The students involved in the tutorials and the peer conferences were in the process of writing our third written project in the course. This is the official statement of project three.

Statement of Project 3
English 103.26

This project will ask you to carefully take a look at an event that in some way effected a community, an issue that a community is facing, or a person who is substantial to a community. We can define "community" in many ways--it can refer to your home town, your high school student body, students at BSU, Hoosiers, etc. It's probably not a good idea to try to conquer a national or world-wide issue, event, or person, because you can't possibly talk about all the issues that concern all people in the country or the world. A better idea is to think locally; find an event or and issue or a person that you know of in a personal way, and choose a community that you are a part of. Your own specialized knowledge of this subject will be an important starting place, and your audience doesn't necessarily have to have ever heard of the subject.

Though your knowledge will be the starting place, you will certainly want to go farther than that. In fact, for this project, you will be required to conduct some research. You must use at least one bibliographic source (from the library, newspaper, book, magazine, etc.) as you discuss the issue, event, or person, and you must conduct at least one interview with someone who was or is involved or concerned with the subject.

If you are writing about a person, your interview might be with that person and your bibliographic source might be on the occupation or interests of that person. If you are writing about an event, your bibliographic source might be a newspaper or magazine article about the event, and your interview might be with someone who witnessed the event and can attest to how it influenced his or her community. If you are writing about an issue, your bibliographic source might be an overview of the issue, and your interview might be with someone who feels one way or the other on the issue. Do not limit your sources to only two, but you must have at least this many to work with.

The payoff: Engaging in research might initially sound boring and tedious. However, up to this point in our writing, we have used only the knowledge that has come from our heads (for the most part). Now that we're discussing issues, events, and people who are effecting the outside world (and our audiences), it will be important for us to prove our points, to document our sources, and show that there we're not just giving our opinions here--we're showing proof that we know what we're talking about.

Probably just about any issue, event, or person who has been influential or controversial to a specific community will be an appropriate subject for this paper. It is important, though, that you define not only the issue but also the community which the subject influenced or is influencing. That way, you will be able to show the importance of the subject within that specific community.

MOO-based Metacognition: Incorporating Online and Offline Reflection into the Writing Process
Joel A. English