Overview:
Dr. Crowther assigned us to read chapter 4 (pg. 75-87) and chapter 9 (pg. 225-239) in preparation for our first essay. In chapter 4, the author introduced the idea of not focusing too much on small detail during the earlier phase of writing. The metaphor that the book uses to express 
this idea is that “you don’t put your curtains before you’ve built walls of your house.” (pg. 75) Then, the book proceeds to the idea of different ways of forming your thesis statement. The first way is called: thesis-last. This is when you provide evidence to establish your argument. The second one is called: thesis-first. This is when you state your thesis with some logical points to support it. The third one is time-based, meaning that time plays an important role. Some application of this method can be found in narratives and biographies. The last one discussed is context-based structure. This relies on the situation, and it varies “according to the context and to what the writer wants to focus on.” (pg. 83) You can present your thesis in two different ways. One is when you use your weakness to start a counter-argument. The second one is by stating your strengths. This is especially effective when you know that your audience agrees with your idea. The last point the book stresses about is the transition. It is extremely imperative to have a smooth flow in your writing so that your audience can connect from one point to another.
The second part of the reading was mainly on revision. It highly stressed on the topic of going back through your text to fix any error, not just grammatical errors. The book examines the significance of reviewing your paper before you get feedbacks. Also, before asking someone for a feedback on your article, be sure to make questions to ask your reviewer. This will provide a guideline to follow. The book gives an example of two roommates: Rachel and Inez. Rachel wanted Inez to give feedback on her essay, but she was unhappy with the feedback she got. Inez told her that the article was good with some little typos. Later, she realizes that she should have given her a set of ideas to look for and few question. This helps us to understand the importance of asking questions to our reviewers. Lastly, the author tells us that not simply to follow the reviewer’s suggestion, but to go back and check what could you possibly do to fix it. This chapter stresses the importance of referring back to your assignment, notes, and your PACT before starting your revision.
Class Discussion/activities:
Dr. Crowther gave us a homework assignment at the end of the week 4. The assignment was to find the writing topic and start thinking about the topic that related to the social justice by doing PACT chart and some brainstorming. On Tuesday, we began our day by doing the daily grade number six. In our daily grade, we wrote about what topic did we choose to write your first essay and what are some problems that we face when you start writing the paper including what did we do before we start writing your paper.
We have begun our Tuesday class by talking about how to continue writing our paper even though we think we are not sure about the prior sentences is by giving the symbol or highlight to the sentences to come back later but never stop writing. When our writing is going 
off the topic, she recommended us to go back into our PACT chart and understand who are we writing for, the audience and the purpose; it will help us to continue our writing in track. We focused on how to write the excellent essay on Tuesday such as start writing the overview of the paper before we start writing the actual paper. Now, we know that the word I BELIEVE, IN MY OPINION, I THINK in the thesis statement can make the writing less attractive for the reader. We also discussed the counter argument in the paper will make writing more interesting, but the counter-argument is not necessary. Dr. Crowther gave us a very nice piece of tips for good writing like use the transition word to follow the sentences and start with the weakness first for the counter argument or strength first and later counter-argument
. At the end of the class, she gave the idea of writing the conclusion by summing up all the evidence and open the big picture.
On Thursday, we started our class by talking about the next week assignment. We must get the article that is relevant to our own writing topic and summary of that article. We also needed to bring the copy of the article to the class on coming Tuesday. In class, we discussed the MLA format for our writing. Our paper should be 12-point font and double space including left and body text. She asked us to put the page number on the upper left and name, date, section, and professor name on the left. Please do cite your paper, if you get the information from outside sources and for direct quotation. It is not mandatory to research the essay one. When you do your work citation, use separate paper to show the work citation. Thursday was the big and busy day for everyone to do the essay one workshop. Our Thursday class went very well by trying to figuring out the peer paper and helping them to review their paper. But before we started reviewing the paper, w
e interviewed with the peer; asking them about their paper like what are you writing about, how did you figure out the topic and what is the abstraction you get when writing your draft.
At the end of the class, we gave some feedback to peer about his paper and some suggestion to revise his/her paper. We had to submit the peer review paper, interview answer, and rough draft paper. We had until 5.00 PM to send our paper via Dropbox in iCollege. We close out with getting the submission information for essay one. Do not forget to upload your final essay on your iCollege by 11:59 PM on Sunday.