Individual Exercises

Rubric Download

Download a copy of the "Rubric for Essays," and study it very carefully. 

Guidelines Copy-and-Paste Document

Copy-and-paste the contents of "Guidelines for Essays" into a document, and study that very carefully. 

Chicago Manual of Style Template Document

As indicated in the "Rubric for Essays" (above), you will be required to use Chicago Manual of Style formatting for the essays. The following resources will give you a good understanding of the formatting style. 

Introduction to Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) - Lecture Video

CMOS Described by Purdue Online Writing Lab

Create Your Google Account (If You Don't Have One Already)

How to Use Google Docs (If You Are Unfamiliar) 

After reviewing the resources immediately above, watch the following tutorial. In this video I give you step-by-step instructions to create a CMOS document. Watch the video, and copy what I do, creating your own document. For the content of the document, you can just type exactly what I type. Save this document as a template for your essays. 

CMOS Tutorial - Lecture Video

Rough Draft

Write a rough draft of your essay. Include: 

• your main thesis

• evidence, including at least one quote from the assigned authors and works

• an argument demonstrating that your evidence logically supports your main thesis. 

The rough draft does not need to be formatted in any particular way. 

Feedback for a Fellow Student

Complete the Google form "Feedback on a Rough Draft Written by One of Your Fellow Students." The feedback you provide can be very valuable. 

Read Markup of Previous Essay

Create a digital recording of you reading the graded and marked up copy of your previous essay. Read the content of your essay, and the comments that I made. Record both audio and video. 

Production quality and personal appearance are of no concern. Complete the recording immediately and quickly. Try to do the recording in one take. If you get interrupted during the recording, pause the recording and pick up where you left off. 

This is an exercise for your own edification. It will ensure that you have carefully and fully read my comments, and it will also ensure that you have read your own writing out loud. Don't read the rubric out loud, but do examine the scoring very carefully in light of what you read out loud in the video. 

Review the video at some later date, and take note of where the content of your essay is difficult to follow. 

Cogency of Current Reading

Complete the Google form "Evaluation of the Cogency of the Current Reading" for each reading assignment. 

Group Exercises

AI Answer to Main Question

Ask an artificial intelligence (AI) large language model (LLM)—such as ChatGPT, Gemini or DeepSeek—the main question of the current essay assignment. Copy-and-paste the AI answer into a file, and save that for your reference. 

Cogency of AI Answer

Complete the Google form "Evaluation of Cogency of AI Answer" based on the AI answer from above. 

Group Feedback List

Complete the Google form "Group Feedback List." 

Group Share of Puzzlement

Complete the Google form "Group Share of Puzzlement." 

Group Share of Theses

Complete the Google form "Group Share of Theses."

Group Share of Evidence

Complete the Google form "Group Share of Evidence." 

Group Feedback Check

Complete the Google form "Group Feedback Check."

Group Find Markup of Previous Essay

Complete the Google form "Group Find Markup of Previous Essay."