Paragraph Patterns Portfolio

1. Purpose: By completing this assignment, you will be able to...

• Use three of the most common patterns of paragraph organization in English academic writing
• Integrate sources to support your points effectively without plagiarism
• Achieve coherence and unity at a paragraph level

2. Overview: You will be introduced to 3 common patterns of organization - cause/effect, compare/contrast, and process - and submit a paragraph that uses each pattern for this portfolio assignment (20% of your course grade).

2. Formatting: Times New Roman, Size 12, Double-spaced

3. Length (per paragraph): 180-300 words

4. Topics and Sources:

• Compare/Contrast Paragraph: Based on "Are French Really Better Parents?", how does your country's parenting style compare/contrast to American or French parenting style? Discuss "current and general" tendencies rather than traditional conventions or exceptional cases. You may focus on similarities or differences in your comparison. 
• Cause/Effect Paragraph: Based on "Common Causes of Stress in College", can you think of any other causes or effects of stress in college? Write a paragraph that either supports, counter-argue, or adds to the article. Are there any positive effects of experiencing stress in college? If you have hard time thinking of stress as a positive thing, please watch the Ted talk titled "How to Make Stress Your Friend" 
• Process Paragraph: Based on the general principles of how to make friends in college mentioned in "5 Tips for U.S., International Students to Make Friends in College" and "Making friends in college", what specific steps and strategies do you want to offer (teach) new international students about making friends in an American university? Avoid giving just general advice (as the authors did in the discussion articles!) and limit your target audience to "international students" instead of all college students. I will actually share some good advice from you with them later! 

Note: You must support your point with evidence from the article as well as other examples you can come up with.

5. Plagiarism: As each new topic of "avoiding plagiarism" is introduced each week, instructors should grade particularly closely. These topics should also be graded cumulatively as the unit continues.

6. Deadline: Outlines and first drafts for each paragraph are due at various times throughout the unit (refer to Tentative Daily Schedule). Final draft of the whole portfolio is due by March 2, 11:59 pm.

7. File Names (to be uploaded in your Google Drive folder and Compass2g):
"111_Paragraph_Patterns_Portfolio_NetID_0" (outlines of 3 paragraphs)

"111_Paragraph_Patterns_Portfolio_NetID_1" (first drafts of 3 paragraphs)

"111_Paragraph_Patterns_Portfolio_NetID_2" (second drafts of 3 paragraphs)
"111_Paragraph_Patterns_Portfolio_NetID_FINAL" (final drafts of 3 paragraphs)

8. Student Writing Samples:
Sample 1
Sample 2