ENGLISH 101 Week 1 Day 2

What is Academic Writing? Academic Writing is NOT… Being perfect the first time Always having “original” ideas that are not influenced by anyone else Being better than others around you Academic Writing IS… A process Developing ideas in connection with other ideas Being part of a community of writers and engaging in the ongoing academic conversation.

Writing As A Process or a Journey Writing develops both recursively (as a process) and socially (interacting with other texts). The process of rhetoric in both reading and writing means thinking about how to use language for a particular audience, within a particular context, and how to use appropriate conventions (grammar rules). It is important to note that reading and writing are connected to each other. All writers enter conversations and communities through their words, so writers must be readers of many texts, and should also be aware of context and culture. This class aims to help you understand all these writing techniques and use them successfully in your own writing.

Writing as Exploration and Connections We will read and analyze many kinds of writing that are a part of the academic conversation. We will use outside sources to inspire and inform our own writing We will workshop our own essays. These activities, along with student-instructor conferences, peer work, and discussions, will demonstrate the social nature of writing. What is truly essential in this class is the ability to communicate a given message through writing, reading, and speaking in class. So, get to know your classmates, your professor, and most of all, yourself. We will support each other to grow as students, writers, readers, communicators, and individuals.

How to Read our Textbook When the schedule tells you to read a certain amount of pages (9- 17 for example) you might not technically need to read the whole page. Rather, you should look for section headings and start with the first section on that page. For example, on page 9, the section heading “A Critical Perspective: Strategies for Thinking, Reading, and Responding” starts about halfway down the page, but it is the first section that STARTS on page 9. Therefore you should start there. Likewise, the only thing on page 17 is an exercise. Since you have not been instructed to do the exercise, but rather only to read and think about the information, you can ignore this part. When I ask you to read an Essay or Article in your Textbook, I will usually only list the first page number (p.396, for example). Be sure preview the essay, see how long it is, and give yourself enough time to read the whole thing.

The Schedule – Pass Out Printed Copies You can also find the schedule of all readings and assignments on the blog.schedule of all readings and assignmentsblog Assignments are DUE and should be TURNED IN on the day listed So for example, here we are in Week One, so to see what homework you have to do, look under Week Two. No late in-class work will be accepted. It is important for you to attend class in order to get credit for these in-class assignments.

The Connection Between Reading and Writing In this class, we will be reading like writers. That means that in addition to understanding the ideas in the assigned essays, I will also be asking you to think about the authors’ writing choices and structure/organization. We will use READING as a tool to enhance our WRITING. The readings are essential and are NOT to be skipped, ever. They are carefully selected for their content that will help your writing.

Engage With What You Read Reading Actively What does it mean to read actively? Pay attention Take notes (Annotate) See p. 12 of Pop Perspectives for a checklist. Look up unfamiliar words Reading Critically What does it mean to read critically? Think carefully about the ideas presented in what you are reading Ask questions Relate the ideas to your own experience or knowledge Come to class with questions to ask and opinions to share

Take a Look Outside the Text Itself: Read the Title and Read the Introduction. Knowing who an author is and what his/her purpose was is an important part of reading analytically. If the reading contains “after-questions”, skim those even if you don’t have to answer them for class. It will give you insight into what the reading might be about.

Look at the Context: When you are reading any text, ask yourself: WHO wrote it? Who is the author? What does the writer know about the topic? What “credentials” do they have? WHY did they write it? What purpose do they have? What is the main idea they want to share? WHEN did they write it? This can actually be very important. Why might this be important to know? WHAT are they responding to? This one may not be obvious at first. Most writers write in response to something, even if it isn’t DIRECT. Sometimes writers are responding directly to another writer’s text. Sometimes, they are responding to an idea or an attitude in society.

Learning Names When you have over 100+ new students every semester like I do, it can be a challenge to learn all of their names! Please be patient with me as I learn your names. When I call on you, I may say “Yes,…(?)” or “What do you think,….(?) and pause for you to offer your name. Please remind me (and the rest of the class) of your name before offering your comment/answer. We may do several ice-breaker exercises over the course of the semester to help learn names.

Freewrite: Write about one of your favorite movie, tv show, book series, band/musician, etc… Something you are a big fan of. Why is it a favorite of yours? What do you think makes it popular with other people? To put it another way, why does it appeal to people?

What is “Pop Culture”? Read excerpt from page 5 of Pop Perspectives What this means: Pop culture is short for “popular culture.” This means it has a broad appeal. (A large cross section of society relates to it.) Pop culture is defined in opposition to “high culture” (which is a label I’m not fond of). “High culture” is thought to be more accessible to the educated/elite.

Class List of Pop Culture Products What are some specific examples of pop culture products you we can come up with as a class? Again, we’re talking about things like sports, TV, Movies, music, books/novels (yes, comic books count!!), memes and trends that have a broad appeal.

Why study “Pop Culture”? Historically, academia (schools, universities, professors) put a lot of emphasis on “high culture” and disregarded “pop culture,” thinking it wasn’t worth studying or analyzing. Recently, many scholars and universities have recognized the value of pop culture as an area of study. Some general assumptions that the study of pop culture makes: The art (this includes movies, music, tv, etc.) that a culture produces reveals what that culture values. The art a culture produces reveals widely held attitudes about important/controversial issues. While Pop Culture can reveal attitudes, it can also change them. In other words, the pop culture that we are exposed to can affect how and what we think.

Analysis of Pop Culture What are some important issues that these or other examples of pop culture bring up? In other words, what important issues/ideas might these examples of pop culture lead us to discuss? By answering these questions, we are beginning to do the work of analyzing pop culture and increasing our cultural and media literacy (page 5).

A Word on Homework: Always check the schedule on the blog for complete homework assignment and readings due dates. PACE YOURSELF. This is college! The assignments required for this class can look like a LOT of work. AND THEY ARE—if you don’t plan ahead and try to do them all on Wednesday night….or even worse, Thursday morning. It’s NOT one night’s worth of homework. If you break it up into smaller chunks, it is manageable, doable, even interesting! If you don’t—you will probably be stressed and feel like it’s “too much”.

Class Resources: TurnItIn.com Turnitin.com How to Sign Up for a Turnitin.com Account How to join our Turnitin.com Class Class ID: Enrollment Password: lawson101

Things To Do for Next Week: 1. Look at the Schedule! Tuesday, February 17 Topics: Discuss Project One and Culture/Identity. Discuss the readings. Due: Read Pop Perspectives p. 4-6, 9-12, and Read these two essays in Pop Perspectives and answer the “Critical Perspective” question after it: “Identity Beyond Stereotypes” p.139 and “I Am Not a Mascot” p.299