Professor Cooper's Fundamentals of Writing Blog

Journal #2: Prewriting for Essay #1

2013-08-28T12:28:00.000-07:00

Register for the Course Wiki

2007-11-19T08:52:00.000-07:00

If you haven't registered for the course wiki yet, here is a screencast to help you get started. If you didn't get an email invitation, you can still sign up at the wiki: http://freshmancomp.wetpaint.com

Here is the screencast: http://screencast.com/t/QGseVRSlhsO

Bye Bye Cupcake

2007-10-19T07:38:00.000-07:00

Cupcake the wonder kitty was put to sleep yesterday. I'll miss her.

Discussion Journal #2: College Success

2007-09-12T08:03:00.000-07:00

What are some things that YOU can do to help you be successful in college? Focus on your behaviors and your attitude. Explain your choices.

Discussion Journal #1: College Success

2007-08-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

What are some things on campus that can help you be successful in college? It can be a person, a department or anything that you can do that can help you be successful. Explain your answer.

Discussion Journal #9: Study Time

2007-03-22T09:38:00.000-07:00

Studying for college classes is important for students and necessary to help them do well in their college classes. How much time to you spend a week studying and doing homework for this class? Where do you study? Do you have anyone help you? Do you think you study enough?Describe your study time.

Discussion Journal #8

2007-03-06T09:42:00.000-07:00

What is your thesis statement for essay #3? Write it out and include your three blueprint items.

Discussion Journal #6

2007-03-06T09:41:00.000-07:00

After watching the first part of the movie Crash, what do you think is the director's message he wants his audience to learn? Explain and give an example to support your answer.

Discussion Journal #3: College Success 3

2007-02-13T09:31:00.000-07:00

You've already considered how people and places on campus can help you succeed in college, and you've considered how you yourself can help you succeed, now think about how people, places and things off campus can help you succeed in college. Write a paragraph explaining how one such person, place or thing can help you succeed in college.

Brand New Semester Around the Corner

2007-01-13T09:29:00.000-07:00

With the start of the Spring 2007 Semester just around the corner, it's time to get back to blogging. This blog, formerly known as Professor Cooper's Freshman Composition blog is now Professor Cooper's Fundamentals of Writing blog. This blog will still provide class news, updates and content for my students, but now my students are in the ENG071 course instead of the ENG101 course. So this serves as a notice to present students that content prior to January 2007 does not pertain to the present course, so if you find yourself reading a post from 2006, enjoy, but it's probably not relevant to what we are doing now. With that said, welcome to the new semester and good luck.

Journal #31: Personal Freedoms & Libertarianism

2006-11-12T15:02:00.000-07:00

Libertarianism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Libertarianism is a political philosophy advocating that individuals should be free to do whatever they wish with their person or property, as long as they do not infringe on the same liberty of others. There are two types of libertarians. One type holds as a fundamental maxim that all human interaction should be voluntary and consensual. They maintain that the initiation of force against another person or his property, with "force" meaning the use of physical force, the threat of it, or the commission of fraud against someone who has not initiated physical force, threat, or fraud, is a violation of that principle (many of these are individualist anarchists or anarcho-capitalists). The other type comes from a consequentialist or utilitarian standpoint. Instead of having moral prohibitions against initiation of force, these support a limited government that engages in the minimum amount of initiatory force (such as levying taxes to provide some public goods such as defense and roads, as well as some minimal regulation), because they believe it to be necessary to ensure maximum individual freedom (these are minarchists). Libertarians do not oppose force used in response to initiatory aggressions such as violence, fraud or trespassing. Libertarians favor an ethic of self-responsibility and strongly oppose the welfare state, because they believe forcing someone to provide aid to others is ethically wrong, ultimately counter-productive, or both. Libertarians also strongly oppose conscription because they believe no one should be forced to fight a war they don't support (and, ideally, many would like it to be left to individual decision as to which war, if any, to fund).

Do you agree or disagree with the political philosophy of libertarianism? If you agree, which type of libertarianism do you agree with? Explain your answer.

A Little Clarification on Assn. #5

2006-11-08T19:59:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,
I want to make sure that everyone is clear about how to do Assignment #5: Personal Reflection for Essay #2 or Essay #3. Initially I said it was a personal reflection on Essay #3 only. That is incorrect. We need a personal reflection on peer review for our final exam portfolio:

Assessment #5: Use feedback obtained from peer review, instructor comments and/or other resources to revise writing. Personal Reflection on the peer review process and rewrite process for your essay. (Use Assignment #5 Only)

Both essays have a peer review or instructor review element, so you can choose either. So for Assignment #5, we will write this assessment based on peer reviews and/or instructor comments provided to you. Review the comments made by me on your essay #2 and base your reflection on those comments or use the comments provided during the group peer review you are currently working on.

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT ASSIGNMENT #5

This time you will assess your writing in Essay #2 or Essay #3 focusing on: the peer review/instructor review process. Respond to the issues below basing the majority of your comments on feedback obtained from peers or the instructor.

Part of becoming the best writer you can be is to spend some focused time thinking critically about a finished written product. Examining how your creative writing process occurred, what made the writing most effective, what skills still need to be mastered, and how the writing assignment helped you grow as a writer are all ways to think about your writing and the progress you are making as a writer.

Then, putting those thoughts down in writing is the next step and is a way of committing to your growth as a writer, a record for you to look back on before the next writing project is ready for completion. The following guidelines will help you write an assessment that reinforces your writing goals:

The assessment will have an introductory paragraph that delivers an overall assessment of the completed essay.
Body Paragraph 1 will discuss those factors in the essay which were successful. Praise yourself for what you have done well.
Body Paragraph 2 will discuss those factors/skills in the essay which are still in need of improvement. What still needs work? What would you have improved had you had more time?
Body Paragraph 3 will detail any learning that occurred for you as you wrote the assigned essay. This can be learning about writing, about yourself as a writer, about yourself as a person, about the world around you. . . any learning is eligible. Be specific.
The assessment will close with a brief summary of your findings.
The entire assessment writing will follow standard MLA format for essay assignments (double spaced, 12 point font, formal heading, etc.)

Essay #2 Rewrite Instructions

2006-11-08T08:11:00.000-07:00

Wednesday's Class is Online

2006-11-07T20:28:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to be able to make the 9am class on Wednesday, so I've put your class activities online. I didn't want to leave the 12pm class out of all the fun, so you too can participate online tomorrow. We were going to discuss rewrites for Essay #2 in class Wednesday, so I've created an audio message (podcast) about doing rewrites. The podcast will be available in Blackboard tomorrow. You will need to listen to the podcast at some point tomorrow. Not Thursday or Friday, but Wednesday.

Your essays will be posted in Blackboard. To view them, you will need to click on the Grades/Tools button on the left and then click on My Grades. Click on your score for Essay #2 to retrieve your graded essay. There should be an attachment under the instructor's comment box. I saved the essays as .pdf files so you can see all the comments.

Listen to the instructions for the rewrites in the podcast. Remember, if your score is a D or below, you MUST see a writing tutor before you can submit a rewrite. Use the class time to go make your appointments. You can also use class time to peer review the essays in your group for Essay #3.

There is one change for Assignment #5 that needs to be noted. Your personal reflection assignment is NOT to be written on Essay #3. This assignment needs to be a personal reflection on the rewrite process, so I want for you to write your reflection after you have reviewed my comments on your Essay #2. I explain this also in the podcast. If you have already written a personal reflection for Essay #3, you can save that one for Unit IV.

REMINDERS:

Group Peer Reviews need to be completed by Thursday.
Rewrites for Essay #3 need to be completed and uploaded by midnight Sunday.
All Unit III activities need to be completed by midnight Sunday.

Handbook Activities
Journals
Assignment #5 (Personal Reflection on Essay #2)

Unit III Quiz will be on Monday, so review your research chapters.

Group Peer Editing This Week

2006-11-06T19:59:00.000-07:00

Now that you have finished a draft of your rhetorical analysis essay, it is time to review it with your peers. Go to your Group area in Blackboard to download and read your group member's essays. Then you will add comments and feedback about their work in your group's discussion forum. Please have your comments completed by Thursday, giving everyone plenty of time to rewrite the essay. Final drafts of essay #3 are due by midnight Sunday, November 12th.

You must participate in the group peer editing process if you want a chance to do a rewrite for essay #3. You must comment on:

two of the nine requirements for the essay
thesis and support of the thesis
overall structure of the essay

If you did not submit your essay on time (midnight last Sunday), you will not be able to participate in the rewrite process. Your essay is now late and will be docked 10% for each day it is late. If you wait until Sunday, November 12th to submit a late essay, it will only be worth 50%.

I suggest that you all visit the Writing Center to have your essay reviewed by a writing instructor. This is an important essay, and you want to do your best.

Essay #3: Rhetorical Analysis Due

2006-11-05T13:24:00.000-07:00

Your essay #3: rhetorical analysis is due by midnight tonight. You will need to email your essay to me as an attachment. You can just reply to this email if you haven't submitted it already. Remember, late essays will not be eligible for rewrites, so if you want a chance to rewrite this essay, submit it by midnight.

Your essay should be a rhetorical analysis of a periodical article on the unit topic: alternative lifestyles. Your periodical article must come from a database and not from the internet. If you follow the directions in Blackboard for how to put together your analysis, you should be okay. The handout is very thorough.

Journal #24: Alternative Lifestyles II

2006-10-23T07:58:00.000-07:00

Homosexuality and Child Sexual Abuse:

Science, Religion, and the Slippery Slope

Read the above article by Mark E. Pietrzyk (Click blue text) and then answer one of the following questions:

What is the writer's stance, or attitude toward the subject?
What is the writer's voice?
What assumptions does the writer seem to be making about the audience?
What is the writer's primary purpose?
How does the writer develop ideas?
Does the text appeal to emotions?
Is the text fair?
Is the evidence strong?
Is the text effective?

No more than 5 people can answer any one questions, so be sure to read the responses before you comment. Also, be sure to make it clear which question you are answering. Elaborate on your response and give your own evidence.

Inductive and Deductive Reasoning

2006-10-18T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today's class focused on critically reading and analyzing texts. We revisted some material from Chapter 4 in our textbooks, specifically pages 28-34. We reviewed inductive and deductive reasoning.

Deductive reasoning refers to the process of concluding that something must be true because it is a special case of a general principle that is known to be true. For example, if you know the general principle that the sum of the angles in any triangle is always 180 degrees, and you have a particular triangle in mind, you can then conclude that the sum of the angles in your triangle is 180 degrees. Inductive reasoning is the process of reasoning that a general principle is true because the special cases you've seen are true. For example, if all the people you've ever met from a particular town have been very strange, you might then say "all the residents of this town are strange". That is inductive reasoning: constructing a general principle from special cases. It goes in the opposite direction from deductive reasoning (SparkNotes).

We also discussed the two common methods to analyze an argument and evaluate its effectiveness:

concentrate on the type of reasoning the writer is using and
question the logical relation of a writer's claim, grounds, and warrants, using the Toulmin method.

There are several common logical fallacies in this chapter that you will need to learn (pp. 33-34). I recommend making flash cards to help with this process. I posted the handouts from today's class in the Unit III Readings folder in Blackboard. You are to read the two articles on the Prop. 107 issue and analyze each argument and evaluate its effectiveness. Also point out any fallacy each article might have committed. Write your comments on the articles and bring to class on Friday. You do not need to write up anything formal, just annotate in the margins of the articles.

Articles to Read on Blackboard:

	Yes Vote on Prop 107 Yes Vote on Prop 107.doc (30 Kb) Leo Godzich Writes Editorial Urging "Yes" Vote on Proposition 107
	Opposition to Prop 107 Opposition to Prop 107.doc (33 Kb) Attorney Coalition in Maricopa County Voice Opposition to Prop 107 - the So-Called "Protect Marriage" Amendment

Do You Know: Honorific and Pejorative?

2006-10-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

Got questions? Get answers! Learn to look things things up. It is expected of you as a college student.
Honorific

An honorific is a word or expression that conveys esteem or respect and is used in addressing or referring to a person. "Honorific" may refer broadly to the style of language or particular words used, or, as in this article, to specific words used to convey honor to one perceived as a social superior. Sometimes the term is used not quite correctly to refer to a title of honour (honorary title.)

Honorifics are usually placed immediately before or after the name of the subject. They may also be used to denote occupation, such as "Doctor", "Coach", "Father" (for a priest), or "Professor". Some honorifics can act as complete replacements for a name, as in "sir" or "ma'am". Subordinates will often use honorifics as punctuation before asking a superior a question or after responding to an order, "Yes, sir".

"honorific." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 2005. Answers.com 18 Oct. 2006. http://www.answers.com/topic/honorific

Pejorative
A word or phrase is pejorative if it implies contempt or disapproval. The adjective pejorative is synonymous with derogatory and dyslogistic (noun: dyslogism) (antonyms: meliorative, eulogistic, noun eulogism). Dyslogisms such as "pea-brain" and "bottom-feeder" are words and phrases essentially pejorative by their nature. Although pejorative (adj.) means much the same thing as disparaging, the latter term may be applied to a look or gesture as well as to — in the evocative language of gesture, it may not be easy to distinguish a disparaging gesture from a dismissive or merely skeptical one, however.

Pejorative expressions that are not dyslogisms may also be used in a non-pejorative way, however, and determining the intent of the speaker is problematic — as with any implied meaning. Conversely, a common rhetorical ploy is to apply "pejorative" to a factual descriptor — as "toxic" might be applied to poison mdash; and then decry it as "pejorative" to suit the agenda of those defending the substance as harmless.

Not every breath of criticism is pejorative.

"pejorative." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 2005. Answers.com 18 Oct. 2006. http://www.answers.com/topic/pejorative

Journal #21: Alternative Lifestyles

2006-10-16T08:08:00.000-07:00

Read the two definition articles on alternative lifestyles in the Week 9 folder in Blackboard. In your own words define alternative lifestyles and give a few examples. If you disagree with someones definition or examples, respond to that telling why you disagree.

Unit II Quiz Tomorrow

2006-10-12T10:45:00.000-07:00

The Unit II Quiz is tomorrow. Remember you must be present to take the quiz and there are no make-ups, so don't be absent on Friday. Unit II Quiz will include chapters 4-8, 10 & 12. It will also include: comparison/contrast, cause/effect essays, and a few random rhetorical techniques and rhetorical analysis questions.

The best way to study would be to review the Unit I Quiz, review the chapters listed above, and read your handouts on comparison/contrast, cause/effect and rhetorical techniques and more on rhetorical analysis.

Wiki is Coming Along Nicely

2006-10-12T10:24:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to all of you who were successful in updating your portfolio page on the ENG101 course wiki. Those of you who participated will receive credit for attendance and 5 bonus points on your next Unit II quiz tomorrow. Those of you who did not participate will be marked absent.

I updated the portfolio assessment final exam information on the course wiki and on Blackboard, so you will all better understand the importance of this project. I have posted the information in this journal post as well. This portfolio assessment on the wiki is worth 150 points -15% of your final grade, so it is very important that you learn how to edit the wiki properly. Also, being that this is part of a final exam for a Freshman Composition course, make sure that the information you post is appropriate for the indended audience. That means all the cartoon videos need to go. You may post a photo of something you like to represent you if you choose not to use a photo of yourself, but you only need one photo. If you want to share your other interests, do that on a MySpace page, not on your final exam portfolio.

We will continue to have opportunities to update the portfolios and practice on the wiki, but for the most part it is up to you to find time to complete your final exam by the due date in December. Don't wait until the last minute to get started on this project. You should be doing a little at a time. I will continue to provide screencasts with each step.

Information on Portfolio Assessment (Final Exam = 15%)

Your Writing Portfolio on this wiki is your final exam in this course and will be worth 150 points (15% of your grade). Any one item missing from the portfolio will cause the portfolio to be incomplete and will be docked 25 points for each missing or incomplete assessment. Your portfolio must be complete in order for you to recieve an accurate grade of your compentency in this course.

Below is a list of the MCCCD official course competencies for the ENG101 First Year Composition course. Our goal this semester is to satisfy these seven competencies. In order to show that you have reached this goal, you will keep an electronic portfolio where you will provide examples of your work that demonstrate your competence. You will also be required to write several personal reflections on your work. What follows are the guidelines for the electronic portfolios.

MCCCD Official Course Competencies:

ENG101 20056-99999 First-Year Composition

Analyze specific rhetorical contexts, including circumstance, purpose, topic, audience, and writer, as well as the writing's ethical, political, and cultural implications.
Organize writing to support a central idea through unity, coherence, and logical development appropriate to a specific writing context.
Use appropriate conventions in writing, including consistent voice, tone, diction, grammar, and mechanics.
Summarize, paraphrase and quote from sources to maintain academic integrity and to develop and support one's own ideas.
Use feedback obtained from peer review, instructor comments and/or other resources to revise writing.
Assess one's own writing strengths and identify strategies for improvement through instructor conference, portfolio review, written evaluation, and/or other methods.
Generate, format, and edit writing using appropriate technologies.

Assignments for Assessment:

Assessment #1:

Analyze specific rhetorical contexts, including circumstance, purpose, topic, audience, and writer, as well as the writing's ethical, political, and cultural implications.
HOW? Doing a Rhetorical Analysis of a Text (Use Essay #3/Assignments 1, 3, or 5)

Assessment #2:

Organize writing to support a central idea through unity, coherence, and logical development appropriate to a specific writing context.
HOW? Writing an expository essay, either illustration/reflection, comparison/contrast, cause and effect, definition or argumentative. ( Use Essay #1 or 2)
Self reflection piece (Use Assignments 2 or 4)

Asssessment #3:

Use appropriate conventions in writing, including consistent voice, tone, diction, grammar, and mechanics.

HOW? Writing an expository essay, either illustration/reflection, comparison/contrast, cause and effect, definition or argumentative. (Use Essay #1 or 2).
Self Reflection piece. (Use Assignments 2 or 4)

Assessment #4:

Summarize, paraphrase and quote from sources to maintain academic integrity and to develop and support one's own ideas.
HOW? Write an argumentative position paper on an issue from the unit theme. Essay is an extended documented essay using either MLA or APA style of documentation. (Use Essay #4)

Assessment #5:

Use feedback obtained from peer review, instructor comments and/or other resources to revise writing.
HOW? Peer Review Essay #1 and #2. Rewrite your Essay #1 and #2 after your group members have reviewed the essay and you have met with me for your conference. (Use Essay #1 or #2)
Personal Reflection on the peer review process and rewrite process for your essay. (Use Assignment 2 or 4)

Assessment #6:

Assess one's own writing strengths and identify strategies for improvement through instructor conference, portfolio review, written evaluation, and/or other methods.
HOW? Final Personal Reflection/Assessment written after all portfolio assessments have been submitted to the wiki. Part of the final exam. Will be assigned and completed in the last week of the semester.

Assessment #7:

Generate, format, and edit writing using appropriate technologies.
Completion of the Wiki Portfolio and peer reviews using Exchange and WetPaint wiki.

Wednesday Class is Online

2006-10-10T11:17:00.000-07:00

Wednesday Class is online and you must complete the following activities to get credit for attendance Wednesday. You do not need to show up to class, and you can do the activities any time on Wednesday, as long as they are completed on Wednesday. I created a few screencasts to help you with the process. You can view them by clicking on the links below.

We will begin preparing our wiki portfolios for our final exam assessment. There are 7 assessments that need to be demonstrated, and you will present those on the ENG101 Wiki. First, you must set up your wiki page, and then you will post your first essay. To do this, follow the instructions below. Also, you will need to complete journal #20 on Wednesday. The journal prompt is: After having played with the class wiki, what are your first impressions of this tool. Was it easy or difficult for you? Can you think of other creative ways to use this tool? Go to your Blogger Beta Blog to post your response.

Instructions for how to complete your portfolio assessment.

Step 1:

* Log in to the course wiki. You should have received an invitation via email. Check your email for that invitation.
* Click on Student Portfolios and then choose your name from the list. View Screencast.
* Edit your page to include your name, a photo, and a short paragraph about you. No personal information. Photo must be 150x150. If you don't know how to resize, email the photo to me.
* Create a page for your first essay. Then upload the essay. View Screencast.
* Create a link from your portfolio page to the newly uploaded essay page.

This step must be completed on Wednesday, October 10th. Written instructions and screencasts will be available on Wednesday.

Reminders:

Don't forget the Unit II quiz on Friday
Rewrites for Essay #1 are due on Wednesday by midnight
Assn. #4: Personal Reflection is due on Sunday. Remember this time you will assess your writing in Essay #2 focusing on: Use of appropriate conventions in writing, including consistent voice, tone, diction, grammar, and mechanics.

Monday Mayhem

2006-10-09T18:44:00.000-07:00

Click on the player above to listen to a brief overview of what we did in class today. Announcements for Monday:

Essay #2 was due last Sunday, so get it in as soon as possible if you haven't already done so.
Rewrites for Essay #1 are due on Wednesday. I moved the date to Wednesday to give you more time. You're welcome.
Wednesday's class this week will be online. You will not need to come to the classroom. You will need to access Blackboard on Wednesday from home or High Tech centers and complete the activities assigned. They must be completed on Wednesday.
Unit II Quiz will be on Friday.

We will begin work on our writing portfolios for our final exam assessment this week. I posted a link to the wiki site in this post. You will get an invitation to join the site in a future email. Just follow the directions to get registered. I previewed the wiki in class today. More instructions are coming.

Essay Satisfaction

2006-10-06T14:08:00.000-07:00

That is what we will get with our next essay submission: satisfaction. I think you are all catching on now, and I anticipate getting a much improved essay this time around. Don't forget essay #2 on environmental concerns is due by midnight on Sunday. You can upload the essay in the essay #2 folder in Blackboard. Click the Essay tab to get there. We looked at few outlines today in class. Most looked okay, but there is some work needed. You must submit a copy of your outline with your essay. You will also need a Rhetorical Situation cover page as well. The Rhetorical Situation cover page will discuss: writer, audience, topic, purpose and context.

Also, rewrites for essay #1 will be due next Wednesday, so you have a few more days to make appointments with the writing center if you need to. Let's do a good job on this. This will determine how well you do in this class. We only do four essays, and you have an opportunity to get A's on all of them. Let's do it.