What Is Writing? An Introduction to College Writing in the 21st Century SPRING 2015

To prepare for the final exam, which is next Thursday, please review your notes from today’s class and the following handouts:

Introduction to Summary Writing

What Is a Thesis Statement?

Some Thesis Statement Tips

What Is a Paragraph?

What Is a Topic Sentence?

Structural Overview of an Essay

For those interested in taking a SAMPLE FINAL EXAM, here is one:  Sample City Tech ENG1101 Final Exam

For those interested in getting some feedback on the sample final exam, please bring a copy of your completed sample exam and e-mail me to set up a time to come talk to me.

GA11:  One Paragraph Blog Post Comparing and Contrasting Your Three Sources

The purpose of this blog post is two-fold:  First, you will introduce your sources to your audience (article title, author, publication title ).  Second, you will compare and contrast the purpose and argument of each source in the context of your draft research question.

Here is a sample post written by Nicole Waite, who was student enrolled in another section of my college writing course:

MY SOURCES:
(1) Denhart, Chris. “How the $1.2 Trillion College Debt is Crippling Students, Parents and the Economy.” Forbes 7 Aug. 2013. Forbes, Inc. Web.http://www.forbes/sites/specialfeatures/2013/08/07/how-the-college-debt-is-crippling-students-parents-and-the-economy
(2) Hiltonsmith, Robert, and Tamara Draut. “The Great Cost Shift Continues: State Higher Education Funding After the Recession.” Demos 6 March 2014.
http://www.demos.org//publication/great-cost-shift-continues-state-higher-education-funding-after-recession
(3) Bidwell, Allie. “The Rise in Tuition is Slowing, But College Still Costs More.” U.S. World & News Report 24 October 2013.http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/10/24/the- rise-in-tuition-is-slowing-but-college-still-costs-more

Each of my sources addresses the rising cost of tuition and fees that have occurred on a national level, as the result of budgetary cuts to education. Each also speaks to the fact that students are graduating with enormous debt because of loans that they take in order to pay for school. The tone of each of the pieces seems to be educational in that they are informing the reader about the crisis and why it exists. I feel that the audience for each of the articles are students/parents and anyone that is affected by the economy; the latter because student debt has a direct effect on financial matters such as state budgeting, national interest rates, and tax burdens on the community.

The article written by Hiltonsmith and Draut entitled “The Great Cost Shift Continues: State Higher Education Funding After the Recession” (DEMOS2014) is longer and more formal than the other two pieces; it includes both statistics and charts. Bidwell’s article, “The Rise in Tuition is Slowing, But College Still Costs More.” (U.S. World & News Report 2013) explains how and why the tuition rate has been increasing even though tuition rates have slackened, while Denhart’s article “How the $1.2 Trillion College Debt is Crippling Students, Parents and the Economy” (FORBES 2013) focuses more on paying for college and the consequences of taking out loans. But each of the writings have similar summations – the rising cost of attending a public college, or private institution for that matter, has become so unaffordable that students are amassing huge [loan] debt in order to pay for their higher education.

Please post 1-3 questions that you have about bibliographic citations or the college research process (be as specific as possible with your questions!) and RESPOND to at least 2 questions posted by your classmates.  Professor Densmore and Professor Rodgers will both be reading and responding to these posts.

Please post the list of the writing issues you plan to work on for the rest of the semester in response to my post GA9 on the Open Lab, making sure to include at least one, and no more than three issues in each of the following categories:  Argument/Structure/Clarity/Revision.

Discussion of GA8. (some notes from this are in the comments section of the Week 8 Assignments)

Review the performance rubric for the in-class five paragraph exam essay.

Please create a structural overview of your exam essay, listing your thesis statements and the three topic sentences from each of your body paragraphs.

Review this structural overview in relation to the performance rubric.

Please read over the excellent posts that your classmates made about Paragraphs and about Thesis Statements and feel free to add your questions about or your additional suggestions for writing these as a reply to this post.

Do you have any questions about the midterm exam?  If so, please post them here.  Do you have any comments or observations to make with regard to the structure or presentation of Trent Batson’s argument in his essay entitled “Response to Nicholas Carr’s ‘Is Google Making Us Stupid?'”  If so, please reply to this post.

Also: Here is a link to a resource that you may find helpful in thinking about how to structure an argumentative essay:

http://writingcommons.org/open-text/information-literacy/critical-reading-practices/distinguishing-between-main-points-and-sub-claims

After reading some materials and handouts about thesis statements in your English Handbook, in Professor Rodgers’ packet of hand-outs, and/or online, 1/ please post three questions that you have about thesis statements, 2/ write one paragraph for your classmates explaining how to write a thesis statement and/or the elements of a good thesis statement.

Please post responses to Professor Rodgers’ questions and requests for clarification in relation to GA5 posts in reply to GA5.

• 1/ In one to three sentences, describe your understanding of the term grammar and the basis for that definition, e.g., I’ve been told that I have bad grammar by teachers because I cannot spell well, etc.

2/ Look up the definition of grammar in a dictionary.  Write down the definition.  Please also include the title of the dictionary from which you took the definition and the page number on which the definition was found.  For example:  Definition of the term grammar.  The Oxford American College Dictionary (2002), p. 707.

• 3/ Your response to Question 1 is your own connotative definition of grammar.  Your response to Question 2 is a denotative definition of grammar.  Now, please read the essay by Sandy Chung and Jeff Pullman entitled “Grammar.”  In three to five sentences, please reflect on and describe what you have learned as a result of this exercise by comparing and contrasting your connotative definition of grammar, the denotative definition of grammar, and Chung and Pullman’s discussion of grammar.
• 4/ Post your responses to Questions 1-3 as a reply to Professor Rodgers’ blog post “GA5: What Is Grammar?”

What is REVISION?

Revision = re-seeing

What is the difference between seeing and looking?

Seeing is more analyzing; looking is more observing.

Seeing is understanding and looking is more observing.  “I see.”  “I understand.”

“Seeing is believing.”