Announcements for Essay 2:

– For individual feedback from Professor Belli, make an appointment for Wednesday or Thursday.

-Every essay needs a tittle. (Specifically a two part tittle with a colon ( : ))

-Work cited page: make sure to have one for the final draft. (All the sources used HAVE to be cited including the apps)

-The essay is 3-4 FULL pages. It has to be a fully developed essay.

-Cover letters should be fully revised with a reflection of the whole process took to write the final draft. (Mention changes, meeting with the Professor and writing what you worked on, etc.) Also a short cover letter won’t give you full points.

-Remember to edit and proofread. (Professor Belli is looking for a well polished essay and if not done, points will be taken off)

-Even though you might be talking about a different number of apps, make sure that your not just summarizing the apps but you need transitions and you need to show how & why all these apps fit together in your argument.

-Also review the Essay 1 assignment because it is relevant to Essay 2.

Announcement for the Research Essay:

-You have your choice of topic and it has to have something to do with well-being/happiness but you have full liberty on your topic.

-The first draft of the research proposal is due Wednesday night at 12am because it is a blog. It is the hardest part of the essay but it is a really important process to go through. (Professor Belli wants a 100% participation on the blogging this week because if its not done, you’re going to fall really far behind in class)

-In addition to the proposal, you also have to write an annotated source. This is an annotated bibliography in which you have to annotate the sources you used. It is important because it makes the reader know what were the sources about and it also forces you to think about the sources you are using. When doing it, you have to have the summaries of the sources and you have to have a critical evaluation. Remember to do both.

-Mandatory individual conference next week with the Professor about the research paper. It is to make sure that you’re on the right track on your essay. (Look at the time available and pick choices on the sign-up sheet that will be given on Thursday)

-Read the assignment carefully.

-Remember that the essay is 30% worth of your final grade.

I hope I covered everything and that you can understand what I wrote. Farewell!

Vocabulary:

1. High-stakes: really important to perform excellently on all categories.
2. Low-stakes: important, however with less pressure on performing excellently on all categories.
3. Revise: to go over something with the aim of making it better, changing it, and re-thinking it.
4. Superficial: on the surface.
5. Recursive: a revision process in writing.
6. Scaffolding: building in steps.
7. Indignation: righteous anger.

Reminders:

• Latenesses and absences. ( no more then 10% of absences, meaning only 3 are allowed, and 2 latenesses counts as 1 absence)
• If not done already, read al other classmate posts.

Formal Writing: 

In formal essays, you have to think about all the issues, not only the content and your ideas, but also the structure of your writing. So, you really have to work on having an argument, having a really good introduction, having really well-formed paragraphs, with topic sentences, using evidence, and quotes, and siting correctly, having work sited page at the sentence level, and having no errors, no spelling mistakes, using words correctly, and having your sentences vary. It is important because they are going to be held to a higher standard, in terms of the sort of quality of the writing itself.

In class, we did free-writing about 3 things:

1. What is our writing process.
2. What are the emotions we have when writing or having to write about something. (Reflection)
3. What is the ideal way of writing.

Prof. Belli said that when writing, the 3R should be applied which are Revision, Recursive, and Reflection.

• Revision process is really important because a large part of your grade for the course and essays are going to be built on the quality and thoughtfulness of you revision.
• Reflection is really important because in each essay done for this class, a page long, single-spaced reflection letter to Prof. Belli will be attached to it. It will consist of the revisions made, the reasons why they were made, what’s good about them, and the struggles encountered.

Writing Process: (What we students do or think)

What is our writing process?

• Brainstorm.
• Go straight to it, meaning just start writing.
• Analyze the topic.
• Research.
• Ignore the assignment.
• Procrastinate.
• Make an outline.
• Free-writing.
•  Tell someone.

What are the emotions we feel?

• Anxiety
• Stress
• Over thinking
• Anger
• Overwhelmed
• Empty
• Stuck
• Boredom
• Rebellion
• Indignation
• Fear

Ideal Process of Writing:

1. Analyze the topic and assignment.
2. Make a really rich outline that include an introduction, (hook, explanation of topic, and thesis statement), at least 3 paragraphs, (main ideas, proof/evidence, concluding sentence), argument against your idea if it applies, and a conclusion, restating your ideas.
3. Write freely as much as possible about your topic and what you want to include in your essay.
4. Go through all paragraphs and edit it to make it better.
5. Peer edit your own work.
6. Have a person or more give you feedback on your paper. (Prof. or classmates)
7. Reflect about it.

Homework: read the article “What Suffering Does” by David Brooks given in class, make an reversed outline, look up vocabulary, and prepare for tomorrow’s class.

I tried and I hope I covered everything that was done.