ABOUT THIS CLASS . . .
Writing Assignments
What you think is important. You have things to say that people need to hear. We’re in this class to practice writing, thinking, and communicating ideas. We also want to get you ready to be successful when you take transfer-level courses. For this reason, we’ll be doing a lot of writing in this class. The college expects you to write and revise 4,000 words (16 pages) this semester, and to pass a Department writing exam (10% of your grade). Our class assignments are going to get you ready for that. Here’s how.
Readings give us interesting things to discuss and let us see how other writers have tackled big ideas. We’ll discuss these in class and talk about how to include other writers’ ideas in your writing. By the end of the semester, you should have an arsenal of facts, hot topics, and arguments to use in your own papers. Timed in-class writings mimic the conditions of your department exam and get you used to writing and thinking on a deadline. We will write a series of timed, in-class writings that respond to “prompts” (issues or questions) that we develop together. Each writing will practice different argument and planning strategies, so that by the end of the semester you should feel comfortable with at least one or two.
Revisions of the in-class writings will help you see how you can develop your ideas more fully, adding details from outside readings, your own experience, and your observation of the world around you. Since you write these out of class, you’ll have time to collect your thoughts and include things you may have forgotten in the press of excitement during the timed writing. Revisions also allow you to get feedback from the other writers in class.
As you write and revise, you’ll also be thinking about how readers (not just teachers!) will respond to your work. Guidelines for the Editing Project are in the next section.
The Editing Project
Guidelines
The goal of the Editing Project is to get you thinking about grammar and structure as part of the way you communicate. The things that get “redlined” (marked for correction) in your papers aren’t just mistakes; they’re miscommunications. They’re places the reader may not understand what you have to say. This project gets you thinking as a reader as well as a writer. It helps you discover the effects your choices as a writer have on the people who want to understand your ideas.
Step 1. Select one item (for example, a comma splice) that tends to get red-lined in your papers. Note: If you’re working with comments such as “organization” or “evidence,” you’re dealing with whole paragraphs or papers. In this case we’ll work at the level of an outline or a diagram, rather than a sentence. Talk to me for ideas.
Step 2. Read the example you’ve chosen to your peer review group. Without using grammatical terms (which most people can quote, but not use), talk about what this sentence does. How does affect the reader? Does it contain any “traps” or confusing sidetracks? What kinds of emotions might the reader be feeling as (s)he reads your work? Why? (Hint: Think about things that might confuse or mislead the reader, or cause the reader to connect ideas you never intended to be read together.)
Step 3. Now, ask the members of your peer group to help you rewrite the sentence. Be sure the new sentence doesn’t solve one problem by creating a different one!
Step 4. Using the student example on the next page, talk about how your revised sentence affects the reader. How does the new sentence help the reader understand your ideas better? How does your revision correct the problem that got redlined? What makes this a good example of a clear sentence?
This project takes longer to describe than to do. You should end up with a paragraph that includes these things:
· An example of a mistake from your own writing—something that doesn’t work
· Your description of how that mistake affects the reader
· A revision of this mistake
· Your description of how the revised sentence affects the reader
*If you want to use grammatical terms at this stage, you can, as long as your main focus is discussing the four items in the bullet list, above.
Here’s an example from a student just like you. Since he found three ways to revise his grammar glitch, he got to choose which one got his point across the best way! You will probably only find one way to revise—but who knows?
THE DREADED COMMA SPLICE
by Cary Stewart
Problem sentence: You have to be the hoagie magician, I need the hoagie magician.
Reader response: It might be hard for the reader to tell which ideas are supposed to connect. Everything rushes together with nowhere to take a breath.
Solution (3 choices):
SOLUTION 1 / SOLUTION 2 / SOLUTION 3You can add an "and," "but," or similar connector after the comma. / You can make the comma a period, dividing the sentence in two. / You can make the comma a semicolon, separating the two sentences while maintaining the flow.
You have to be the hoagie magician, and I need the hoagie magician. / You have to be the hoagie magician. I need the hoagie magician. / You have to be the hoagie magician; I need the hoagie magician.
This connector shows which ideas belong together, and the reader has a chance to take a breath before reading the second half of the sentence. This would help if I wanted to sound like I’m ALL IN A RUSH. / Using a period ends the sentence abruptly. There's a choppy feel to the two sentences when read together. This would be good if I wanted to sound NERVOUS or even ANGRY. / Using a semicolon combines the special effects of SOLUTIONS 1 and 2, because it causes the reader to pause without stopping abruptly. I will use this one in my revision, because it lets me keep the EASY, JOKING tone I wanted in my paper.