Friday, September 28, 2012
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Letter from Birmingham City Jail, MLK
Letter from Birmingham City Jail, MLK
Rhetorical strategies:
(1) Allusion
(2) Parallelism
(3) Authority
(4) Rhetorical question
(5) Aphorism
(6) Repetition
(7) Figurative Language
Rhetorical strategies:
(1) Allusion
(2) Parallelism
(3) Authority
(4) Rhetorical question
(5) Aphorism
(6) Repetition
(7) Figurative Language
Monday, September 24, 2012
Friday, September 21, 2012
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Monday, September 17, 2012
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Tips and Suggestions: Essay 1 and Beyond
Resource for revision: Conventional Language
(a) When revising, increase your focus on your level of craft in your writing.
For example, how are you framing your essay? Effective essays often create a motif, pattern, or rhetorical strategy at the beginning and the end of the essay and then use some element of that frame to give the essay cohesion (in high school, you probably thought of that as a thesis).
(b) Begin to challenge yourself as a writer by demanding precise word choice. How careful are you being with your verbs (how often are you using "to be" and "to get" forms when a dynamic and concrete verb would be more effective)?
(c) Be able to identify your intended tone, and then take that your word choice and syntax (word order) maintain and support that intended tone (even if you tone shifts, you must control that shift with appropriate word choice and the rhythm of your writing).
(d) Take care with pronouns. Is your use of "it" effective and clear? Especially note pronoun/antecedent agreement (11): If you establish a singular primary reference ("the person," for example), the following reference must remain singular ("she/he," not "they").
(e) Always drive your writing by being specific. Vague is always a failure in writing as it is the result of careless omission of information. Ambiguous is purposeful, and can be very effective. Specific always works. Always. The writer's job is ultimately to engage and communicate, not baffle and alienate.
(f) This cannot be stressed enough: Making a claim is insufficient; a claim is simply a start to any conversation. Once you make a claim as a writer, you must provide evidence and elaboration to make your case clear and powerful. The vast majority of any non-fiction piece will tend to be the evidence and elaboration. A string of claims without evidence or elaboration is the sign of novice (and likely careless, purposeless) writer.
When revising, read your own piece (or have a peer or two read it) and mark your claims. Then, evaluate how many claims you make and how much care you take to prove those claims are valid, credible, and worth your readers' time.
(g) As you approach a final version of each essay, begin to take better care with formatting your final document and take extra care to use the formatting features of your word processing program. For this course, your style sheet guideline is APA, but always note the expectations of any writing assignment in varying settings.
(h) Don't ignore paragraph and sentence variety. Readers respond much better to short, rather than long, paragraphs (forget what you learned in high school). And both paragraph and sentence length are enhanced by seeking to use variety of lengths but above all else appropriateness of length to the meaning of the paragraph and sentence. Young writers tend to associate rhythm with the concerns of a poet or lyricist, but prose writers take care with rhythm also.
(a) When revising, increase your focus on your level of craft in your writing.
For example, how are you framing your essay? Effective essays often create a motif, pattern, or rhetorical strategy at the beginning and the end of the essay and then use some element of that frame to give the essay cohesion (in high school, you probably thought of that as a thesis).
(b) Begin to challenge yourself as a writer by demanding precise word choice. How careful are you being with your verbs (how often are you using "to be" and "to get" forms when a dynamic and concrete verb would be more effective)?
(c) Be able to identify your intended tone, and then take that your word choice and syntax (word order) maintain and support that intended tone (even if you tone shifts, you must control that shift with appropriate word choice and the rhythm of your writing).
(d) Take care with pronouns. Is your use of "it" effective and clear? Especially note pronoun/antecedent agreement (11): If you establish a singular primary reference ("the person," for example), the following reference must remain singular ("she/he," not "they").
(e) Always drive your writing by being specific. Vague is always a failure in writing as it is the result of careless omission of information. Ambiguous is purposeful, and can be very effective. Specific always works. Always. The writer's job is ultimately to engage and communicate, not baffle and alienate.
(f) This cannot be stressed enough: Making a claim is insufficient; a claim is simply a start to any conversation. Once you make a claim as a writer, you must provide evidence and elaboration to make your case clear and powerful. The vast majority of any non-fiction piece will tend to be the evidence and elaboration. A string of claims without evidence or elaboration is the sign of novice (and likely careless, purposeless) writer.
When revising, read your own piece (or have a peer or two read it) and mark your claims. Then, evaluate how many claims you make and how much care you take to prove those claims are valid, credible, and worth your readers' time.
(g) As you approach a final version of each essay, begin to take better care with formatting your final document and take extra care to use the formatting features of your word processing program. For this course, your style sheet guideline is APA, but always note the expectations of any writing assignment in varying settings.
(h) Don't ignore paragraph and sentence variety. Readers respond much better to short, rather than long, paragraphs (forget what you learned in high school). And both paragraph and sentence length are enhanced by seeking to use variety of lengths but above all else appropriateness of length to the meaning of the paragraph and sentence. Young writers tend to associate rhythm with the concerns of a poet or lyricist, but prose writers take care with rhythm also.
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Friday, September 7, 2012
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Essay 1 Conference Schedule
PLEASE arrange a conference for essay 1 by choosing a day/time from those listed below; conferences will be in my office (Hipp Hall 101F, go LEFT once you enter HH, opposite HH 106 where our class meets; enter the Education Suite, take second left in suite and my office is in the farthest back right-hand corner):
MONDAY September 10
9:30-10 -- Jake Saine
10-10:30
10:30-11 -- Cal Burns
1-1:30
1:30-2 -- Laura McMullan
2-2:30
2:30-3 -- Yan Chow
3-3:30 -- Adam Smith
3:30-4 -- Timmy Millison
4-4:30
4:30-5
TUESDAY September 11
8:30-9 X
9-9:30 X
9:30-10 X
10-10:30
10:30-11 -- Kara Degroote
11-11:30
12:30-1
1-1:30
1:30-2 -- Savannah Jennings
2-2:30
2:30-3 -- Danni Yuan
WEDNESDAY September 12
9:30-10
10-10:30
10:30-11
1-1:30
1:30-2 --Caroline Anderson
2-2:30
2:30-3
THURSDAY September 13
8:30-9
9-9:30
9:30-10
12:30-1
1-1:30
1:30-2
2-2:30
2:30-3
FRIDAY September 14
9:30-10
10-10:30
10:30-11
1-1:30 -- Colin Pitts
1:30-2 -- Lily Statzer
9:30-10 -- Jake Saine
10-10:30
10:30-11 -- Cal Burns
1-1:30
1:30-2 -- Laura McMullan
2-2:30
2:30-3 -- Yan Chow
3-3:30 -- Adam Smith
3:30-4 -- Timmy Millison
4-4:30
4:30-5
TUESDAY September 11
10-10:30
10:30-11 -- Kara Degroote
11-11:30
12:30-1
1-1:30
1:30-2 -- Savannah Jennings
2-2:30
2:30-3 -- Danni Yuan
WEDNESDAY September 12
9:30-10
10-10:30
10:30-11
1-1:30
1:30-2 --Caroline Anderson
2-2:30
2:30-3
THURSDAY September 13
8:30-9
9-9:30
9:30-10
12:30-1
1-1:30
1:30-2
2-2:30
2:30-3
FRIDAY September 14
9:30-10
10-10:30
10:30-11
1-1:30 -- Colin Pitts
1:30-2 -- Lily Statzer
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Essay submission guidelines
Each essay must be submitted the first due date as follows:
(1) Attach as Word files both at least one draft of the essay (label file: E1.draft.docx) and the first "final" submission (lable: Name.E1.09712.docx , note that you should label each essay other than drafts with date submitted after essay number and your actual last name).
(2) Once each essay is submitted, and after the conference addressing that essay, you must submit the revised essay at least once and as often as you like (label revised essays as follows: Name.E1RW.091412.docx, Name.E1RW2.092112.docx, etc.)
(1) Attach as Word files both at least one draft of the essay (label file: E1.draft.docx) and the first "final" submission (lable: Name.E1.09712.docx , note that you should label each essay other than drafts with date submitted after essay number and your actual last name).
(2) Once each essay is submitted, and after the conference addressing that essay, you must submit the revised essay at least once and as often as you like (label revised essays as follows: Name.E1RW.091412.docx, Name.E1RW2.092112.docx, etc.)
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