Category: Blog Post

Weekly Write Up #13

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By Cho and Mariam

Class lecture and discussion
Announcement By Dr. Crowther
I have an event at GSU downtown tomorrow, so my office hours will be 9-11 instead of the usual 10-1.

 

Tuesday in-class:
As usual, we started the class with the daily grade #17, where Dr. Crowther asked these following questions: What did you learn about yourself as a writer and your writing process from essay 3? What went well, and what was challenging? This daily grade was particularly to reflect about each student’s writing process, and the challenges faced during the process. 

After the daily grade discussion, we discussed about “Project 4”, “Engage for Change” referring to the injustice issues written in Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. She explained in detail the component of project 4, gave us tips on how to successfully meet the goal of the project, and the criteria as well. Additionally, for choosing the diverse groups our teacher, Dr. Crowther ask us our preferences. She allowed us to write a name of two students that we would enjoy working with in order of us to complete our project on a piece of paper.

Groups for Engage Change Project:
Group 1: Omarr, Mariam, Joli, Cho, Unati
Group 2: Joel, Mohan, Peter, Thien
Group 3: Sirjana, Katie, Tyler, Isabell
Group 4: Noela, Ariana, Erin, Devante
Group 5: Kelsey, Lena, Aaron, Kaesen

 

Afterwards, we discussed about the project proposal and the deadline for submission. Our teacher suggested us to send the proposal before Thursday for her approval, so we can have more time to work on it. Then, 30 minutes before the end of the class, we regrouped ourselves in our respective group for brainstorming, making suggestions for the “Engage in Change” project.          

Thursday in-class:

INFORMAL class, no daily grade. Our teacher asked us on Tuesday to decide if we wanted to come to class to work on the project, go to the library or to the actual place to engage, because we were not going to do anything except working on the project. Most groups left the class on Thursday 11/16 to work on their project, while Dr. Crowther was grading Essays 3 (research paper).

Reading for 11/14 & 11/16

         Chapter 5 Challenging Writing (designing Visual Texts)
In this chapter, the author discusses about the visual design of texts. “the tradition prints novels, look very simple from a visual standpoint: page after page of paragraph after paragraph, broken only by occasional headings for new chapters. Visual designing makes the reader to have construct ideas. Mostly the designs are made for the people to entertain and make then interest to the materials they trying to approach. One crucial concept of gestalt theory is the importance of the space between objects; negative space or white space. Negative space is the “background” of an image, which is often white but might be any color. The human tendency makes proximity. The spatial relationships among groups of objects an important design consideration

.       Our eyes continually scan image, reacting to what we are seeing, moving from one individual element to the to the next. In the absence of other strong influences, similarity will even cause viewers to cognitively group objects across large spaces. When we focus on an object on a page or a screen, other aspects of what we see fade into the background. The part that we focus on is called the figure, and the part that fades away is the ground. There are numerous ways to structure or lay out text and graphics on a page or screen, but to simplify things let’s cover one common method. In the grid system, you create a set of vertical and horizontal lines on a blank page and use these lines to guide the placement and alignment of content on the page. When we talk about paying Attention which is one of the difficulties of paying attention to typography is out first instinct to value transparency.
      Although there are many ways to categorize type, one simple method splits typefaces into two categories. Those with serifs and those without. In general, typefaces with serifs tend to look more modern. When we talk about matching the type to Audience, Context, and Purpose the three typefaces above all look somewhat similar. They are all sans serif faces. But if you ok at them closely, you’ll begin to see subtle but important differences. Most striking is the differing amounts of space taken up by each. As a part of your thinking about design deciding what media you can Handle. You’ll want to consider carefully whether you have the expertise in the medium you’ve chosen. Crating complex visual designs or multimedia texts on a computer seems extraordinarily easy especially if you’ve seen the process only in software commercials.

 

 

THANKSGIVING BREAK, NO CLASS!!!!!!!!

 

Weekly Write Up 10/24 & 10/26

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In-Class Discussion/Lecture

Tuesday: At the beginning of class we did Daily Grade #14 in our journals, with the prompt asking us what we would ask Bryan Stevenson if he were to come on campus—whether it be about Just Mercy, or some other topic. Afterwards, we discussed the library visit that would happen on Thursday, where we would go over our research proposals, and learn proper research methods and different types of sources. Dr. Crowther recommended that we make sure to find our own sources outside of the information in Just Mercy, and maybe even collect some primary sources. We were also reminded that our research proposal, plus a planned timeline for our research, were due on Friday by 8 pm. For the rest of the class, we each brainstormed some topic ideas, or, if we already had come up with one, worked on a research plan.

Later, we discussed the research process and worked on an example topic (Research Process-253fxun)  , “Recidivism”. Dr. Crowther also gave some tips as to how to start our research; for example, to come up with a research question, and then come up with your own ideas to answer that question, which you would then try to support with your research. She also gave us some tips on how to best search through search engines and databases, using keywords and filters. At the end of class, we were reminded that our rough outline is due next Tuesday (10/31).

Thursday: On Thursday, the class met in the library, room CL 2220, where we learned more about the different types of research sources, and how to best find them. First, we did a short activity where the librarian had us sort different sources of information from least to greatest based on different criteria (amount of editing, research, effort/ease of creation, time, or length put into each source). She then showed us the library search engine to find various databases, based on name and/or topic. We discussed exactly what a database is (a collection of different resources), and the reasons for using one rather than a normal search engine (they are often more specific and give more scholarly, reliable, results). Then we were given a short tutorial on how to filter and find certain results, and got some recommendations of specific databases to use when searching for certain types of sources. Thursday was also the due date for the completion of the LearningCurve activities.

Readings

The assigned reading for this week were from both our Changing Writing (CW) and Successful College Composition (SCC) textbooks. In Changing Writing, we had to read Chapter 7: “Getting Information and Writing from Research” (pgs. 155-180) and Chapter 6: “Managing Writing Projects” (pgs. 140-152). Chapters 6 and 7 collectively give tips on how to properly conduct and use research, the different types of primary and secondary sources, taking notes from and recording said sources, and suggested methods of planning out and managing your research process.

In Successful College Composition, we were assigned to read Chapter 4: “Writing a Research Paper”, sections 4.1 through 4.5, which goes through the purpose of doing research writings and the early stages of the research process. As this chapter puts it, we conduct research to learn in depth, and more deeply understand a topic using “facts, interpretations and opinions you encounter in your research to create a narrative and support an argument” (Crowther et al. 134). It then goes on to detail the research process: first, choose your topic through brainstorming, then plan and schedule your research; afterward, conduct your research, organize your sources, draft your paper, and then revise and edit. The rest of the chapter gives tips on how to choose the best topic—one that fits the assignment criteria and holds a personal interest, but is not too widespread or too narrow—and how to find and identify reliable sources, as well as how to properly use citations and quotations in your paper.

Thursday’s Class ; October 19, 2017

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by Ariana Tolbert

 

  • Keep in mind that we will be meeting in the Library for Thursday’s class, October 26, 2017, in the computer lab!  

 

Body of Class :

We regrouped with the same members from Tuesday’s class and made final touches and after we presented our group work to the class.

Pact Chart

    • Presentations included a few websites, posters, skits, webpages, community outreach events, brochures, and even newspapers.
    • The purpose of these presentations were to raise awareness about juveniles in the justice system and to get people to make a change!
    • When presenting the presentations, overall everyone wanted to reach out to government officials and the public in general.
    • Our context, as a whole, were people who were unaware of the issue, government officials, college campuses, communities, etc.
    • Everyone’s presentation was an example of a text.

 

 

 

 

Daily Grade # 13

You were also supposed to read Just Mercy chapters 12, 14 and 15 for Thursday’s Class! However, we ran out of time before discussing the chapters. My partner will upload the summaries soon!

For next class, Tuesday, October 24th, we will begin our research paper. We will be using critical/secondary sources, learning to annotate sources, and discussing research proposals. So be sure to read Changing Writing textbook [Chapter 7: Getting Information and Writing from Research, pp 150-180]. Also, chapters 4.1-4.5 in SCC!

Do not forget to complete your launch pad solo assignments! It is due by the end of October!!

Weekly Write-Up #1: 8/22 & 8/24

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Welcome to our course blog!  In this English 1101 class “Changing Writing, Changing the World” we will be recording the progress of our class, publishing our writing on social justice, and creating a resource for future students.  Every week we will include a “Write-Up” of what we’ve been doing.  Here is our first one.

Reading for Class:

We started the week by reading a very important document — the course syllabus!  Dr. Crowther impressed upon us the importance of the syllabus as both an informative text and a “contract” in which the expectations of the students and the professor are explained.  As a contract, we are all held to the syllabus which is why it is so important to understand and be familiar with all the policies and requirements it describes. In order to check that we all had read and understood the syllabus, Dr. C put a quiz on iCollege for all students to complete. Students were also asked to sign a contract declaring that they had read and understood the syllabus, and also granting or denying permission for the professor to use their work in other classes or publications.

The second reading assignment was taken from our course textbook, Changing Writing.  The introduction “How Writing is Changing” introduced several key concepts for the course.  The first was the idea that writing always does something.  Writing is usually “to convince others to think or act differently” (Johnson-Eilola 3). Although this idea of writing is always true, the way we write has been evolving and transforming over the centuries.  Not only the tools we use — from pen and paper to typewriter to computer — but also the kinds of texts we draft, write and publish.  Now we all have access to the internet with its overwhelming amount of information that requires us to search for the most relevant and reliable sources to support our ideas.  We also can work collaboratively on documents using online tools, and we can publish our work online to a worldwide audience. The next section in the chapter discusses how this book can help us become better writers.  The question it poses is “How can I learn a universal, flexible way to write any kind of text” (5). The book explains that students learn strategies and frameworks for understanding texts and creating their own.  It introduces the four key aspects of writing:

  • PURPOSE: the change you want to make in readers’ thinking, feeling, or acting
  • AUDIENCE:  people within a context who are making meaning
  • CONTEXT:   a location in a space and time or even an online space
  • TEXT:  a document or other designed object

Finally, the chapter discusses that writing is messy!  Although we like to think that writing is an easy, linear process, it actually requires lots of drafts, mistakes, revising, etc.  We have to be ready to get messy and learn!

Class lecture/discussion/activities:

In class on Tuesday, we spent time introducing ourselves and learning more about our professor and the class. Every student gave a short introduction and we learned an “interesting fact” about each other.  Dr. Crowther went over the syllabus and discussed some of the important policies covered in the syllabus.

On Thursday, we completed our first “Daily Grade” free-write in which we discussed how we feel about ourselves as writers.  Many students shared that they feel stressed or anxious about writing, while some enjoyed specific types of writing situations.  Dr. Crowther began talking about how we are all writers even if we don’t realize it.  She discussed how we take into consideration the four elements of composition and rhetoric — Purpose, Audience, Context, Text — every time we write an email or send a text.  Using a funny example of a text with emojis, Dr. C explained how important tone is when we consider how we want to communicate to our audience. We continued to discuss the writing process and how then we talked in groups about a “text” we had brought to class that represents something we read everyday. Some students discussed websites that they read and others brought books, magazines, text messages, and social media.  We noticed that there is usually a specific audience for a text but that now, with social media, articles can be shared and so might end up in a more general audience than the original context intended.

Additional Resources:

Here is a useful video on Rhetoric and the Rhetorical Triangle: