Assignment #14

In class on Friday, I'll hand out a set of quotations from various sources. They are meant to produce a paragraph on recruiting in sports.

Look at each quotation and write two or three sentences on each one. Would you use it in the paragraph? Why or why not? Would you paraphrase, summarize, or quote the passage? Why?

Please identify each passage by its author.

Tom Burns

Blog Assignment #13

Post a paragraph or two about the topic you have chosen for your research project? (Come on. Aren't you curious about what other class members are writing about?)

Try to state your point of view/ thesis on the topic, what specific aspects of it you are going to discuss, and how you are going to handle the argument. What are your main argumentative points? What counterclaims do you need to refute?

Tom Burns

Blog Assignment #12

By class time on Wednesday, 3-31-10, take a look at Exercise #32 (pp. 429ff) and blog a list of the main arguments for and against immigration based on the notes you see. Just make two lists, but try to read quickly through all the sources and find the pattern of arguments you see there. Try to construct a rough arrangements of the main arguments and how the pro and con arguments interact with each other.

Bring the book to class. We're going to try to turn this mess into a coherent argument. Don't fret about the mess. A research project always feels like an incoherent disaster at this stage.

Tom Burns

Blog Assignment #11

Sometime soon after Friday's class, describe the topic your group has chosen in as much detail as you can.

In a sentence or three, describe the topic of the wiki. Then, explain where you think your wiki ought to go. What is the purpose of writing a wiki on that topic? What sub-topics should it cover? What kinds of primary and secondary research will you have to do? (Will you need to interview people on campus? Who are they? Are there Internet or print sources at your disposal? What are they?)

Important: Do not consult with other group members about your post. The idea here is to see if you are all on the same page as far as the topic is concerned and to creatively freewrite about where you think the topic ought to develop. Your posts will give you something to talk about at your next meeting. ;-)

Tom Burns

Blog Assignment #10

For your next assignment, you will be writing wikis about some aspect of life at OWU. You'll be working in groups of three.

I'll be assigning those groups based on your shared interests. Thus, please post those OWU-related interests in fulfillment of this blog assignment ASAP, but at least before the end of spring break. Please come back to the blog periodically and see what other people have posted and use their responses to refine what you have to say.

Good luck! I hope you have a relaxing and pleasant break. I'll be spending a week on the Appalachian Trail in Maryland and Virginia.

Cordially,

Tom Burns

Blog Assignment #9

By class time on Wednesday (3/5), look over your previous essays and drafts and describe your typical sentence errors. Give examples from those essays. You might even want to look to older essays from high school or reflect on what previous teachers have told you about your sentence-level problems.

Don't be shy. As a good-faith effort, I will post myself. Yes, all writers have sentence-structure problems. Good writers learn to identify their typical errors and edit them out.

Cordially,

Tom Burns

Blog Assignment #8

Find the sample essay (pp. 245 - 46?) responding to the New York Times assignment. Read it and criticize it, noting both its effective and ineffective qualities. We'll discuss the essay during the second half of class on Wednesday, so what you're really trying to do (I hope) is generate something to say during the discussion of the essay.

Think in terms of all the positive qualities you might expect in an argumentative, multiple-source essay. Does the essay have a precise, restricted, and unified argumentative point of view. Do the paragraphs develop that thesis? Do its arguments support the thesis. Are those arguments developed with analysis and detailed evidence?

Cordially,

Tom Burns

P.S. Have you completed Blog Assignment #7 yet? If not, please do so ASAP. We'll talk about it during the first half of Wednesday's class.

Blog Assignment #7

Read Ex. 19, pp. 258 ff. in Writing From Sources and blog it before class on Friday. Essentially, you're being asked to find the patterns/ arguments in a set of interviews on the question of the circumstances under which one should or should not give money to a homeless person.

The idea here is to learn how to find patterns in the evidence you find in your research on a multiple-source essay and to develop an argumentative point of view.

In class, we'll look at the arguments you have found and figure out the best way or organizing and developing such an essay, so when you blog, develop a point of view based on

1. the best available evidence from the sources in front of you and

2. your own opinion.

Note that if the evidence doesn't support your point of view, you'd have to go searching for more evidence or change your point of view.

Note also that you should be prepared to refute the opposite point of view based on the research materials you see before you.

Good luck. Have fun -- and don't worry about the grammar.

Tom Burns

Blog Assignment #6

Jillian Maruskin, our library liaison, will respond to this blog entry. Please post in response to her questions. Consider your response to be your official blog post for next week.

Post as soon as you can. Ms. Maruskin will use your comments to prepare for our first library lesson next week.

Blog Assignment #5

Before our conference on Monday, publish a draft of WA#2 to this blog. (Note that you might have to split it into two posts.) Also, email me or bring with you a copy of the draft so that we can discuss it in conference.

Don't worry about the sentence-level details. In conference, we'll talk about the big stuff -- argument and evidence.

Feel free to read each other's drafts. They just might give you an argument or two to respond to.

Alert!

Message from Molly:

There are copies of Writing from Sources in the bookstore for $67.

Thanks, Molly. Please go and buy one.

Tom B.

Blog Assignment #4

Read the two essays assigned from Writing from Sources. (I'll hand them out in class, but you should also buy the book if you haven't already because I'm asking you to read Chapter 5 in it as well.) By Wednesday's class, respond to both essays in a paragraph or two on each essay. Don't think to hard about your responses. What you're really trying to do in a "zero draft" is to decide what essay you want to write about in WA#2 based on how much you have to say on each essay and how strongly you feel about the opinions expressed in each of the essays.

As you read, consider the writers' arguments and how you might support them if you agree and how you might refute them if you disagree.

We'll be using your comments as the basis of class discussion on Wednesday and Friday, so please post by sometime on Tuesday.

Tom B.

P.S. Will someone please let me know if the book is still not available at the OWU bookstore?

The following isn't an assignment. It's just a passage from Lewis Caroll that I thought you might find amusing:

"One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. 'What road do I take?' she asked. 'Where do you want to go?' asked the cat. 'I don't know' Alice answered. 'Then', said the cat, 'it doesn't matter.'" -Lewis Caroll

Blog assignment #3

Blog Assignment #3

Simple enough, folks:

Post the draft of the first assignment sometime before your conference on Monday. The sooner you post it, the more time I will have to review it and the more good I will do you. Also, it'll do you some good to see what others are writing, so make sure to check out the drafts of other students.

You can bring the draft of the assignment to your Monday conference in two forms. Either bring along two hardcopies or email me the text as a Word file.

Good luck, have fun, and may the Muses be with you.

Tom Burns

tlburns@owu.edu

Blog assignment #2

Blog assignment #2: Pick one of the topic options for Essay #1 and reflect on the prompts. Please do so by Monday so that we'll have something to talk about in conference.

Note that you don't have to read the assignments in Nickel and Dimed to blog. Just reflect on the prompt questions. There's no need to write a formal draft here. Reflect on the topic as randomly and gently as you want but in as much detail and complexity as you can.

In fact, you are NOT writing a draft, and you shouldn't think of it as one. The prompts are meant to spur your thinking, not produce an organized set of thoughts.

Note also that your answers to the prompts might reveal the kind of research and thinking you need to do to proceed to the drafting stage. They will tell you as much about what you don't know as they do about what you know. Your responses might reveal an organization, as well, but they might also reveal holes in that organization that you need to fill.

Hello, students,

For your first blog assignment, I'd like you to consider your own writing process. Just what do you do when you write? How do you start? When do you start? What do you at subsequent stages? How does your approach to the writing process help or hinder your ability to write effectively (and on time)?

Check out the first three chapters of the Handbook. Is there anything there that can help you be a better writer? Or is the whole mess just a bunch of English teacher BS that you've heard a million times before? If you argue the latter, you'd better be ready to justify your claim. :-)

Tom Burns