EWRT1A-62: essay 3 due dates

Okay, so the first draft of essay 3 is now due Monday, August 3rd. We'll be doing a peer review of the drafts then. The final draft is due Thursday, August 6th.

EWRT1A-62: reading response 8 and quoting

Here are the prompts for reading response 8. Choose one.

• Why did Edna marry Léonce? Is he a model husband? What evidence is there that he may not be a good husband for Edna? Use specific scenes as evidence.
• Describe Edna’s relationship with/to Adéle. What does Adéle provide for Edna?
• What was Edna’s childhood like? Her past loves? What does this say about the woman she is now?
• Choose your own focus for your response to this reading. Have a clear point and solid evidence from the text to support it.

Also, we're going to discuss how to quote again. Instead of focusing on MLA citation, I want to focus more on what makes for an effective quotation. Here's the handout I'll be giving out:

• how to quote effectively

EWRT1A-62: essay 3 prompt

I'll hand this out Monday, but if you want to check it out now, then here it is:

• essay 3

Also, if you want more information about Kate Chopin, the author of The Awakening, there's a really nice website dedicated to her. Remember that if you want to use any of this info in your final paper, just cite it.

EWRT1A-62C: reading response 7

Reading Response 7, due Thursday July 23rd:

• Describe the narrator’s husband in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” What role does he play in the narrator’s illness? Does he help or hinder? Provide specific evidence.

• How do the images that the narrator sees in the wallpaper change throughout the story? How do these changes relate to the narrator’s emotional state? Provide specific details.

• Choose your own focus for your response to this reading. Have a clear point and solid evidence from the text to support it.

EWRT1A-62C: midterm

The best way to prepare for the midterm is to work on essay 2. This will get you close to the texts in the class and thinking about them. The other way is to go over your reading responses. The prompts for the midterm essay will be more general than the reading response prompts, but will be based on ideas discussed in class and brought up in the reading response prompts. Here are all the prompts:

• What are the differing effects of the two categories of education on students, according to Freire? Do you agree with the effects he describes? I encourage you to use your own experiences as illustrations in your response.
  
• How is Rose’s essay an example of Freire’s theories? Show the connection.
• What did MacFarland provide for Rose? Is this something that could be standardized? In other words, can classrooms offer students what MacFarland’s classroom offered Rose? Why or why not?
• Would it be possible for public schools to empower people the same way Malcolm X’s homemade education empowered him? If so, how? If not, why not?
• Rodriguez says that his education gave him a public identity. Is the same true for Malcolm X? Use specific evidence in your response.
• Tannen says that the male and female styles of communication “are equally valid in themselves” (59). According to her evidence, are both styles equally valued in the business world? What are the consequenecs of this? Provide specifc evidence in your response.
• Tannen demonstrates that differing communication styles create confict. What solution does she allude to? What needs to change to make this solution possible? Do you agree with Tannen about this?
• Is Longman promoting patriarchy, trying to avoid it, or simply predicting its rise? Give specific evidence from the essay to make your argument.
• In what way is the rise of patriarchy that Longman describes related to the backlash that Faludi argues? Give specific examples in your response.
• Does Longman make an assumption (or assumptions) that undermines or in some way inhibits his argument? Be specific about where this occurs.
• Is there a connection between Sanders and Faludi? Does what Sanders says in some way oppose Faludi’s views, or are their views linked somehow? Give specific evidence in your response.
• Explore the significance of the title. What are the effects of “The Men We Carry In Our Minds?”
• Sanders claims that he was an ally to the feminists he met in college (103). Why does he claim this? Do you think it’s true that he was looking for the exact same things that they were?
  
  

EWRT1A-62C: transitions

Here's what I put up on the overhead: common transitions.

You can find other lists all over the web.

EWRT1A-62C: reading response 6

Reading Response 6, due Wednesday July 15th. Choose one:

• Is there a connection between Sanders and Faludi? Does what Sanders says in some way oppose Faludi’s views, or are their views linked somehow? Give specific evidence in your response.

• Explore the significance of the title. What are the effects of “The Men We Carry In Our Minds?”

• Sanders claims that he was an ally to the feminists he met in college (103). Why does he claim this? Do you think it’s true that he was looking for the exact same things that they were?

• Choose your own focus for your response to this reading. Have a clear point and solid evidence from the text to support it.

EWRT1A-62C: rhetorical modes, appeals, and essay 2

Here are some .pdfs if you need them:

• Paragraph development: rhetorical modes
• Appeals
• Essay 2 prompts

Malcolm X videos

In case you've never heard Malcolm X speak before–and even if you have–you might want to check out these videos (this sentence shows an example of the em dash, by the way).

This first one shows a debate Malcolm X was part of at Oxford College in England. Oxford is one of the most famous colleges in the European world and for a man like Malcolm X to stand there and have everyone listen to him is very symbolic. He also explains what we now call institutional racism.

This next one was filmed earlier in Malcolm X's life even though it's in color. What's nice about this one is that here Malcolm X has to articulate his beliefs to someone who doesn't fully understand or necessarily believe them. Also, it shows how polite Malcolm X was. Hurlbut (a really unfortunate name) constantly interrupts Malcolm X and gets things wrong, but Malcolm X takes it in stride and just tries to calmly explain what he means.

EWRT1A-62C: MLA citation and reading response 3

I'll be handing this out Tuesday, but I thought I'd post the .pdf of my MLA citation handout. Almost every writing handbook has these rules, but the MLA updated its rules in April of this year. This handout reflects those changes: MLA citation guide (.pdf).

And here are the prompts for reading response 3, due Wednesday, July 8th (choose one). Please practice using MLA citation in your reading response.

• Would it be possible for public schools to empower people the same way Malcolm X’s homemade education empowered him? If so, how? If not, why not?
• Rodriguez says that his education gave him a public identity. Is the same true for Malcolm X? Use specific evidence in your response.
• Choose your own focus.

EWRT1A-62C: thoughts on essay 1, commas, and the em dash

For essay one, keep in mind that both the readings we have covered so far have examples of positive and negative effects of education. So either text could be used for either prompt. I'd also suggest you read "A Rounded Version…" (16) before you work on your essay. You may wish to skim the Rodriguez and Malcolm X essays to see of they might relate to ideas you have for your essay.

As I said in class, there are rules that cover comma use and some general style guidelines, but not everyone agrees about these things. For instance, writers in the U.S. are bigger sticklers about comma use that writers in the U.K. For some general guidelines, this page has some suggestions for comma use. You always use a comma before a coordinate conjunction (and, or, but, so, yet…) that combines two independent clauses (two subject-verb pairs). The comma goes before the conjunction.

I read the essay, but I didn't understand it at all.

You should use a comma after a subordinate clause, before the main clause.

Although Miss B. Haven was the first woman in her family to go to school, her father wouldn't pay the tuition.

I said in class that you use a comma before a subordinate clause, but this is not always true. You only use a comma if the subordinate clause gives supplemental information.

I agreed with the thesis of the essay, although I didn't like the writing style.

If the subordinate clause provides necessary information that restricts the meaning of the main (independent) clause then you do not use a comma.

Do not begin writing your essay until you have read the texts critically.

This is true of any information that is restrictive. By "restrictive" I mean information that is essential to the meaning of the sentence.

Kate Chopin's book The Awakening uses symbolism to convey character development.

You do not set The Awakening off with commas because Chopin wrote more than one book and you are writing about just one of them. It is restrictive information. To be honest, sometimes it can be hard to tell if information is restrictive or not. If you are worried about a particular sentence, consider rewriting it to avoid the comma.

Whenever I have a question about grammar, I turn to a writing handbook. I consulted both The Longman Handbook and The Bedford Handbook to make sure the information above about comma was correct. This is why I suggest getting a writing handbook.

As for the em dash, it is not used much in formal writing, such as the writing you do for college. So in general you should avoid using it. It is used a lot in the business world and it replaces commas, semicolons, colons, etc. But as with all dashes, it is mainly used to indicate an interruption and shift in thought. There's more here.