Here are more materials related to the Twilight course including a letter from a parent prior to the course, guidelines for the course’s online writing assignment, and the program for the student research symposium:

Letter from parent prior to Twilight course

My daughter is a Freshman and is enrolled in your class next semester. She forwarded an email to me outlining the course. I just wanted to tell you that I am very impressed with the creative nature of the class. It shows a true desire to find ways to interest students in traditional subjects using a topic that is meaningful and timely to them. I have been impressed with the U of A since my initial exposure this summer at Orientation. This innovative course further demonstrates that my first impressions were correct. I wanted to send this email because it has been my experience in the business world that people are quick to criticize when thing aren’t right, but very rarely take the time to say – good job.

Thank you, from the mom of a very happy first year student.

Sincerely,

Sandy

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Online writing assignment for Twilight course

You are a respected writer for an online popular culture magazine, and your editor slides a printout of an article on Breaking Dawn across your desk. She asks you to write an opinion column evaluating and responding to the article. Your office mate reminds you that the online magazine’s audience will probably be familiar with the book and the movie, and they’ll be most interested in hearing what you think about the issues raised by the series.

To complete this project, first choose an article from the ones listed on Blackboard that you want to evaluate and respond to. You may use another critic’s review of Breaking Dawn that you find online, as long as you clear it with me first. Read the article carefully and write 2 ½-4 pages evaluating the critic’s opinion and using evidence and reasoning to support your stance on the critic’s opinion. Remember that you’re not writing a traditional academic paper, so you need to think about how you’re going to grab your audience’s attention and how you’re going to make your stance clear to them. You may use more than one source, but remember to link to all of your sources, give credit to them for their ideas, and quote them accurately. You will be graded upon your ability to evaluate the validity of your source’s arguments critically and to persuade your audience that your stance is reasonable.

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Program from the student Vampire Research Symposium