1. Chats on Paper One
2. Complete draft due to the online Writing Center
3. Complete draft (= same draft as 2) to Blackboard Peer Edit board plus subsequent review of others' drafts on the Blackboard Peer Edit Board
4. Your Writing Process ( = LBH 3) Discussion Board
5. Paper due to the Papers area of the Blackboard site: Friday, September 18 by Noon

• Paper One (ten percent of your grade plus seven percent for the other components) calls for you to write two paragraphs, one explaining why a PG-13 movie received its PG-13 rating and another explaining why you would or would not take your thirteen year-old to see that movie--if you don't have a 13 year-old child, just pretend you do. These paragraphs should be directed to the parent(s) of your child's friends.

• The assignment:  Pick any movie that has received a PG-13 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and watch it. Write one paragraph identifying the bases on which the MPAA gave it a PG-13 rating.  Write another paragraph explaining to the parent(s) of your child's friends why you would or would not take your thirteen year-old child to see the movie.

• Note: You can use the MPAA website to search for PG-13 movies, and the web site along with numerous others have information that explains the criteria used to distinguish G from PG from PG-13 from R from NC-17.  You must use the MPAA criteria to write the first paragraph, and you will likely need to use the MPAA website and others (such as the Internet Movie Database) to craft your second paragraph.  Your second paragraph must not base its judgments on subjective taste--that is, "It's not a good movie" or "We didn't enjoy the movie" are inappropriate reasons for the purposes of this assignment; instead, the second paragraph should base its evaluation on the appropriateness of the application of "objective" criteria such as violence, length, theme, language, sexual content, and so on.

• The two paragraphs in Paper One should total 400 to 500 words in length.

• Much of the early material in The Little, Brown Handbook is devoted to writing academic papers.

• Each student must post a complete draft of Paper One to the Online Writing Center.  Be sure to check the directions on our Blackboard site and on the Online Writing Center Blackboard site before you post.

• Papers will be evaluated 1) on the quality of the explanation in the first paragraph; 2) on the quality of the controlling idea and supporting  explanation in the second paragraph; 3) on proper use of relevant and sufficient supporting evidence in the explanation; and 4) on the quality of overall written expression.

• See the notes on Paper One (on the Blackboard site) for additional information about Paper One.