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| As you're all rushing to email me your final essays, it's IMPERATIVE that you remember some basic details: - Please send your essay as a Word document in an attachment, NOT in the body of an email.
- Please include the assignment title (i.e., essay 1, essay 2), your name, faculty number, course title (I teach 4 courses!), and year of study. Sounds elementary but you'd be surprised how many people have forgotten these details.
- Please ensure you submit all essays and complete all Xanga posts by your final class meeting this week. Your mark won't be ready in class if you submit/complete yours late.
- No essays or Xanga posts will be read/marked after Wednesday, May 30. Sorry, folks, but the semester can't drag on forever....as much as we'd all hate to stop meeting on a weekly basis!
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| In class 9, we read "Patriotic--and Against War", an argumentative/persuasive essay in which the writer argues that opposing war is a patriotic act. 
An argumentative essay is one in which the writer states a thesis (a main argument/opinion) about a controversial topic (it is not necessary to defend non-controversial statements like "school is important") and then supports it with various arguments to convince the reader to believe that argument. First, we identified in "Patriotic--and Against War" the thesis statement (the essay's main argument which all other details in the essay support) to be: "To know that I can be both patriotic and against war, I need only (a) think carefully about the definition of patriotism, (b) consider what my religion tells me about war, and (c) look at the economic and human losses that war has brought to the world." It was clear that (a), (b), and (c) were the supporting arguments developed in the body paragraphs of the essay. We also talked about how the 3rd argument (c) was the strongest out of the three and how making this argument the final one in the essay's body can leave a strong impression in the reader's mind. (Save the best for last.) 
Blogging Ideas - Post about Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speech excerpt, "The Trumpet of Conscience" that was printed on the back of the essay we read in class. What was his thesis statement? What supporting arguments did he use?
- Post a response to what Dr. King said in "The Trumpet of Conscience." Do you agree with him? Do you think what he says has significance in today's world?
- Post a response to this essay that we read in class. What are your opinions about war and patriotism? Do you agree with this writer?
- Post a blog about morality. In class (1st year students), we did an activity in which I asked you to stand on different sides of the room depending on how much you agree or disagree with ideas about how/where we inherit our moral values--from family? from media? from religion? by ourselves?
Essay #2 In class 9, I also explained that your second essay for this class is to write an argumentative essay. You can choose your topic: related to the morality of anything (abortion, war, politicians, etc.) and then take a stand on that topic--whether you agree or disagree or both. Class 10's activities/reading raises other possible essay topic ideas. | | |
| While this post refers to classes we had weeks ago (in April), I wanted to post a summary as a reminder because I realize from reading your Xanga sites that some of you: - might need the reminder to help you post blogs/homework as you are catching up.
- just want fond memories of our time together!
In class 6, we looked at an example of a standard 5-paragraph essay, "Different Stages of Friendship." (No link online so please be sure to check it out from a colleague of me if you didn't get a copy) In the body paragraphs, we can see that the writer used a few of the organization patterns for expository writing that we studied in the previous lesson: cause & effect, definition, examples, etc. In class 7, we looked at the writing process and how essays first start as ideas floating (or for some, zooming) through our minds. Also, a great essay full of humor, "Shitty First Drafts," written by Anne Lamott, let us know that it's okay if we don't create perfection in our first try when we write. And that's why it's nice that blogs allow us to go back and edit!  In class 8, we took a look at each other's essay drafts and (hopefully) offered helpful comments for how the writer could improve his/her essay. Blogging Ideas - Post about your experience drafting essays for your university courses. Can you relate to what Lamott is saying?
- Post any reflections you have about the peer feedback activity. Did you find your peer's comments helpful? Did you find the peer feedback form you used helpful? Any suggestions for this activity?
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| So in class 5, we read about jealousy...in 7 different ways! Expository writing is writing for the purpose of explaining, or 'exposing' something, and the 7 examples we looked at were: - Examples
- Definition
- Compare and contrast
- Cause and effect
- Narrative
- Descriptive
- Classification
Don't forget that some of these methods of expository writing do overlap (i.e., we can use examples to illustrate various classifications of something). However, in good writing, the topic sentence almost always lets us know which is the primary pattern of organization used by a writer. Homework from this class - Read the story excerpt: "As It Was in the Beginning" and in a paragraph, write (on your blog) what you found to be significant about this story--what theme stood out to you?
- As you read and comment on each other's blogs about "As It Was in the Beginning," see if you can identify the organization pattern that the writer is using...
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|  <------ Our favorite family, right?
Well, the findings of birth order theory may not seem so scientific overall, but I do have to reconsider when I read stuff like this about myself (a middle child):
May be even-tempered, "take it or leave it" attitude. May have trouble finding a place or become a fighter of injustice. Adlerian Overview of Birth Order Characteristics - Alfred Adler Institutes of San Francisco and Northwestern Washington It's just like when you read a horoscope about yourself that you think is spookily accurate!
Anyway, here's more details about birth order that anyone who wants to read more can check out. Or, if you're the type of person who just loves a challenge--like this scavenger hunt--please share your findings with us....the questions seem really interesting!
And please don't forget to discuss your thoughts on birth order in at least one of your posts (if you haven't already done so). Be sure to use examples of your family or others that you're familiar with, to help support your point of view.
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