Attention 8:00 Section

Your exam is written. It will be worth your while to brush up on the usage issues we discussed: be sure you understand effect/affect, everyday/every day, and its/it's. This will probably be true for the 9:30 section as well.

Please don't forget a pencil and your handbook.

Final Essay Update

In addition to the instructions already given, please note that this essay will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

• Does the essay feature a clear, arguable thesis?
• Does the essay provide detailed examples to convincingly support the thesis?
• Does the essay make a strong ethical argument?
• Does the essay contain any errors in reasoning?
• Does the essay utilize the skills already covered in the course (focused paragraphs, detailed examples, effective use/proper documentation of outside sources, correct format)?

Please use whatever format (e.g. MLA, APA, CMS, AP, etc) is most suitable for the discipline in which you are writing.

The essay is due in hard copy form at the time of the final exam.

Please contact me with any questions.

Final Information

I haven't written the final exam yet, but these guidelines for a past final will give you some idea of what to expect.  More information will follow as soon as it becomes available.

Keep in mind that you will be able to use your handbook during the exam.

Final Exam Review Terms

Although the final exam may include any concept we covered this quarter, I intend to focus on the following:

I: Sentence level issues

            A. Commas
                        1. Separating items in a series
                        2. With coordinating conjunctions to form compound sentences
                        3. After introductory elements
                        4. With nonrestrictive elements
                        5. Comma splices
                        6. Fused sentences (run-ons)           
            B. Semicolons
                        1. To join independent clauses
                        2. To separate a series of items already containing commas
            C. Apostrophes
                        1. To indicate possession
                        2. With conjunctions
            D. Using punctuation with quotation marks
                        1. Placement of periods, commas, and question marks
                        2. Using ellipses to indicate omissions
                        3. Using square brackets to indicate changes
            E. Manuscript format           
            F.  Title format
                        1. Italics, underlining, quotation marks, capitalization
            H.  Subjects and verbs
             I.  Active/passive voice
             J.  Metaphor
             K. Usage: its/it's, every day/everyday, affect/effect
             L.  Pronouns, antecedents, and pronoun reference

    

II. Paragraph and essay level issues

            A. Specific and concrete language

                        1. Avoiding generalizations and clichés

            B. Paragraph focus

                        1. Topic sentences

                        2. Supporting examples and development

                                    a. Sensory details, names, analogies, facts, statistics, testimony

            C. Essay focus and argument

                        1. Thesis/claim

                        2. Evidence/support

                        3. Counterarguments

                        4. Types of appeals: logical, ethical, emotional

III. Research

             A. Locating, evaluating, documenting, and citing sources

 

Ban College Football?

Today we will analyze the rhetoric used in this debate.

Final Essay Instructions (and assignment for Wednesday)

Begin by identifying a problem in society.  This could be an injustice, danger, misunderstanding, controversy, or any other situation that would benefit from reexamination or change.  A sampling of problems from this morning's headlines includes the following:

• The male characters on the program Girls are inauthentic.
• Despite similar costumes, modern Tea Party values conflict with the values present in Colonial Williamsburg.
• The Caveman Diet lacks scientific rigor.
• People in Ohio are being unfairly jailed for unpaid debts.

If you choose a well-known social issue (e.g.: gun control, abortion, capital punishment) be very careful to choose a very specific aspect of that issue in order to avoid simply restating the well-known, tired arguments on either side of each of these issues.

Similarly, be sure to choose a manageable topic.  No one is going to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 1500 words.

Once you choose a suitable topic, you will write a 1500 word essay that accomplishes the following:

1. Describes the situation and demonstrates that a problem truly exists.
2. Proposes a specific response (or solution) to the problem.
3. Convincingly argues that the proposed response is the best response.

This should be enough to get you started.  Please come to Wednesday's class with a list of five possible topics (no need to type this, but you will hand it in).  More specific requirements and guidelines will be posted later this week.

Reading for Monday

Please read this article (on the representation of men on the program Girls) for Monday's class and be prepared to discuss the following:

1. What is the article's thesis (i.e. what does the author want the reader to do or believe?)
2. What evidence does the author use to support his thesis?
3. Exactly who is the article's intended audience?  Think about issues of gender, race, age, income, education, and any other demographic information that comes to mind.
4. How do you know?  What choices does the author make that reveals he has a specific audience in mind?

Links to Stories

As announced in class, we will not meet as scheduled on Wednesday, March 27th.  For Monday, April 1, please be prepared to discuss the stories found at the links below.

"The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin

"A&P" by John Updike

I strongly suggest students bring a printout of each story to refer to during class discussion.

Additionally, we will briefly discuss "The Race" and "Those Winter Sundays," which we did not have time for today.  Please give each of these poems a quick read to refresh your memory.

Whether we have a quiz will depend on the scores on the poetry quiz.

Clarification

The only tasks related to the assigned poems are to 1) read the poems carefully so that you are prepared for class discussion and 2) be prepared for a quiz consisting of five basic multiple-choice questions.

Please contact me if this is at all unclear.

Poems

Please read the following poems for class on Monday.  A short quiz is likely.

The Red Wheelbarrow

  by William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15537#sthash.Q6GpOmtz.dpuf

 

The Red Wheelbarrow

William Carlos Williams

---

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

The Red Wheelbarrow

  by William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15537#sthash.Q6GpOmtz.dpuf

The Red Wheelbarrow

  by William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15537#sthash.Q6GpOmtz.dpuf

The Red Wheelbarrow

  by William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15537#sthash.Q6GpOmtz.dpuf

The Red Wheelbarrow

  by William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15537#sthash.Q6GpOmtz.dpuf

 

The Red Wheelbarrow

  by William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15537#sthash.Q6GpOmtz.dpuf

The Red Wheelbarrow

  by William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15537#sthash.Q6GpOmtz.dpuf

Hands 

by Jean Sprackland

She peels cod fillets off the slab,
dips them in batter, drops them
one by one into the storm of hot fat.
I watch her scrubbed hands,
elegant at the work,

and think of the hands of the midwife
stroking wet hair from my face as I sobbed and cursed,
calling me sweetheart and wheeling in more gas,
hauling out at last my slippery fish of a son.
He was all silence and milky blue. She took him away
and brought him back breathing,
wrapped in a white sheet. By then
I loved her like my own mother.

I stand here speechless in the steam and banter,
as she makes hospital corners of my hot paper parcel.

  by William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15537#sthash.Q6GpOmtz.dpuf

Link to "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175758

Link to "The Race" by Sharon Olds:
http://thebestamericanpoetry.typepad.com/the_best_american_poetry/the-race-by-sharon-olds.html

Link to "Mid Term Break" by Seamus Heaney:
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/seamus_heaney/poems/12698

Link to Sample Book Review

Here is Alex Stone's review of It's So Easy (and other lies) by Duff McKagan.  This review should serve as a good model for the review you are writing.

Due Date

As announced in class today, the research paper's due date has been extended to Monday March 25.  Keep in mind that a reading assignment (and possible quiz) will be assigned for that day, so plan accordingly.

A few groups have had difficulty contacting group members and have been given permission to proceed without these absent members.  If you are concerned that this applies to you, please contact your group as soon as possible.

Sample Text from Class

Below is the sample text we used in today's class.

Some scholars have suggested that Hughes’s childhood in Harlem, surrounded by artists, poets, and musicians, played a major role in developing his artistic sensibilities (Smith 14; Jones 298).  What these scholars ignore, however, is that Hughes was probably not exposed to Harlem’s cultural elite on a regular basis.  Hughes grew up on 96^th street, in the center of the most poverty-ridden section of Harlem (Williams 39).  His father was a street sweeper and his mother worked in a laundry.  However, none of Harlem’s major jazz clubs and art galleries was below 110th street.  Although Hughes spent his childhood just fourteen blocks from Harlem’s glamorous intellectual center, he lived in a very different Harlem—one that was riddled with crime and poverty and was rapidly becoming a slum.  Of the “two Harlems” that jazz critic Ted Gioia suggests existed at the time (49), Hughes most definitely grew up in the impoverished one.  Although Hughes was certainly aware of the intellectual blossoming occurring in other parts of the city, he probably did not experience it on a daily basis. 

Attendance

Absences have been on the rise, so this is a reminder that the course does have an attendance policy.  Please see the course syllabus for details.

This is a particular concern this week and next, as we are working in groups.  Your group members are depending on your presence in class.

Quotations/Paraphrases/Summaries

We will use this article in class to see some examples of various ways to integrate and introduce outside source material.  Although this article is an example of journalism, rather than academic research, many of the same principles apply.

Information on integrating sources is in section MLA-3 of the handbook, beginning on page 380.

Book Review Assignment Guidelines

The book review assignment won't be due until the final weeks of the course, but I want to briefly outline the requirements now.

Your assignment is to write a review of the book you've read this term. After the research essay is turned in, we will spend a day reading a sample book review that may be used as a model for the review you write.   The most important guideline is that your review should do more than summarize.  Instead, the review should articulate your honest reaction to the book.  This might include answers to some (but not all) of the following questions:

• Was the book enjoyable? 
• Was the book believable?
• Was the book easy or difficult to read?
• Did the book challenge the way you think?
• Did it teach you anything new?
• What was the most/least interesting part of the book?

Remember, that your audience is a room full of people who might consider reading your book based on your review.  What are the most important things those people need to know in order to decide whether reading the book was a worthwhile experience?  

Reviews should be 500-700 words.  On the day reviews are due, each student will give a short presentation introducing his or her book to the class.  Presentations should cover the main points included in the written review.  The due date will be announced.

Instructions for Research Essay

By now, you should have significantly educated yourself on your assigned topic.  Your task, now, is to collaborate with your group members to identify a topic and research question that draws on the expertise of all in the group. 

For example, a group whose members have researched wind energy, fracking, and food safety might seek to compare the pollutant levels in vegetable crops in areas where various types of energy exploration occurs.  Be creative in imagining ways in which your group members' topics intersect.

As you develop your research question, be sure it meets the criteria outlined in section R1-a of the handbook.  Is your question worth exploring?  Is it narrow, challenging, and grounded?  Does your question matter, and why does it pass the "So what?" test?

You will have time on Wednesday the 27th to discuss your topic with your group members and receive feedback from me.  By the end of class, you should have a solid research question in mind and be ready to begin looking for quality sources to be used to begin answering it.

Your group will write a 1500-2000 word research essay, which will most likely be due on March 20.

After break, we will have classes on the following topics:

• Integrating sources
• Collaborative writing
• Documenting sources

I will be available after break to meet with groups individually.  Please contact me with whatever questions you have.

Assignment for 2/20

In class today you received your assigned research topic.  Keep in mind that this topic is very general and could cover dozens, or even hundreds, of subtopics.  Your goal in this assignment is to identify as many of those subtopics as possible.

Start with a google search of your topic and some related terms.  This is not an advisable strategy for finding credible academic sources, but finding credible sources is not your goal here.  You are, instead, trying to identify the kinds of things people are already saying about your topic.

Using our in-class activity on the topic of bicycling as a model, create a list of as many subtopics (a minimum of ten) as possible.  Spend at least one hour reading and skimming articles.  If your list of subtopics contains only ten entries, the expectation is for you to have read the articles in more depth than a person with, say, 100 entries.

Please bring your list to Wednesday's class.  It does not need to be typed.  Let me know if you have questions or problems.

Assignment for 2/11

Please bring to Monday's class a list of at least three topics you find compelling.  Your list will be used to help determine the topic you are assigned for your research paper.  (This is intended to express your general interests; few people will be assigned one of the exact topics listed.)  Don't worry about whether your topics are too broad or too specific; the research process will include a narrowing-down step to ensure that your topic is suitable for a short research paper.

Feel free to add to your list any topics not listed here, but your list should include a minimum of three of the topics below.

• Nutrition
• The food pyramid
• Prenatal development
• Formation of cancer cells
• Long-term effects of smoking
• Influence of childhood events (e.g. deaths, divorce) on adulthood
• Gas prices
• Career satisfaction
• Obesity
• Fast food
• Textbook prices
• Financial stability
• History of sports
• Impact of technology on society
• Embarrassment 
• Influence of family and/or culture on personality
• Psychology
• Reliability of meterologists
• Super Bowl blackout
• AIDS policy during the Reagan administration
• Ray Lewis
• Deer antler extract
• Gun Control
• School shootings
• Academic Stress
• Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Poaching
• Children's cognitive ability
• Chinese dynasties
• Hitler
• Steve Jobs
• Reasons for cheating
• Causes of violence
• Reasons for volunteering
• Energy dependence 
• Atheism
• Bullying
• Gay rights
• Sexism in the works of Ernest Hemingway
• Overuse of psychological medicine
• Class discrimination
• Felons and voting
• College sports
• ADHD
• Air pollution
• Factories and improving the environment
• Teaching/learning technologies
• Infidelity
• Organ donation
• Sesame Street
• Cystic Fibrosis
• Fitness after age 35
• Beaches
• Alfred Hitchcock
• The Godfather films
• Sleep apnea
• Sleep deprivation 
• Nurse practitioners
• Heroin
• Reality TV
• Mothers in college
• Infectious disease and nursing hazards
• Teen hormones
• Suicide
• Organic foods
• Kurt Vonnegut
• Coal power
• Internet and socialization
• Internet regulation
• The Velvet Underground
• Andy Warhol
• STD prevention
• Inguinal hernias
• Personality disorders and effects on family members
• Dolphins
• Mary Cassatt
• Taxes
• Stocks
• Plate tectonics 
• Volcanoes
• Stem cell research
• Cremation
• Hazing
• Organ donation
• Pro athletes after retirement
• Kids and emotional stress
• Video games and addiction
• Procrastination
• Robert Kennedy
• The films of Woody Allen
• Mozart's influence on hip hop

Link to Research Paper Definition

Please follow this link to Purdue University's Online Writing Lab and read their description of what a research paper is and isn't.

For Wednesday 2/6

Please conduct ten to fifteen minutes of focused freewriting (this technique is described on page 9 of the handbook) to discover some topics of interest to you.  These should be topics about which you genuinely want to know more.  If you are unsure where to begin, think about your academic major or a major you've considered.

Your goal is to produce a list of potential topics for a research essay.  Section R1-a, beginning on page 332 of the handbook provides more information on suitable research questions.

Please bring both your freewriting and your list (at least five topics or questions about topics) to Wednesday's class.  This assignment does not need to be typed.

Essay I Instructions

This essay will build on a single idea that emerged in the first writing assignment.  Start by identifying the main ideas or subtopics found in your first assignment.  If, for example, you chose to write about the fifty billion dollar option, your list might look like this:

• Luxury mansion
• World travel
• Automobiles
• Friends and family
• Charity work
• Career as a saxaphonist

Once you've identified the main ideas, choose whichever one you find most interesting.  Develop this single subtopic into a well-developed essay of approximately 1000 words.

The two most important skills involved are 1) using specific examples to fully develop your ideas, and 2) presenting this information in an organized manner by using focused paragraphs.  In addition, please format your essay according to the MLA guidelines found on page 429 of the handbook.  A sample MLA essay begins on page 436.  (Note: as research is not involved in this essay, no citations or works cited page is needed.)  In addition to these guidelines, please attach your pages with a single staple in the upper left corner.

The essay is due on Monday, January 4.

Please email me if you have questions.  Good luck.

Assignment for 1/28

This is the first assignment in the process of writing your first essay.  We will take the ideas you discover here and develop and organize them.  For now, simply try to answer one of the questions below as completely as possible in approximately 500 words.

1. You inherit fifty billion dollars.  What will you do with the money?  Where will you live?  How will you spend your days?
2. Think about an aspect of your life you would like to improve.  What do you hope to change about yourself, and why?  How will you go about it?  What are your goals?  What obstacles do you anticipate?
3. Where do you see yourself in ten years?  Where do you see yourself living, and what do you hope to be doing?  Try to be as realistic as possible.

These questions are starting points and can be interpreted in a variety of ways.  Feel free to focus on any aspect of them you like.

Please bring a typed/printed (double-spaced) copy to Monday's class.  Use your imagination and have fun.

Email Assignment Instructions

In class today, we discussed rhetorical situation and the choices writers make based on audience and purpose.  In other words, what you say and how you say it changes based on who you are writing to and what you hope to accomplish.

You were assigned a letter today: A, B, or C (if you were absent, choose a letter at random).  Your assignment is to send an email to me (foxj1@ohio.edu) based on the corresponding scenario below.

The audience in all three scenarios is Robert Mervine, director of billing at Time/Warner Cable's Zanesville office (this is not a real person).

Group A: You paid your normal cable bill of 44.95 on November 3, 2012.  You are in possession of your cancelled check, cashed by Time/Warner.  Nevertheless, Time/Warner sent you a second notice on the bill.  You called customer service several times, spent hours on hold, and spoke to five different people who have promised to correct the problem.  Billing notices continue to arrive, however, and these notices include threats to discontinue your cable service.  Send an email to Robert Mervine attempting to resolve the problem.

Group B: You applied for a job as Assistant Director of Billing at Time/Warner in Zanesville.  Two days ago you visited Robert Mervine for a job interview.  Send an email to follow up on this meeting.

Group C:  All of the details of Group A's scenario apply here, but your purpose is slightly different.  Instead of contacting Robert Mervine to correct the billing mistake, you are emailing him to express your frustration at the shoddy customer service, and to cancel your account.  Feel free to be as angry as you like.

Additional guidelines:

• Use your imagination to invent any details about the situation that aren't provided here.
• Use an appropriate subject line for your email, but please precede the subject with "Group A," "Group B," or "Group C" as appropriate. 
• You will not submit a hard copy of this assignment.  The message is due in my inbox at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, January 22.
• Please post any questions about this assignment in the comments section below.  I will respond there as well, so that the entire class benefits.

Good luck.  Have fun.

Syllabus Quiz on Wednesday

As announced in class today, we will have our first quiz of the semester on Wednesday the 16th.  The subject will be the course syllabus.  The quiz consists of five multiple-choice questions, and most of these are focused on the "Policies" section.

Please email me if you have any questions.

Spring 2013 Begins Here

This is the first post for Spring semester, 2013.  Feel free to browse back through my previous sections to see what kinds of assignments I've used in the past.