Shakespeare
was called The
Upstart Crow as a young writer.
Image ©1962 and used with the kind permission of The Upstart
Crow Theatre Company.Shakespeare
was called The
Upstart Crow as a young writer.
Image ©1962 and used with the kind permission of The Upstart
Crow Theatre Company.
En 11 Composition (Web)
Dr. Richard Regan
Donnarumma Hall 103
Fairfield University
rjregan@fair1.fairfield.edu
203-254-4000 ext. 2794
This on-line course will begin on Monday, June 3. We will work
from this web page for our course structure, and we will also use a
discussion list and a chat room using WebCT. Students need internet
access and an email account, as well as a copy of Microsoft Word
which we will use to exchange papers as email attachments. We can
practice the exchange of files as soon as students contact the
professor at the beginning of the course. WebCT accounts and log-in
passwords will arrive by email. I am also available for consultation
in my campus office by arrangement.
The course is divided into four modules, for four types of writing:
narration, exposition, description, and persuasion. This organization
is reflected in the textbook, Patterns for a Purpose, 2nd
edition (1999), ed. Clouse (McGraw-Hill), available in the bookstore.
For each type of essay, we will develop several rewrites in our
e-mail conversations. The grade for the course will be the average
grade on the final versions of the four essays, on the assumption
that class members also participate in posting and replying to topics
in WebCT.
Module 1 - Narration -
beginning June 3
Module 2 - Exposition - beginning June 17
Module 3 - Description - beginning July 1
Module 4 - Persuasion - beginning July 15
The course ends on July 30. These dates are meant as a guideline for your work. Since this is an on-line course, you will work at your own pace within the time frame of the course, and versions of any essay may be submitted at any time.
Aim: to write a narrative essay of 3-4 pages
Read the inside covers of Patterns for a Purpose, which describe Narration, Description, and six different kinds of Exposition. Then read pp. 1-10 as a general introduction. Then read pp. 132-166, which contain some ideas about narrative writing as well as several sample essays.
Then try writing in Microsoft Word a brief narrative (take 20-30 minutes - length is not important) and email it to me (rjregan@fair1.fairfield.edu) as an attachment to your email message. Put a short title in the subject line of the email, like "Narrative mini-essay." You can try one of the following topics suggested in our book: p. 148 #5; p. 153 #3,4,5; pp.165-166 #2,3,5. Notice that these topics are related to the essays you have just read. This is an ungraded assignment, but you must do it to practice the form of narration. As you write these mini-essays, remember that you can turn any one into the main narrative essay.
As you think about the essays in the book, post a message on the Pipeline message board, giving your opinion of one or more of the essays. You can get hints from the questions which follow each essay if you like. Keep your comments short, since the message board only allows about four lines of text before it cuts you off. Put the essay author in the first few words of your posting, so it shows up on the message board. After you see the first post, which will probably be from me, you can either reply to that posting or create a new one. Please try to answer the postings of your fellow students and create a conversation. I will appear here and there in the postings, commenting and trying to stir up trouble. These posted messages are not graded, but you must participate.
After you hear back from me about your mini-essay, read pp. 167-194. Choose another topic for another mini-essay. I suggest the topics on p. 174 #2, 4, 5; p. 182 #2,4; p. 194 #2,3. Send your essay to me, then get to work on your main effort in the narrative essay. This essay should be 3-4 pages, and will be graded. There are some interesting topics on pp. 195-196. Put "Narration #1" in the subject line of the email. I will send back to you some suggested revisions, and we can have an extended email conversation. You may rewrite this essay as many times as you wish. Each new version will be graded, and the new grade will replace the former grade.
Paradigm Online Writing Assistant is an interesting collection of advice about several different types of writing. There is no magic formula which guarantees good writing, so it's helpful to hear different voices on the subject.
Guide to Grammar and Writing is a large site with enough parts to keep you busy all summer, and beyond. There are interesting sections on different kinds of writing, and grammar sections with interactive quizzes. I'm not one of those writing teachers who believes that grammar study helps make good writers. It probably makes good grammarians. When I went to high school and sudied Latin for the first time, I discovered that I finally understood the rules for English grammar because the early grammarians had based their rules for English on the rules for Latin. Times have changed somewhat, and most enlightened writers and editors now believe in the principle of usage, meaning that "correct" language is what the majority of educated speakers use, and it's always changing. The Word Detective is an up to date site with creative ideas about language.
Purdue University's Online Writing Lab is the most famous of its kind. Notice the section on Student/Teacher Handouts, which addresses many common problem areas in writing.
Aim: to write an expository essay of 3-4 pages
Notice that we're not following the order of the sections in Patterns for a Purpose. Notice also that I'm quoted on the back cover. I liked (okay, loved) this book at first sight because it's so clear and so helpful. I decided to rearrange the order for my presentation because exposition and persuasion are the two hardest modes of writing for most students. So I split them up, and put description in between. But you may discover that any one of these forms is the one (or two) that you find most appealing as a writer. One of the purposes of this course is to help you discover your writing strengths, and to develop them as you also work on forms you find more difficult.
Writing situations outside the classroom (or classnet, in this case) call for mixing several forms, as your book tells you frequently. Pay attention to those comments: pp.13, 132, 199, 263, 326-7, 386, 445, 502-3.
Read pp. 444-476 (Classification-Division), our first kind of expository writing. Send me a mini-essay based on one of these topics: pp. 456-457 #2, 6; p. 475 #4.
Post a message on one of these three classification/division essays.
Read pp. 261-295 (Process), our second expository form. Send me a mini-essay based on one of these topics: p. 276 #2; p. 282 #3, 4, 5; p. 287 #3; p. 295 #3.
Post a message on one of the process essays.
Read pp. 326-373 (Comparison-Contrast), our third form. Send me a mini-essay based on one of these topics: p. 341 #2, 3, 4; p. 347 #2, 5; p. 352 #2, 3; p. 364 #2, 3, 4; p. 372 #2, 4, 5.
Post a message on one of the comparison-contrast essays.
Post a message on one of the cause+effect essays.
There are some good topics on the following pages:
Classification-Division, p. 400-500.
Process, p. 322-323.
Comparison-Contrast, p. 381-383.
Cause+Effect, p. 441-442.
Choose a form and write a three to four page essay. Remember that you can develop one of your mini-essays into the major essay. Send the essay to me as an email attachment. Put "Exposition #1" in the subject line of the email. I will send back to you some suggested revisions, and we can have an extended email conversation. You may rewrite this essay as many times as you wish. Each new version will be graded, and the new grade will replace the former grade.
Linguists often divide speech into five levels of social interaction:
Oratorical language is the formal speech of important public occasions, like an inauguration.
Deliberative language is the speech of lectures, for example, where the speaker controls the occasion and doesn't expect questions or interruptions.
Consultative language is less formal, and the speaker expects some response from the listener(s).
Casual language is everyday speech, often full of slang, where the speaker pays little or no attention to language standards.
Intimate language is spoken in families, in couples, between siblings or close friends, and has private references or code which the outsider has little chance of understanding.
Aim: to write an descriptive essay of 3-4 pages
Read pp. 68-127. Send me a mini-essay based on one of these topics: pp. 85-86 #1, 2, 3, 4, 5; p. 92 #1, 2, 3, 4, 5; p. 99 #2, 3; p. 109 #2; pp. 117-118 # 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; p. 127 #2 4.
Post a message on one of the descriptive essays.
As you work on your descriptive essay, remember that the techniques you are encouraged to use, especially showing rather than telling, can be used to good effect in all your writing, including rewrites you are doing in this course. You can't write good description without being specific, which is good advice for everything you write.
Aim: to write a persuasive essay of 3-4 pages
This module is the most challenging for most students. Notice that Patterns for a Purpose deals with Argument and Persuasion, and makes a distinction between them. Argument generally refers to formal argument based on classic rhetorical strategies, and is a difficult form which I think needs its own course. Here we will study persuasive writing, which is the kind you are most likely to use in college and in your professional life, as well as in your life as a citizen.
First, we'll return to some basic strategies for organization: read pp. 11-24 on Topic and Thesis. We have not spent time on the thesis directly, but you have used a thesis approach in your expository essay. It's important to see the difference between a topic, which is a subject you wish to write about, and a thesis, which is your specific interpretation of the topic, your attempt to persuade the reader to agree with your point of view, or your call to action.
Read pp. 588-597 for two short essays with distinct points of view. Also start reading the editorial page of your local newspaper, or a major national newspaper.
Also read pp. 24-43 on Outlining and Drafting. Then read pp. 598-619 for different points of view on a controversial topic, affirmative action.
Now read pp.571-584 to learn some of the basic techniques of persuasive writing. Notice especially the top of p. 571, which discusses reasoning and logic (called logos, Greek for word), emotions (called pathos, Greek for feeling), and values and beliefs (related to the Greek ethos or ethical appeal). Ethos is a quality which a speaker or writer projects to persuade the audience to agree with him or her: expertise, personal experience, or any other quality the audience might find appealing.
If you wish to look at another example of persuasive writing, read pp. 623-30. This famous essay about free speech takes on another controversial topic.
I'm going to rule out the most famous controversial topics, since experience teaches me that even experts have great diffuculty with topics which are emotionally loaded. So please do not suggest capital punishment, euthanasia, abortion, affirmative action, or other loaded topics. You are looking for a topic which you have some familiarity with, something local, not national or global. If you become a famous editorial writer later in your career, you can tackle the impossible topics. Here more than anywhere else follow the classic advice: write about what you know. One student wrote successfully about how her local government needed reform in hiring policies after she observed during a summer job at Town Hall how personal favorites were promoted over competent job applicants.
If your topic requires you to present background material, like data or quotations, read the section on Quoting, Summarizing, and Documenting: pp. 677-95.
I'll get back to you with my opinion of the probability of success of your proposed essay. Then send me your persuasive essay, and we'll work on subsequent revision.
