Senior Seminar

For my senior seminar course, I decided to take a course that revolved around the environment and sustainability issues. The first half of the semester consisted of reading novels and texts that were about the environment. The second half was all about our final documented essay, which was essentially our capstone project for our entire major. Below, you will find each step my professor took with us along the way to ensure we had a glowing final project.

Our final projects could be on any topic we desired as long as it was about the environment and sustainability. We were required to write a minimum of 15 double-spaced pages, do two presentations of our essay (the first as a proposal and the second as a final product), have at least 10 secondary sources, an MLA-style cover page, and an MLA-style bibliography. All of the graded steps for this documented essay came out to being worth 70% of my final grade, the final draft alone being 25%.

The Proposal

This was our first assignment, which was to write at least 500 words explaining our desired topic and how we planned to execute it. We also had to find at least 6 preliminary sources to use as well as finding a scholarly journal to potentially submit our final product to.

Early Draft/ Outline

The early draft had to consist of at least 3 pages and/or be a full outline. This assignment was then sent off to another student to peer review and provide feedback on using a given worksheet.

Full Draft

This assignment was meant for students to write the full 15 page draft within 1 week in order to spent the remainder of the semester tweaking and perfecting it. Sadly, no student was able to reach the full 15 pages but most of us got to 10-13 pages so our professor was forgiving.

Annotated Bibliography

This assignment required students to complete a list of sources that also contained a summary of each source. The summary had to be around 2-4 sentences and should briefly state the topic, the scope, summarize key points, and describe the source’s value. We had to locate at least 10 secondary sources.

Peer Review Results 1

This was the result of my early draft being peer reviewed by a classmate and reviewed by my professor. This gave me feedback in order to improve upon my next draft.

Peer Review Results 2

This assignment required everyone to have their full draft reviewed by a classmate and the professor. We were given a worksheet to fill out in order to make it easier than rereading a long term paper.

Final Essay

This essay was the capstone project for my entire major. It was the determining factor of whether I received my diploma or not. I decided to focus on M Jackson’s While Glaciers Slept and how she advocates for sustainability.