CM107 College Composition I sample papers, unit by unit

What CM107 is really about

The single decision that shapes a grade in this course is how wide the thesis is. Students arrive wanting to argue something large, and a large claim cannot be supported in the length assigned, so the essay ends up asserting rather than demonstrating. A narrow claim looks less impressive and is far easier to prove, which is why the criteria reward it. The other early adjustment is paragraph discipline. A paragraph carries one idea, states it, supports it and connects it onward, and most first drafts contain paragraphs doing three jobs at once with no topic sentence anywhere in them.

Revision in this course means something more than proofreading, and sections that grade drafts separately are testing exactly that distinction. Changing word choices leaves the argument where it was; moving a paragraph, cutting a claim you cannot support or reordering so the reader meets the evidence before the conclusion changes what the essay does. Instructors read a great many second drafts that differ from the first only in punctuation. Source use begins here too, usually lightly, and the expectation is that a quotation is introduced, given a reason to be there, and then discussed rather than left to speak for itself.

What CM107’s assessments ask for

Opening units generally work on invention and thesis, often requiring several candidate claims before one is chosen, which feels slow and prevents the most common failure. The middle of the term usually builds a short argumentative essay in stages, with an outline, a draft and a revision each submitted and graded on its own terms. Peer review appears in many sections and is assessed on the quality of feedback given rather than received. Source integration typically arrives midway, with attention to introducing and discussing quotations. Board threads run every unit and normally ask you to test a classmate's thesis for arguability, and the seminar hour tends to workshop drafts aloud.

Where students lose points in CM107

The heaviest loss is a thesis too broad to support, which weakens every paragraph that follows it. Second is the paragraph with no controlling idea, where three points share a block of text and none is developed. Third is revision that only edits, submitted where the criteria asked for rethinking. Ground also goes where a quotation is dropped in without introduction or discussion, where the essay argues something nobody would dispute, and where a conclusion introduces a new claim in its final sentences because the writer noticed something late and had nowhere else to put it. A final deduction lands on essays that spend their opening paragraph announcing what the essay will do instead of beginning to do it.

The CM107 drawers

Using a CM107 sample the right way

Read a sample by locating the thesis and asking what a reasonable person could say against it. If nothing, the claim is not arguable and the essay has no work to do, which is the most common structural failure in this course. Then read only the first sentence of each paragraph in order and see whether they alone trace the argument. Notice how quotations are framed before and after. Then write your own on your own prompt, since the thesis is the assignment. A first example built to your posted prompt is written free and returns inside 24-48h.

How these samples are written

The discipline behind every paper here: the rubric is the outline, each row gets its section, seminar-option write-ups follow their expected shape, and the format layer ships exact. Send your unit's instructions with a request and the sample matches them, revisions included.

CM107 questions, answered