Digital Composition and Rhetoric Fall 2016: OpenLab Site

Please feel free to post your comments and questions related to the specific elements involved with writing an argumentative response essay.  There is a lot to think and talk about when writing in this genre.  Do you have questions about thesis statements?  Topic sentences? Using textual evidence? Distinguishing between claims and evidence?  Paragraph development?  Needless to say, all and any questions are welcome.  If you can post specific examples from your essay in progress to give us something concrete to discuss, they will be most appreciated.

Please post your draft thesis statement for your five paragraph letter to Carr, LeGuin, or Silverman explaining why you agree or disagree with his/her essay.

Please also feel free to post any questions you have about writing thesis statements.

Please post your one paragraph summary of ONE of the three essays that we read last week.

Please feel free to post your questions and Thoughts about Summary Writing, Writing About Texts, and What We Are Reading here.  We covered A LOT OF GROUND in today’s class, so I’m sure there is a lot to discuss.

If, along with your question, you can post examples from your writing related to specific issues you are having, this will give us something concrete to consider and will help further the discussion.

I’m hoping this discussion board can also be used as a place for talking about the essays we have read, questions you have about them, and ways in which you might respond to them.

I’m reposting the links to some handouts here.  You will also find these on our course web site and in my Open Access English Handbook.

Some Elements of Writing: Writing About Texts

Introduction to Summary Writing

Using Textual Evidence Effectively in Your Writing: Quoting, Paraphrasing, Summarizing

MLA Guidelines for referencing authors and titles

ICE:  Introduce, Cite, Explain

Writing Summaries

There are, generally speaking, three ways to refer to a text in your writing:

Summarize it
Paraphrase from it
Quote/Cite from it

Please contribute any questions or observations you have about the three stages–Structural Revision, Line Editing, Proofreading–of the Revision Process as a comment to this post.  Although we had a great discussion earlier in the semester on the subject of Paragraphs, there is still A LOT TO TALK ABOUT!  For instance, what revision strategies can one use to achieve greater coherence and unity in a paragraph?  Might transition words between sentences be one answer?  Might thinking through the logical relations between sentences be another answer? …  Might revisiting Melton’s definition of a paragraph be helpful to you?  Melton defines paragraphs in the following manner:  “A paragraph consists of a unified idea that supports the overall reason for writing the essay. Every paragraph should be able to be looked at like its own piece of work that is also related to the topic at hand.  Things that good paragraphs have are examples that help you analyze, discuss, and explain the sub-topic .You should always start a new paragraph when you want to talk about a new sub topic.”

Hi.

This is adiscussion board for Week 4 of our class.  You are required to POST and RESPOND TO POSTS at least THREE TIMES.  That means you will contribute AT LEAST six times to this discussion board.  To get full credit for this assignment, you must check in at least once by Friday, September 23, Sunday, September 25, and Tuesday, September 27.

Facilitator: keeps everyone on topic

Note Taker: records what is said

Transcriber: posts the notes on the OpenLab

Presenter: presents findings to class

1. Please each present what you wrote about:  observations, questions, etc.
2. Discuss these as a group
3. Come up with three (3) points (observations or questions) to present to the class

Group 1

1. In the introduction, each essay focuses on the author’s background
2. The essays were similar because they all dealt with reading and writing
3. How can you learn how to read if you don’t know the alphabet?
4. When Scibona brings up the fact that he was reading books in a shed, is that his home?
5. Do you generally believe it is possible to learn how to read in the manner Sherman Alexie did?

Group 2

1. All three writers found reading entertaining.
2. Reading is a life-long endeavor.
3. Do people read to please their parents?  Would these writers have been as eager to read if they had not been surrounded by books?

Group 3

1. Alexie and Desmarais learned how to read at home.
2. They learned that reading a lot of books can help you become a better reader and writer.
3. All three essays are written in the first person.
4. Is there a study/why we/from five years old we are forced to read in school.  Why can’t we just learn how to read at our own pace, as was the case with Desmarais’ education?

Group 4

1. All three essays are in written from the first person perspective.
2. All three discuss the writers’ childhoods and learning to read and write.
3. “How I Learned to Write” is different from the other two because Desmarais was home schooled.

Group 5

1. Alexie was the only writer who began in the first person and concluded in the third person.
2. Scibona’s tone was somewhat angry.  Why?
3. Desmarais was the only one of the three home schooled.

Please discuss as a group which essay you most admire from a stylistic and linguistic perspective.  Do you all agree?  Why or why not?