appropriate to an academic audience: avoid slang and stay in
third person, and use the proper APA citation and formatting
style.
For this project, review the feedback you received for the Units
2 and 4 projects as well as the Invention Lab comments relating
to the ideas, plans, and prewriting exercises you have completed
so far. Expand these ideas into a first draft. You do not have to
implement all of the comments from your instructor or
classmates, but you should pay attention to them and follow the

4. advice you feel will help build a strong paper.
Your draft must be at least three to five pages long (not
including the title page and references page) and contain a brief
introduction and conclusion. Make certain that your
introduction includes your revised thesis statement, one to two
sentences that identify your big idea, the problem the big idea
will address, and why your solution/idea should be
implemented. You will also have cohesive body paragraphs that
provide a specific, focused analysis of your main points
supported by the sources you found during the research process.
You must include at least three sources in this draft (in the text
itself, not simply in the references page), one of which must be
an academic source from Kaplan's Library. Your sources, of
course, must include in-text citations in the body of the paper as
well as full citations in the references page following the APA
format. If you do not include the appropriate citations, your
paper will be considered plagiarized.
In addition to at least three pages of text, you must also include
both a title page and references. These pages are in addition to,
not included in, the three to five required pages. You can view
models of APA formatted essays in the Writing Center's
reading, Sample APA Research Paper, and unit 4 includes links
to numerous Writing Center resources on citation style.
Presentation Draft
Choose a technology and create a presentation with that
technology. Technologies can be combined, such as adding
audio clips to a slide presentation. Even if you are not visually
creative, the message of your big idea should be clear in the
method and outcome of the presentation. No matter what form
of technology you use, it should meet the following
requirements:
· Overall message is clear and effective
· Minimally, five facts, arguments, and/or insights are presented
· Audience is considered in technology choice and design
· Research sources are cited in APA format
· Presentation is considered original (except for cited material)

5. If your presentation is stored on the Internet, rather than
submitted by attaching a file to the discussion string, be sure to
include the URL for your presentation. Make sure that you save
a copy of your submitted assignment so that you can revise it
for the final project in Unit 9. You are submitting this
assignment via the threaded discussion labeled “Presentation
Draft” in the left navigation portion of this unit.
Tips
Keep the following tips in mind when choosing the delivery
method and designing the presentation
· Choose technology wisely. Although many of the suggested
technologies for a presentation may seem interesting, try to
choose a technology that you can learn and use in the limited
timeframe of this unit.
· Use your strengths. Not everyone has the same creative
abilities. Assess your strengths and use a corresponding
technology. If you are not visually creative, then consider
writing a commercial or podcast recording; if you are not
confident in your abilities to use technology, try creating a slide
presentation, which is a matter of inserting text and graphics
into . MS PowerPoint or Impress.
· Plan out the project. Whether you create a storyboard or a
simple outline of what to include in the presentation, this
prewriting will keep you from pursuing tangents or trying to
cover too much information.
· Start out simple. Too many moving aspects or graphics will
distract the audience from the message; scale back when you're
not sure. Avoid the use of "cute" or irrelevant clip-art.
· Design for your audience. The expectations and needs of your
audience should influence your decisions; for example, if
teenage boys are the audience, then building a video game with
cute talking animals may not interest the audience.
· Motivate the audience. Beyond a visual or audio impact, the
presentation needs to inform the audience about your argument
and/or ideas on the topic. After viewing the presentation, the
audience should take an active interest in the information by

6. wanting to learn more or take action on what was learned.
Respond to peers with constructive and supportive feedback
about the clarity of the message and use of technology to
convey their message. Try not to focus as much on the creative
abilities of the student, but rather the effectiveness of their
presentation of their big idea in a visual or audio format.
Unit 9
Final Project Guidelines
Your final project is a portfolio consisting of revisions of the
blueprint for progress that you submitted in Unit 6, the letter to
the editor that you wrote in Unit 5, and the presentation that
you created in Unit 7. The presentation can take the form of a
blog, podcast, brochure, slide show, or one of the other multi-
media forms covered in the tech labs or approved by your
instructor. You will also write a reflection piece that answers
the following questions in paragraph form:
· What did you learn about yourself as a writer? As a thinker?
· What did you learn about the process of writing?
· What skills did you develop that might help you in the future?
· What did you take from the larger conversation with others?
· How did your feedback from peers and your instructor affect
the revision of your blueprint, letter to the editor, and
presentation?
Remember:
· You are writing a paper that makes an argument. Its goal is to
persuade others of the value of your Big Idea.
· You are using outside research to support this argument, but
your paper and presentation should focus on your own ideas and
use your own analysis of this outside research to make the
argument.
· The length requirement of 5-7 pages is just for the essay
component of the assignment. That length does not include the
title and references page.
Sources: Your research paper must directly refer to at least five
sources (in the paper's text, not just on the references page). At
least two should be scholarly books or articles, and at least one

7. of those should come from the Kaplan library. One great way to
find academic sources is to look for articles in refereed or peer-
reviewed journals, and "Academic Search Premier" allows you
to limit your search to scholarly (peer-reviewed) journals.
Your final project research paper must include a references page
containing all sources referenced in your paper and
presentation. The references page is in addition to, not included
in, the 5-7 page minimum required for the paper. It also must
include a title page. You can view models of these in the
Writing Center's reading, APA Manuscript Style and Sample
APA Research Paper.
A final important note: your final paper must be original work
written for this class. This means that you must be the author
(turning in a paper written by someone else is plagiarism and
will not be tolerated) and you must not have turned your final
project (or another version of it) in for a grade in another class.
If you wish to further develop a paper or idea you had for a
prior class, you must first get your instructor's permission to do
so, and you must send your instructor that paper along with the
instructor's name, course number, and quarter it was submitted.
With rare exception, this is discouraged. The goal of this course
is to improve your writing, and that only happens through
practice. If you do not write, you cannot improve your writing.
Further, you turned in a draft version (the Unit 6 Project) before
your final version (the Unit 9 Project).
You will not receive credit for turning in the same version more
than once (for example, turning the same paper in as both your
draft and final project).
Your final project must show significant and substantial
revision from the draft, meaning multiple paragraphs must be
significantly revised, other paragraphs must have been added or
deleted, etc. If you are unclear about what constitutes
"significant revision" talk to your instructor prior to turning in
your final project.
Consult your course Syllabus for grading rubrics for this and
other course projects. These rubrics will guide you in how these

8. projects are assessed and graded.
The Final Project will be due at the end of Unit 9.