Week 3 — One Point, Proven: Rebuilding a Paragraph

Assignment 3 of the term — diagnose a weak paragraph with a reverse outline, rebuild it so it makes one point and proves it, build a paragraph of your own, and explain the move to someone outside the course.

This adaptive assignment uses a coaching dialogue to help you turn a first attempt into a developed, unified paragraph. You remain the author. The coach asks questions, checks the reasoning you show, and waits for you to revise before it produces the required report. Last week you found the claim and the support in someone else's text; this week you build that structure yourself, one paragraph at a time. This week's lecture tutorial, quiz, discussion, and Writing Studio practise the same moves from other angles; this assignment is where you put them together.

The task

This week you build paragraphs that make one point and prove it. Your material is an illustrative paragraph written for this course, attributed to no one, about a community library's hours, plus one paragraph of your own. Every sentence and example you submit is your own writing; do not quote any real author this week.

Part A — diagnose and rebuild a weak paragraph. Here is the illustrative paragraph, one sentence per line:

1. "The library's hours are bad."
2. "The library closes at six on weeknights."
3. "The library has two floors."
4. "Many people in our neighborhood work until five or later and need time to get there."
5. "The parking lot was repaved recently."
6. "Library cards are free."
7. "So the hours should change."

Work this problem, showing your reasoning:

1. The illustrative library paragraph in Part A has 7 sentences; a reverse outline finds 1 breaker and 2 bare facts that prove nothing. How many of its sentences carry over into your revision?

First write a reverse outline: beside each of the 7 sentences, note what it says and what job it does. Name the breaker and the two bare facts and say why each fails the find-the-breaker test or proves nothing. Then work the second problem:

1. A PIE paragraph has 4 jobs: point, illustration, explanation, and link. The Part A paragraph already supplies 1 of them, its illustration, in the closing-time and work-hours sentences. How many jobs must your revision add?

Then rebuild the paragraph in 5–7 sentences. Turn the complaint into a controlling idea a reader could answer with "prove it", keep the two useful facts as your illustration, add at least one explanation sentence that says what those facts prove, and close with a link sentence that earns the ending. Use at least one transition that names a real relationship, and place the comma after any introductory element and before any coordinating conjunction that joins two independent clauses. Label each sentence of your rebuild with its PIE or MEAL job.

Part B — build one paragraph of your own. Choose one topic: a four-day class schedule, campus parking, the dining hall's hours, a community library's hours, or a workplace's meeting policy. Write one developed body paragraph of 120–200 words with a topic sentence that states a controlling idea, evidence you observed yourself or can describe plainly (no invented statistics and no quotations), an explanation of what that evidence proves, and a link. Label each sentence with its PIE or MEAL job, then run the find-the-breaker test on it and say in one sentence what you cut or why nothing needed cutting. You are building one paragraph, not a whole essay; next week turns a controlling idea like this into a thesis.

Explain it to a non-expert

A friend who coordinates volunteers at a community garden says nobody reads their email updates past the first line. Write a 3–5 sentence message that tells them, in everyday words, what your Part A rebuild shows about making a paragraph work: one point up front, evidence, and a sentence that says why the evidence matters. Name one honest limit of the advice — for example, that a short notice may not need every part. Explain any term your friend might not know.

For a different, ungraded example, imagine a cousin whose science-fair poster lists results without saying what they mean. Model answer: "Your poster lists the plant heights, but it never says what they show. Try one sentence at the top that says the point, like which light worked best, and one after the numbers that says why they prove it. Judges skim, so the point has to come first. That won't fix a weak experiment, but it will make a good one easy to see."

Use that pattern for your friend, with your own explanation of your rebuild.

Reflect on your revision

After you revise, answer one of these two options in 2–4 sentences; they carry the same weight:

• (a) Which change made your Part A rebuild easier for a skeptical reader to follow, and what in your reverse outline showed you it was needed?
• (b) Which sentence in your own Part B paragraph changed most after feedback, and what job does it do now that it did not do before?

Part 1 — Student instructions

1. Draft Part A, Part B, and your message to your friend before opening a chatbot.
2. Open any course-approved chatbot. Copy the entire Coach Prompt box, including its first and last marker lines, and paste it as one message. The coach will ask for your draft and then work one question at a time.
3. Answer in your own words. Use the coach's feedback to revise at least one part of your rebuild or your own paragraph, even if your first attempt was strong, and then answer reflection option (a) or (b).
4. Continue until the prompt's exit condition is met.
5. Save the chat's share link and copy the final report exactly as the coach gives it.

The chatbot is a coach, not a ghostwriter. It must draw out your reasoning rather than write your paragraphs for you.

Coach Prompt

COPY EVERYTHING BELOW THIS LINE
ROLE: You are a careful writing coach for a first-year college writing course. Draw out and challenge MY thinking about building a paragraph. Do not write my reverse outline, my rebuilt paragraph, my own paragraph, or my message for me, do not "improve" my sentences into smooth generic wording, and do not invent work I did not show.

ASSIGNMENT: Work through these two problems in order, one at a time. Do not invent, replace, or reorder a problem. The illustrative paragraph I am diagnosing, written for my course and attributed to no one: (1) The library's hours are bad. (2) The library closes at six on weeknights. (3) The library has two floors. (4) Many people in our neighborhood work until five or later and need time to get there. (5) The parking lot was repaved recently. (6) Library cards are free. (7) So the hours should change.
PROBLEM P1: The illustrative library paragraph in Part A has 7 sentences; a reverse outline finds 1 breaker and 2 bare facts that prove nothing. How many of its sentences carry over into your revision?
PROBLEM P2: A PIE paragraph has 4 jobs: point, illustration, explanation, and link. The Part A paragraph already supplies 1 of them, its illustration, in the closing-time and work-hours sentences. How many jobs must your revision add?
For P1 I must also write a reverse outline of all 7 sentences (what each says and what job it does) and name the breaker and the two bare facts with a reason for each. For P2 I must also rebuild the paragraph in 5-7 sentences with a controlling idea, the two useful facts as illustration, at least one explanation sentence, a link, a transition that names a real relationship, and correct commas, labelling each sentence's PIE or MEAL job; then write my own 120-200 word paragraph on one of these topics: a four-day class schedule, campus parking, the dining hall's hours, a community library's hours, or a workplace's meeting policy, with labelled jobs, my own observed evidence, no invented statistics, no quotations, and a find-the-breaker check; then a 3-5 sentence message to a friend in everyday words that names one limit. After revising, I answer reflection option (a) or (b) from my assignment page.
The course meanings I must use: a controlling idea is the claim a single paragraph sets out to prove, narrower than a topic and arguable, unlike a title or a bare fact; a breaker is a sentence that does not help prove the controlling idea; PIE is Point, Illustration, Explanation, Link, and MEAL names the same four jobs Main idea, Evidence, Analysis, Link.

SCORING CRITERIA: Score only evidence I supply, out of 100 points. Paragraph diagnosis (P1): 30 if my reverse outline covers all 7 sentences with what each says and its job, names the breaker and both bare facts with a reason for each, and gets the count of sentences that carry over without error; 18 if the breaker and both bare facts are named and counted but the reverse outline skips the job of one or more sentences or a reason is missing; 8 if at least one problem sentence is named with a reason but another is missed or the count is off; 0 otherwise. Rebuilt paragraph with all four jobs (P2): 25 if the rebuild opens with a controlling idea, keeps the two useful facts as illustration, adds an explanation that says what they prove, closes with a link, uses a real transition, punctuates any introductory element and any compound sentence correctly, and labels every job; 15 if it fills all four jobs but one job is weak or mislabelled, or a comma or transition is wrong; 5 if it improves the paragraph but still lacks a controlling idea or an explanation; 0 if no rebuild. My own paragraph built with PIE or MEAL (P2): 25 if it has a controlling idea, observed evidence, an explanation of what the evidence proves, a link, labelled jobs, no breaker, and a find-the-breaker check; 15 if it is unified but one job is missing or unlabelled, or one sentence breaks unity; 5 if it lists facts with no explanation or has no controlling idea; 0 if missing. Plain-language explanation for a non-expert (P2): 10 if the message to my friend uses everyday words, explains point, evidence, and why it matters, and names a limit; 5 if it can be followed but omits the limit or leaves a term unexplained; 0 if missing. Revision and reflection (P2): 10 if I show a before-and-after change prompted by feedback plus a reflection on why it is better; 5 if only one of the two; 0 if neither.

Do NOT invent grading rules.

DIALOGUE RULES: Ask exactly one question per message and wait for my answer. Start by asking for my complete first attempt. Build each next question from my exact words. When I name a sentence's job, ask me what in the sentence shows it. Probe any sentence that might be a breaker by asking whether it helps prove my controlling idea. Keep the conversation focused on questions rather than completed work, and take no side on any public question.

ENGAGEMENT GUARDS: A greeting, copied prompt, yes/no reply, or one-word answer is not a substantive exchange. Do not flatter or accept agreement as evidence. Praise only a concrete move I made. If evidence is missing, say what is missing and ask for it. Require a real revision plus a short reflection on why the revision is better. Do not issue the report early.

EXIT CONDITION: Continue until at least five substantive exchanges have occurred AND I have supplied both problems with their reverse outline, rebuild, own paragraph, and message AND revised at least one part AND reflected on the revision. Stop only after whichever requirement happens last.

REPORT: After the exit condition is satisfied, output exactly these labelled lines in this order. Replace X with the exact earned score. Base every line only on evidence in this chat; write "Not supplied" for missing evidence and never raise the score for polished chatbot prose.
STUDENT'S SCORE: X/100
EVIDENCE FOR THE SCORE: [specific evidence from my reverse outline, rebuild, own paragraph, and message]
REVISION MADE: [what I changed and why]
STRENGTH: [one earned strength]
NEXT STEP: [one concrete improvement]
Then tell me to submit this report, my revised work, and the share link.
COPY EVERYTHING ABOVE THIS LINE

Deliverables

Submit these three items in the assignment entry:

• your revised work: the Part A reverse outline and rebuild, your Part B paragraph with its labels and breaker check, your message to your friend, and your reflection — written, or recorded as audio or video with a transcript; every form is graded by the same scoring criteria;
• the coach's five-line report; and
• the conversation share link.

Submit in any accessible file type or as a link; a recorded response may be submitted as audio or video with a transcript, or as text.

Equivalent route (no AI required)

This route assesses the same Week 3 skills — diagnosing a paragraph with a reverse outline, finding its breaker, rebuilding it around a controlling idea with evidence plus explanation, building a unified paragraph of your own, and explaining the move to someone outside the course — for comparable time and effort, about 90 minutes, the same as the coached route. Complete Part A, Part B, the message to your friend, and one reflection option. Then audit your own first draft against the attached scoring criteria, criterion by criterion: put a job label beside every sentence of both paragraphs, mark any sentence that fails the find-the-breaker test, and underline each explanation sentence. Write a second draft. Add a 150–200 word revision memo that names one change you made, the label or test that prompted it, and one question you still have. Submit the revised work, your completed criteria checklist, and the revision memo in the assignment entry; together they replace the share link and the coach's report. This route uses the same scoring criteria and the same points, with no penalty for choosing it.

How you'll be graded

The full analytic rubric is attached to this assignment in Canvas.

Academic integrity and AI use

The reverse outline, the rebuild, your own paragraph, the message, the revision, and the reflection must be your own words. Do not ask the chatbot to write any of them or to add evidence you did not observe. Do not invent statistics or quotations; describe what you have seen yourself. Submit an honest share link from your own dialogue. The equivalent route keeps the same workload and evidence and requires no AI account.

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