HW for 1/29

1.  Post your answers to the five questions in the Personal Introductions discussion board found on our Blackboard course site, in the Unit 1 module.

• log into MyMC
• open up Blackboard from the top right menu
• select our course
• select Modules
• select Personal Introductions
• when you get to the discussion board, select "Create Thread" from the left side, just above the first post (my introduction). Once you click on this, the questions for you to answer will appear.

2. Read over the syllabus, found on Blackboard.

3. Read the introduction and chapter 1 of Lies My Teacher Told Me, because we will be discussing this on Monday to get a start on our Essay 1 assignment.

• Always use the weekend effectively! You get more work assigned on Fridays quite often in college because professors see that as the time for you to prepare for the coming week. 

4. Read Chapter 1 of Rules for Writers

5. Check out Blackboard, and get familiar with it. I suggest going through module Unit 1

Generating Ideas: Off and On the Page

1. Active Reading (next week) of course material--and really, EVERYTHING!

• Speech/conversation
• Daily Interactions
• Read the news
• Objectively view Facebook/social network debates (don't participate!)

2. Record, record, record

• Take notes in your college classes. College professors expect you to remember the things they lecture on--and copying lectures from the board (or this blog) are never enough.

• Your peers will say something brilliant about the texts or assignments
• Your professor may say something less brilliant but pertinent about the texts or assignments

• Brainstorm 24/7. try to apply what you read for classes to life: past, present, future

• If you have a tablet or Smartphone that acts like a vital organ, use it. Don't let it be just an appendix!

• Use a note pad 

• Writing Journals: besides being a great place to store and organize course materials, notebooks are great for attempting ideas that nobody else will ever see ... 

• until you are dead and your spouse uncovers and sells your notes to the highest bidder, or reads through them, cries as she/he recollect the person they find inside those words before she/he either holds on to them in the back of the closet or burns them bonfire.

3. Diction...wait for it...ary. Dictionary.

• and thesaurus, and listening to other peoples' languages and recording beautiful language in your head. 

4. Follow YOUR interests down a rabbit hole. Pose questions about college topics as they relate to areas in your life that you are interested in. Involve yourself and likes and dislikes into the conversation. 

• Questions may lead to clustering of ideas, and you may find yourself attempting to connect things that seem far away

• Anthony Bourdain, a famous chef and travel show host, often tries to understand different cultures through his belly. 

• Anne Malum connected her passion for running to start an organization called Back on My Feet, that helps homeless people get off the streets and into jobs and affordable housing. 

5. Pay attention. Language and ideas are all around you. In songs, in over the counter conversations, at the diner, and in your own head! 

• "If only I had an enemy bigger than my apathy, I could have won."
• "Of all the things my hands have held, the best by far is you."

Course Blog Introduction

1. Use of Blackboard: Essay handouts, syllabus, other class files, and discussion board assignments and other quizzes.

2. Texts:  using handouts rather than departmental standards. 

• You will hand in annotated work as part of Class Participation grade, as assigned each week

3. Student Behavior / Commitments:

• Make sure to know the Late Work policy and how I run the class. Read syllabus and listen to lectures.

4.  Writing Expectations: This isn't high school.

• Fresh start for each of you
• This class is about learning new ways of approaching writing, including your reading and note-taking habits and your critical thinking.
• Make sure to read the syllabus description of what makes for C paper. 

• A essays=virtually flawless grammar, strong supporting evidence and citation, strong language skills, clear and effective organization, strong thesis and topic sentences that clearly address prompt and develop individual views with solid logical claims.

• B essays= very few major or minor errors, solid supporting evidence and citation, vocabulary and syntax attempt variety, organization is consistent, and thesis and topic sentences attempt to develop individual and logical claims on prompt.

5. PROCESS. Each day you need to work on improving your approach to college. You are in competition with yourself to improve, in the end.

• How to read as a college student

• How to think about texts as a college student

• How to use different stages of writing to build essays

• How to manage time and accomplish small tasks
• Learn basic organizational behaviors to take to writing
• Learn editing techniques
• Learn revision techniques
• Become more and more self-reliant on your self. Become your hardest critic.