Wednesday is the last day of class

Research papers are due on Wednesday.  Please attach first draft BEHIND the final draft.  You know the schtick.

Here's Monday's handout:

FINAL SELF REFLECTIVE ESSAY (last day of class 100 pts)  I will bring blue books

Length

In order to receive the full points, the essay should be a minimum of 3 pages in length.  However there is no maximum length.  It can be as long as you need to complete the task.

Overview

--You should reflect upon your progress as a writer throughout the semester.

--Identify your goals for your future improvement as a writer at the end of the essay.

--Reflect back on various assignments you have completed for this course and the concepts we covered through the class.  What did you learn as a result of doing these assignments or by applying these concepts to your own writing?

--You may want to reflect on what you learned completing the following assignments:

--A rhetorical analysis of “Diagnosing and Treating the Ophelia Syndrome.”

--The synthesis paper on Immigration Reform

--The research paper

--How true is the statement that the first step to writing is reading?

--What habits do you wish to practice in the next academic writing class?

Your self-reflective essay should be organized around a theme and should be written in paragraph form.  Do not organize your essay around this bulleted list.  These are suggestions.  Remember to think of audience and tone. You should explain assignments clearly as if you are writing to a general audience not JUST THE TEACHER.

NOTE:  This is a self-evaluation of your writing and not an evaluation of the teacher or the class.  Focus on your own writing experience and growth.

Conferences on Monday, April 8 and Wednesday, April 10th

Please show up at the appointed time for your teacher/student conference (100 pts.).  If you aren't on this list, email (louiseplummer@gmail.com) me and tell me when you'll be there.  Use a blank space.

We'll meet down at the west end of the hall from our classroom (where the tables and chairs are).

Monday, April 8:
12:00 Asha Booker
12:15
12:30 Ashley Drennan
12:45 Brad Liston
1:00 Jeff Junge
1:15
1:30 Michael Brinkerhoff
1:45 Christian Peterse
2:00
2:15 Terrell Williams
2:30

Wednesday, April 10:
12:00 Stefan Chevalier
12:15 Seth Robbins
12:30 Colton Henrie
12:45 Sydney Johnson
1:00
1:15Michael Findlay
1:30 Ryne MacPherson
1:45 Karli Rasmussen
2:00 Thomas Mahoney
2:15
2:30 Gabriel Famodu

10 extra points for getting help at the Writer's Lab at 208 LI.

No class today--April 1.

I have an ear infection that needs to be seen by the doctor, so I'm cancelling class today.  I'm so sorry. (The grundge continues).

Please bring the first draft of your paper on Wednesday (4 pages)--just one copy.  We'll work on some  details in class.  Be sure to have a Works Cited page.

Next week are conferences. Be sure to sign up on Wednesday if you haven't signed up.  100 points for conferences.

First draft of research paper is due Wed. April 3

At the end of class, I realized I had put down the wrong date for the first draft.  It is due next week, Wednesday, April 3.  It doesn't have to be finished--you can hand in four pages, but I do want a Works Cited page.

There is no homework due for Monday, but you should be working on your paper.  Also those who have not scheduled a conference time need to do so on Monday.  Conferences are 100 points.

FIRST FOUR PAGES DUE NEXT WEEK WEDNESDAY.  This is it--the end of the semester.
Keep up the good work!

Assignment for Monday, March 25

Bring to class 3 printed-out articles that you think you will be able to use in your paper.  We will work with these in class.  Please bring THE LITTLE PENGUIN HANDBOOK to class.  We will be using it also.

Come to class, people.  Do your work.  We're on the last leg.

Assignment for Wednesday, March 20

Type up your research topic in the form of a question (remember this is an argumentative paper).
Then write at least one pro and con answer to the question.

For example:

Thesis question:  How have email, texts and tweets influenced student writing in college?

Pro answer:  Students now write more outside of college than any generation before them (Stanford Study).
Con answer:  Students' ability to think through a problem has not increased.

Library 207

When we return from spring break (Monday, March 18), we will meet at LI 207 at 1:00.  This is 100 points.  Don't miss it.  You should also have picked a research paper topic.  If you still have no idea, google "research paper topics" and you'll find lists of subjects.  Pick one.  Anyone.

I'm sorry to have missed you on Wednesday.  It was my turn to be sick.  Monday will be workshop day.  Please bring 4 copies of your draft. 100 points.  When we come back from the break, we'll begin our final research papers.

Keep coming to class.  Keep doing your work.  We're more than half way through.  Yippey Skippy.

Workshop for draft tomorrow--bring 4 copies 100pts

Synthesis paper assignment sheet.  The paper will be 3-4 pp. double spaced.  Use MLA styling. 100 points.

In a synthesis paper you explore connections and contradictions among a group of texts on one subject: immigration reform.  I want you to use four (4) texts, three of them from your text book:  the blogs written by Dee, Byron Williams and Victor Davis Hansen (pp. 324-328) and one blog of your own choosing.  Each blog is relatively short.

This paper is a practice run for the research paper that will end the semester.

What do these texts have in common and how do they differ?  You might want to make a list before you get started.  Remember to read carefully.  Define any terms you don’t completely understand.

For Monday,  I want you to write an introduction (1 to 2 pp.) that describes the issues and how each writer approaches it.  The introduction should end with a thesis.

Bring 4 copies of the introduction to class for a workshop. 100 points.  Do not miss class.

Writing a thesis for a Synthesis paper.  Your text book offers a low-level, two sentence example of a thesis and a high-level, one-sentence thesis.  (It’s always more difficult to write one sentence than two).

1.  Whereas Ritzer focuses on the way high-tech society makes us homogenous and superficial, Turkle focuses on how the Internet unsettles traditional views of the self.  Although I agree with Ritzer’s argument that McDonaldization is dehumanizing, I think that role-playing MUDs is actually a healthy way to oppose McDonaldization and expresses human desire to be creative, to develop the self, and to make human connections.

2. Ritzer’s attack on technological society and Turkle’s more optimistic belief that it offers opportunity for growth and discovery have together forced me to consider the superficiality and vulnerability of human relationships in our high-tech society. 

Notice how the writer has incorporated his own views into the essay.  You should have some new insights by the end of your paper and be able to share them with your readers.

As in the “Ophelia” paper, your audience is a diverse and educated group of readers, who won’t necessarily have read any of the blogs you are writing about, so you need to describe them briefly.  Use paraphrases and quotes to support your view.

Figure 12.1 on p. 321 of our text offers you two frameworks for a Synthesis essay.  Look this over carefully, before you write anything.

Immigration reform

Here's a question:  to what degree is finding a fair immigration reform about RACE?  The author, Dee, of the first blog confronts white America.  "She sounds like a racist," we said.  Is it possible that she is drawing attention to the fact that white America has been racist toward people of color for generations (and continues to be)?

Read the 5 articles on immigration reform and write a summary of each.  Do it!  Often authors summarize their main ideas toward the end of the article, so you might look carefully at conclusions.

Find three more websites on immigration reform, summarize them, and bring all to class on Wednesday.  The next big paper is on synthesizing the ideas on immigration reform.  YOU HAVE TO DO THE READING BEFORE YOU CAN DO THE WRITING.

READ.  READ.  READ.

Keep coming to class.  No one's failing so far.  Keep up the good work.

2nd Schedule

­Continuing 1010-037 Schedule

Mon. Feb. 11                        Freud Day

Wed. Feb. 13                        Read the essays about immigration in Allyn Bacon, pp. 323-330.                                                  Write a paragraph summary of each essay (5).

Mon. Feb 18                        NO CLASS

Tues. Feb. 19            NO CLASS           

Wed. Feb. 20            Bring  three  articles to class on the issue of immigration that you found on the internet. (Try looking on Google Scholar)

Mon. Feb. 25.            Writing a synthesis paper.

Wed. Feb. 27            Draft of synthesis paper due (3 copies workshop)  3 to 4 pages

                                    WORKSHOP

Mon. Mar. 4            FINAL DRAFT OF IMMIGRATION PAPER DUE.

                                    Read “Paintball” in class (359).

Wed. Mar 6.            Possible paper topics for your final paper.

                                    The final research paper

                                    SPRING BREAK

Mon. Mar. 18            Hand in a paragraph on the subject of your research paper

                                    LIBRARY DAY

Due Monday

I wrote an assignment on the board and I don't remember what it was.  Duh.  I think it was to find ad that you like and write why it appeals to you.

Does that sound right?

Due Wed. Feb. 4

What is due is the final draft of your essay about the Ophelia Syndrome.  Attached to that essay should be the first draft (I don't care if it's written on) and the worksheet from today.  Staple it all together.

BRING YOUR ALLYN & BACON TEXTBOOK ON WEDNESDAY!

Template for Ophelia Syndrome

A TEMPLATE FOR YOUR PAPER—You may use any of this.

Opening:  In his essay, “Diagnosing and Treating the Ophelia Syndrome,” Thomas G. Plummer encourages college students to think for themselves rather than having others do their thinking for them.  He begins with a negative example from Hamlet, where Polonius and Laertes question Ophelia about Hamlet.  QUOTATIONS

The obvious question to students is, do you want to be like Ophelia?

Plummer defines thinking by quoting other thinkers (S.I. Hayakawa, Carl Jung, Alfred Korzybski and John Keats (to name a few).  QUOTATIONS

Middle: Plummer offers five treatments to help students learn to think for themselves modeling  them in the open form he uses to write the essay.  For example, one treatment is to learn to know and trust yourself.  Plummer suggests keeping a journal, including a dream journal.  He then quotes from his own journal and tells a dream.  He writes comic verse (also idle thinking).  QUOTATIONS

He encourages fostering idle thinking, ie. Hot baths, watching TV, daydreaming etc.

He uses personal anecdotes, dialogues and scenes to show what it means to think out of the box.  QUOTATIONS

WAYS TO QUOTE:  (always in the present tense).

Plummer claims that, “______.”

Plummer gives an example where …

Plummer writes,

Plummer says,

Plummer quotes

Plummer asserts

Plummer agrees that

Counter argument: While Plummer’s enthusiasm for becoming independent thinkers is persuasive, he does recognize the risks for students to do so.  Quotations where students tell him how dangerous school feels.  They run the risk of teachers who are full-blown Poloniuses and want the class to run their way.

Conclusion.  College students have an opportunity in college to hear many points of views and to begin the process of sorting out what they think and who they are, but learning to think is a lifelong process.  Even Plummer has a mid-life crisis at 40. QUOTATION  Jung’s idea of individuation doesn’t happen in a four-year undergraduate program or even in midlife, but is an accumulation of trial and error in dealing with

the uncertainties that face every living being.

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah and more blah blah blah blah blah

Assignment for Wednesday, Jan. 30th

Write the introduction to your paper on the Ophelia Syndrome.  Remember, your reader will need to know the SUBJECT you're writing about, WHO wrote the paper and WHAT draws you in as a reader.

Don't hyperventilate about this, just write something down.  We can work on it in class tomorrow.

Type it up.  Call it Introduction to Ophelia Syndrome.

Assignment for Monday, January 28

Write down all the names in "Ophelia Syndrome" that Plummer quotes or refers to.  Google each name and write a short paragraph on each person.  (Not the students).  Type it up.

Have a good week. End.

For Wednesday, Jan 23.

Remember there is no class on Monday, Jan. 21.  It is Martin Luther King Day.  For Wednesday, you will need to have read and made notes on "Diagnosing and Treating the Ophelia Syndrome," by Thomas G. Plummer.  Look at the schedule below.  It will give you the url.  Be sure to read carefully (all seven pages) and bring your copy to class.

See you Wednesday.

Spring Schedule--first six weeks

SCHEDULE OF CLASSES—ENGLISH 1020-037                        Louise Plummer

Week 1                           Gone forever.  Dissipated into thin air.   Confusion on so many

                                         levels.  Is this a motif for our class?

Week 2

Mon. Jan.14                        Introduction to the class

                                    Rush Writing

                                    In-class essay: “ My Reading and Writing Autobiography”

Wed. Jan. 16            Read Allyn & Bacon, Chapters 1 and 2.  Pay special attention to the short essays in these two chapters.  Bring book to class.

Week 3

Mon. Jan. 21            NO CLASS—MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY

Wed. Jan. 23.                        “Diagnosing and Treating the Ophelia Syndrome,” by

Thomas G. Plummer.  You can find it at http.//magazine.byu.edu/?act=view&a=2537

Run off a copy for yourself.

Please take time to read carefully—it’s 7 pages long.

Make notes in the margin.  What is it he’s arguing for?

READING WORKSHOP

Week 4

Mon. Jan. 28                        “Who’s Who in the Ophelia Syndrome?” exercise due

                                    Who is your audience?

                                    Writing a thesis/Writing an introduction

Wed. Jan. 30                        Writing the paper.  Keeping track of what you’re doing.

                                    Mistakes students make.  Using your best language.  Using

                                    Logos, ethos and pathos.

Week 5

Mon. Feb. 4            Rough draft of Ophelia paper due (3-4 pages, double-spaced).  Bring three (3) copies to class for workshop.  50 pts

Wed. Feb. 6            Final draft of Ophelia paper due (3-4 pages, double-spaced). 100 points                       

Bring Allyn&Bacon to class.  Analyzing Visual Texts

Week 6

Mon. Feb. 11            Freud Day.  Handouts.  Read Allyn & Bacon, p. 256, “Understand

                                    Image Analysis”  Due: bring a print ad that appeals to you.

Wed. Feb. 13                        Comparing poitical websites (assignment to be announced)