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Material Type: Full Course, Textbook
Composition 2 is an expository writing course requiring more advanced writing skills than Composition 1, yet reviewing and incorporating some of the same skills. This course teaches research skills by emphasizing the development of advanced analytical/critical reading skills, proficiency in investigative research, and the writing of persuasive prose including documented and researched argumentative essays. A major component of this course will be an emphasis on the research process and information literacy.
Material Type: Full Course, Textbook
Welcome to Composition II.To begin, check out the SYLLABUS. It explains all of the goals, requirements and policies for the course, as well as provides a detailed course calendar of readings, activities and assignments. In Comp II we will read poems and stories and then you will be writing essays about the literature we read. There is a link where you can review literary terms and then take a quiz to test your knowledge. You can take the quiz as many times as you like. In literature, the meaning is not explicitly stated. (That's what essays are for :). With literature there are multiple interpretations of what a story or poem means. You can have any opinion you wish; you just need to have reasons and use evidence from the text to support/prove/illustrate your points. It is through the process of questioning and writing that you will come up with deeper ideas than you would if you merely read the story. It is my hope that you enjoy the stories and poems we will read, and also enjoy the process of analyzing and writing.This first week you will read "Bird by Bird" by Annie Lamott and consider your own writing process. Many of her ideas about prewriting, writing and revising will be helpful to you in the writing you do for this course. Then you will read and write about the short story "A&P" by John Updike.
Material Type: Module
This week you will continue doing research, as needed, and also take the feedback you received during conferences and make revisions to your essay. We will also begin our Drama unit. You can read about the elements of drama and then watch a performance of Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Cask of Amontillado.” Research:Review the tutorial link (if you need to) for how to access the library database. Keep researching, reading, writing, using the research worksheet.Revision:When revising you want to make sure that you are developing your ideas. Push your thinking by asking yourself so what? who cares? why does this matter. So when you provide a quote from the poem, take the time to explain what you see the line to mean. Similarly, when you quote from one of your sources, also explain in your own words what the critic is saying, what you think it means. Remember to always keep your thesis in sight. How does what you are saying in each paragraph connect to your thesis?Read your paper aloud with a pen in hand. Make sure ideas are clear; that one idea flows to the next; that you are providing textual evidence for points you make (quotes). There is a self-edit worksheet to help you with revisions.
Material Type: Module
This week you will read the short story “Greasy Lake” by T.C. Boyle. You will then write a short paper (500 words) about one of the stories you read. There will be a prompt with topic choices. Writing a short paper will help us focus on the intro, body paragraph and conclusion. Each paragraph has special conventions. You can view the Powerpoint and other links provided in this week's unit for review of the components of writing an argument essay about a work of literature.Let’s practice what Annie Lamott discusses with great humor about the writing process in "Bird by Bird." She outlines a way to get started drafting (aka writing a $hit#y first draft) in order to just get ideas down, then writing the up draft…fixing it up for clarity, support and development of ideas, and then finally the dental draft: fixing the small details like spelling, grammar and formatting.There is a link for using quotes. On your second revision you can double check that the quote you use is framed and cited correctly. You want to pick quotes where you can show your analysis. Develop the quote by explaining its significance and meaning in your own words and showing how it advances your main point (thesis).There is also a link for MLA formatting. Formatting is part of the dental draft, the fine tuning after you have drafted and revised for the big ideas, development and support.
Material Type: Module
This we will continue our DRAMA unit and view a music video by Common called "Testify." You'll see a link for applying critical lenses (a skill you practiced at the beginning of the semester when we read "The Yellow Wallpaper) that we'll review.The main objectives for this week are to learn about a new genre, and review and practice the analytical skills we've been using this semester. Watch the video once. Then review the link about critical perspectives/lenses. Watch the videos again. Can you apply a lens and see something more in the video that you did not see the first time? In this week’s journal you will apply a lens. Find a fresh perspective with which to analyze the video.So that you can start thinking ahead to our final writing assignment, the guidelines for Essay 4 are posted at the end of this week's unit.
Material Type: Module
SPRING BREAKYou can continue researching your poem and poet. This week there is also an extra credit option.**EXTRA CREDIT ASSIGNMENTRead "Love & Other Catastrophes" and then look at your own playlist. Can you tell a story using the titles of the songs from your playlist? This is a fun assignment and is optional. Post poem for extra credit.
Material Type: Module
This week we will learn about additional ways in which we can analyze a text. A work can be considered for its portrayal of gender, class, culture. Check out the link: “Read about Critical Approaches in Literature.” It gives us another way to see the story. By considering how gender is portrayed, for example, we are using a specific lens (feminist) with which to view the text. Try using this lens when reading “The Yellow Wallpaper” or “The Story of an Hour.”There will be a short quiz on “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Then you will write in your journal and apply a lens.Find a relaxing place to read this week's stories. "The Story of an Hour" is very short but excellent. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is longer but this is most student's favorite story. Remember to annotate and practice close reading. Enjoy reading some great literature!
Material Type: Module
This is the week you “put it all together” and begin outlining and drafting your research paper. You will use the biographical information you gathered on your poet, the 3rd Essay that you wrote from the Writing in the Zones exercise, and your research from the library database (literary criticism on your chosen poem). Remember “Bird by Bird” and give yourself permission to write a $#iTty! first draft. Use the writing process to write down your ideas. Once you have ideas in front of you then you can make revisions.Sometimes it is helpful to look at a sample so you have a clear idea of how all of these parts come together. I have posted a sample research paper. Check out the thesis, the way the student incorporates sources of biographical information, historical information as well as literary criticism (indicated by citations). Don’t forget to also quote from your poem to show what lines you are looking at in your analysis!!To help you with writing this paper there are two worksheets: 1/the research worksheet that you can print off and use for each literary criticism source. This worksheet will help you build paragraphs as you analyze what scholars are saying about this poem. 2/the outline worksheet will help you organize your ideas.Once you have a rough outline (it can be bullets) and a rough draft and a works cited page, you will submit these parts, in that order and in one word document. Be sure to check out the link Owl.English.Purdue for how to create complete citations for a works cited page. (You can cut and paste these citations from the databases…check out the toolbars on the side of the databases that indicate citations and choose MLA).You will also sign up for next week’s conferences where I will meet with you to go over your research paper outline/draft/works cited page. This is an informal chat and is meant to be helpful. If your paper is missing anything or veering off course, I can help you get on track. I can also answer any questions you may have.
Material Type: Module
This week you write Essay 2. It will be a Compare/Contrast essay, a common assignment, but sometimes a tricky form. In order to help you better understand how comparing and contrasting two things can help you use one as a lens to better see the other, you will first view a Powerpoint about comparing and contrasting two sculptures about love. Be sure to practice writing c/c thesis statements as outlined in the PPT.Then check out the list of prompts for the various texts we've read that share a similar theme. Your mini-essay can be about marriage, or coming of age, for example. I will leave it up to you; but you will compare two texts and make a claim. Then illustrate how that claim is true by quoting from the texts. For this essay, you will freewrite until you can make a claim and come up with reasons why you believe your claim is true. Then hunt for quotes to support your claim. Now you will have an outline. With an outline you can focus on the essential elements of an essay: thesis, support, evidence. Once you have these, you have the structure of your essay and will be better able to move forward advancing an argument and not lapsing into plot summary.There is a classic essay on the writing process called "The Maker's Eye" by Donald Murray. You can read this before or after you create a draft of Essay 2, but definitely before you begin revising as Murray has many good suggestions that you can apply when revising this essay.Make sure you view the Powerpoint for how to write a compare contrast thesis. Do not write a thesis that says "there are many similarities and some differences between ____ and _____."" Look closely at slide #'s 6,7 and 8 for drafting your thesis.Use the self-edit worksheet for final revisions.
Material Type: Module
Sick of doing "article reviews", "book reviews", "short story reviews"?Look at it from a different angle: a literary review is only one of many faces that a review can have. You can do daily reviews on your own mood swings, or manga books, or subway stations.You don't even have to make it structured (unless later on you're planning to have an hours-long argument with someone scrupulous over whether your work is a review or a reflection, but we'll get to that).A review, in oral, written or any recorded form is a great way to add a little something to an ongoing conversation about any subject. If you want to make a good impression, you can call it "a considerable contribution to an existing discourse". Let's start with the most basic typology.Narrative review - as you can guess from the word "narrative", it's rather unstructured. It tends to answer the questions like "why", "how", "who", "what was the purpose", "what do we know so far" etc. The number of sources in a narrative review Systematic literature review - you can find it in dissertations and research articles. Usually it makes up a complete chapter of the work and the goal is to look through what the researchers had to say on that matter before. Has the object been thoroughly researched before - or is there something new to say? Were the results controversial; hence, in need of more evidence?Review (a.k.a literary review, unstructured review, free-writing, feedback, opinion) - is the kind of thing you've got used to starting from school, ending with Yelp.So if you're googling "something + review", you're most likely to land on the last of the three (plain "review"). It's fairly unstructured and intentionally subjective. Although, we should give online feedback forms and websites like Yelp and Omni some credit - they're making the Internet used to structuring users' impressions in a certain way. For instance, there's usually a date - a date when a review was made, or when the product was purchased. There's also the name of the facility or seller, and (more often than not) a location. Besides that, these forms and websites offer to rate one's overall experience star-wise, thus giving the whole feedback an emotional vector. You can't expect a long description of how good the facility was from a three-star feedback, can you?When you're googling something like "gaining muscle in two months scientific evidence", the chances are high that you'll land on a narrative review or a systematic review, depending on whether you're using google.com or scholar.google.com. Ideally, Google Scholar is a target search engine for objective research-based unbiased information (or at least as unbiased as it can get for a wide audience). But if you're new to a subject, a narrative review found on google.com isn't the worst thing to read. Just remember to stay critical.Do's and Don'tsDo your research. Regardless of the kind of review you're reading or writing, spend a minute or two researching it. It's called "eliminating the human factor".Do question the validity. Why did you/author come to these conclusions? What was the background? What was the context? Did anyone ever try to repeat that?Don't put all your hopes and trust on the first review you're reading. Even if it's a structured review found in an established academic journal. The first thing you've read on the subject is excellent for coordinating you in the field, but not enough to get yourself committed to one solid point of view.Don't act subjective on purpose. Even if it's an eBay feedback. Always try to go for a bigger picture - this is what reviews have been created for after all!
Material Type: Module
View sample research paper and note the clear thesis statement, the topic sentences that advance it and the use of quotes from the poem and the literary criticism (as well as biographical and historical sources) to support points being made.
Material Type: Case Study
This slideshow is on the important components of college level synthesis writing with a thesis statement. It also goes over three part source integration to help students incorporate quotes in a thoughtful, proper way.
Material Type: Diagram/Illustration
This source consists of an open textbook organized around making students successful writers. Topics include higher order concerns, such as the writing process and lower order concerns, such as advice on grammar and word choice.
Material Type: Textbook
Instructions to students on how to build an assessment to check their topic sentences.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This resource gives students a way to approach reading and responding to nonfiction without requiring them to write an essay. It is relatively formulaic but builds skills through scaffolding concepts and encouraging students to develop the confidence necessary to start reading critically and making arguments about the nonfiction they read.
Material Type: Assessment, Homework/Assignment, Teaching/Learning Strategy
This resource gives students a way to approach reading and responding to nonfiction without requiring them to write an essay. It is relatively formulaic but builds skills through scaffolding concepts and encouraging students to develop the confidence necessary to start reading critically and making arguments about the nonfiction they read.
Material Type: Assessment, Homework/Assignment, Teaching/Learning Strategy
This resource gives students a way to approach reading and responding to nonfiction without requiring them to write an essay. It is relatively formulaic but builds skills through scaffolding concepts and encouraging students to develop the confidence necessary to start reading critically and making arguments about the nonfiction they read.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment, Homework/Assignment, Teaching/Learning Strategy
Composition I focuses on principles of writing, critical reading and essay composition using rhetorical styles common in college-level writing (narrative, example/illustration, compare/contrast, cause-and-effect, argument).
Material Type: Full Course, Textbook
This resource is to introduce the research process, how to find relevant information, and how to compile a varied source list for your argumentative essay. The second portion focuses on thesis statement/claim crafting, outlining, introductions and conclusion drafting.
Material Type: Assessment, Full Course, Homework/Assignment, Lecture, Lesson Plan, Reading
