EWRT1A-62: Grammar Review 5

Here it is, coordination/subordination and parallel structure.

EWRT1A-62: essay 3 first draft

The first draft of essay 3 is due Tuesday. I expect these to be rougher than previous first drafts, but get as complete as you can. The more you have, the more there is to comment on. Here are some ideas to keep in mind:

• Focus on analysis, not summary. 
• Analysis means to take apart, to look for patterns. So you should be connecting examples from different places in the texts. If you are discussing a text only in the order it is presented, then you are probably not analyzing.
• The analysis leads to insight. The question is, how does your insight add
  to understanding the novel and the other text? Your goal is to understand the texts better, not to come to some general insight about how the world works.
• Don’t just analyze texts separately; show connections.
• Your thesis should unify both texts.
• Remember to choose your structure wisely: point by point or subject by subject.
• Review the list on page 30 of our reader. The suggestions there are very good.

EWRT1A-62: Grammar Review 4

This is due Tuesday, June 12th. Keep in mind that while this is called a grammar review, what we are practicing are specific style concepts. The sentences on the worksheet are all grammatically correct as they are. Your goal is to apply the concepts of conciseness and active verbs to them. Remember that the Rules for Writers book covers both concepts.

And Reading Response 9 will be done in class this Thursday.

EWRT1A-62: Reading Response 8

Reading Response 8 has been shifted to Tuesday. So please do it as homework for Tuesday, June 5th.

Reading Response 8
Alison Bechdel, Fun Home chapters 1-2
Choose one. Please use specific evidence in your response.

• On page 15, Bechdel illustrates some of the ways she and her father are different. Despite the differences, how are she and her father similar? Consider characteristics of behavior and/or appearance.

• What elements contribute to Bechdel believing that her father’s death was a suicide? Do you agree that these elements warrant her conclusion?

• Where does Bechdel admit to the limits of her memory and understanding? Do these admissions weaken the narrative or do they serve some purpose? Explain.

• Choose a scene from the book and compare the narration with the monstration. What relationship do these share? In other words, what do the images show in comparison to what the words explain and how do the two work together in the scene to create meaning? Consider using McCloud.

EWRT1A-62: Fun Home reading questions

Fun Home  –  Reading Questions.
Use these questions to help focus your reading.

1. In what ways are Bechdel and her father different? In what ways are they alike?

2. Bechdel believes that her father committed suicide. Why? What does she think the motivation for him was? Why is this significant for her?

3. What role do books play in Bechdel’s relationship with her father? What role do they play in her own self discovery?

4. Can you find an image in the text that sums up Bechdel’s relationship with her father? Is its placement in the story significant?

5. In what ways is Bechdel’s father able to support her? How does he do so?

6. Why does Bechdel allude to so many literary texts? How do they relate to her parents? To herself?

7. At times Bechdel seems to judge her father, but at other times she seems to resist judging him. Find instances of both in the text. Does this show a limitation in her understanding?

8. What do you think the purpose of creating Fun Home was for Bechdel?

9. In what ways are the telling (the narration) different from what is in the showing (the monstration)? Think of McCloud’s categories. Also consider that the narration is an adult Bechdel looking back and the monstration is often a young Alison experiencing things for the first time.

10. Is Alison Bechdel a reliable narrator? What does she believe that others in the book may not believe? What biases might she have?

EWRT1A-62: essay 2

Remember that both drafts of essay 2 are due Tuesday, May 29th. If you have any questions e-mail me. Here are some general comments.

• Cause and effect. Most of the thesis statements deal with cause and effect, so be sure to show the cause and effect. If you are dealing with obstacles to identity make sure you explain how identity is obstructed by the obstacles. A lot of the papers name the obstacles, which is good, but don't make it clear how they are obstacles. In other words, they don't show the full effect.
• Clarify your argument. Some of the papers brought up ideas that didn't really relate to the main argument and ended up confusing things. Edit out sentences that don't contribute to your main argument.
• You don't need to follow a three point thesis/five paragraph essay model. That's the high school model. This is college. It's time to move on. The problem with the above model is that it makes students think about achieving a certain number of paragraphs instead of focusing on the argument. So they write fractured essays. A good essay doesn't argue a certain number of points, but makes a unified, insightful argument. If you do have three separate points, try to figure out how the points connect. Is there some underlying cause of all three? Try to go deeper.
• MLA works cited. Review Rules for Writers to make sure you are doing your works cited list correctly. Remember to indent every line after the first for each entry. Also, your list should be alphabetized by the authors' last names.

EWRT1A-62: midterm

Please bring pens and paper for the midterm. You may use your reader and a print dictionary, but no other books or notes. Try to get plenty of rest.