Week 2 Assignments

• Each week, I will ask you to do four things:
• 1/  Post an entry in your Learning Journal.  Entries in your Learning Journal (LJ) will most often be focused on Free Writing or Structured Free Writing, which is Free Writing in response to a specific topic, prompt, or question.  I will give you a weekly LJ assignment.  Please post entries in your LJ HERE.  This is a private journal that only you and your instructor can access.
• 2/ Complete one or more Group Assignments (GA), which will require that you contribute either a BLOG POST and/or to our course Discussion Board.  These posts and discussions will be read by our entire class.
• 3/ Complete one to two Reading and Writing Assignments (RWA), which, DEPENDING ON THE ASSIGNMENT, you will submit in one of three ways:  a/ as a NEW ENTRY in your Learning Journal, b/ by posting a file to your personal electronic portfolio on OpenLab, or c/ via Google Docs (if you don’t have a Google Docs account, I will give you instructions next week on how to set one up; you will then be able to share documents with me and your classmates)
• 4/ Check in at least THREE separate times a week and respond at least ONCE to contributions by other student blog posts on the Home page of our course Web site AND to forums on the course Discussion Board
• WEEK 2 ASSIGNMENTS:  DUE DATE:  MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 at 5PM.
•  During our second week, we will be figuring out the best way to share files and documents, tying up any loose ends with the OpenLab, and, after discussing directions for our course, get started with our reading and writing for the course!

• LEARNING JOURNAL 2
• Please spend 5 to 7 minutes free writing about your strengths as a communicator.
• Introduction to LJ2:People often talk about (and sometimes seem to like to talk about) the fact that they “are not very good writers,” or “don’t know how to write,” or “sure could use some help with writing.”  And yet, people seem almost never to talk about needing help with talking.  Why is that?  Please write a paragraph reflecting on this phenomenon of how critical people are of their writing and yet how confident they appear to be in their talking.  Do you believe this is true, why or why not?Are you  more comfortable and confident expressing yourself in writing or in speech?  Why do you think this is the case?  What factors are involved in your feeling more comfortable with one as opposed to another mode of communication?What are your strengths as a communicator specifically?  How would you describe them?  Do you have these strengths in both written and spoken communication, or one or the other?  If the latter, how might a strength in one mode be transferred or translated to the other?
• With free writing, the only rule is that you are NOT ALLOWED TO STOP WRITING.  This means that if you do not have something to say/write, you just write, “I have nothing to say at the moment,” or “My mind is blank,” etc.  Please time yourself for this structured free writing assignment.  If you know where to start, just go ahead and start.  If you don’t know where to start, consider using one of these prompts: “My strengths as a communicator are…”
• GROUP ASSIGNMENTS

  GA4:  Please read through Professor Rodgers’ “Some Answers to Questions About Our Syllabus” blog post.  If you find that your questions have still not been answered, please post your question(s) AGAIN to our DISCUSSION BOARD.

  GA5: Please let us know what methods of file sharing you prefer by posting to the File Sharing: Best Practices DISCUSSION BOARD.  The options to date are:  1/ post files to the OpenLab Files section; 2/ share files via Google Docs/Drive; 3/other file sharing systems such as Microsoft SkyDrive and DropBox.  While it is ok if different members of the class choose different options, at some point we are all going to need to comment on and share documents with each other.  Therefore, I would like you as a class to research and discuss this issue.

• GA6: Please read through the introductions that your classmates have posted on our COURSE DISCUSSION BOARD and make sure that you are acquainted with everyone enrolled in the course.
  

• READING AND WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

• Reading and Writing Assignment 2: Rhetoric and Writing:  An Introduction

• Professor Rodgers
  City Tech
  ENG 1101:  College Writing

• First, please read Chapter pp. 1-9 of Bazerman’s book The Informed Writer, making sure that you read carefully, look up any words that you are unfamiliar with, and take notes.  Then, please respond to Bazerman’s questions 1-3 in the WRITING ASSIGNMENTS section on pp. 9-10.  If you are looking for a brief overview of READING STRATEGIES FOR COLLEGE, check out this link:
  “How To Read a Book” by Paul N. Edwards
• Second, please LOOK OVER Professor Rodgers’ eBook/Web text “What Is Writing,” paying particular attention to the section on Writing as Action and taking notes on that section.  If you are having problems accessing the epub file on the What Is Writing Web site, here is a link to a PDF file:  https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B_AWsp3ol_kVd0NQNXA0RzM1TlE

Once you have read both the Bazerman and the Rodgers, please respond to the following questions.  You can respond to questions #1 and #2 either in LIST form or in paragraph form.  Please write one or more paragraphs in response to questions #3 and #4:

1.  What are the key points that Bazerman makes in his chapter?

2. What similarities do you see between the Bazerman chapter and the Rodgers eBook.

3.  What differences do you see between the Bazerman and the Rodgers texts?  Which is most helpful to you?  Why?

4.  What did you learn about writing from reading these texts?

5.  Do you have any additional observations/comments about reading these texts or about what you know and/or have learned about writing in general?

6.  After reading both, are there any terms or concepts that you are not understanding or that you have questions about?