Week 1 Assignments
- WEEK 1 ASSIGNMENTS:Â DUE DATE:Â MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8Â by 11:59 PM.
- This first week is all about getting oriented to this course and to the OpenLab. It is also about getting to know each other. For questions about the OpenLab, you can always e-mail OpenLab help, ask another student in our course, or speak to someone in one of the College Computer Labs.
- LEARNING JOURNAL 1
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Please reflect on the following questions and spend anywhere from fifteen minutes to a half hour responding to them. This is informal writing, meaning the form and voice in which you reply is quite open ended.
- 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.
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, âI have nothing to say at the moment,â or âMy mind is blank,â etc. Please time yourself for this structured free writing assignment and try to write at least five to seven sentences in response to each question.
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GROUP ASSIGNMENTS
GA1: Please introduce yourself by replying to the INTRODUCTIONS blog post on our Open Lab Site. Make sure to include your NAME, your MAJOR, and a few things about yourself that youâd like to share with the class. PLEASE also include three questions that youâd like your classmates to answer and reply to the questions of at least TWO of your classmates.
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GA1.2: Three Questions About Our Syllabus
Please read over the course syllabus and reply to this BLOG POST by listing three SPECIFIC questions that you have about our syllabus. For instance, âWhy are we reading x instead of y?â; âWhat does the term ârhetoricâ mean?â; etc. ALSO: Please reply to at least one personâs BLOG post, either by answering his/her question, or by expanding on one of his/her questions.
GA1.3: English Handbook Selection: What and Why
After deciding which English Handbook (Good Writing Made Simple or the Open Access Handbook) you will be using for this course, please reply to this BLOG POST by explaining which English Handbook will you be using for this course and why you chose the one you did.
READING AND WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
City Tech
College Writing
Reading and Writing Assignment 1
What is this Class About?
Professor Rodgers
First, please read the following three texts:
Introduction to What Is Writing?
Norton Introduction to Rhetorical Situations
Then, using a separate sheet, or sheets of paper, please respond to the following questions. This is informal writing, meaning the form and voice in which you reply is quite open ended. Please use MLA formatting guidelines for this assignment and make sure to read over your responses at least once before handing in the assignment.
1. 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?
2. 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?
3. In one or more paragraphs, please explain what you learned from the readings this week.
4. In his book about writing, Charles Bazerman writes:
“Writing involves other people. You respond to and build on other peopleâs statements; you then write for other people to read. As a reader and a writer, you converse with others over the written page. To converse effectively you need to know what is on the other peopleâs minds, how you want to affect other people, and how you plan to achieve that effect. Thus writing well requires that you understand the writing situation, grasp the particular writing problem, and carefully plan your writing strategy.” (1)
Please write one one paragraph in which you reflect on whether or not you agree with Bazerman, and why that is the case.
Please write one or more paragraphs explaining what connections you see between this paragraph, Professor Rodgers’ Introduction to What Is Writing?, and the Norton section on Rhetorical Situations.
5. Do you have any questions about the readings? Please make a note of them. If there are any words or phrases that were unfamiliar to you also make a note of these and try looking up their definitions in a dictionary.
