Wagons . . . EAST!

We have begun work on our second article. We will be following the same process as before with workshop beginning next week (September 27) for all classes. The new article is "Airline Security is a PC Joke" by Yana Zeltser. It is located on page 190.

Workshop and Revision

We have been completing workshop over the past few class periods. We will wind it up today in the Tuesday / Thursday courses. We have already completed workshop in the M/W/F class. Our next article, "Airport Security is a PC Joke" (page 190) is an article that is heavily dependent on personal examples and narrative evidence. We will be working over the next few class periods on deciphering this article with the goal of discovering the thesis as well as understanding how to interpret narrative in the context of rhetorical argument.

Workshop

On Thursday and Friday, we worked in workshop on the group summaries. We read them outloud and responded to them based on the questions we were given early last week. Next week we will complete the workshop and move on to the next article.

Good work this week, everyone.

A Thesis, A Thesis, A Penny for A Thesis!

Today we worked on evaluating an article for the purpose of creating an exit exam summary. Remember, there are four general areas of interest when it comes to annotating with the exit exam in mind:

1. Thesis
2. Main Ideas (topic sentences or supporting ideas)
3. Examples (especially expanded narrative examples)
4. Facts and Statistics

Note the major division beteen number two and number three. One and two make up the argument itself. Numbers three and four consist mostly of support. What gets tricky is when an author uses narrative example as his or her primary method of support, thus creating an argument that has "hidden" or implied main ideas.

Remember, we will be writing next class, so come prepared.

Annotatation Explanation to the Composition Nation

Today in class we met in our groups for an exercise on annotation. With very little input, we forged ahead bravely against the complications offered forth by an article with no clear thesis statement. The notion that the thesis statement exists solely as an identifiable sentence was dispatched with in favor of the possibility of an "implied thesis."

The groups reported back to the class on their potentail thesis statements, and an outline for active reading (identifying the main points in order to arrive at the thesis--described by one classmate as "working backwards") was given.

Next class will consist of a writing exercise over the article that was annotated today. Be well. Be safe. See you next time.

The First Day

Greetings everyone.

Today, we began by reviewing the guidelines for the Exit Exam. If you do not have all the handouts, please see me before or after class on Wednesday.

Secondly, we began discussing the composition of argument. I cannot stress how important it is to understand that there are skills available to you in this class that will benefit you immediately (writing papers) and in the future (construction of rhetorical argument).

We will complete a writing exercise in class next time. Be sure to bring the signed last page of you syllabus (Course Outline) to class.

See you Wednesday!

Signing off.