Category: Weekly Write-Up

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 #8: 10/10 & 10/12

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by

Unnati. P. Kakkad & Thien B Ngo

 

Oct 10th, 2017 class:

Daily Grade #10:

Write a self-evaluation of your performance in this class and at GSU so far this semester

  1. Are you meeting your goals?
  2. If not, what could you do to improve your performance? (think of 2-3 strategies)

Strategies:

  • Have something that reminds you: write on hands, put reminders in your phone, use sticky notes and stick them around. Try to keep things visible, so you don’t forget. Dr. C suggested to sticky notes around the room with “be on time”, or “go to bed early”, it helps you to motivate to finish work on time, but you can always use whichever works best for you. We can also have a look on some strategies that comes from successful people such as Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, one of his strategies is, as he has so much things to manage each day, he prioritize things which are mandatory to be done. Try to identify habits that are not productive. Of course, you could give yourself a window of 30 minutes to relax, after that you should go back and manage productive things.
  • Dr. C also let the class know that she always welcome student come to get her advice about study skills, how to organize ideas for essays, writing processes or any type of difficulty, if she can’t help it she will definitely make you contact the right person for detailed information.

Class activities:

Work in group of 3 and in your group, discuss and draft answers to the following questions for assigned chapters (Introduction, Chapter 1 or Chapter 2). Be prepared to discuss with other groups working on similar chapters:

  1. Discuss what happens in your chapter. (Think about who, when, where, what, how, why).
  2. Collaboratively, write a summary of what happens in your chapter.
  3. Choose one central quotation to include. Add a brief discussion of why the quotation is significant.
  4. Generate 2-3 discussion questions- what are the most thought-provoking issues the chapter raises?

Oct 12th, 2017 class:

Daily Grade #11:

Pick 1-2 messages from Just Mercy and free-writing on why the passage interest you.

Strategies:

Students should take this chance to brainstorm and prepare for the research paper later on. Dr. C. advised students to highlight interesting passages. And as there is not enough time to write down the full passage from Just Mercy, so students could write down the page number (eg. page 45).

Class activities:

Dr. C gave groups some time to discuss and prepare themselves for mini presentation in front of class in which each group have to present summary, quotation and explanation, and discussion questions on the same chapter of Just Mercy: Introduction, Chapter 1, Chapter 2.

Here is the picture of a group presenting Introduction

 

Weekly Write Up Week 7 (10/3 and 10/5)

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Pre Reading:

The assigned reading for Tuesday, October 5th was Scenario 19, which begins on page 297 in Changing Writing. Scenario 19 was also assigned as reading for the previous week, so we only had to review the material instead of taking notes on it. In this scenario, the reader is asked to picture themselves as a writer for Perspex, tasked with finding a pre-existing scholarly article to translate for a wider audience, much like our assignment for essay.

A few questions to consider when repurposing a text (Page 298 in Changing Writing)

After explaining the scenario, the book explains that even though summary/paraphrase essays will usually only be used in the classroom, they should always be correctly cited to avoid accusations of plagiarism in the future. The text suggests that the writer choose a topic they’re interested in, and consider how to make the article useful to a less informed audience. Additionally, the text suggests that writer consider the intentions of the article’s original author and focus on bringing across the same overall message. Finally, the textbook gives us the hypothetical paraphrase article, which is about a study into the effects of stress on crops.

The reading we were assigned for Thursday class came from the book successful college composition, chapter 2.4(SCC). This part of chapter two explains the important of revising and editing and why writers should always go through them. The author argues that, to improve your essay you must always undertake these two tasks. First revise, and then edit. You may think that your paper is perfect and only needs little improvement, but every essay needs to be revised and edited to be perfect. The first step in revising and editing understands the purpose of doing them. When you revise your essay, you’re looking for mistakes in your draft that makes your ideas not clearer or accurate enough. You might change some things up to make your essay more convincing. When you edit your draft, you fix your grammar errors, punctuation and, sentence structure. You make your essay into how you want it to be. The next step is peer review. You’ve work so closely with your paper to the point where you can’t see your mistakes. In this case, you need someone else to review your draft. Work with a partner, read each other’s drafts, and give positive feedbacks on how you can both improve your drafts. After you get feedbacks, the book tells you to use them as help to improve your paper. The author also discusses about being clear and having unity in your essay. Always be clear in your essay, and not vogue. Make sense of your essay by creating unity within your essay. Before submitting your essay, make sure your paper is in the right format.

Lecture:

On Tuesday, class began with Daily Grade 9, for which we were given a choice to write about how the media has reported the Mandalay Bay Shooting or a topic of our choosing. Since this Daily Grade wasn’t related to the lecture of the day, we didn’t spend time discussing what we wrote afterwards. Instead, Dr. C. began by explaining the difference between a summary and a paraphrase, both of which we are a part of essay 2. A summary is a general overview of an entire article or piece of information, and as such is a lot less specific and technical. In contrast, a paraphrase takes an article’s ideas and general structure and expresses them in the writer’s original words. Since a summary is an interpretation of the writer’s ideas rather than a direct usage of their ideas, summaries do not require in-line citations unless they use a quote. On the other hand, paraphrases do require in-line citation because they use the ideas from the article in question. After explaining the difference between a summary and a paraphrase, the class did an activity in which we summarized our chosen article to someone nearby.

Watch this video for an explanation on The difference between a paraphrase and a summary.

How to cite in a few circumstances

In the next part of the lecture, Dr. C. explained some rules regarding citations that we need for essay 2. For this assignment, we all need to include a full citation of the article we’re using for the assignment at the top of the first page. We can either create this citation manually, through a database, or through Easybib. Additionally, the assignment requires we include in-line citations whenever we use a quote or idea directly from the article, citing with parentheses, the author’s name, and a page number {ex. (Jones 11)}. Dr. C. took time to explain how to cite in a variety of different circumstances, but eventually she told us to use online resources like Purdue OWL instead of memorizing MLA format. She also explained how use Turnitin.com to make sure our papers don’t include any plagiarism. Since the submission folder on Icollege is linked to Turnitin.com, we can submit our papers to Icollege and see the percentage of words in the paper that can be found on the Internet by clicking the number of submissions. Dr. C. will take the most recently submitted version of our essays, so we can use Turnitin as much as we need, though the site will think final versions are plagiarized from earlier submissions. After the lecture was over, Dr. C. gave us 20 minutes to work on our essays using the 2-3 paragraphs of the rough draft that she assigned us to write for the class.

Thursday was our peer review day for essay 2. Dr. C went over how peer review is all about and how it supposed to be done. She went over the purpose of essay two and how to do in text citation. She also showed us how to us Perdue OWL and how to cite more than three authors. She then told the class that essay two rough draft (with the interview questions) was due later on that day on icollege. After that, she putted the peer review interview question on the board and paired us up in twos. At the end of the class, we gave our assigned partner feedbacks and what he/she can do to improve their draft. We closed by getting information about when essay two was due.   Don’t forget, essay two is due Sunday 0ct 8 by 11:59 PM

 

 

Weekly Write Up #6: 9/26 & 9/28

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by

Lena Levette and Erin Evans

Reading for class:

For class this Tuesday we were assigned to read Scenario 19 “Repurposing a Text” and take notes. This scenario asks the reader taking on the role of a writer who works for the online magazine, Perspex. You are asked to recreate the style and structure of an article for an audience that is not specialized on the topic. In order to accomplish this task you must be able to reorganize the text while still conveying the message. In addition to this you must avoid plagiarism or copyright. Coinciding with this reading, we were also asked to find a scholarly article and bring it into class. Scenario 19 goes along with our class discussion because we will have to use this example to help us take on the challenge of writing essay 2.  The first step in this process should be pretty clear, start off with a topic that interests you and find an article that correlates to it. Keep in mind that once you have found your article it is important to read between the lines and draw a deeper conclusion so that your new audience can be informed and entertained.

For Thursday we were asked by Dr. Crowther to read Chapter 1:  Introduction to Writing (SCC) –1.3. This section of the text discussed how to properly use a source and what it really is. In college a source is simply anything that is not your own work that you will use for your writing. Anything from a poem to an online editorial can be categorized as a source. Majority of the assignments you will and have been given require a source.  To briefly state why they are necessary in academic work, sources help the writer take part in a fundamental conversion of knowledge that has long preceded you and will long succeed you. The knowledge you will need to engage in academic dialogue must come from a certain understanding that can only be obtained from a higher viewpoint.

After using quotes, paraphrases, and summaries you must give credit to the original creator to avoid plagiarism. The first guideline for using a source is to first have permission to use the source. Next comes the citation of the source using MLA or APA format. This is a highly important step because it gives the reader a chance to locate the source. Lastly include the citations at the end of your work. Also remember to properly introduce your use of sources in your writing by explicating it. In order to do this you may use quotes such as, “In other words”, to signal a phrase and justify how it supports the argument being made. Overall good source usage is prevalent to your writing because it provides concrete evidence for your audience.

Class Lecture:

In English 1101 we were lectured to about better writing strategies and how to properly construct an essay. In order that you must first create an outline to better construct a paper, because it helps you organize your ideas and paper. We also talked more about outside sources and how to put it in your own writing. When using outside information it is important that you give the most accurate credit to wherever you got the sources from not only that but, it’s highly recommended that you use a scholarly/ peer reviewed document because the source is more accurate and stronger. While going through the source you want to highlight keys ideas or quotes except they must be in your own words, which falls back on the plagiarism side. At the end of your essay you want have a work cited page so that if your reader wanted to check you on your quotes, then they can find the quote exactly where you found it at.

For Tuesday’s lecture we started off with the Daily Grade number 7. We were asked to write about the process of writing essay 1. What went well? What strategies were helpful? What was challenging and why? What would you do the same or choose to do differently next time? Once our daily grades were completed Dr. Crowther then let us share and we all got feedback on our responses. Many students had trouble with their organization skills and Dr. Crowther went back to stress the importance of writing an outline, which are essential to any writing project.  Included in this discussion she also showed the class her dissertation to show us that when you write as long as you have organization, from writing an outline, you can always complete the assignment at hand no matter how long it is. Other answers and suggestions such as brainstorming and writing sloppy rough drafts came up in the discussion as well. After that we began the introduction on essay 2 which is all about how we use outside information when we are writing. For our editorial we mainly relied on our own opinion but moving forward, outside information will be necessary for majority of our writing. When you are trying to add knowledge to your writing you must do it responsibly. This means giving full credit to the place where you received your information. Dr. Crowther explained that scenario 19 models this very well. She then went on to explain the summary and paraphrase assignment we will do for the scholarly article we chose for our topic. But first we need to know if the article we choose is reliable or not because there is a plethora of access to information and not all of it is true. To test this she broke the class up into groups of three to think about the author, place of publication, date, and where they are getting their information from as well.

For Thursday’s class we started off again with the daily grade which was to write 2-3 sentences describing what happens about a movie or book without naming it. Then we were asked to pick a scene and describe it in detail. This daily grade assignment went along with our paraphrasing and summary discussion because it showed us that you should have already have a good understanding of the information instead of just simply changing a few words from your source and calling the work your own. To fully understand the text you must first read and annotate the text. Then what Dr. Crowther recommended was to read it again and take notes. It is important for your notes to be your own words because if you use another person’s words it makes it more difficult to avoid plagiarism in your writing. As you’re writing you should add your own ideas to the research you found. If you use a quotation you must use an in-text citation, which is the author’s last name and the page number in parenthesis, so you can reference your source. To make the lesson clearer, Dr. Crowther showed the class three summary examples from Purdue owl’s website and had the class work on them in groups of three. Each group chose an example to work on and completed their summaries individually. Once they were done everyone in the group came together to create one summary with all their ideas. This task helped the class get more practice on summarizing and collaborate on ways to make our work better.

WEEKLY WRITE-UP #5: 9/19 & 9/21

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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, we 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.

 

Weekly write-up #4: 9/12 & 9/14

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By Katie Allison and Star Harris

Reading for class:

Our week started with Tuesday’s class getting canceled because of the weather conditions; however, we still had to read! (hopefully, that’s not a surprise to anyone) In chapter 3 of Changing Writing, it begins by telling you to take a look at your writing space. Yes, writing is supposed to be messy, but your writing space should have no distractions. The book provides images of two completely different areas, one showing a clean, organized desk, and the other a pile of papers and stuff everywhere. Personally, I need a clean space to focus, and I showed that in our assignment. The exercise was to take a photo, or sketch your writing space and label all of your necessary items. Also, to describe why you chose that space and why it works for you.

Following this, the book introduces Korrina and her assignment where she has to show children how advertisements impact their lives. They use this as an example of how to get started writing. The next topic is “ideas and how to have them,” and they reference Korrina’s process throughout this subject. One of the ideas they talk about is; making a PACT chart to organize your writing. We have learned how to make a PACT chart and how to use it in the previous chapters. This is a good starting point because it makes you think about all the necessary information before you start writing. Some of the other ideas are to go over the assignment instructions, read over your notes for the topic, discuss your thoughts with other people, use events that happened in your past, research your topic, and brainstorm.

The last writing process subject in this chapter is “moving ideas to a draft”. They advise creating a mind map and/or an outline. These steps are crucial to getting all of the ideas you just came up with organized. Creating a draft is a significant part of the writing process because your first copy is not the best copy. An excerpt from Anne Lamott’s book is included at the end of the chapter. This text is called “Shitty First Drafts.” (Dr. C’s favorite title) So many writers struggle with this problem. For us, now that we are starting to write essays, it is nice to know even if our rough draft is very, truly rough, we should not get discouraged and instead, just keep trying.

 

Class summary:

Although we didn’t get to attend class on Tuesday, we were able to catch up on a lot in our Thursday class. For our daily grade, we chose our social justice issue, why we decided on that particular one, and jotted down some main points to focus on with that issue. (Which is a great brainstorming technique btw)

We then pulled out our homework assignment assigned to us the week prior, so we could visualize where great minds come up with great ideas! We looked at some examples of a workspace, provided by a student, where you could see they had a single space to think and focus. They even had their scrunchies right by their side. Are scrunchies out of style…? We also looked at a sketch from another student of a spacious couch and total workload. Dr. C warned us that it was very easy to get distracted while you are working, because who doesn’t love a slice of pizza after you’ve worked so hard on that first sentence. You deserve a nice break. (Just kidding) In chapter 3 of our text CW, it discusses writing space, so we want to think about if there are any problems or things that are working. We thought of some ways to minimize distraction, like eating and using the restroom before getting started. Listening to music is also a great way!

After getting our writing spaces figured out, we read about our “Shitty first drafts.” It’s not uncommon that someone is so excited to get done with an essay, they just turn the assignment not really finished. Like it says in the book “everybody struggles to start to get writing.” We want to make sure that we thoroughly review our first draft before turning it in. A simple way to start is to just put your name, date, and as Dr. C recommends, a couple of Xs for the title. I mean at least it’s something right? Make sure you read the assignment multiple times and highlight as needed.

Now that you got that done, we went over ways to brainstorm so that you wouldn’t be caught in writer’s block. Such strategies included simply going on the internet for examples, writing a list of what you care about (looking at a focal point), having a conversation, and bullet pointing. The book suggests you free write (kind of like the free write from this morning. You can go into a free write and take a phrase and perform a loop, meaning you take that good idea and start the next free write with it. Dr.C said another useful technique is the good ole web. Simply put your main focus in the middle and subtopics extending from it and key points for those. Can’t go wrong with the web.

At the end of class, we went over useful ways to store your essay in google docs, Dropbox (Dr.C’s method), or just email it to yourself. It’s always good to have a copy. We closed out with a simple structure for outlining your essay and how to structure your body paragraphs. Make sure you have a good thesis statement (an argument, or “this is what we should do”).

*IMPORTANT* essay is due 9/24 , MLA FORMAT, 12 FONT, and ERROR FREE(DUE ON ICOLLEGE)

Weekly Write Up #3 (09/05 & 09/07)

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Weekly Write-up: Reading for Class

We started the week off by reading Approaching Writing Situations chapter one out of Changing Writing. Last week we read in chapter one about how to use PACT when reading a text to understand it. Now in chapter two, we learn about how to use PACT when writing or, to create new text. Well creating new text is something we do daily whether it’s: texting a friend, emailing your professor about how to do something, working on a resume or cover letter for a job, or creating an advertisement for something your protesting. When writing you must first under the citation before you can write and who are the individuals who are there. When writing we usually have on main problem that we need to answer.

During the end of the week we read about a scenario about voting registration on a college campus. Your aunt is running for congress and then asked you to get more college students to vote, by using some type of text convey your peers to register to vote. Finding a medium to put your text is the hard part. Putting a post on social media, a poster board around the school campus, a website, or putting it in your school’s paper

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Class Notes/ Activities

Dr. Crowther started the class off on Tuesday by asking people how their Labor Day weekend was. She engaged the classroom with what she did over the weekend, which was going to Dragon-con and the book festival. Most people had nothing to say, so she went on to say what was we going to discuss today. During the past two weeks we have learned how to analyze a reader’s perspective of text, but now she is going to teach us how to analyze a writer’s perspective of text. However, to understand a writer’s perspective, we must understand how a writer can have different processes to writing. Now a writing process is basically what a writer does to help them find out how they want to write or what they want to writ e about. We went over a couple of writing processes in class as our daily grade. Some people like to brainstorm and take down notes before they write. Others like to ask for people input on the topic that they are writing about. I am the type of person that likes to free write and let the ideas flow fluently throughout the paper; while I go back and make corrections.
After this, Dr. Crowther brought up the topic of textbooks and gave advice to the students unable to receive it yet. She said that you can receive an online free trial of the class e-book on Amazon. She gave more advice by clarifying the different between context and text. Context is the time and place in which you use different vocabulary and formality. If you are applying for a job in the food industry and you have worked in the food industry, then you would prioritize that because that would be the type of formality. Text is the type of formatting and documenting you use based on the context. If you apply for a job and your resume is not formatted correctly, then they will most likely not hire you. This is where Dr. Crowther explained to us what are pathos, logos, and ethos. Pathos is the technique you use to persuade someone using emotional appeal. Logos is using logical appeal and ethos is using ethical appeal or credibility. We then move on to our next activity, which is to read scenarios with a partner and PACT them. One of the scenarios is complaining about a noisy neighbor and this is an example of how my partner and I did it.
Purpose: Is to stop neighbors from being so nosy. What need to happen is for the neighbors to respect their fellow neighbors’ wishes and quiet down. We need to know why they are being so nosy.
Audience: We expect the neighbors causing the commotion to see the text. We can find out more about our audience by directly talking to them and asking questions. If the neighbors resist change then this will cause a barrier and we will need help from an outside force, such as the police.
Context: It is unsettling and irritating to hear loud noises day and night. It is in a neighborhood. This needs to be solved as soon as possible.
Text: Produce a poster. Write a strong written letter. Physically have a conversation about this problem.

During Thursday’s class Dr.C asked us about our homework, The PACT assessment that was due at the beginning of class. Dr.C put us in groups of four and we talked about our PACT assessment about Advocating Voter Registration on Campus. In groups, we came together and talked about each part of the homework: the purpose, audience, context and text. After, the groups were done discussing the homework each group came together and made one PACT for the group to turn in. Now comes the best part each group will come up with how they present their ideas of how to get people to vote.

Each group came up with idea of how to get college students to vote, many of the groups came up with very good ideas. One group came up with the idea to come up with a rap to get people to start voting, another one came up with the idea to start a free food to get people to register.

 

 

Weekly Write-Up #2: 8/29 & 8/31

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This week’s write-up is brought to you by Peter McClary and Devante Jones.

Reading for class

Just Mercy

For the class days of August 29th and 31 of 2017 Dr. C asked the class to read the Introduction of Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, as well as Changing Writing Chapter 1 pp 3-14 then pp 15-30 along with Chapter 8 pp 200-204.A young woman smiling and holding a copy of the book Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

For starters while you should have read these pages I’m going to summarize them for you. There are no spoilers, I repeat NO SPOILERS (Maybe). In Just Mercy Introduction Bryan Stevenson is a Law Student who felt completely bizarre while attending Harvard Law School as he knew nothing compared to his classmates. However he stood tall and made it through his first year and shortly after became an intern at SPDC.  One day he was asked to go and inform a death row inmate that they did not have a lawyer but that he would not be executed within the year. After his talk with the inmate, Bryan Stevenson saw how rude the guard was towards the inmate and began to think. People of this world are treated to badly for simple things and sometimes even no reason. Children are thrown into prison and tried as adults at the at of 12 yet no one appears to be bothered. The introduction first talks about a short piece of Stevenson’s life and what encouraged him to get into the line of work he is in today. It later goes over the faults of the American justice system, such as imprisoning children for life without parole. He talks about privileges and how not everyone gets the the same ones fairly, those who start high up with money and good parents have a better chance to succeed. Yet those who start in the foster care system who have a mindset that no one loves them and are poor and have been to 7 different schools within the past 2 years do not have that great of a chance to become a lawyer or doctor, for example. To sum this up Stevenson knows that the world is not a fair place but can be if people knew the truth about the prison system, how death row inmates are treated and how people thrown into jail are sometimes falsely accused or not given a fair fighting chance. Stevenson knows and he wants to share that.

Changing Writing

This is the changing writing section pp 1-30 (Chapter 1). This will include not much about the actual reading or in general, but more so focused on the basis of PACT analysis. To begin, there are different levels of reading, these include: Skimming, or reading on the surface level to get the main idea, 2nd level being a deeper level for more understanding and digging deeper, but not as deep as the 3rd level where critical reading comes into play and the reader wants to know why the author did this and this. This 3rd level includes PACT analysis. PACT stands for Purpose, Audience, Context, and Text. These are the four fundamentals in any writing piece no matter what. Without PACT these is no reason to write, it’s rather impossible as with every piece of writing there is a Purpose and Text and Context. To explain a bit more, Purpose is the reason for a piece of writing to be written and the way it could potentially change the reader’s beliefs. Audience is the people who the text is written for.  All writers target a specific audience and usually base this off the context.

Context is the larger situation and the location of the writing including newspapers, television, or different articles and websites. For example if someone is watching shows for children 2-3 years old, the commercials target Audience would be mothers so the commercials would be for diapers, kids toys, etc., but if an ad is placed in a newspaper, it would target older people so the products would be lawyers or people who work with taxes. All of these elements of PACT link in some way. Lastly is Text which can be anything concerning the way something is written to how it is said. It is “a document or other designed object”. In the video above there is information on Purpose, Audience, and Context while giving many examples for that the PACT analysis could be used on to help for more understanding.

Class discussion/activities

At the beginning of class, we had our daily writing, and the topics were “what is social justice? And what issues are you interested in?” After a few mins of writing what we thought, we broke out into groups of 4 and discussed the topic. Dr.C then put the questions on the dry erase board and asked what our groups thought of the two issues. Here’s a photo of the board after we were done adding to it:

We started a class discussion about what we compiled together on the erase board, Dr.. C started the debate with a question, did we miss anything? We did. Somebody said whitewashing, but which began a serious discussion about a group of people that always gets over looked “disabled people.” Did you know what word is used when you discriminate against disabled people, it’s called ableism.  Dr. C got more in depth with it and here’s a snippet:

We talked more and more, and we hit on more serious topics from police brutality and immigrants to global warming which is another serious topic that affects everyone equally. We added more to the board which meant we needed another picture just to show the topics we came up with as a class.


Thursday’s class opening was about advertisements, do you remember any ads? Most of the students either chose a serious commercial like driving while texting and others picked a funny commercial. One young lady referenced a Sprite commercial with Vince Staple and how in the commercial he was aware that it was a commercial and used that to make sly comments like “oh turn the label towards the cameras.” Dr.C then asked why do we remember these advertisements, most of us guessed because it was either funny or it impacted us one way or another, then she asked did it work? When you saw that Sprite commercial, did you want to buy a Sprite? The majority of us were indifferent, I mean we like the Sprite, but the commercial didn’t make us want to get up and just buy one. Dr. C said to apply the PACT chart (purpose, audience, text, context) once we did that we had a better understanding of the commercials. Now we tried to apply the PACT chart advertisement in our Changing Writing text book to this ad. We read and looked at it, and we determined that the purpose was to sell cigarettes to women, the audience was women and radio viewers, the context was around 1940s and they used a radio because it was a prevalent media form during that time, and lastly the text was strange because even though it was a cigarette advertisement, there were no cigarettes in the ad.  We theorized that the cigarette companies knew that cigarettes are unattractive, but a white woman in the 1940s with a lovely smile was.

During the end of class, we discussed our homework and an article that was in our school newspaper. The title was “The race problem in U.S. universities.” Read it. Do you agree or disagree? I like it! It expresses a serious issue with universities, I want you to read it for yourself. I don’t want to spoil it, so please, please read it.