Welcome to Camelot

The rough draft for your JFK paper is due on Monday November 2, 2009.  Remember we will meet in the classroom tomorrow and we will be in the lab right outside our room.

Requirements and Reminders:

• Respond to the prompt on page 57 of our textbook. You may use the sample thesis above the prompt if you wish.


• 900-1200 words


• Final draft due Wednesday November 4, 2009


• Use MLA format with the following caveats: 1) Single-space your heading 2) Leave the page number and last name off the first page. Format examples are here and examples of the above-noted modifications are here.


• I WILL NOT accept papers that are written in pencil, single-spaced, or with the heading on the right. Papers that are not in MLA format will be returned ungraded for corrections and will be counted as late.

Suggested method:

1. Identify the purpose (JFK’s purpose) that you wish to write about.


2. Using a different colored highlighter or pen, mark everything in the speech that supports or helps enact that purpose.


3. Look for patterns/groupings in what you’ve highlighted.


4. Using those patterns, develop an argument concerning how JFK uses rhetorical strategies to accomplish the purpose you identified.

Caution: Do not start writing without identifying the purpose. Without that, you cannot write a thesis. Without a thesis, your argument will meander through whatever you’ve noticed in the speech, creating a paper without clear direction that is confusing and frustrating both to write and to read/grade.