Rough Draft One: Growth Mindset 

Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to write an essay that can later be revised and resubmitted. Assignments like this one are important because much of the writing college students must produce should undergo a detailed revision process to ensure a refined product, and the drafting stage is an important part of that process. The essay is also designed to focus the students' attention on their mindsets with the intention of helping to foster a growth mindset in this class. Note that even though this is a draft, you should work hard to produce your best work. *Any revisions made between this draft and the final draft should be notated on a separate draft for a future assignment.

Skills: This assignment will help you practice the following skills that are essential to your success in this course and other academic and professional pursuits:

  • understanding and appropriately responding to assignment instructions
  • applying the steps of the writing process
  • composing a strong, clear thesis
  • producing paragraphs that are focused and offer strong support for the thesis
  • critically examining personal experience
  • evaluating the merit of ideas

Knowledge: This assignment will also help you to become familiar with the following important content knowledge in this discipline:

  • how to invent, develop, draft, revise, edit, and proof your writing
  • how to organize paragraphs in a logical order
  • how to stay on topic while developing support
  • how to compose a strong, clear thesis
  • how to create a well-organized, coherent essay

Task: 

Think about the thoughts and ideas that you have been exposed to as we’ve learned about a fixed mindset vs. the growth mindset during this module. Think about the work involved in adopting a growth mindset. Think about the strategies needed in a writing class in order to have a growth mindset vs a fixed mindset.

Now think about the way you approach your work in a writing class. Do you use the strategies necessary to have a growth mindset? Remember that having a growth mindset doesn't equal good grades. You can be an 'A' student and still have a fixed mindset about writing. What happens, for example, if you earn a grade on a writing assignment that's below an 'A'? Are you angry with your professor? Or do you think about the myriad ways you could do things differently next time to improve? Thinking about your response in a situation like this can help you identify your mindset. What about if you're not an 'A' student and you fail a paper? Do you think, "Meh, who cares? I've never been good at writing anyway," when you get your grade? Or do you seek out help from a writing tutor to improve for next time? Thinking about your response in a situation like this can help you identify your mindset.

Now that you've done all that thinking, it's time to write. You've probably already guessed, but you're going to be writing about your mindset when it comes to writing classes. To be more specific, you'll write a descriptive essay about your mindset when it comes to academic writing classes like this one (not creative writing classes). Whether you believe you already have a growth mindset, you know you have a fixed mindset, or you've just had a life-changing revelation and discovered that what you thought was a growth mindset is actually a fixed mindset or vice-versa, there is always room for improvement. So this paper should focus on the tangible ways you plan to improve your growth mindset or the tangible ways you plan to work toward having a growth mindset about writing in this class.

Your paper should include the specific strategies you plan to use this semester and how you believe they will make a difference in your overall success in this class. We are defining success as learning, not necessarily an 'A' grade. So what is it that you plan to do to be successful in this class? What are you going to do to develop a growth mindset? What is your plan if an assignment is harder than you anticipated and you're struggling? What is your plan if your essay grade comes back lower than you are expecting? This is all part of having a growth mindset.    

Criteria for Success: This assignment will be graded based on following the assignment instructions and timely submission; grades on rough drafts do not guarantee a similar grade will be earned on the final paper as significant revisions are expected between rough draft and final paper. Completed rough drafts must:

  • follow the assignment instructions written under the “Task” bullet point
  • use MLA Formatting
  • be 300-500 words
  • demonstrate understanding of standard written English
  • use a tone appropriate for an academic essay
  • be saved as a MS Word file (.docx or .doc)
  • be submitted on time to the Rough Draft One: Growth Mindset Submission Folder in D2L