Grammar Girl

For those of you who were not convinced by today's discussion of "based on" versus "based off of," the authoritative Grammar Girl clarifies everything. Enjoy!

Wednesday Writing Day and Appointments

In an effort to serve the specific needs of individual students in College Writing 1, Wednesday will be a "writing day." I will be available to meet with students in my office from 11am to 1:40pm. If you would like to schedule a time to discuss your thesis, sources, analysis of evidence, or anything else related to your paper, please send me an email to arrange a time.

Remember your Composition Books will be coming in with your papers on Friday, so make sure you have all of your in-class writing assignments and Vocabulary Procedures (posted on BB) completed before then.

The Fifth Strategy for Analyzing Sources

For your next blog post, post an example where you analyze your source as you quote. As we discussed in class, you will want to set up your quote by introducing your source and the context of the quote. As you quote, you will want to splice the quotation onto your own writing. Finally, you will want to be able to explain what the quote means and why it is relevant to your conversation.

On Friday, we will be playing the "Dinner Party Game"--a simplified version of Strategy 3: Putting your Sources into Conversation with One Another. Make sure you bring all of your sources to classes (electronic copies on laptops is fine) and that you have read and thought about all of your sources so you can start making connections among your sources.

See you Friday!

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Thank you! It's been a great week of conferences, and I have enjoyed seeing your research and papers take shape. I'm very excited about your topics and look forward to learning more over the next several weeks.

Remember to post either the transcript of your interview or the scheduled date of your interview (and name of person being interviewed) to your blog. Also remember to cc: me in the email requesting an interview. It's fine to ask the person in person, but you will still want to follow up with a confirmation email (and cc: me).

I realize that as many of you move forward with your research and the thinking about your paper, you may be rethinking the strength of the academic article you selected. This is fine and happens all the time in research--thus, RE/search. Feel free to continue your research and find an academic article that will best serve your paper. It's important to find a good fit for the conversation you hope to have in your paper. As you find sources you plan to use in your paper, make sure you summarize them and post to your blog. Your blog serves as a great place to record and share your thinking about your project.

For Monday's class:

• Read pages 67-72 in Rewriting. This section deals with civility in "countering." 
• Bring at least two quotes from each of the sources you are planning on using in your paper. You can just write them out on a sheet of paper, but make sure you note where the quotes came from. 
• As we begin "doing things with texts" in class, you will want to bring your sources with you. Print out your sources and bring your notes to class so that you can refer to them as we workshop and "do things" in class. If an article is too long to print out in its entirety, you can select important pages to print out and bring those or bring your laptop to class.

Have a great weekend! I look forward to seeing you on Monday!

Sample for Interview Questions--Providing Context for your Subject

I am providing an example from a student's email for you to consider as a model. This is a very good example because the interviewer contextualizes the questions for his/her subject. I hope this is helpful for those of you who are still in the process of scheduling and conducting your interviews.

I am writing to you in the hopes that you'd be able to answer several questions about my intended vocation as an airline pilot since you've had much experience working in the field. I am sorry I cannot stage this interview in person but your office hours don't align with my schedule, and hopefully hosting it as an email will allow us to work around this predicament. While most of my questions will revolve around the pilot aspect of aviation, any insight you can provide into the Air Traffic Control side of aviation would be greatly appreciated. Please feel free to skip any questions that you do not feel comfortable answering.

1. What kind of effects have you noticed that stress has on you and you're crew-mates' ability to perform their job and has it been a detriment to your health? 

I am asking this question because I am wondering if you have experienced or noticed others having difficult times concentrating while working because of events that have happened outside of the workplace, experiencing moments of high pressure and stress while on duty, or noticed changes in someone's well being due to their career.

2. Have you experienced fierce competition applying for jobs or trying to increase in rank in your company? Do you know if the amount of competition has stayed the same or changed since leaving your field?

I'm particularly curious because I know that getting a job working as an airline pilot for a major company is extremely difficult, and that it is easier to just start off small, but I am also hearing that soon many of the current aviators will naturally start to retire because there was a major jump in hirings several decades ago. I would like to know if you have any opinions about the validity of the statement and if you've seen or heard any stories of pilots working the same position for an unusual amount of time or rising through the ranks very quickly.

3. Have you ever found that your workplace's demands encroached too much upon your home-life?

I'm asking because I'd like to live in a home and start a family, as well as maintain relationships with my mother, father, and sister, and am wondering if you've noticed any pilots having difficulty keeping their work and home separate, and if it put any unwanted stresses on them.

4. Have you gained a new outlook on life because of your job?

Has flying in the military, internationally, or domestically exposed you to new aspects of life that you would have otherwise not experienced? I particularly like that in being a pilot I will be exposed to a lot of traveling and will be able to experience new cultures or styles that in many other jobs would've stayed on the other side of the world.

5. With much more automation being incorporated into aviation, do you feel that the new generation of pilot's may be replaced by computers in the next several decades?

This is a change that most likely would not be done soon, but with all the improvements in computational technology and things like self driving cars do you think that the new pilots coming into the field may be the last as companies start to favor superior but potentially problematic machines instead of the currently preferred flesh and blood human beings?

6. What was your overall experience working as an airline pilot? Do you look back on it as time well spent? Do you wish some aspects of your job could have been improved upon or done differently?

Thank you for any and all answers you provide, as they will all be greatly appreciated. Please feel free to answer these questions whenever comfortable and at your own pace, but if answers could be received in a week or a week and a half I will be very grateful.

Remember Wednesday, October 29 is a "virtual day" for you to devote to your online research for academic sources in Summons. By midnight on Wednesday, you should have at least three academic sources (from peer-reviewed journals, located through Summons) posted with correct MLA citation on your blog.

I will be in my office from 12-4pm on Wednesday and am happy to help anyone struggling with the research.  You are also encouraged to visit the Lewis University Reference Librarians for assistance in your research. Remember, they are the experts at finding sources and their job is to help you in your research. They are an invaluable resource.

On Friday we will have our quiz on Fragments, Splices, and Run-ons.

Preparing for Inquiry

As you consider your topic over the weekend, I hope you find inspiration in the video above (thanks to Beth Wilson for finding and posting this on her blog!). By Sunday evening (no later than midnight), I would like everyone to post their topic proposal on their blogs. It's OK to still be at the "idea" stage and not sure of exact conclusions, this will emerge and come into focus during the research phase, but your proposal should at least indicate some direction(s) you intend to pursue as you move forward. In addition to the proposal, include a list of somewhere between 8-12 questions about your topic that you would be interested in having answered in your research. These questions will help guide your research and begin to prepare you for your interviews. While there are no assigned readings over the weekend (we'll save the second half of "Countering" for later), I encourage you to start investigating your topic and looking for sources to help illuminate your topic.

Over the weekend, you will read one of the interviews featured on the Harvard Gazette "Experience"  and write a summary of the interview to post on your blog.

 As you summarize, you will want to pay attention to the kinds of questions being asked and consider how the how the phrasing of the question allows for the response from the person being interviewed. In other words, this summary should focus particular attention to the "method" of the interview (the how? and why?). You will also want to pay close attention to "uncovering the values" in the questions and the responses, that is, identify the values the text assumes. As Harris urges, attempt to highlight the unseen and investigate a word or concept that the interview leaves unexamined. Consider how the values and attitudes of society have shaped the questions being asked and the responses given.

Keep in mind you will be conducting your own interviews in a couple of weeks. Use this opportunity to start thinking about who you would like to interview (ideally someone on campus, but not necessarily) and what you might want to ask them. We will be reviewing our interview questions in class for peer feedback before you conduct your interviews to make sure you do not need to return for a second interview.

You should post you summary of a Harvard Gazette "Experience" interview sometime before Friday, October 24.

Help with Harris!

http://louisville.edu/writingcenter/for-students-1/handouts-and-resources/video-workshops

Need help with Harris? Not sure about "countering" or just need a refresher on "Coming to Term" and "Forwarding"? The University of Louisville Writing Center has created video workshops for three main concepts presented in Rewriting:

• "Coming to Terms"
• "Forwarding"
• "Countering"

Each video is under 10 minutes in length and includes slides with audio. Enjoy!

Countering

We will be reading the first part of the chapter "Countering" (pgs. 54-62) from Rewriting for Wednesday. Our discussion on Wednesday will focus not only on what Harris means by "countering," but also how we can incorporate this concept into our writing and thinking. You will want to pay particular attention to what it means to uncover the values of a text and apply that understanding to your summary of "The Summoned Self" by David Brooks. Bring your completed summary of "The Summoned Self" to class on Wednesday for workshop. It can be handwritten, but it must be legible for your partner(s).

The "DISCOVER College Writing 1" Course Blog

Welcome to the "DISCOVER College Writing 1" Course Blog!  We will be using this course blog as an online site for our writing community. Throughout the semester, I will post videos, podcasts, documents, websites, and links to blogs that will provide you with strategies, tips, and helpful resources for the course assignments. While I will be linking many resources here, I will continue to use Blackboard for Announcements and formal assignment submissions. The “DISCOVER College Writing 1” Course Blog is the place to check daily for updates and information. I hope you will find the blog calendar function especially useful. 

 
At least once a week, I will require that you post reflective writing and drafts at a blog you will create that will be linked at the blogroll. We will create blogs in class, and you are encouraged to design with care and consideration as we compose. These blog posts will be where you do the Rhetorical Analysis work for your Researched Project (20%--200 points). Your blog posts will serve as a repository for the research you will be conducting to write the final Reseached Paper.  In other words, your individual blogs will serve as mini prewriting exercises to prepare for and compose your final Researched Paper. Remember, blogs are living, breathing, and evolving documents. You can choose to keep your blog “private,” but you must allow the CW1 community access to your blog (I will provide a class list of emails for the community) access to your blog. I encourage you to read one another’s blogs for inspiration, feedback, and a sense of community.  

Blogging allows writers to reflect upon ideas and share them with a wider community for consideration and conversation. As my friend and colleague dr. bonnie kyburz writes, “Most writers share in this way. Most knowledge evolves in this way, and it’s not always pretty, so make an effort to be polite and respectful of your peers. Write with care in all venues.” Consider the rhetorical situation whenever you write—most especially respect for your audience, awareness of your purpose, and consideration of how you present yourself in your writing. As dr. kyburz reminds us, “all writing is a kind of performance, and public writing is perhaps especially so.” Remember that what you write says something about who you are as a writer and as a person, so you will want to avoid rants or attacks. Consider how what you write will be read by your audience and how your audience might interpret your writing. Most of all, I hope the course blog and your individual blogs help each and every student feel a part of our writing community.

If you miss class, contact a classmate, check Bb announcements, and the blog calendar (scroll down). The blog allows students to keep up with their work and participate even when they have to miss class.

Essential Concepts for Blogging (and Writing)

As you complete all of your writing assignments, keep in mind three key elements:

Claims require evidence. Back up what you say with evidence to support your claims.

Meaning has context. Explain your evidence to your reader. Explain to your reader how your evidence supports your claim. Don’t expect your reader to be able to connect the dots. It’s your job as a writer to explain connections and meaning.

Writing is revision. On the one hand, this is great because it means we always have the chance to clarify and strengthen what we have written. On the other hand, this can feel frustrating because it seems we are never done with a piece of writing. Writing is a process. The more you do it, the better you get it at.

Be diligent about keeping up, doing thoughtful work, and not allowing yourself to be complacent about your writing. While we will be doing a significant amount of writing in class, you should count on doing at least three (3) hours of writing outside of class each week. The Lewis University Catalog suggests that students “are expected to do at least two hours outside of class for every hour in class." Time it out carefully. Break it up over time. Write thoughtfully, considerately, and often.

Course Policies

Attendance is required because I will be assessing your progress based on the skills I teach in class. You are responsible for completing in-class work and assigned homework even if you miss class. Attendance is defined as more than sitting in a chair. Attendance is defined as:

• ·       coming to class on time prepared for the day’s work,
• ·       paying attention during class (cell phones off and put away),
• ·       listening to the instructor and classmates,
• ·       taking notes during lectures, discussion, and in-class activities,
• ·       answering questions,
• ·       participating respectfully in in-class activities and the blog,
• ·       submitting all assignments on or before due dates.

Students who miss class are required to notify me by email within 24 hours (preferably before the absence) and to check with a classmate for the day’s assignment. Simply sending me an email stating that you will be absent does not excuse you from keeping up with the coursework. This is your responsibility. Students who are not in attendance of class (as defined above) can expect up to 100 points to be deducted from their final grade.

Plagiarism and Cheating are serious offenses at Lewis University and all suspected cases will be reported to the Director of First Year Writing.  Plagiarism is representing someone else’s words, ideas, or structures as your own; it is a serious academic offense and will result in failure of this course.  This policy refers to all written assignments, including but not limited to the Vocabulary Procedure, Quizzes, Blogs, In-Class Writing Assignments, Reflections, and Formal Papers. etc.  Plagiarism deprives you of the opportunity to wrestle with some difficult texts and deprives me of the opportunity to watch you grow as a critical reader and writer.  I’ve read what other people think; I’m more interested in reading what you think.  When in doubt, credit your source.