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

Dear Students,

Each week, I will ask one of you to post your notes from our Thursday class session, and to make a list of ten to fifteen keywords discussed.  Since I did not ask any of you to post your notes from this week’s class meeting, I am making the post.  Unfortunately, I was not taking notes, so I cannot post those.  However, I can post my list of keywords.  If anyone would like to post some notes, please feel free to do so by replying to this post.  Also, please let me know if you feel any of the keywords listed should be removed or others added.

All best,

Prof. Rodgers

Keywords from Week 1 (which is actually the second week of the semester, but which we are calling Week 1 just to simplify matters).  Please make sure that you have a working definition of each of these terms.  If not, please make sure to make a note of what questions you have about these terms so we can talk about your questions on the Open Lab.

Rhetoric
Rhetorical question
Rhetorical context
Aristotelian rhetorical triangle and it’s associated terms (writer/speaker, audience, purpose)
Denotative definition
Connotative definition
Metaphorical
Titles and their functions in various pieces and genres of writing
Genre
Nonfiction and the genres associated with it (essays, articles, proposals, memos, grocery lists, billing statements, wills, birth certificates, letters, emails)
MLA/APA/NBA

To submit RWA1, please click on the following link:

https://bbhosted.cuny.edu/webapps/assignment/uploadAssignment?content_id=_19640021_1&course_id=_1102033_1&assign_group_id=&mode=cpview

Follow the instructions there and upload your assignment as a Microsoft Word or .rtf file.  PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT ASSIGNMENTS IN ANY OTHER FILE FORMAT!

Please take a look around our course site and get oriented by reading the materials in the Course Information section, in the Assignments section, and in Week 1 Assignments.  We will be meeting as a class on Thursday, January 29.  I have no doubt that you will have lots of questions about the course, and we will talk about any questions that you have then. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me:  jrodgers@citytech.cuny.edu.

I’m looking forward to meeting all of you on the 29th!

All best,

Professor Rodgers

Please introduce yourself by replying to the this blog post.  Make sure to include your NAME, your MAJOR, and a few things about yourself that you’d like to share with the class.  PLEASE also include  three questions that you’d like your classmates to answer and reply to the questions of  at least TWO of your classmates.

This Group Assignment is in two parts.  Before beginning it, please read Professor Rodgers’ introduction to “Understanding Sentences in Standard Written English (SWE)”:

Part I: What specific questions do you have about sentences in Standard Written English (SWE) that you would like to have answered?  Please post three questions about some specific aspect of the SWE sentence.  For instance, “what is a run-on?”  “What is the difference between a period and a comma?”  “What is wrong with this sentence:  ‘The is dog cat eating the.'” “If it is possible to start a SWE sentence with the word ‘Because,’ why did my high school English teacher tell me NEVER to do that?”  “What is a sentence fragment, and how can I revise these in my writing?”  Be creative!  Ask anything and everything you’ve ever wanted to know about SWE sentences, and their functions/malfunctions.

Part II:  Please read through all of your own and your classmates’ questions posted to GA8.  Locate the answer to ONE of your own questions and TWO of your classmates’ questions by looking up the answer to these questions on the Purdue OWL or in your English handbook.  Post a brief synopsis of the “answer,” along with a link to the Purdue OWL site or a reference to the page number of your handbook where you located this information.

Please read over the course syllabus and comment on this BLOG POST by listing three SPECIFIC questions that you have about our syllabus. For instance, “Why are we reading x instead of y?”; “What does the term ‘rhetoric’ mean?”; etc. ALSO: Please reply to at least one person’s BLOG post, either by answering his/her question, or by expanding on one of his/her questions.

After deciding which English Handbook (Good Writing Made Simple or the Open Access Handbook, or possibly another English handbook that you already own) you will be using for this course, please reply to this BLOG POST by explaining which English Handbook you will  be using for this course and why  you chose the one you did.