Blog #5

Blog #5: Reading Response and Writing Center Internship Reflection
Due Friday, February 8th, by 11am (or soon after your WC Internship)
Responses to your Peer Group due the following Monday by 11am

Since I had to cancel class on Wednesday, please turn any revisions of your Letter to the Editor into Revision #1 Dropbox for Monday.  Thanks, Beth.

Three parts to this blog:

Part 1: Reflection on Writing Center Internship (or revise your Letter to the Editor)

Writing Center Internship: Please describe what you did for your Internship this week: the writing you saw, the students you worked with, the concepts you discussed, etc. As before, you'll need to reflect on your experiences and how they will help you revise your writing. Below are the guiding questions to help you reflect on what you learn:

• What you learned as a tutor
• What you notice about other students’ writing
• What you notice about the writing of multilingual writers
• What you notice about your own writing
• The language of tutors and writers
• Insights about language, academic writing, or tutoring
• How you helped other writers
• How other writers helped you

If no students came to the Writing Center during your hour, then use this space to revise your Letter to the Editor.  Paste the original here, and then then revision; be sure to reflect on the changes and what you still want to work on.


Part 2: Reading Response to Ch. 5, of Style
Sorry, no headnote this time, as I'm working from home, and my textbook is at the office.  But I know this chapter dealt with eliminating some of the "clutter" from our writing.  I myself tend to "clutter up" my writing when I don't want to sound very forceful or when I'm speaking to someone higher up: (if you don't mind, could you please do x when you have a minute?).  But when I need to get right to the point, I need to revise all that clutter out: please do x by y. 

Here's are the directions you usally get, only relative vague this time:For this section, paste a paragraph from a previous piece of your writing (or part of your Letter), and apply the concepts from Chapter 5. 

Additionally, how will the concepts in Chapter 5 help you as you revise your current writing? Is there any part of this chapter that confuses you? As always, the more details you can give, the more helpful your responses will be to us and to you.

Length: For your reading response section, again aim for about 250 words or 2-3 paragraphs.


Part 3: Revision of Last Week's Blog
After reflecting on how the chapter in Style will help you with your writing, revise two or three of the sentences your wrote for last week's blog. Specifically, try to revise a sentence that applies to the concepts discussed in Ch. 5.   After you revise your sentences, write a brief rationale of why your revision helped you experiment with the guidelines in Ch. 5.


Response: For your response, you should 1) continue the conversation the author started in Part 2. You should also 2) try to comment on their revised sentences in Part 3. Examples:

• Why do you think the revised sentence is an improvement over the original sentence?
• Can you suggest another revision?
• Where is an example of a sentence where the author successfull demonstrates the concepts presented in Ch. 5? 

 
Due: Respond to everyone in your peer group, including yourself (for your own blog, either respond to one or both of your peers' responses or simply revise another part of your initial post), by Monday morning at 11am.

Length: Again, a paragraph is good. Try to work on choosing the right verbs and eliminating bulky modifiers in your response AND/OR having a variety of simple, compound, and complex sentences (feel free to use the strikethrough option to show us your revision process).

Blog #4

Blog #4: Reading Response and Writing Center Internship Reflection
Due Friday, February 1st, by 11am (or soon after your WC Internship) 
Responses to your Peer Group due the following Monday by 11am (Reminder: Meet Monday, 2/4, in the AML)

Three parts to this blog:

Part 1: Reflection on Writing Center Internship (or begin drafting your Letter to the Editor)

Writing Center Internship: Please describe what you did for your Internship this week: the writing you saw, the students you worked with, the concepts you discussed, etc. As before, you'll need to reflect on your experiences and how they will help you revise your writing.  Below are the guiding questions to help you reflect on what you learn: 

• What you learned as a tutor
• What you notice about other students’ writing
• What you notice about the writing of multilingual writers
• What you notice about your own writing
• The language of tutors and writers
• Insights about language, academic writing, or tutoring
• How you helped other writers
• How other writers helped you

If no students came to the Writing Center during your hour, then use this space to continue brainstorming ideas for our upcoming Letter to the Editor assignment (or a letter of complaint or praise).  As we did in class, read one or more news articles from this past week and brainstorm responses to the issue(s).  Aim for at least 10 minutes of brainstorming.


Part 2: Reading Response to Ch. 4, pp. 19-26 of Style

"[W]e're constantly choosing between active and passive forms whenever we speak or write.  Revision allows us to reconsider these decisions" (p.21)

For this section, paste a paragraph from a previous piece of your writing, and identify whether your verbs are in the active or passive voice.  Then reflect, based on what you learned in the chapter, why your current voice (active or passive) works well for your purpose, or if you need to revise. 

Additionally, how will the concept of active and passive voice help you as you revise your current writing?  Is there any part of this chapter that confuses you?  As always, the more details you can give, the more helpful your responses will be to us and to you.

Length: For your reading response section, again aim for about 250 words or 2-3 paragraphs. 


Part 3: Revision of Last Week's Blog
After reflecting on how the chapter in Style will help you with your writing, revise two or three of the sentences your wrote for last week's blog.  Specifically, try to revise a sentence from passive to active voice (or active to passive) as a way to emphasize your main point, as discussed in Ch. 4.  After you revise your sentences, write a brief rationale of why your revision helped you experiment with the guidelines in Ch. 4.


Response:  For your response, you should 1) continue the conversation the author started in Part 2.  You should also 2) try to comment on their revised sentences in Part 3.  Examples:

• Why do you think the revised sentence is an improvement over the original sentence? 
• Can you suggest another revision?  
• Where is an example of a sentence where the author successfull demonstrates the concepts presented in Ch. 4? 

Due: Respond to everyone in your peer group, including yourself (for your own blog, either respond to one or both of your peers' responses or simply revise another part of your initial post), by Monday morning at 11am.

Length: Again, a paragraph is good.  Try to work on choosing the right verbs and eliminating bulky modifiers in your response AND/OR having a variety of simple, compound, and complex sentences (feel free to use the strikethrough option to show us your revision process).

Blog #3

Blog #3: Reading Response and Writing Center Internship Reflection
Due Friday, January 25th, at 11am (Reminder: This is the first week of your Writing Center Internship.)

Three parts to this blog:

Part 1: Reflection on Writing Center Internship (or Continue Revising your Cover Letter)

Writing Center Internship: Starting with this (or the next) blog, please describe what you did for your Internship this week. In addition, you'll need to reflect on your experiences and how they will help you revise your writing.  Below are some guiding questions to help you reflect on what you learn: 

• What you learned as a tutor
• What you notice about other students’ writing
• What you notice about the writing of multilingual writers
• What you notice about your own writing
• The language of tutors and writers
• Insights about language, academic writing, or tutoring
• How you helped other writers
• How other writers helped you

If you have not yet started your Internship, please paste both your original and revised drafts of your cover letter and describe the revisions you made and to what purpose (but remember that you'll also need to post your drafts to Angel according to the due dates in the syllabus).

Part 2: Reading Response to Ch. 3 of Style

 "[V]erbs, complements, and modifiers are more than grammatical categories; they're also useful revision tools" (p.15)

Take some time to rReflect on each of the three main concepts in this chapter: verbs, complements, and modifiers (to start, see the questions at the bottom of p. 15 will help you get started).   How will these concepts help you as you continue to revise your cover letter?  As always, the more details you can give, the more helpful your responses will be to us and to you.

Length: For your reading response section, again aim for about 250 words or 2-3 paragraphs (you could do one paragraph per concept). 


Part 3: Revision of Part 1 or Part 2
After reflecting on how the chapter in Style will help you with your writing, revise two or three of the sentences your wrote for Part 1 (or Part 2).  Specifically, try to apply the concept of choosing the most "active" verb for your sentence, as discussed in Ch. 3.  After you revise your sentences, write a brief rationale of why your revision helped you experiment with the guidelines in Ch. 3.


Response:  For your response, you should 1) continue the conversation the author started in Part 2.  You should also 2) try to comment on their revised sentences in Part 3.  Examples:

• Why do you think the revised sentence is an improvement over the original sentence? 
• Can you suggest another revision?  
• How does the revision follow the guiding questions on the bottom of p. 15?

Due: Respond to everyone in your peer group, including yourself (for your own blog, either respond to one or both of your peers' responses or simply revise another part of your initial post), by Monday morning at 11am.

Length: Again, a paragraph is good.  Try to work on choosing the right verbs and eliminating bulky modifiers in your response(feel free to use the strikethrough option to show us your revision process).

Blog #2

Blog #2: Reading Response and Draft of Cover Letter
Due Friday, January 18th, at 11am (Reminder: We meet in the AML, Avery 101, on Friday.  Be sure to have an electronic or print copy of your résumé.)

Three parts to this blog:

Part 1: Initial DRAFT of Cover Letter
Draft at least one paragraph of a cover letter for a future job (or grad school or anything else for which you might need to apply).  We'll continue drafting and revising in class on Friday.  If you have a specific job ad (description of grad school, etc.), please bring that to class, too.

Note: Remember that this is a revision class, so feel free to use all or part of a cover letter that you've already written--just be sure to identify when you wrote it and for what class (if any). 

Part 2: Reading Response to Preface, Ch. 1, and/or Ch. 2 of Style
Select 1-2 concepts from the reading that were particularly useful or interesting for you.  How will these concepts help you as you draft and revise your cover letter?  If no concepts seemed helpful, why not?  As always, the more details you can give, the more helpful your responses will be to us and to you.

Length: For your reading response section, again aim for about 250 words or 2-3 paragraphs (you could do one paragraph per chapter). 

Part 3: Revision of Part 1
After reflecting on how the chapters in Style will help you with your writing, revise one or two of the sentences your wrote for Part 1 (or Part 2).  Specifically, try to apply the concept of choosing the most "active" verb for your sentence, as discussed in Ch. 2.  Keep experimenting with colons, semicolons, and dashes, if applicable to this first paragraph of your cover letter.


Response:  For your response, you should continue the conversation the author started in Part 2.  You should also try to comment on their revised sentences in Part 3.  Examples:

• Why do you think the revised sentence is an improvement over the original sentence? 
•  Do you have another suggestion for revision? 
• Can you suggest another revision? 

(Just wanted to model that revising for active verbs like the book suggests takes some time--it's definitely a different step than drafting.)

Due: Respond to everyone in your peer group, including yourself (for your own blog, either respond to one or both of your peers' responses or simply revise another part of your initial post), by Monday morning at 11am (although no class that day due to MLK Holiday).

Length: Again, a paragraph is good.  Try to work on either active verbs (feel free to use the strikethrough option to show us your revision process) or colons/semicolons/dashes in your response.

Welcome to English 304

Blog #1: Reading Response and Self Assessment Blog
Due Wednesday, January 9th, at 11am

Create your own Blogger account for our course, and email me your blog's address (by Tuesday, January 8th, at 11am, please).

Two parts to this blog:

Part 1: Reading Response
Reflect briefly on Toni-Lee Capossela's chapters on Peer Tutoring. We're reading this piece both to prepare you for your Writing Center Internship and for peer review in class. What 1-2 concepts do you want to reflect on and for what purpose? Remember that the entire class is your audience. We'll discuss the reading further in class on Wednesday.

Part 2: Assessment 1.0
Post all or part of the Assessment 1.0 that we wrote in class on Monday (if you revise, label it Assessment 1.1).

Guiding Questions:

• What type of writing do you currently do?  (Can include academic, professional, and personal)
• All people have contexts where the quality of their writing is more or less important to them--in which contexts does the quality of your writing matter most to you?
• Describe your current drafting and revisionn process.  What works for you and what doesn't?
• What do you consider to be your strengths in writing?  What types of comments to various readers make that support these strengths? (Faculty, friends, supervisors, etc.)
• Whta do you consider to be your weaknesses or revision points?  What feedback have you received as support?
• What do you want to work on this semester?

For all questions, the more details you can give, the more helpful your responses will be to us and to you.


Length: As with all our assignments, the genre and purpose should drive the length. In addition to your Assessment 1.0, try to take at least 250-500 words to respond to the Capossela reading.

Response: We'll look at the blogs in class on Wednesday and discuss possible ways of responding. Normally, you'll need to respond to your peer group by Monday morning at 11am (most blogs will be due Fridays by 11am).

NOTE: See my blog for the most recent blog assignment information. We will typically have a blog posting once per week, but I reserve the right to increase or decrease the frequency depending on the needs of the class. The blog is for blog assignments only; the rest of the course materials may be found on Angel.