Conclusions

So on Wednesday we talked about the different startegies that you can use to write a "kick ass" introduction. Remember, generally speaking, your readers are going to be looking for your point/ purpose/ claim/ thesis by the end of your introduction (which could be one or two paragraphs for a 3-ish page essay!). If your thesis doesn't come until later, that's fine, but your readers still have to have some idea of where the paper in question is going!

For Friday's class, we will talk about the other end of the essay: the conclusion!

Click here for a basic explanation of writing a conclusion for college-level essays.

Click here for another web site that includes some ideas on the types of conclusions that you want to avoid with the final draft of an essay.

See you all in class! :D

Introductions!

We are going to start class on Wednesday by doing something with the "bad" paragraphs that you folks wrote during Monday's class .... and then on to the wonderful world of writing catchy introductions! Click here for a great link from the Purdue Online Writing Lab about writing a paragraph at the beginning of your essay that will "pop"!

It was great touching base with everyone this past week -- now let's start looking at essay #2 and how you can more effectively get your ideas across via language.

We are going to start this week by talking about a concept called ENGFISH.

Click here for an article that explains this term!

OK, now that we have talked about what ENGFISH actually is, let's look at one of the most common ways that ENGFISH comes out in writing! Click here!

We will then spend the rest of the class playing with ENGFISH with the goal -- I hope -- of avoiding it in your own final drafts of essays.

Happy Monday!

Good morning! We are going to talk about those three essays I assigned on Monday and you will want to make sure that you have signed up for one of the conference times with me on Wednesday or Friday (so you can get essay #1 back!). We will also talk about your new writing assignment in class today! See you there!

For Friday Sept 17

In class on Friday, you will complete self-reflection notes before handing in essay #1. Afterwards, you will be given a handout for the new schedule. You will notice that there are some readings that you must do BEFORE coming to class on Monday. All three of the readings can be found in our text, This I Believe. You can also find the readings online (click on the links):

"Be Cool to the Pizza Dude" by Sarah Adams (pages 7-9)

"In Giving I Connect to Others" by Isabel Allende (pages 13-15)

"A Goal of Service to Humankind" by Anthony Fauci (pages 65-67)

For each reading, what would you say is the argument/ position/ purpose/ claim/ thesis? How does each writer support his/ her thoughts? Which of the three is more effective? Which one are you most persuaded by?

Wednesday and Friday

Today (Wed) in class we will be looking at two student essays -- by Jesse and Kelsey! We will help them figure out the weak parts -- and the strong parts -- of their essays! My hope is that the discussion that we have will be useful to everyone as you all work on preparing your final essays for Friday's class.

So, of course, essay #1 is due on Friday. You will be given a new schedule on Friday as well!

:D

Monday's Class!

For Monday's class, we are going to look at a "bad" essay written by one of my former students, David. We will then talk about why EXACTLY this essay has some problems. When David's classmates read his essay, they also pointed out some problems and so I will show you how he revised his work.

I hope this discussion will help us talk about the two essays that will see on Wednesday (Jesse M and Kelsey). Everyone's essay will be due on Friday so be sure to let me know if you need any help at all!

I know the first essay is often the most stressful. Let me know if I can help in anyway! :D

Friday's Class Sept 10

Happy Friday! We will start class by reviewing all the "good stuff" we did on Wednesday -- comma splices, run-ons, and fragments! After this quick review, we will jump into one more issue I think you need to be aware of: audience!

Click here, by the way, for a terrific web site that talks about audience and academic writing!

For the exercise that we will be doing in class, you will be clicking on the following web sites and examining the author's intended audience:

Townhall.com Blog

USA Today Article

Huffington Post Article

The Infamous Comma Splice (and friends!)

For Wednesday, we are going to talk about the three most common grammatical mistakes that almost every writer makes: comma splices, run-ons, and fragments.

Here is what Grammar Girl has to say about comma splices -- click here! We will listen to what she has to say at the beginning of class. A version of this podcast is in her book -- pages 104-6 (and she talks about fragments on pages 68-9)

Click here for a great handout on what comma splices are!

Click here for a great online quiz for dealing with run-ons!

Friday, September 3

Hi everyone! We talked about thesis statements on Wednesday so what I would like to do for Friday's class is expand our discussion and talk about basic paper format and organization.

Click here for some general comments about putting a college essay together. This might be especially important for those who are nervous about our first paper!

Click here for a link on basics for turning in a college-level essay This is information on the presentation of a research paper, but all the comments hold true for an ENG 101 essay as well!

See you in class!