Collaborative Letter
Assignment
With your group, you are going to
compose a letter to Luis
Alberto Urrea in which you critically respond to his book Across
the Wire: Life and Hard Times on the Mexican Border.
You are writing neither a fan letter nor a letter
bashing
the book. The purpose of this letter is to articulate what you as a
group think
of a particular issue that the book raises. Your group may decide the
specific
focus of your letter. Whatever you decide, be sure to have a particular
purpose. Remember that you are writing a critique and will thus you
need to
refer to specific textual features of the book.
The audience for your letter is
Luis Alberto Urrea to whom
we will mail the letters after you turn in the final draft. Your group
should
think carefully about how to approach Urrea, who is not only a writer
but also
a professor at University of
Illinois
at Chicago. What kind of
tone does
your group want to adopt?
All members of the group must
participate fully in the
process. Although you will be given adequate time in class to complete
the
assignment, you and your fellow group members have the responsibility
for organizing
the tasks and for meeting outside of class (in real time or virtual
time) if
you need to. I would like you to work together during all phases of the
writing
process: planning, composing, revising, and editing. Your group will
turn in a
single letter. Each individual will also hand in a one-page reflection
paper that
specifically addresses how you progressed through each stage of the
process. If
anyone fails to participate, I expect to find out through these
reflection
papers, which are due with the final version of your letter.
Requirements:
Format: Letters
should be typed and follow business letter formatting guidelines, which
we’ll
discuss briefly in class. Address the letters to
Professor Luis Alberto Urrea
English Department (MC 162)
University of Illinois-Chicago
1908 University Hall
601 S. Morgan Street
Chicago, Illinois 60607
Length: 2-3 pages
(by this I mean that you need to get on to the third page)
Copies: You will
need to hand in two copies of your final draft—one for me and one for
Professor
Urrea, with your signatures—along with your reflection paper
Due: Monday, March 8, 2004
Tuesday, March 9, 2004