Week 1 Assignments

• LEARNING JOURNAL 1
• Please spend 5 to 7 minutes free writing about WHAT WRITING IS.  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 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: ”Writing is…” “I’ve never really thought about what writing is, but if I think of it as an object, it seems like it may…”

LJ2: Autobiography

Due: Monday, Feb. 4
Professor Rodgers

Using a separate sheet, or sheets of paper, please reflect on the following questions. This is informal writing, meaning the form and voice in which you reply is quite open ended. Though I’d like you to respond to each question in some way as part of this assignment, I’d like you to respond to these questions by writing a short essay about yourself. Please make sure to use paragraphs, adhere to MLA formatting guidelines, and read over your responses at least once before handing in the assignment.

• Where are you from?
• Describe your family.
• Where did you go to school?
• Is there a particular story that you could relate to offer some insight into your personality or personal characteristics? For instance, your response to a special event, a particularly vivid memory, a learning experience, etc.

• RWA1:What Is This Class About?
• Your first Reading and Writing Assignment is in three parts.  Please respond to each question separately.
• 1. Please Introduce Yourself!   Please introduce yourself by creating a brief blog post on our Open Lab Site.  Make sure to include your NAME, your MAJOR, and a few things about yourself that you’d like to share with the class.

• 2. Three Questions About Our Syllabus  Please read over the course syllabus and in a BLOG POST list three SPECIFIC questions that you have about it.  For instance, “Why are we reading x instead of y?”; “What does the term ‘rhetoric’ mean?”; etc.  Once the questions are posted, I’d like each one of you to respond AT THE VERY LEAST to some of the questions that THREE of your classmates have posted.  These responses may include offering an answer, expressing your interest in the same question, or elaborating on the question.

  3.  What is this class about?   Please create a new entry in your LJ for this question and respond to the questions listed below.  I strongly recommend completing this assignment in Word (or some other application) and saving a copy of your assignment, copying the text of your assignment, and then pasting it into your LJ.   Bb is notorious for not allowing you to save your work.

• a/. When you saw the title of this course, what did you expect it would be about? What did you expect we would do in the course?

  b/. What would you like this course to be about? What writing issues would you like to work on in the course? What would you like to have accomplished by the end of the course?

  c/. Please look over the text books that we will be using for this class.  What do you think of them?  Are there any that you are particularly interested in?  Which?  Why?

• Reading and Writing Assignment 2: Rhetoric and Writing:  An Introduction
• Due: Monday, Feb. 4
• Professor Rodgers
  City Tech
  ENG 1101:  College Writing

First, please read 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 What Is Writing?: A Brief Introduction to Writing As an Act of Communication, which you will find in your Digital Composition Reader  paying particular attention to the section on Writing as Action and taking notes on that section.

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?