Notes from Essay 5 for Everyone

Potential lectures/activities for coming classes: 

-- Direct Quotations: They must be proportionate. They must be relevant. They must be well-worded the way they are, because otherwise, they would be a summation (NOTE: A written guide to paraphrasing techniques is provided on the blog)

-- Web site credibility

-- Formatting long quotations in Hacker -- look it up!

-- Logic and Argumentation, Going from Premise to Conclusion

-- Understanding Appeal Types to Strengthen Argumentation

-- Pronoun Errors Rampant!

Rhetoric and Composition LAST CLASS PREP

Because I want to maximize our time focusing on strengthening your papers, I will be CANCELING the WRITTEN TEST originally scheduled for Wednesday. Instead, be ready to ask your final paper questions.

Rhetoric & Composition, Class #23, Monday, April 29, 2013: GUIDE TO THE END

As we slide into home base for the semester, here is a general outline for the remaining classes (please know that a lot more information will be forthcoming on these assignments, so stay tuned...do not bombard me with pre-emptive questions):

TODAY: Essay #6 DUE

Family Activity: Evaluating Document Quality

Research Lecture #1

Tonight's Assignments:


READ: Hacker section on research, Research Help Readings A, #1 & #2 (on the blog from different
sources)

WATCH/WRITE: 
1. Watch the video linked below and write a reaction as Journal #7. Do you agree or disagree with the filmmakers' argument about the identity of today's young woman? Support your answers with specific examples.


Miss Representation 8 min. Trailer 8/23/11 from Miss Representation on Vimeo.


****Please do not forget to fill out the course evaluation. Link is posted. You will need your Z number. 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24th: Research Questions from Twitter & Research Lecture #2

MONDAY, APRIL 29th: Research Proposals and Annotated Bibliographies due

Family Meetings!

WEDNESDAY, MAY 1st: LAST CLASS MEETING! Journals & Final Papers due (if submitted in hard copy with envelope or e-mail for graded analysis)

Condensed Written Final (Active Reading and Annotation Notes)

Research Questions from Twitter & Research Lecture #3

DIGITAL COPIES OF FINAL & JOURNALS (these will NOT receive a written grade analysis, but if there is a problem, you can always e-mail me to discuss or even meet over Summer or in the Fall) DUE by 11:59 pm on Monday, May 6th.

VERY IMPORTANT! Please be sure to complete!

Please be sure to complete the Stockton-sanctioned IDEA evaluation for this course any time before May 6th. Here is the link. Thank you. The course info is below:

Costal, Joseph
RHETORIC AND COMPOSITION
GEN 1120 004
MW 1535
Survey Dates: 04/22/2013 - 05/06/2013

Research Help Reading A: Guide to Paraphrasing

A paraphrase is...

• your own rendition of essential information and ideas expressed by someone else, presented in a new form.

• one legitimate way (when accompanied by accurate documentation) to borrow from a source.

• a more detailed restatement than a summary, which focuses concisely on a single main idea.

Paraphrasing is a valuable skill because...

• it is better than quoting information from an undistinguished passage.

• it helps you control the temptation to quote too much.

• the mental process required for successful paraphrasing helps you to grasp the full meaning of the original.


6 Steps to Effective Paraphrasing

1. Reread the original passage until you understand its full meaning.

2. Set the original aside, and write your paraphrase on a note card.

Rhetoric and Composition, Class #22, Wednesday, April 17, 2013

EXEMPLIFICATION ESSAYS DUE MONDAY! Also, please bring the annotation you made for the oil spill article from last week.

Rhetoric and Composition Class #21, Monday, April 15, 2013

Wildness & Busyness!  Get outside! 

FOR WEDNESDAY: 

1. Draft of the exemplification paper.

2. Rewrites for Osprey paper

3. Apply the questions of evaluating "Quality of Rhetoric" to the oil spill article from the Ocean City Gazette. Make sure your ideas are written down -- NOT just in your head.

Rhetoric and Composition Class #19 (and now #20): Wednesday, April 10, 2013

***NOTE: So...I was involved in an emergency situation yesterday. Sorry that it impacted our class. You DO NOT need to write this essay. We will regroup on Monday. In the meantime, please read and annotate this article. Add it to your arsenal. These articles we have been working on will find relevance toward the end of the course. Hope all are well. 

Also, those of you with Twitter, check out #costalstock for another, related, Slate article. 

WRITE: Essay 5:  Definition using Exemplification (minimum of three pages) - (Due Monday)

Choose an abstract term to define through exemplification. Your definition should prove a point about the concept.

Remember our examples from class: WILDNESS -- wildness is closer to home than we expect. 

BUSYNESS -- Busyness is self-imposed and driven by self-importance. People aren't truly as busy as they think. 

Remember that you will be graded on the quality and use of your examples. Be specific to provide clarity about something abstract or general.

An exemplification essay (or illustrative essay) uses examples to show, explain, or prove an overall point (an argument usually established in the essay thesis).

Again...remember examples from class: 

"(People) are busy because of their own ambition or drive or anxiety, because they are addicted to busyness and dread what they may have to face in its absence." -- Tim Kreider (NY Times) 

"While wilderness might be untrammeled land along the Alaskan coast, wildness can happen anywhere — in the jungle or your backyard. And it's not just a place; it's a feeling. It rises up when you least expect it." -- David Gessner (nature writer)

Rhetoric and Composition Class #18: Monday, April 8th, 2013

We are preparing for the creation of an EXEMPLIFICATION paper. In my quest to to eliminate a textbook for this course, I am a slave to free resources. Here is a pretty good presentation provided by a professor and loaded onto Google for public educational use. It is valid and credible, and I suspect you may even find it more useful than a more traditional reading. It is more example-driven and less, well, "prose-y," so please read, annotate, review, but also be prepared to let me know if the learning it provides rivals that of a traditional text with a chapter on EXEMPLIFICATION. 

Please note: we will NOT be doing, obviously, the paper outlined by this professor. DO NOT WRITE THAT PAPER! MY paper will be assigned on WEDNESDAY! 

Please bring "This I Believe..." papers to class on Wednesday.

Rhetoric & Composition: Class #17: Monday, April 1

ASSIGNMENT: Final draft of "This I Believe" due Monday, April 8th.

Also, read and annotate the following articles...be prepared to discuss and respond to the pieces in writing. One is from Salon. The other is from Newsweek.