Plagiarism

In another class, I've just gone through a bout of plagiarism. In our class, the nature of the assignments has precluded a chance to plagiarize, so I wanted to share my thoughts from the other class. Please take a few moments to read this post. Academic integrity is a lesson you *have* to learn before ENG 112.

Yesterday, a couple of your fellow students said something in the plagiarism conferences about which I spent the night thinking, namely a statement to the effect of: "It was only a single/couple of lines/paragraph. Why didn't I get credit for the rest of my work?"

First, you should know that Jen and I didn't come to the "zero/conference/allow revisions with a 'C' cap" policy with any ease. We spoke with colleagues and our program heads. We talked in the office and then spent most of an afternoon in an email exchange that included Tom. What we were looking for was a policy which would drive a crucial ethical lesson home. Many of our colleagues suggested just a zero for the paper. Some suggested dropping the offending student from the course. However, Jen and I wanted to send the message that even when compromised, reputations/images/ethos can be rebuilt. The student comments got me to rethink the policy.

When I was at the National Portrait Gallary in Washington a few weeks back, I read a quotation by John Randolph, one of your fellow Virginians. It said, "To ask any State to surrender part of her sovereignty is like asking a lady to surrender part of her chastity." Randolph's notion is that sovereignty is an absolute. One either possesses it or one doesn't. The quote stuck with me because it resonated with the basic idea behind the old joke about being a little bit pregnant. Over the past week, as I've discussed and pondered the problem of how best to teach academic integrity, I found myself thinking several times of the Randolph quotation and wondering if having a little bit of integrity is like being a little bit pregnant. I've come to the conclusion that the analogy is not a perfect one.

I think a better analogy is that of monogamy in a committed, monogamous relationship. As I began thinking of the students comments from yesterday, this was the analogy to which I returned. Suppose, in a monogamous relationship one gives the appearance of being monogamous 95 percent of the time. What happens? It is possible to rebuild a relationship based on trust into which one has introduced an element of doubt. It is even possible to rebuild such a relationship if one partner knows the other has cheated. However, in the short term, doubt colors each interpretation of the other.

If a person has integrity, then she is trusted. Her actions aren't given the additional scrutiny needed once one perceives a reasonable reason to doubt. However, once doubt in introduced into the relationship, all things change; and, at least in the short term, each word and action is weighed with the possibility in mind that the other may well act in such a way that their good intent should be questioned. Over time, doubt may be turned back into trust and one's ethos, one's reputations and credibility, rebuilt; but, everyone's life is made much, much easier if even the appearance of a lack of integrity is preserved.

Receiving a zero and a chance to revise to a "C" is meant to drive home the point that in most academic discourse your reputation, that is, the appearance and maintenance of integrity, is an assumption readers have to make. Otherwise, the ability to share research or to make crucial decisions involving the work of those one doesn't know personally disappears. Quite literally, our technological, over-populated society depends on everyone policing and protecting everyone's reputation for integrity. This policing is especially true in the academy.

Why? Because in a global world economy, we have to work at a distance. Those with whom you work don't have the luxury of knowing you well enough to use your work if there is *any* reason to distrust it. Professionals regularly make decisions which will change or cost other's lives. We depend on each other to weed out those who don't show academic integrity. There isn't any room for partial credit or even the appearance of a lack of integrity. This is the reason that those the academy accredits, that is, those the academy says are worth trusting with professional decisions, are taught to police each academic paper, to document early in the process, and when making the decision to document or not are taught to err on the side of being a tad paranoid about one's reputation.

Why the zero score for plagarism?

Yesterday, a couple of your fellow students said something in the plagiarism conferences about which I spent the night thinking, namely a statement to the effect of: "It was only a single/couple of lines/paragraph. Why didn't I get credit for the rest of my work?"

First, you should know that Jen and I didn't come to the "zero/conference/allow revisions with a 'C' cap" policy with any ease. We spoke with colleagues and our program heads. We talked in the office and then spent most of an afternoon in an email exchange that included Tom. What we were looking for was a policy which would drive a crucial ethical lesson home. Many of our colleagues suggested just a zero for the paper. Some suggested dropping the offending student from the course. However, Jen and I wanted to send the message that even when compromised, reputations/images/ethos can be rebuilt. The student comments got me to rethink the policy.

When I was at the National Portrait Gallary in Washington a few weeks back, I read a quotation by John Randolph, one of your fellow Virginians. It said, "To ask any State to surrender part of her sovereignty is like asking a lady to surrender part of her chastity." Randolph's notion is that sovereignty is an absolute. One either possesses it or one doesn't. The quote stuck with me because it resonated with the basic idea behind the old joke about being a little bit pregnant. Over the past week, as I've discussed and pondered the problem of how best to teach academic integrity, I found myself thinking several times of the Randolph quotation and wondering if having a little bit of integrity is like being a little bit pregnant. I've come to the conclusion that the analogy is not a perfect one.

I think a better analogy is that of monogamy in a committed, monogamous relationship. As I began thinking of the students comments from yesterday, this was the analogy to which I returned. Suppose, in a monogamous relationship one gives the appearance of being monogamous 95 percent of the time. What happens? It is possible to rebuild a relationship based on trust into which one has introduced an element of doubt. It is even possible to rebuild such a relationship if one partner knows the other has cheated. However, in the short term, doubt colors each interpretation of the other.

If a person has integrity, then she is trusted. Her actions aren't given the additional scrutiny needed once one perceives a reasonable reason to doubt. However, once doubt in introduced into the relationship, all things change; and, at least in the short term, each word and action is weighed with the possibility in mind that the other may well act in such a way that their good intent should be questioned. Over time, doubt may be turned back into trust and one's ethos, one's reputations and credibility, rebuilt; but, everyone's life is made much, much easier if even the appearance of a lack of integrity is preserved.

Receiving a zero and a chance to revise to a "C" is meant to drive home the point that in most academic discourse your reputation, that is, the appearance and maintenance of integrity, is an assumption readers have to make. Otherwise, the ability to share research or to make crucial decisions involving the work of those one doesn't know personally disappears. Quite literally, our technological, over-populated society depends on everyone policing and protecting everyone's reputation for integrity. This policing is especially true in the academy.

Why? Because in a global world economy, we have to work at a distance. Those with whom you work don't have the luxury of knowing you well enough to use your work if there is *any* reason to distrust it. Professionals regularly make decisions which will change or cost other's lives. We depend on each other to weed out those who don't show academic integrity. There isn't any room for partial credit or even the appearance of a lack of integrity. This is the reason that those the academy accredits, that is, those the academy says are worth trusting with professional decisions, are taught to police each academic paper, to document early in the process, and when making the decision to document or not are taught to err on the side of being a tad paranoid about one's reputation.

A Pope a Day...

... keeps the heretics away?

Since you're thinking about Popes for Prof Morrison, anyway, I submit the following for your dubious amusement: the blog of an artist who drew a line drawing of each Pope, day by day, for about a year. More interesting than it sounds:


http://www.mattkirkland.com/popes.html

The Final Week of Class

As we move into the final week of class, I want you going through multiple revisions of your portfolio and taking the time to present your *best* work. This means polishing your cover letter and writing inventory multiple time, taking the time to proofread both (again, multiple times), and making sure the pieces you pick for the evidence section do the work you want them to. Remember: the things you put into the evidence section are meant to help you prove the claims you make as to what you have learned in the cover letter and writing inventory. What you include in the evidence section doesn't have to be polished. This section can include notes, prewriting, annotations from your text, anything you've done on your blog, drafts of papers, etc. et etc.

Your cover letter and writing inventory should be as polished as you can make them.

I strongly suggest that you make at least one last past through the textbook, the class blog, and all your work to make sure you're making the best case you can for your grade and what you've learned in the course.

By the end of all this work, I suspect you will be impressed by all the information to which you've been exposed and how much you've written. Remember: the class isn't designed for you to learn everything to which you've been exposed. If you've learned how to analyze rhetorical situations, process writing, the connection between opinion, support, and evidence, and how to make yourself into a better communicator over time, I will be more than pleased.

You'll turn the whole shebang into me on Wednesday, 7 May.

You can turn this in one of two ways:

1. Add me as a collaborator for a long google doc which contains cover letter, inventory, and evidence. In the evidence section, you can include links to your blog, mindmaps, etc. Just make sure these links work.
2. Turn in everything as a physical portfolio.

I will be finished grading them by 9 May.

Regardless, once you are finished with your portfolio and turn it in, take a moment to fill out a course evaluation.

As always, write with questions.

Creating Better Presentations:

Lifehack is currently doing a series on creating better presentations. It seems timely, so:

Part One:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/presentation-masterclass-part-1-introduction.html

Part Two:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/5-key-questions-when-planning-your-presentation-presentation-masterclass-part-2.html

Taking Good Notes...

The class began with advice on how to read and take notes. This article on taking notes is now a year out of date, but note--class and otherwise--are not a genre that changes quickly. Enjoy, and file under what you know about genres.

Here's the linky:

http://lifehacker.com/software/note-taking/geek-to-live%E2%80%94take-great-notes-167307.php

Here's the link to the _Style_ article:

http://www.styleweekly.com/article.asp?idarticle=16513

For those who are interested, a walk through the Style achieves--available for keyword search online--reveals an illuminating perspective on race, class, and the Metro Richmond area. I'm not sure I agree with all which is said, but the statistics and evidence used to back up the articles may prove useful to you, that is, if you check the sources.

For the groups doing educational reform, inequity, and class distinctions:

The 11 March edition of the local free newspaper, Style, had an article on the controversy around the new PTA President in Richmond. What's interesting are the statistics offered on the differences between the Richmond City schools and those in the surrounding counties. If any of y'all are looking for local examples of education reform, inequity, and class, then you could do much, much worse than this article.

To find the article (and others on the state of the Richmond City schools), start here:

http://www.styleweekly.com/advanced-search.asp

Search city schools.

Link to the _Washington Post_ Article

Jen said I'd forgotten to put the link in for the Washington Post article on the world recongnized violin player pretending to be a street musician. Here it is:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

Make sure to read all the posts this week.

Today, I've posted several posts, make sure to read them, especially the one on the review and writing you need to accomplish this week.

On Writing Conclusions.

Try memorizing a longish list, and you will be able to remember the first and last elements almost at once; but, it will take you multiple passes through the list to get the bulk of the material and remember it in the order it was presented. The upshot is conclusions are one of the few elements you can hope a casual reader will remember; so, you use them to make the main points you want your reader to remember.

Even though conclusions are necessary, they are often difficult to write. I write conclusions by answering a few questions and remembering a few tactics often used. Here are the questions:

• "So what?" or, as one of my past math professor's said, "Why should you give a damn?" The main purpose of a conclusion is to answer these questions and demonstrate to your reader why your thesis--the stance you take on your topic--is useful or meaningful. In a usual paper, you've just spent the body developing good reasons for your reader to believe your thesis. In your conclusion, you explain why your thesis matters, how accepting your thesis will enrich the reader's life, or explain why your thesis is important.
• "What new perspective have I offered on my topic?" Readers often read to gain a new perspective or outside viewpoint on a topic; so, one of the things you can do with a conclusion is to pose questions that follow from accepting your thesis and which you don't have time to develop in your paper.
• "What do I need to say to finish the story I began in my introduction?" I am fond of using a story to hook my reader and lead them toward my thesis statement. This tactic gives me a ready framework for a conclusion. My introduction sets up a story that explains why the topic I'm addressing is important. My body develops my take on the topic, and my conclusion then "finishes" the story I began in the introduction. I think of this approach as the "OK. Here's the moral of the story" approach.
• "How will the future be changed if my thesis is true?" If I've just spent the body of my paper proving a problem exists or suggesting a solution, then I build on this shared ground to predict the future outcomes of my thesis being true.
• "What do I want my reader to do?" Good writers write to change the beliefs and behavior of their audience; so, I often write with a desired behavior in mind. I challenge the reader to change their behavior with a move like, "OK. You've got little choice but to believe my thesis, so you now know that these actions are necessary as a result."
• "What can I do to complete the circle?" If you think of your paper as a circle which begins with your hook and moves through your thesis and body, then it makes sense to bring your reader full circle by returning to your introduction. The tactic of finishing the story I mentioned above is a variation on this tactic. If you begin with a description or a scenario, then you can end with the same description or scenario as seen through the lens of your thesis being true.

Here are some dos and don'ts which are useful:

• Don't just restate your main points or your thesis in short papers. Student writers often want to just restate their thesis and the main points of the body. Such summary is a useful tactic for the conclusion of long papers where the reader may have been distracted from your main point by subsequent points you raise, and you have more than one paragraph in which to write your conclusion. Having said this, in a short paper--like the five paragraph academic essay or an in class short essay--readers aren't going to get lost in the four or five paragraphs you've just written. Just summarizing what you've said is a tad insulting. Instead, you can use the tactic of reminding your reader of your main points fit into a larger picture.
• Don't introduce a new argument. The body of your paper is where you introduce reasons to believe your thesis. The conclusion is where you synthesize your main points and show why your thesis is important. Remember, there is a subtle but very important difference between proving your thesis to be true and discussing why it matters.
• Do pick out and echo key terms or ideas or images. One method of bringing your reader full circle without just repeating your thesis and main points is simply using key terms, ideas, or images from your paper in your conclusion.
• Do think about ending with a quotation from the research you have done.
• Do think about suggesting further research which is necessary.
• Do focus on your thesis and its importance.
• Don't focus on minor point brand new reasons to believe your thesis. It's easy to get enamored by one's own words, but conclusions are about the broad picture. If your conclusion focuses on a minor point you bring up rather than on your thesis, your reader may well get lost.
• Don't apologize. Readers read authors, that is, AUTHORities on a topic; so, don't apologize or say, "This is just my opinion, but..." or "Others may believe differently, but..." or "I'm no expert, but..." I used to collect a quarter from students who apologized for what they say. You are the author of your essay. What you have to say is important, or you wouldn't be saying it and asking your reader to read it.

Online article on tea...

Here's an online article on tea:

http://www.portfolio.com/culture-lifestyle/culture-inc/food-drink/2008/04/07/Gourmet-Tea-Guide#page1

Assignments Due Sunday, 20 April

We are coming into the final few weeks of the course. This past week, I had you write a draft cover letter--like the one which will be the first element of your class portfolio--in which you evaluated your performance in the course and argued for a grade based on this performance.

This week, I want you to review the course and the material you have learned. Please, please, please take the time to make this review as past experience has shown those who do so create much, much stronger and, hence, more successful final portfolios.

Here's what you should cover in your review:

1. Chapters 1-7 of Writing for College, Writing for Life.
2. The blog.
3. Any of the reading you haven't done, do it now; this will prove one of your final chances.
4. As you read, update your writing inventory with any information that is new to you. If you need to, change the claims you make or the examples you use in your writing inventory; and, then re-read your writing inventory as evidence of what you have learned and what you have learned to apply this semester.
5. If you haven't already, go to bubbl.us and set up an account. Create a mind-map of the *major* lessons *you* have learned this semester. Under each lesson (bubble) list the evidence you can use to support a case for what you claim to have learned. To do this assignment properly, you need to go back and review what you've written this semester and think about how you might use it in your portfolio to support the claims you'll make about what you learned. This mind map will serve as a pre-writing exercise for the final version of your portfolio cover letter, and you can include it in your portfolio evidence section as evidence of what you've learned this semester. In this mindmap, be as complete as possible.

Just to clear up a few of points of logistics:

1. Create your portfolio as a long google document. Share it with me--prof.brandon@gmail.com. You can share it with classmates. This is a good way for you to learn what others are putting into their portfolios, how they are constructing their arguments, and how they've organized the content. It is also a good way to receive feedback from readers in the class you've come to trust; BUT, you are not required to share your portfolio or cover letter with anyone but me.
2. Remember your portfolio will contain:

a. a cover letter in which you will describe the major lessons you've learned. In this explanation, you will use the vocabulary you've learned to discuss and analyze your writing and you will argue for a grade. If you've turned in assignments late or haven't done assignments, here's also the place where you will explain and ask that I don't dock your participation grade (40%). I won't promise to buy your argument. If I do buy it or not will depend on its quality and the evidence you bring to bare. However, I do promise to give everything you say a fair hearing and to think about it before I assign you a final grade.
b. a writing inventory in which you discuss each of the learning outcomes for the course in terms of what you have learned and what you take each outcome to mean and/or discuss. Couch this discussion in terms of your of writing. In other words, I want you to use your own writing--particularly that which you include in the evidence section of the portfolio--as the source of examples you use to illustrate what you have to say about each outcome.
c. an evidence section that contains writing you've done this semester. Note: you are not to include ALL the writing you have done. Include writing you use to support the claims and discussion taking place in the cover letter and in the writing inventory. Pick and choose what you include. Part of what I'm judging is how and how well you pick and present your evidence. Also remember, don't just include final papers. Part of what you've been learning is process writing; so, think about including prewriting, early drafts and revisions, and proofreading copy.

3. Your portfolio should be over twenty pages in length but should not exceed thirty five pages. A page is considered the text which will fit into an 8 1/2 by 11 inch typed page, which is double spaced and whose text appears in a standard 12 point Times New Roman font.

4. Everything in your portfolio will appear in a single, long google document. Make sure to mark each new section.

5. Please use the following template to name your document: "ENG112 FirstName LastName Final Portfolio."

As always, write with questions.

Rules of Evidence: File Under Knowledge of Conventions

Just as discourse communities share conventions of genre, voice, tone, diction, etc., each has its own ideas about what kind and amount of evidence justifies a conclusion. Think, for instance, of what it takes to prove to a woman's support group and a court of law that a husband has committed adultery. You need to discover the rules of evidence for any discourse community you wish to join. Why? Logos and ethos based arguments heavily depend on evidence to support them. If you don't use enough evidence or don't employ the right type, then the credibility of your arguments suffers or, in the worse case, might be destroyed.

Academic discourse has fairly rigorous standards of evidence, because the outside community often bases their opinion and actions on the knowledge we create and propagate. As a student, you might find these rigorous standards finicky, but you want your doctors to know what is enough evidence to decide what your disease is and not make mistakes. You want engineers to know (and not just think or believe) that the steel and concrete used to make a bridge is up to the daily load of traffic over it. In other words, you don't want folks making critical decision to have slack rules of evidence.

Part of developing an academic voice is learning what rules of evidence, that is what types and amount, are sufficient for the discipline you are studying to draw a conclusion. Those of us in English might be able to construct Shakespeare's life from the scant pieces of evidence on which we have to draw, but you don't want folks using these same rules to convict you of murder.

Here are some words we use to describe and talk about evidence. Learn them:

• opinion
• hearsay
• authenticity
• physical evidence
• relevance
• germane
• authentic
• expert
• sufficient
• enough
• lack of
• sufficiency
• eye-witness
• primary
• secondary
• biased
• source of
• documented
• refereed
• long standing
• degree of certainty
• smoking gun
• circumstantial
  
• empirical
  
• qualitative
• verifiable
• quantified
  

Notes on Revision

Each semester, as I teach another course, developmental writing, I provide my class with notes on how to revise an argumentative, three hour, in-class paper, but most of these notes apply to most academic writing; so, I decided to share them with you. Find them below:

Here’s the real secret to good writing: revision. As with most profound ideas, it sounds simple, but it’s not. Good writers revise as they draft, AND they go through multiple revisions after a draft is complete. The first manner of revision is easy to get your head around. Because most of us now write on the computer, we tend to see revision as an ongoing part of writing, and we tend to believe a paper is finished when we draft the last paragraph and read back through it once or twice. This isn’t revision.

It is next to impossible to revise completely as you draft and as you proofread. My brother once told me, “If a girl is worth asking out, she is worth your full and undivided attention.” He was right. The same rule applies to revision. When you revise, you revise. Take the time. Just as with a date, you will be happier with the results. Of course, the problem is, just as with that date, if you don’t take the time to give revision your full attention, you may come to the mistaken belief that what you are experiencing is the best date out there. If for no other reason, revise because you want a higher score.

Tips for Revision:

1. Print out a hard copy of your draft.

2. Spend individual time revising, and print out a new copy.

3. Read the new copy *out loud*, and revise it again.

4. Print out yet a new hard copy, and get a second reader to help you revise it.

Here are the most important, general questions you need to answer at as you revise?

• Is there another idea(s) you might introduce which would make your claim(s) sound more reasonable or clarify your thinking?
• Could your paper be organized in a better way? For a moment, play with the idea of moving your paragraphs or sections into a new order.
• Do you provide sufficient evidence to support each of your claims, both the major claim you make in your thesis statement AND the other claims you make in each paragraph? Look at each claim and sub-claim, ask yourself, “What additional evidence could I provide?” “Do I provide enough evidence?” The secret number is three. If I provide three reasons or three pieces of evidence to support an idea, then I know—in general—I’ve provided enough.
• Do you define the terms you use and illustrate them with examples, stories, etc.?
• Do I stay on topic? Do I introduce ideas I need to cut, or do I introduce ideas to which I need to devote their own paragraph?
• Could I add a phrase or sentence which would clarify what I want to say?

Here are questions to ask of each section of your paper?

Introduction:

• Does the introduction hook the reader and draw them into the paper?
• Does the introduction lead in a logical straightforward way to my thesis statement?
• If I introduce unfamiliar terms, do I define them in the introduction?
• Does the introduction provide context for my take on the topic and my thesis?

Thesis:

• Is my thesis narrow enough? Can I fully develop this thesis in the time I have to write?
• Is my thesis too broad? Have I written a thesis which is so broad that everything I have to say about it seems vague and too general?
• Does my thesis say what I want to say about my topic?
• Does my thesis make a point worth considering? Will my reader care about my point? Do I care about the point I am making?
• Does my thesis provide the reader with a sense of the structure of the paper?
• Does my paper fulfill the promises I make in the thesis?

Structure:

• Is my structure logical?
• Are there gaps in the reasons I give my reader to believe my thesis?
• Do I require my reader to make logical leaps for which I haven’t prepared her?
• Is each of my sub-claims, points, and pieces adequately developed?
• Is each point equally developed?
• Is each point interesting?
• Is each point relevant to the case I am making?

Body Paragraphs:

• Does each paragraph have a topic sentence which controls the paragraph?
• Does each paragraph establish a single focus and stay on focus?
• Do I provide adequate transitions from paragraph to paragraph?
• Is each paragraph clearly related to my thesis?

Conclusion:

• Does your conclusion sum up my main point?
• Does my conclusion introduce a completely new idea?
• Does my conclusion leave the reader with something to think about?

In class assignment, Wednesday, 2 April

Every once in a while I pull one of those absence minded professor moments which is more of a boner than normal. Usually, it's just leaving my books, pens, eye-glasses in a room or forgetting to pick up my wallet or forgetting where I put a stack of student papers. This morning was different, and my carelessness was compounded by the fact I was half asleep.

Around 4:30 this morning, my joints are hurting; so, I wake up early and stumble into the bathroom to grab a pill which will get the pain down to manageable levels and I can fall back asleep. Unfortunately, Nance has just gotten a prescription for Ambien, a medicine for insomnia. I take it by mistake, and it's only as I get up at 5:30 and literally stumble toward my bath that I realize that something is very, very wrong. In any event, I won't be driving this morning, and if all goes well, I will soon be snooring again.

You will, however, have class. I would like you to meet in your groups and begin work on your tea papers. Brainstorm together what you might say in your paper. Go through your sociology texts and try to figure out places where what was discussed apply to the tea. If possible, work out a tentative outline for your paper prior to leaving class. You will turn a *copy* of these outlines in to me on Friday, so you have between now and Friday to work on them.

I am trusting you to stay on task and work in groups. On Friday, since you'll again be working in groups, this time on your oral presentation, I'll have more to say on the subject. Here's the short version:

Appointment someone to run the meeting and someone to keep track of what gets said:

1. Figure out a clear statement of what you need to accomplish.
2. Assign specific tasks for each member of your group to accomplish.
3. Set specific deadlines for these tasks to be accomplished.
4. Negotiate these deadlines/tasks until every feels comfortable.
5. Set a time, place, and the agenda for the next meeting.


Steve

Why Commas Matter

Writing Advice and Resources

Here's the best of the advice on writing I read this week on the web. Find below a like to StudentHack and a post with some very good advice on starting and completing a first draft:

http://studenthacks.org/2008/03/31/first-draft/

Here's a link to one of the best collection of writing resources I've seen on over a year. It's focused toward professional and creative writers, but there's lots (and I mean *LOTS*) of good stuff here for student writers:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/the-ultimate-writing-productivity-resource.html


Enjoy.

Your Last, New Reading Assignment from _Writing for College, Writing for Life_

Read: Chapter 8, "Writing to Convince."

Reading for the Portfolio

When thinking about putting together your portfolio, may I suggest you read appendix A in _Writing for College, Writing for Life_. This reading will show you an example of a student portfolio which was put together for one of the authors of the text. It will offer some suggestions for ways to organize and select materials. Pay particular attention to how the author, Chelsea Rundle, has responded to the the learning outcomes.

Steve

On making up assignments...

I have no problem with accepting assignment late, so you still have time to complete any you have missed. All the assignments for class can be found on this blog. I don't care when you learn the lessons of the class, that is, as long as you do.

Having said the above, be aware: the end of the semester is quickly approaching, and you should schedule the time necessary to get caught up on all your assignments, so you earn the high grade I want to be able to give each of you.

Steve

Re: Portfolio: Don't Panic...AAlso, assignment...

A couple of folks have written in response to my recent posts on the blog concerning the Portfolio. Let me make clear, the portfolio isn't due this week. It will be due the final day of class of this semester. I posted the overview of the assignment, because: 1) it does make up so much of your grade (60%); and, 2) I wanted you to begin thinking about and working on it now rather than later. Remember, your portfolio is a collection of work which creates the basis of an argument for your final grade.

What is due this week: a draft cover letter in which you evaluate your performance in this class to date, the major lessons you have learned, and make a provisional argument for your grade. This cover letter will be a tentative draft of the one you will write at the end of the semester for your portfolio. Make it no shorter than four pages, double spaced, one inch margins, twelve point type. Address the cover letter to me, as in "Dear Steve." Keep your tone informal, and use the opportunity to explain what you've learned, what you still have to do for the class, and what grade you're working toward and expect to receive.

In this letter, make sure to backup each claim you make with evidence from the work you've done in class or writing/communication from daily life.

One last piece of advice, namely, research how cover letters are normally written for job interviews. The letter you will write for this class is longer than the typical cover letter, but it shares much in common in terms of tone and the kinds of arguments you can use.

How it really happened...

I thought you might find this amusing. Warning: it's a video file, so if you're not on broadband, you might want to skip it.

The Portfolio...

Below, you'll find a lot of advice about your portfolio. Read it. Your portfolio will count 60% of your final grade, with the other 40% being determined by different factors of your class participation, that is, if you've turned work in one time, how engaged you've been with the process of learning, what you've done to add to the class discussion (both online and in class), if you come to class on time or come to class at all. All these factors add up to a measure of your ethos as a student, and what it boils down to is the evidence you've given me that you've been an engaged, active, caring student.

Your portfolio, on the other hand, is a collection of three elements: 1) a long evidence section which contains the evidence you'll use to support the claims you'll make in the other two sections; 2) your writing inventory, where you'll demonstrate, using examples from your evidence section and your other communication, that you understand the learning outcomes of the course; 3) a cover letter where you will argue for your grade and discuss the most important elements of what you've learned this semester. In many respects, the cover letter and writing inventory function as a job application cover letter and resume; so, you might want to research the genre of the job cover letter and what a resume does for their reader.

Your portfolio will be due the day you would normally take your exam for this class. Your portfolio will function as that final exam. You will turn your portfolio into me at my office, and--at the same time--you'll fill out a class evaluation.

In between now and then, we'll be doing several workshops to prepare you to be able to put your best face forward in your portfolio. As the due date approaches, there will be drafts do, and you'll get reminded repeatedly about the time and place to turn in the portfolio. For right now, read the various posts on the portfolio, and begin thinking about the argument you'll construct with your portfolio.

My expectations of you at this point in your writing career.

I wanted to pull the last point I made in the "Portfolio, FAQ" post out and develop it more. I also wanted you to take special notice of what I say here. It has to do with my expectations of you as a writer at this point in your life as a writer. Here's a more developed statement, and I hope it eases some of your worry about what I expect of you and, more importantly, what you should expect of yourselves:

"You need to remember: you are at the end of your freshman level writing classes. I don't expect you to do everything perfectly or be able to produce fluent, fully effective prose with ease. If you could produce such with ease, you wouldn't need the remainder of what you will learn about writing in other classes."

At this point in your development as a writer, I don't expect you to fully understand or to be able to implement and use every outcome or to write stunning prose. You should still be struggling, pushing your personal envelop, experimenting, and working on writing good, solid sentences and paragraphs. You should be experimenting with learning how to research and write different kinds of documents and figuring out a repertoire of moves which will serve you well in later writing. One of the joys of early learning is the freedom you have to experiment, screw up, and learn from experimentation, all with less costly consequence than the same mistake will have in later life.

Few people do well the first time they try something, and most are struggling the twentieth. They should be. Few things which are worthwhile can be conquered in a semester or a year. You know I believe in a crafts' approach to writing, one where you are always in the process of acquiring new skills as your needs and desires change and mature. I'm still working on writing better sentences, paragraphs, and documents. This continued struggle is part of the fun of being a writer.

I do expect evidence of:

1) substantial work toward producing better, more successful writing,
2) that you've learned the basic linkage between opinion and support,
3) that you understand and have begun to use process writing, and,
4) that you have a budding knowledge of rhetoric.

Most importantly, I expect you to have learned some useful techniques and a process through which you can make yourself a better writer."

Researching a Genre: The Portfolio

Anytime you encounter a genre new to you, like the portfolio, research it online. There are numerous sites which deal with the Freshman English portfolio, and a few minutes spent doing some research on these sites can provide some valuable ideas for your own. You'll also be learning to research genres, not an inconsiderable skill. You also might want to look at the "reflective cover letter" or "reflective learning."

It's funny how many folks will research the right stereo or computer to buy, but it never occurs to them that they can research how to write better and things like genre or how to conquer sentence fragments.

Write with questions.

Steve

Portfolio, FAQ

1. How do you want me to submit the portfolio?

Create one long document in which the major sections are separated by page breaks, and then add me as a collaborator to it. Since everyone now knows how to use Google Docs, use this program. As always, feel free to get collaborative help on the document. One of the things you're learning is to use others in your writing process.

Following this plan, you'll get to see your grade earlier, as I can leave it in the comments. Make sure you *want* everyone on your viewer/collaborative list to see your grade; so, edit your share list accordingly. If it's all right to leave your grade at the beginning of the document, leave me a note at the beginning of the document telling me it's all right to post your grade in the document. At the least, having one long document separated by page breaks will allow me to have every thing you want to say and use in one place, and I can search the document with some ease. This shared format meets the rule of making things as easy as possible for both reader and author to fulfill their goals/needs. Within the portfolio feel free to connect via links to other documents or work you want me to see and think about.

If this format doesn't work for you, we can negotiate other options; so, feel free to ask. I can think of web pages which would work here.

2. What's the overall format for the documents I include?

a. Cover Letter
b. Inventory
c. Evidence supporting the claims made in the cover letter and inventory

3. What should I put in the cover letter?

Your cover letter is the place where you make a claim as to the grade you have earned and convince me to believe your claim. You can use this space to address what you anticipate to be my concerns about your performance, tell me the lessons you've found most valuable from the class, make claims about the effort you've put into the class, show me in action what you have learned, explain why you didn't do an assignment or turned it in late, etc. In specific, I will be looking to see if you've picked up what the major lessons of the class are and if you're: 1) able to speak about them in the context of your learning; and, 2) if you put these lessons into practice in your letter. Frankly, I'm also hoping to learn how to make the class more effective for students like you in the future.

4. How will you grade the cover letter?

I will be looking at the quality of your claims and the quality of the support you put together to help me believe your various claims. In terms of claims, I will judge them by how they are made and on their plausibility. In terms of support, I will look for sufficient support and a good deal of evidence, epically examples and clarification. The evidence should be plausible, detailed and--in most cases--specific. I will look at your ability to speak knowledgeably about the work you include in the evidence section and about your own writing. I will look at your tone, voice, and style and judge its appropriateness to the writing situation. Since this is a letter written to an English professor about your learning in his class, I will look at issues of usage and grammar. Finally, I will look for evidence that you've used process writing to construct the document.

5. How will you grade the inventory?

Again, I will look for specific claims about what you know/learned about the outcomes and how you use the skills and knowledge they describe in your writing and/or other aspects of your communication. I'm looking to see if you've come to be able to speak knowledgeably about yourself as a writer and speaker. If you remember my post about metadiscourse, I'm looking for evidence to see if you've gained and/or started a useful metadiscourse about your writing and yourself as a writer. I'll look at how you use examples from the evidence section to support your claims.

6. What can I include in the evidence section?

Any writing or other work you've done as a communicator.

7. What should I include in the evidence section?

Since we both share the work you've done as an author in this class, this work should become the basis of your portfolio. You shouldn't try to include it all. When I say work, I mean pre-writing, notes, emails, comments on papers on which you've helped, proofreading exercises, posts, etc. All this is fair game.

You may also include or point to work you've done else where, in your daily life, for a job, or in school. This includes creative writing, games, photos, etc.

You can also include excerpts from longer pieces or let a single piece of evidence do multiple duty.

If you haven't done all the work for the class, support the arguments you make in the cover letter and the inventory with work from outside the class, and address the fact you didn't do all the work in the cover letter, explaining why. Since I'm training you to make a good argument and to use rhetoric, here's a high stakes place to implement your skills. I'm looking for evidence you've learned, not that you've toed the line; and, I don't really care when you learn, that is, as long as you do and can use the knowledge.

8. What should I not do in the evidence section?

Don't just do a core dump. Pick and choose your evidence. Part of what I'm looking at is your ability to pick evidence which supports your arguments well. Portfolios are meant to showcase your work in such a way that they support the purpose for which you put them together. In this case, you're trying to get a handle on your self as a writer, your work in this course, and what you've learned in the course. (Oh, and I assume you hope to garner a high grade for the course.) I'm trying to do the same and to use the material to make a fair judgment of the grade your work in the course had earned.

Don't hand me the kitchen sink. Think of your audience here. Just like students, professors are *very* busy folks at the end of term. We've got lots of reading and thinking about students and their work to do. We're meeting and working with worried students, and we're taking care of the business of the university knowing that folks will not be very available over the holidays to help. The upshot is we appreciate students who help us do the best job we can.

Don't make the mistake of not having some sort of organization for your evidence section. Don't go overboard here, but I need to be able to find the work you speak about in your cover letter and in your inventory. Assume your reader is tired, has been reading and grading for a day, has had too much caffeine, and needs to take a break. Imagine how pleased this reader is when he is able to find the information he needs to make an informed, fair decision with relative ease.

9. What are your expectations as an audience concerning the work I've done?

You need to remember: you are at the end of your freshman level writing classes. I don't expect you to do everything perfectly or be able to produce fluent, fully effective prose with ease. If you could produce such with ease, you wouldn't need the remainder of what you will learn about writing in other classes. I don't expect you to fully understand or to be able to implement and use every outcome. Heck, you know I believe in a crafts' approach to writing, one where you are always in the process of acquiring new skills as your needs and desires change. I do expect evidence of substantial work, that you've learned the basic linkage between opinion and support, that you know and have begun to use process writing, and that you have a budding knowledge of rhetoric. Most importantly, I expect you to have learned some useful techniques and a process through which you can make yourself a better writer.

History of the tea ritual and etiquette

Here's some information on the afternoon tea as a ritual in English and American culture. There is also information here on tea etiquette

http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/HighTeaHistory.htm

http://www.panix.com/~kendra/tea/afternoon_tea.html

Here's a time line which describes the history of tea:

http://www.2basnob.com/tea-history-timeline.html

Here's a link to directions for the Chinese Tea ritual (and, for Robbie, a link to the Imperial Tea Court. One of the best tea sources in America.):

http://www.imperialtea.com/classroom/GongfuPrep.asp

Here's a site which discusses chado--the Japanese Way of Tea, or as it is called in the west, the Japanese Tea Ceremony:

http://www.kato3.org/chanoyu/frame.html

What I hope you are seeing is that even something as simple as drinking tea has a rhetoric, different discourses, different discourse communities, and different ways to build ethos and use the act to create meaning.

Directions to Museum of the Confederacy

For those who are driving the the Museum of the Confederacy, here are the directions from off their web site. Make sure you arrive at the museum no later than 8:45, Friday, 28 March. The program there will start at 9:00, so plan to arrive early. Remember, if you drive yourself, you can leave from the museum after the program, but you'll have to find parking downtown; so, plan accordingly.

For all others, we will be leaving the Parham Road campus at 8:25. Plan to meet up at 8:00 AM in front of Jena's and my office, that's 322 Georgiadis. We will them move to the parking lot below the bookstore to load the van.

Finally, remember you will be doing assignments based on the field trip; so, be there if at all possible. If you haven't signed and returned your waver, you need to do so before boarding the van or participating in the program.

Thank you for your interest in visiting the Museum of the Confederacy. If you have questions that are not answered below, please email us at info@moc.org or call our Visitor Services Desk at 804-649-1861. We hope to see you soon! For additional detailed directions to our location, please visit mapquest.com.

1201 E. Clay Street
Richmond, VA 23219

The Museum and White House of the Confederacy is located at 12th and Clay streets in Richmond's historic Court End neighborhood, about two blocks from the historic State Capitol and Capitol Square. From I-95 take exit 74C to Route 250 West (Broad Street). At 11th Street turn right and go two blocks to Clay Street. Turn right on Clay. Due to construction, the parking deck is currently using the 12th Street entrance. So follow the blinking signs for parking in the parking deck. The Museum and White House are on the corner of 12th and Clay Streets.

The Writing Inventory: Bringing It All Together...

To date, much of the work you've done on the writing inventories has been gathering information. Now, I'd like you to do something different with these responses, and in the process begin to evaluate your writing and the skills and knowledge you use to produce it.

As I've discussed before, one of the main features of how the college educated speak and write and one of the main reasons folks listen to them is that they have developed the habit of not just offering an opinion, but backing that opinion up with examples, illustrations, and good reasons which help their audience believe the opinion and to trust its writer/speaker.

Your writing inventory is a good place to practice these skills; so, here's what I'd like you to do:

Keep the notes you've taken for each bulleted item. Below these notes develop a different kind of response with this specific form:

1. Claim as to how *you* use/understand the knowledge/skills described by the learning outcome in your writing.
2. Clarification/definition of what you take the learning outcome to describe. Here you might define terms, talk about your writing in terms of the outcome, etc.
Support: Illustrate how you use the learning outcome in the writing you've done for this or other classes and the difference (or not) the work you've done for this class has made. Here's the most important part: Use two specific examples from your writing.

Here's an example of what I'm looking for:

Outcome: Control such surface level features as syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

Example response:

I've lost track of the number of times teachers have docked my grade for grammar and spelling mistakes. In this class, I've learned there is a difference between these surface issues and the content of what I write. I've also learned that different audiences have different expectations as to what level of grammar and spelling I need to use. When I write a paper for teachers or my boss, my grammar and spelling matter a lot. When I write an email or text to my friends, grammar in spelling matter hardly at all. For instance, when I text my friends, they expect everything but correct spelling. In text messaging, my friends expect me to shorten and truncate words. However, when it matters, this class has taught me a couple of proofreading techniques which help me catch grammar and spelling errors. Prior to this class, I rarely let someone else proofread my writing. Now my girlfriend, who is majoring in English, reads anything that really matters. I also print my final draft out and read it aloud. Between these changes to how I proofread and using the grammar and spell checker in Word, I'm learning to catch most of the errors which got me in trouble before.

Why this is a good response: This response garnered its writer an "A" on the Knowledge of Conventions portion of his writing inventory. Look at everything I learned about his writing by reading the response. I learned he understood how audiences and genres form what he writes. I learned he'd learned to control his writing by varying how or even if he proofreads. I see him backing up opinion with supporting examples. Most important, I learned he knew how to talk about his writing in terms of process and rhetoric. Finally, I got a glimpse into the difference my class had made in his writing and into how his writing process had changed because or it.

Write with questions.

Steve

Motivation

In the discussion online, I've been surprised by how often what you want to work on boils down to motivation; so, I did some research. Here's an article by one of my favorite writers on actions you can take to motivate yourself:

http://zenhabits.net/2007/02/top-20-motivation-hacks-overview/

Assignment:s 17-23 March

I hope you all had a restful break. I hope, if you needed it, you had a chance to get caught up, and you return ready for a productive second half. To get us back in the routine of writing and reading for 111, here's your assignment for this week:

1. Read chapter six, "Writing to Inform."
2. Writing assignment: Scenario 1, page 193-4. This writing scenario has you taking a topic about which your are curious and writing about it for an academic audience. Academic audiences are fairly formal audiences. They expect a high degree of analysis and critical thinking. In other words, they look for an your ability to take a subject and look at it from several different angles. As in most of life, in most academic situations, one assumes your audience knows less about your subject than you do, and one of the reasons they're reading you is to learn about your subject from you.

This writing scenario also has you doing active research, that is, using outside resources to discover the different viewpoints on your subject about which you'll write. Students tend to panic when they hear the word research. You shouldn't. You do research all the time. Every time you go to others to try to figure out what they know on a topic, you are doing research. Reading _Consumer Reports_ and talking to friends about what to look for in a car or in a TV is doing research. In short, research is just learning about and taking advantage of other people's knowledge on a subject which concerns you.

One thing you should remember about academic audiences is that they expect from you what you expect from every research source, that is, full and unbiased information. They expect you to be objective and informative. As you write this short paper, which you will send to the class listserv, eng241spring2008reynolds@googlegroups.com, try to be informative.

Remember, you aren't trying to solve the topic about which you write, you are trying to: 1) describe it in detail, and 2) inform your reader about your topic as fully as possible. The reading your do in chapter six will help you better understand how to accomplish these goals.

Limit your paper to under 500 words.

3. Update your writing inventory with the information you learn while reading and writing this week, and send me a new invitation to read/share your updated writing inventory.

4. Write a short, two page cover letter in which you inform me about your performance in this class to date. Make special note of areas in which you can improve. Remember the class is all about improvement.

Ethos, the Role of Courtesy, and George Washington

The essential question in rhetoric is how to get others to listen to you and your ideas. We've talked about ethos--how one establishes credibility with an audience and gets them to identify with you. George Washington's lifelong obsession with showing courtesy played no small part in his ability to lead a new country that itself had little respect:

"A set of precepts that meant much to Washington and that has drawn the attention of historians, though perhaps not enough, was one that he had copied out by hand at sixteen, 'The Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and in Conversation'--one hundred and ten in all--which were based on a set composed by French Jesuits in 1595. ...

"The focus of the set was established in the very first rule. 'Every action done in company ought to be done with some sign of respect to those that are present.' The 'Rules of Civility' are 'virtues of humanity'-- guidelines for dealing with others, based on attending to their situations and sensibilities. ... 'When you see a crime punished, you may be inwardly pleased; but show pity to the offending sufferer' (rule #23). '... treat artificers and persons of low degree with affability and courtesy, without arrogance' (rule #36). 'When a man does all he can, though it succeed not well, blame not him that did it' (rule #44). ... Washington also bought books of politeness as an adult, and instances of his courtesy, or comments on it, are legion. ...

"[Today] we worry about our authenticity--about whether our presentation reflects who we 'really' are. Eighteenth-century Americans attended more to the outside story and were less avid to drive putty knives between the outer and inner man. 'Character' ... was a role one played until one became it. ...

"Courtesy and reputation--the medium and stimulus of Washington's morality--operate on and through other people. Courtesy is how you treat them, reputation is what they think of you. ... Courtesy and reputation made it possible for Washington to say to his countrymen, we, and to command a response."

Richard Brookhiser, Founding Father, Free Press, Copyright 1996 by Richard Brookhiser, pp. 127-132,136.

The Academic Word List: Learn These Words

How and what words people in a discourse community use are also part of the conventions which govern usage. Academic writing is a good example. When you read college writing, a basic set of words appear again and again. College researchers will study anything, and several years ago a professor in New Zealand, Averil Coxhead, used statistics to figure out a list of words which appear most frequently in academic writing but which are not on the list of the most frequently used words in English. . I am assigning you the job of learning the vocabulary in this list you don't already know.

Why? Because it will help you in several key ways. Studies subsequent to Coxhead's have shown that students who learn this set of words understand academic writing, like that found in college texts, around ten percent better than students who have never studied the vocabulary. Ten percent better understanding may not sound like much, but think of it this way: if you understand the reading and discussion ten percent better in every class, that's a full letter grade difference; so, if you're used to getting a "C," just by learning this vocabulary, studies show you'll be getting a "B" instead. In terms of long term GPA, this means the difference between a 2.0 and a 3.0 GPA. Second, if you want your writing to be recognized as "academic," then you have to use the words good academic writers use.

So, here's the list of the sixty most frequent words in academic writing:

analyze
approach
area
assess
assume
authority
available
benefit
concept
consist

constitute
context
contract
create
data
define
derive
distribute
economy
environment

establish
estimate
evident
export
factor
finance
formula
function
identify
income
indicate

individual
interpret
involve
issue
labor
legal
legislate
major
method
occur

percent
period
policy
principle
proceed
process
require
research
respond
role

section
sector
significant
similar
source
specific
structure
theory
vary

analyze	constitute	establish	indicate	occur	role
approach	context	estimate	individual	percent	section
area	contract	evident	interpret	period	sector
assess	create	export	involve	policy	significant
assume	data	factor	issue	principle	similar
authority	define	finance	labour	proceed	source
available	derive	formula	legal	process	specific
benefit	distribute	function	legislate	require	structure
concept	economy	identify	major	research	theory
consist	environment	income	method	respond	vary

Knowledge of Conventions: Conventions Change

As you can see from your writing inventory, what you are learning about writing is divided into four major areas: knowledge of process, knowledge or rhetoric, knowledge of conventions, and knowledge of critical thinking. Today, I'd like to give you some information you can use to develop the section of your writing inventory devoted to knowledge of conventions.

As the excerpt below, from David Crystal's discussion of the history of punctuation, shows, even conventions of writing as seemingly stable as punctuation change over time. Read the excerpt; as you do, think about the concept of discourse community. Realize that discourse communities, like the discourse community of speakers of English, change their conventions over time. As these conventions change, to stay a member of the community--to be recognized and given ethos or credibility when you speak--you have to change your practices to meet the new, changed expectations.


Comments on punctuation from David Crystal, author, co-author, or editor of over 100 books, including the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language and the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language:

"Early English manuscripts had no punctuation. They often didn't even have spaces between words. The earliest conventions were introduced as a guide to phrasing when reading aloud became an important activity. ... There was a great deal of experiment. Over thirty marks can be found in medieval manuscripts--various combinations of dots, curls, and dashes. Most of them disappeared after the arrival of printing. Some of them look like modern marks, but their function was not the same: a point, for example, represented a pause, rather than a sentence ending, and the height of a point could vary to express degrees of pause.

"Printers had to make decisions about punctuation and capitalization as well as about spelling. The earliest European printers generally followed the marks they found in the manuscripts, the actual shapes depending on the typeface used. Most recognized three kinds of pause, represented by a point, a virgule (/), and a mark of interrogation. [William] Caxton chiefly used a virgule and a point (.), occasionally a colon (:) and a paragraph mark. Word-breaks at the end of a line were shown by a double-virgule (//). The comma began to replace the virgule in the 1520s. ... Towards the end of the fifteenth century, semicircular parentheses, the question mark, and the semicolon, as well as the comma, were introduced in Europe, but it took some time for them all to appear in England. ...

"There was a great deal of inconsistency of usage, especially when several people worked on the same book. ... Even in modern editions a comparison of two editions (e.g. of Shakespeare's Sonnets) will bring to light a remarkable range of [differences]. ... Uncertainty always surrounds a new punctuation mark. In the sixteenth century there was a great confusion among compositors over the use of the apostrophe. At first they only used it as a marker of an omitted letter; its use as a marker of possession came much later, in the eighteenth century. ... It took a long time for the use of these marks to achieve some sort of stability. In fact, of course, they never did totally stabilize. ... Publishers compile [guidelines] to ensure consistency. No two publishers have the same list. I know, because I have published with many firms. ...

"The history of punctuation shows that the complexity does not disappear. Rather, it changes as time goes by. And it is continuing to change. The biggest punctuation changes since the Renaissance are about to hit us, because of the Internet."

David Crystal, The Fight for English, Oxford, Copyright 2006 by David Crystal, pp. 139- 142.

THIS WEEKEND ONLY: FUN EXTRA CREDIT.

The Depression brought some of America's worst times, but it also brought with it a forward looking architecture and artistic movement called Art Deco--an art movement based in the belief that things were going to get better and a living monument to American optimism. One of the best examples of Art Deco architecture in the area is the Henrico Theater (pictured to the right). Notice the clean, rounded, aerodynamic lines. Like all Art Deco, it asserts that a better, more modern world is just around the corner, one that is clean and is everything that the American 1930s wasn't. It's also a rebellion against the art movement it replaces, one which looked to the Middle Ages for inspiration, one called the Arts and Crafts Movement. This hyper-modern, clean, convenient world is that my folks and your grandparents returned from WWII to build.

In any event, the Henrico Theater was recently renovated as an attraction, and it's a great chance to see high Deco architecture up close and personal. One of the movie palaces, they're also showing some great movies from the Mid-twentieth Century.

If you've never seen the ones showing this weekend, Singing in the Rain and Easter Parade, you are in for a treat. Both are musicals, one starring Gene Kelly and one Fred Astaire. Both are hopelessly romantic and fun, and both will show you some great dancing--one modern and one ballroom at its best. Both will give a glimpse into what will end up being the 20th C's major contribution to culture, the movie. Each will set you back a dollar a person. Each will earn you ethos, brownie points, and some extra credit in my class.

Here's a schedule of up coming movies at the Henrico:

Cinema Classics

Beginning in February, unforgettable treasures of the silver screen will be shown the first weekend of each month at Henrico Theatre. The cost is just $1 per person, so be sure to grab your friends and family for a blast from the past!

SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN
Friday, February 29, 8 p.m.
Saturday, March 1, 2 p.m.

EASTER PARADE
Saturday, March 1, 8 p.m.
Sunday, March 2, 2 p.m.

MARY POPPINS
Friday, April 4, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 5, 2 p.m.

BAMBI
Saturday, April 5, 8 p.m.
Sunday, April 6, 2 p.m.

THE PINK PANTHER
Friday, May 2, 8 p.m.
Saturday, May 3, 2 p.m.

THE RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER
Saturday, May 3, 8 p.m
Sunday, May 4, 2 p.m.


Address:

305 East Nine Mile Road
Highland Springs, VA 23075
804-328-4491

Writing Assignment Due Monday, 3 March.

In our workshop, we began looking at ways you can analyze, critique, and refine your five year plan so it is realistic and sill ambitious. As part of your writing this week, I want you to revise the draft of the five year plan you completed this week. Revise it so it reflects a set of realistic achievable goals; in doing so, narrow and focus your goals in each area you discuss--personal, professional, civic, and academic. One way to accomplish this last is to try to figure out what two or three five year goals are the most important to you in terms of developing the kind of life you ultimately want to live. This revision should be completed by Friday.

In addition to revising the draft of your five year goals, I want you to develop and draft two other sections of the same "paper." Drafts of these sections should be finished by Monday, and you should bring them to class.

In the second section of your "paper," I want you develop and describe a set of one year goals which will move you toward your five year goals. Here, focus on specific, doable goals you can realize this year. Go on to explain how they move you toward your five year goals.

Finally, in the third section of your "paper,"I want you to identify and describe specific actions you can take over the next three weeks to move you closer to your one year and five year goals. Perhaps it is doing some research. Perhaps it's as easy as finding some extra time to write, read, or do homework. Maybe it's working on acquiring a new habit or getting rid of one which has prevented you from accomplishing your goals. What you are looking for hear is a specific set of small tasks you can take to move you toward your one year and five year goals.

In the drafts you end up bringing to class, I want you to pay particular attention to weeding out vague thought and wording and replacing each with specific verbs, names, and adjectives.

As always, develop and share your work with the class using google docs.

Steve

How to be creative.

Many students feel that they aren't good at English, mostly because they have trouble coming up with ideas, that is, being creative. Having to create along with procrastination are the two major choke points in both prewriting and drafting. But disciplining yourself to write when you need to and being creative can be taught and learned. Anyone who makes it into college can pick up both skill sets.

Creativity, like most of writing, is not about talent; it is about picking up a set of attitudes and techniques which, once practiced, will help you grow the ability to be creative. An article passed my desk this morning which uses a martial arts metaphor to capture these ideas. It includes a set of techniques, attitudes, and habits you can use to make yourself more creative.

Follow the link:

http://eventurebiz.com/blog/8-ways-to-train-yourself-to-be-creative/

No class 22 Feb; Assignment for Monday: 25 Feb.

Due Monday, 25 Feb.

Do the pre-writing--not the drafting--for the draft which is due Wednesday. Remember, for Wednesday, you're drafting body paragraphs for an essay exploring where you want your life to be in four years. You are dividing this description into four parts: personal, professional, academic, and civic. I know for most of you, your normal writing process is to get right into drafting. Resist the urge, as I want you to experiment with different techniques useful for pre-writing.

For each of the sections of your draft--personal, professional, civic, and academic, use a different pre-writing technique. These have been discussed in the text or in class. These techniques include free-writing, brainstorming, clustering, listing, questioning, and research. Post the results of your experiment in a google doc and add the rest of the class as collaborators. What you are doing is exploring ways to gather knowledge you can use when you draft, and you're looking for one or two which work well for you.

This exercise will also allow you to add a block to the process part of your writing inventory.



Steve

Assignments Due Wednesday, 27 February.

Assignment: Due Wednesday, 27 February.

English 112

Reading: From Writing for College, Writing for Life read chapter five, 128-86. Don’t try to do all this reading at once; instead, break it down into chucks of around ten pages per day. In chapter five, you’ll be reading about how to use writing to explore. In the writing assignment for this week, you’ll be developing a draft of an essay which will help you explore where you want to take your life over the next few years.

Writing: Where do you want to be in five years?

Write a *draft* of the body of an essay in which you describe where you want your personal, professional, academic, and civic life to be in five years. Part of achieving one's goals is learning to fully visualize what it is you want to achieve. The next step is coming up with a plan which will allow you to move toward the goals you visualize, but I don't want you to write about your plan just yet; instead, I want you to concentrate on writing a complete, nuanced description of where you want to be.

In your descriptions, be realistic and concrete. Provide examples and illustrations. If you say you want a spouse or significant other, what qualities do you want this person to possess? How will this person compliment you? What kind of person will they be, and how do you visualize your relationship with them? If you say you want to be finishing up your bachelors degree, tell your reader what degree you want to be working on, if you see yourself as a senior, junior, or heading toward graduate school, and what school or kind of school you'd like to be at. If you say you want to be living in a nice apartment, and then describe the apartment. What town is it in? Is it near your job or school? What kind of neighborhood is it in? Do you see yourself having roommates? If you say you want a job, what kind of job is it? What kind of work do you see yourself doing? How do you see your work fitting into your other plans? How many hours per week do you see yourself working? Is it an inside, office job or are you doing landscaping outside? In short, be specific and detailed, not vague or general.

In visualizing your goals, be realistic. Five years isn’t as long as it may seem. You may see yourself as rich, but can you get there in five years, or will you just be starting to lay a foundation for later financial security? Do some of your homework. It takes most students six years to finish college, and students who work will take even longer; so, if you plan on working while getting a college degree, then you need to plan to still be in school, finishing up, and working toward a career. You also may mention what limitations you may face or what you'll need to overcome to achieve your goals.

For right now, don't worry about drafting an introduction or conclusion, just draft the main sections of your essay's body.

Note: Remember to update your writing inventory responses with what you learned from the reading and writing exercises this week.

Assignment: HP Lovecraft's Racial Fears

Our sources today got me thinking about the early 20th century horrorauthor HP Lovecraft. (He of Cthulhu fame.) Horror fiction tends todredge the visceral fears of an era, and the 1920s were perhaps thedecade when "scientific" racism was at its height. So I thought I'd assign a short story as a change of pace.

I'd like you to read "The Rats in the Walls" for next Wednesday. It's located here:

http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/theratsinthewalls.htm

Write a short paragraph on how the Lovecraft encorporates elements of"scientific" racism. What was he afraid of? Why? (Here's a hint -it's not just about the name of the cat, however offensive that may betoday.)

One Writing Style to Rule Them All

By this point in the semester, you know that there are few pat rules when it comes to writing. Most of what I teach boils down to, "It depends on the rhetorical situation." The truth, "It depends...," is why the most important skills you'll learn this semester are those of figuring out your own reasons for writing, your audience, and the noise keeping your audience from understanding your message. Learn these skills and how they guide what you can and should say, and your writing will almost always allow you to accomplish your goals.

There is, however, a style of writing that works for almost all American audiences. I call it the KISS Style. Use the KISS Style whenever you are not sure of the style your audiences expects. Heck, use it when you are sure, and your writing will still succeed more often than it fails. When I need my own writing to be clear, I revise toward a KISS style.

Find my notes on the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) style below. These notes are lifted from a style sheet given by a newspaper editor to new writers. The advice is practical and to the point.

The KISS style works in almost all writing situations. It even works on an academic audience, an audience who likes convoluted, precise, qualified prose. Why does the KISS Style work so often? Bet on most of your audience being lazy, and--most of the time--you'll win. Write in a style which requires them to do the least work possible, that is, in short, subject-verb-object sentences, and most audiences will describe your writing as clear and precise.

Pay particular attention to the advice on writing short, right branching sentences. If you learn no other thing in this class, learn to follow the SVO<24 rule, and you will be happy you took the class.

Steve


SVO<24

What's that mean? Subject-verb-object sentences of generally less than 24 words.

Good writing starts with good sentence structure, and that means simple construction: subject-verb-object. Not blah, blah, blah, S-V-O. All that does is delay meaning.

This also is called the right-branching sentence: Think of S-V-O as the engine of a train. A short train.

Problem writers use a lot of commas and other punctuation. A good remedial exercise is to try writing a story with no commas. That, of course, means sentences should be short. Research shows that 20-word sentences are fairly clear to most readers. Thirty-word sentences are not.

Here's an even easier test: If you can't read a sentence aloud without taking a breath, it's too long.

Ten guidelines to clearer writing

1. One idea per sentence.

No: Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., experienced the largest of recent high school murder rampages last week, and DeKalb schools, along with police, are reacting to a rumor of violence at DeKalb High School.
Yes: School officials and police are reacting quickly to a rumored threat of violence at DeKalb High School.
The response follows last week's high school massacre in Littleton, Colo.

2. Limit sentence length to 23-25 words. If you can't read a sentence aloud without a breath, it's too long.

No: After the announcement was made by President John La Tourette that he will be retiring early next year, Boey, under his board authority, created an ad hoc committee that will find representatives to sit on the actual search committee. (38 words)
Yes: President John La Tourette announced last month he will retire early next year. (12 words) Boey has since created a temporary committee to choose a search committee. (12 words)

3. S-V-O: Subject-Verb-Object. Right-branching sentences (think of a train engine). Don't delay meaning. Don't use a lot of commas.

No: Mauger, who worked as a bursar at DePaul University in Chicago prior to working at Beloit, said she missed the university environment.
Yes: Mauger was a bursar at Chicago's DePaul University before her Beloit job. She missed the university environment.

4. Use strong verbs and an active voice.

No: The poem will be read by La Tourette.
Yes: La Tourette will read the poem.

5. Reduce difficult words to their simplest terms. Don't let bureaucrats dictate your word choices.

No: The search committee will be constructed in accordance with Article 8 of the NIU constitution.
Yes: NIU's constitution dictates the search committee's makeup.

6. Don't back into a sentence.

No: The end of the academic year and the end of the legislative session were two reasons La Tourette cited.
Yes: La Tourette cited two reasons: the end of the academic year and the end of the legislative session.

7. Don't use more than three numbers in any one sentence.

No: Wednesday, the NIU baseball team's winless streak hit 22 as NIU (4-37-1) dropped a twin bill to Miami (21-18-1), 8-2 and 10-5, at Oxford, Ohio.
Yes: Oxford, Ohio Ñ NIU's baseball losing streak reached 22 as the Huskies dropped a doubleheader Wednesday to Miami, 8-2 and 10-5.

8. Use no more than three prepositional phrases per sentence.

No: Students who will be graduating from NIU will be honored at a senior luncheon from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday in the Regency Room of the Holmes Student Center.
Yes: Friday's senior luncheon will honor students about to graduate. The event runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Holmes Student Center's Regency Room.

9. Choose the precise word.

No: This will increase the number of participants from 55 students a week to 200 students a week, and in that extra 145 students the age for attendance also will change. The present center is only equipped to handle children ages 2-6, but the new center will have the capacity to serve infants, too. (2 sentences, 53 words total)
Yes: This will increase the center's weekly capacity, from 55 children to 200. And, while the current center takes children ages 2-6, the new center will take infants, too. (2 sentences, 28 words total)

10. KISS (keep it simple, stupid).

No: Biological sciences professor Karl Johnson passed away Tuesday at the age of 55, following a long, courageous battle with cancer.
Yes: Biology professor Karl Johnson died of cancer Tuesday. He was 55.

--

Often the accurate answer to a usage question begins, "It depends." And what
it depends on most often is where you are, who you are, who your listeners
or readers are, and what your purpose in speaking or writing is.
-Kenneth G. Wilson, usage writer (b. 1923)