Welcome August 24, 2007

Thanks to all of you for a wonderful semester.  Good luck on all of your finals.  If you would like comments on your paper, please bring me a self-addressed stamped envelope so that I can mail it back to you.  Otherwise, grades for the class will be posted by the Monday after Finals Week.  I will keep papers for the first month of the spring semester, and you may come to my office to pick yours up if you would like.  Feel free to visit me for any reason.

 

Group 1 Presents Wed 14 Nov.

Visuals – Choose from: Shaft of the Dead Man, Triumph of the Will, Madonna & Child, Norman Rockwell, and possibly an outside visual source / Prince Shotoku

Jennifer, Rachelle, Lauren, Mariko, Pat

Group 2 Presents Fri 16 Nov.

Darwin / Hammurabi

Tommy D, Chris, Gulyar, David

Group 3 Presents Mon 19 Nov.

Freud/ Madison

Mac, Christian, Cam, Vincent

Group 4 Presents Mon 26 Nov.

Marx & Engels / Mo Tzu

Coleridge, Jon, Ross, Kyle

Group 5 Presents Wed 28 Nov.

King/ Gandhi

Erik, Marie, Jim, Rocky

Group 6 Presents Fri 30 Nov.

Benedict / Paz

Krissy, Tom P., Maggi, Pip

INFORMATION ON GROUP PRESENTATIONS AND DISCUSSION LEADING  

• All group members must participate in the presentation.
• Presentations will last 5-7 minutes and will be followed by 15-20 minutes of group-led discussion.
• Presentations should be interesting, enlightening, creative, communicative, provocative, and informative.
• They should prompt thought and thoughtful questions.
• They should keep the audience’s attention and interest.
• You may plan activities or audience participation events, but these should still accomplish the other expected aims of this assignment.
• Presentations should include a brief summary of the relevant portions of the text, but should primarily focus on analysis of the text and demonstration of connections between the text and the ideas from the other readings.
• Your ideas should be clear to the audience and should shed new light on the issues/ideas/concepts from the readings as well as the readings themselves.  Your work with the text must get beyond the surface or easy meanings.
• You must clearly reference at least one of the other class readings from this section in your presentation.  Encourage connection to other texts through discussion.
• The goal is to show and communicate effectively the nuanced connections you have made between the texts and your own ideas and interpretations.
• I have listed two or more texts for each group.  You must use the first one; the second is optional.  If you choose to use both, you may divide the group and/or the class time accordingly or you may choose to find ways to discuss both simultaneously.

Proposal Questions (Please answer these completely and thoughtfully. Use another sheet if necessary):How will you summarize or present the essence of the text? Include details on what you will present and how you will present it. How will your presentation be interesting? What will keep the audience’s attention? Why will the audience enjoy your presentation? What format will your presentation take? Describe your presentation. 

How will each member of your group be involved in preparation and presentation?

What is it that you most want your audience to remember from your presentation? What is the main point you want to get across? What do you want the presentation to focus on?

What questions do you have for discussion with the class?  You must come up with at least 10 discussion questions.

What questions do you anticipate the class will have after seeing your presentation? How will this presentation and discussion be useful for other students as they think and write about these ideas/concepts/issues?

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Note: You may revise Essay 1 for a better grade. This absolutely must be a substantial revision and not merely cosmetic surgery. While correct grammar is essential, this did not affect your grade as much as other, more vital aspects of your composition. Rewrites are due Wednesday 7 November in class in a folder with all previous drafts and the grading sheet. Please note that this essay is only worth 15% of your grade and thus may not be worth the time required to thoroughly rewrite.

Notes for the third drafts: Please follow formatting guidelines as explained on the website.

· You must have a complete heading on the top left-hand side of the first page, make sure this indicates 3^rd draft.

· Then please center your title on the next line. Spice up the titles, people! Make your paper enticing.

· Essays should be double-spaced, but do not put an extra line break between paragraphs.

· Staple your paper.

· Include a works cited.

Notes on quotes and text use:

· First mention of a source should use the author’s full name; subsequent uses should only refer to him or her by last name.

· Always introduce quotes, integrate them into your own sentence (a possible exception might be when using a quote as the first sentence, but make sure the quote itself is a complete sentence), spend time explaining the significance of the quote for the point you are making, and cite the source.

· If you have named the author immediately before the quote, you do not need to include the name in the parenthetical citation; just use the page number.

· Indent all lines of a long quote (4 or more lines).

Consider how you have made your thesis relevant to the reader.

· Why should he or she care?

· What do you do to make the paper (especially the introduction) interesting to the reader?

Check organization by making a simple outline or flow chart after you have written the paper.

· Are there different ways you could arrange ideas/paragraphs?

· Are the ideas organized in a way that makes the connections between the paragraphs logical (this will make transitions so much easier)?

Proofreading backwards, one sentence at a time can be very helpful to catch sentence level errors.

· Look for subjects and verbs (actors and actions). Do they agree in number? Are they both present (if not, it is not a complete sentence)? If the subject is a pronoun and it is vague, how can you use a more concrete word?

· Are there any words of which you are unsure of the spelling? Get out a dictionary!

· Are there any tricky words or easily confused words (for example, their, there, they’re)? Check to make sure you have used the appropriate one.

· Look at all apostrophes. Is it possessive or a contraction? If not, get rid of it. Also, stylistically, too many contractions convey a casual tone which is often not appropriate for academic writing. Consider spelling these words out.

· Look for words and phrases which appear multiple times on the same page. Find new ways to say these things; this might also indicate that you are repeating ideas. Some cutting may be in order. Especially pay attention to key terms of your essay. These tend to get repeated more than necessary. Sometimes you can combine sentences to avoid repetition.

· Look for wordiness. Many common phrases can be replaced by more specific or evocative words which get to the point faster.

· Avoid chattiness and casual or slang words, phrases, and constructions. This is a formal essay, and should sound professional and academic. Tone can affect whether or not your ideas are well-received; if it is too casual, it may not sound like you know what you are talking about, and you may lose credibility. In this vein, avoid use of you, us, and we (an occasional, judicious, well-placed usage may work wonders, but in general this lends casual tone). You may use I, but remember not to overload the reader with I statements.

Commas are primarily

· to set off introductory elements in your sentences,

· to join sentences with a conjunction (and, but, or, etc.),

· to introduce quotes, to set off non-restrictive elements (generally phrases which describe something but which are not absolutely necessary to indicate which item is under discussion),

· to separate items in a list,

· and finally – sparingly – to maintain clarity and avoid confusion.

· If you find a comma which joins two sentences without a conjunction, this sentence is a comma splice. To remedy, use a period, semi-colon, or a conjunction.

If you have questions about any of these issues, please check out the links on the website, look at the back of your textbook or a writing handbook (these can be found in the library and the writing center and possibly on your or your roommate’s bookshelves), or talk to me.

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HERE ARE THE QUESTIONS FROM CLASS DISCUSSION ON WEDNESDAY 5 SEPTEMBER, JUST FOR REFERENCE.

1. How are Plato’s and Newman’s ideas similar? Be specific. Consider words/concepts such as KNOWLEDGE, EDUCATION, GOOD, VIRTUE, NEED FOR ESCAPE, THE BEST (IDEAL FORMS), THE TRUTH?

1. How are Plato’s and Newman’s ideas different? Be specific. Consider words/concepts such as KNOWLEDGE, EDUCATION, GOOD, VIRTUE, NEED FOR ESCAPE, THE BEST (IDEAL FORMS), THE TRUTH?

1. Define Newman’s term “liberal education/knowledge.” What is it for? What is the point of it? Assign things (school subjects, other realms of knowledge or forms of education, other pursuits including hobbies and sports) to this category. Come up with at least ten items. Explain why they belong here. When might these items be transferred to the other category? Why?

1. Define Newman’s term “useful education/knowledge.” What is it for? What is the point of it? Assign things (school subjects, other realms of knowledge or forms of education, other pursuits including hobbies and sports) to this category. Come up with at least ten items. Explain why they belong here. When might these items be transferred to the other category? Why?

1. Many works of art refer to Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” (including the Matrix films, in part) and many works adopt Plato’s view that there are at least two realms of reality – a land of falsehood and shadows and a land of truth and light. How can we discuss this in relation to Newman’s conception of knowledge as being either liberal or useful? How do Plato’s concept of reality and Newman’s concept of knowledge intersect? differ?

1. Newman is careful not to equate knowledge and virtue even though he encourages both. Do you see a correlation between knowledge and virtue? What might that be? Describe and explain. How might this relate to Plato? Do virtue or ideas of the good have any place in your epistemologies?

 

 

 

Welcome to the class site! The information here is designed to aid your success in College Writing I. Please take a moment to look around.

This site is where you will find information on assignments and expectations, where you will submit regular assigned posts, and where you can go to find links to information on writing and class themes.

Please email me anytime at arianajp@aol.com.

Instructions for contributing to class website (AKA posting)

1. Once I have your email address, I will send you an invitation to join wordpress.com. Please watch your inbox for this message.

2. Copy and paste the URL from the email invitation into your web browser. Hit enter.

3. It should take you to a page which says, “Get your own WordPress.com account in seconds.” You also have the option here to create your own blog. That may be something you want to do for yourself, but it is not part of this class.

4. You will need to type in a username (please use at least your first name and last initial in your username), a password of your choosing, and your email address. (WordPress.com does not collect personal information, nor does it send you spam. I have had an account for several months with no problems.)

5. Now, you have a WordPress account and can login at wordpress.com where English121 will be listed as one of your blogs.

6. When you are logged in, there should be a blue menu bar at the top of the screen.

7. Select Write Post.

8. Now give your post an interesting title.

9. Mark the appropriate category (on the right side), in this case, “Posting 1 – Plato.” Subsequent posting assignments will have their own categories.

10. When you are finished, click on Publish. Once I have approved it, your post will display on the website, and your classmates will be awed by your brilliance.