Welcome! As you enter the room, please:

Sign in at the front of the room Pick up a playing card and index card

Make yourself a name-plate with whatever name you want me to try to remember.

English 105: Composition and Reading

Melissa GunbyApril Quarter 2011

Classroom Rules

Food and Drink Professional Behavior Heald College has a

policy of no food or drink in the classroom, other than bottled water. Please follow this policy.

Respect is the rule in my classroom. Please respect yourself, your classmates and your instructor.

Silence your cell phones.

Be awake and attentive during class times

Contact Information Melissa_gunby@heald.edu ( _ between

names) msgunby@gmail.com 530-508-6501 (message or text) mgunby.wikispaces.comPlease call, text,

or email if you will be late or miss class.

About meMelissa Gunby

BA English and BA History: Willamette University, 2002

MA English Composition: CSU Sacramento, 2008

I sometimes play the trumpet with the Woodland Community Band, when I’m not teaching on Tuesday nights.

I also teach at Woodland Community College and Solano College

I have a cat

I knit and crochet

Index Card Please give me the following information on

the index card: Your Name Your academic program here at Heald Phone numbers (please indicate home, cell/text) Your email (any and/or all)

Introductions Please introduce yourself to the class:

Name Program Why did you choose Heald What is something that you have done that you

think no one else in class has? If someone else has done this, you have to pick

something else until you find something.

What to Expect in this Class

Course requirements and assignments

Assignments

RequirementsPercentage Breakdown

Complete a minimum of 10 pages of formal writing: 5 out of class essays

Complete a minimum of 6 pages of informal writing: journals and in class writing

Read a minimum of 30 pages of college level text

Develop and use new vocabulary Apply rules of grammar and

mechanics while writing Give one oral presentation Prepare a final portfolio

Exams/Quizzes: 15% Projects/Assignments:

75% Participation: 10%

Ten pages of formal essay writing We will focus on developing five essays in this class

Narration Interview a Subject Description Compare/Contrast Cause/Effect

In developing these techniques we will investigate how they apply to the professional environment.

Each essay will be work-shopped in class. This means that you will be sharing your writing with your classmates. If there is something you don’t want your classmates to know, then you shouldn’t write about it.

These assignments need to be typed and follow MLA format.

Six pages of unstructured Writing In addition to the formal writing assignments,

you will be required to write informal assignments, from journal entries, to free-writing in class, to answering questions on supplemental readings.

These assignments do not need to be typed.

Thirty pages of college level reading Throughout this course we will be reading

several supplemental essays that will model the development we are focusing on (narrative, description, compare/contrast/, and cause/effect/causal analysis).

Sometimes you will read these assignments and complete a journal entry. Sometimes I will assign questions to answer. You should always be prepared to talk about the reading.

We will also occasionally do some reading in class.

Vocabulary development As a class, we will work on developing

vocabulary, through assigned words and activities.

Oral presentation Each student will complete a Problem and Solution essay that

you will present to the rest of the class. The presentation will be 3-5 minutes The presentation will communicate:

Description of the subject matter Why the subject was chosen Main point of the essay What you learned by examining the subject

Students who are listening will Provide feedback Ask a question of the presenter Take notes and prepare a summary of the presentation

Due July 1st.A handout will be given in a couple of weeks.

Final portfolio Project Each student will start to maintain a

professional portfolio as part of their Heald experience. For this class, you will develop a self-reflective portfolio.

It is very important that you do not throw anything from this class away.

There will be a handout for this activity later in the quarter.

This project is due on Friday July 1.

Quizzes and Exams

Quizzes Final Exam There will be

occasional quizzes on vocabulary and grammar

We will have an in class final exam on July 1.

Random Odds, Ends, and Policies Each week, I will provide students with an

agenda for the class, which outlines the activities and homework for the day.

Besides the assignments already discussed, there will be regular classroom discussion on the topics outlined on the syllabus for each week.

Each student is responsible for being prepared to engage in a thoughtful discussion on the topics presented, or for any activities planned.

Other Important DetailsPlagiarism and Late Work Classroom Rules Plagiarism will not be

tolerated. You can’t learn if you don’t do your own work.

Late work loses 10% per day late.

I will not accept late work by email

Journal entries and reading assignments will not be accepted late.

No food or drink. When/if I bring treats, please eat them outside.

Please turn off/silence your cell phones and take out/off your headphones

Okay, just one more thing Group work

While we won’t be doing any group presentations or projects in this class, I do value collaboration. As such, you will be spending a lot of time in groups doing various activities.

Each of you picked up a playing card when you came in. Please find the three other people who have the same number as you and sit together in a group.

Peer Response Groups This group is now your peer response group for the quarter.

You will share papers with each other.

This group should also be your resource if you miss class, don’t

understand an assignment, or need a study buddy.

Please spend a few minutes introducing yourselves.

Come up with a name for your group

You may want to exchange contact information with each other.

Review of Brainstorming Techniques

Or, how to get started in writing that essay

yes• Military

service• marriage

No• irresponsib

le• Impact on

school

Not sure

• Some can handle

• Family pressure?

Types of Brainstorming Early ideas (idea

generating): Listing Clustering Mapping Free-writing

Later ideas (near draft) Outlining Story boarding

Listing does just what it sounds like: it’s lists of ideas, whether pro/con, yes/no, agree/disagree, or just a random list of everything you can think of on a topic.Clustering is a way of

generating support around a central idea.

Should the national drinking age be lowered to 18?

Mapping is like clustering, only using more linear development

Freewriting is the process of writing on a topic for a set amount of time (2 minutes, 10 minutes) without stopping. The idea is to get ideas working without worrying about structure or grammar

Outlining takes the ideas you generated and begins to put them in a logical order without too much detail.

Storyboarding is like takingyour ideas and making a comic-stripor story board from them to play with organization

Topic The State of California is in a desperate

financial situation. Your task is to generate an argument for

balancing the budget. You must decide what funding gets cut and what funding stays.

Your task Everyone free write for 5 minutes on the topic

(ideas to resolve the budget situation). When the five minutes are up, get into your

peer response groups. Combine your ideas so that you can clearly

organize three working paragraphs. I’m just looking for general ideas for the

paragraph (topic sentence) and details. Hold on to these. We’re not done with this topic

yet.

Paragraph and Essay Structure

Paragraphs

Hey, what’s a paragraph anyway? A paragraph is a group of sentences (usually

between 6 and 10 though there is no rule) that focuses on a central idea.

Every paragraph must have a topic sentence. A topic sentence contains a topic (what the paragraph

is about) It also contains a controlling idea (what the writer

thinks about the topic) Every paragraph also needs a summary or

conclusion sentence. A summary or conclusion sentence should refer back

to the topic sentence and remind the reader of the main point.

PracticeStudents at another college wrote these topic sentences. Which ones are strong? Which ones are weak? Why? How would you revise the weaker ones to make them strong?

I would hate to have the age of drinking be legalized at 18.

  If the age limit for drinking would be lowered to 18

years old I believe that it would be a problem due to the fact that at 18 years old most of the teens aren’t responsible enough to handle alcohol.

Lowering the drinking age could cause teens to have many problems.

The only acceptable answer for being allowed to drink under the age of 21 is enlistment into the armed forces.

I am against lowering the national drinking age to 18.

The drinking age should not be lowered to 18 even though at 18 you are considered an adult.

Practice Take the topic sentence that the class chose as

the best one. Use whatever brainstorming method you would

like, and generate three supporting ideas for that topic sentence.

What examples could you use to support those ideas?

What would be the long term consequences of that action?

Take the ideas you’ve generated and write me a paragraph of 10-15 sentences.

Turn it in when you are finished.

“Yeah, yeah, I knew that.”

Essays

Essays Essays are made up of paragraphs An essay should have at least five

paragraphs The first paragraph should be the introduction,

which sets up the essay for the reader and leads to the thesis statement.

The middle paragraphs, or body paragraphs should be made up of points that support the thesis statement

The last pargraph, the conclusion, should remind the reader of the main point for the entire essay, which means tie back to the thesis statement.

Wait! What is this thesis you speak of? Like a topic sentence is the main idea of a

paragraph, the thesis statement is the main idea for an essay.

A thesis statement should present a subject for the essay, as well as a controlling idea or opinion that tells the reader what the essay will be about, without giving away all the details.

Practice Which of these is the stronger thesis

statement? A recent trend in law enforcement known as

“community policing” shows much promise in deterring criminal activity

“Community policing” is a recent trend in law enforcement used in many municipalities across the country.The first sentence establishes a

controlling idea (community policing) and gives the reader an idea of where the essay will go (it looks like it will deter criminal activity)

More practice! Because air pollution is of serious concern to

people in the world today, many countries have implemented a variety of plans to begin solving the problem.

So far, research suggests that zero-emissions vehicles are not a sensible solution to the problem of steadily rising air pollution.

The first example is too broad, and doesn’t really tell the reader anything that he or she doesn’t already know. The second is more specific and targets one idea.

And again… This paper presents the results of my

investigation into electronic surveillance in the workplace.

Though employers currently have a legal right to monitor workers’ e-mail and voice mail messages, this practice can have serious effects on employee morale.

Announcing your topic is never a good idea; the reader knows that it is your investigation since it is your essay, and in this announcement, it doesn’t tell the reader what the point of the essay actually is.

Last time (I promise) Video games are not as mindless as most

people think. Although they are widely ignored and derided

as mindlessly violent, video games are a form of popular art that deserves to be evaluated as seriously as television and film.

The second statement presents a clear argument and point of view that the writer will show throughout the essay.

Your Turn! Using the prompt we have been working with

this morning, create your own thesis statement that presents the argument you will make in your essay.

When you are finished, trade thesis statements with the person sitting next to you and answer the following questions about their thesis statement: What is the central idea? What is the purpose? Can you tell what the essay will be about? If not,

can you give advice to your partner on what to make stronger?

And finally…. Your last task for today is to write me an

essay. Please see the handout I have given you.

If you finish before the end of the class period, please sit quietly and begin the homework for this week. If you leave early, you will be marked as such on the attendance.

Homework, etcMelissa Gunby

530-508-6501

msgunby@gmail.com

melissa_gunby@heald.edu

mgunby.wikispaces.com

Read: Anne Lamott “Shitty First Drafts” (handout)

Read: Peter Elbow “Freewriting” (handout).

Read: Chapter 2 (pgs 31-46) in the textbook.