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Composition I CM107 Cecelia Munzenmaier (515) 727-6899, x6921 cmunzenmaier@kaplan.edu. Course Objectives. Compose original materials in Standard American English. Use appropriate documentation as required. Illustrate the steps in the writing process.
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Composition ICM107Cecelia Munzenmaier(515) 727-6899, x6921cmunzenmaier@kaplan.edu
Course Objectives • Compose original materials in Standard American English • Use appropriate documentation as required • Illustrate the steps in the writing process • Apply course knowledge of communication to a chosen profession
Standard American English I am the “experienced instructional designer” yoo seek in todays Harald Sun. Im versatile, have developed training program’s, and the creation of teams two guide training decisions. I am ready too start, if necessary, as early as next week. I, has the solid Training Experience you specified. As well as the strong Computer skills you Desire. • Would you hire this person?
Standard American English I am the “experienced instructional designer” youseek in today’s Herald Sun. I’m versatile, and have developed training program’s, and the creation of created teams to guide training decisions. I am ready too start, if necessary, as early as next week. I, hasve the solid Training Experience you specified, As well as the strong Computer skills you Desire. • Would you hire this person?
Standard American English A Baltimore police officer reported that “Subject did abducted woman without no illegal right.” • Would you trust this person?
Standard American English • Correcting 20 common errors will correct 91.5% of all grammatical errors.Based on Lunsford and Connors’ 1992 study of 3,000 papers • Write first, then edit. • Target a few errors at a time. • Target the errors that matter most.
2: Use documentation • In academic writing, your ideas are only as good as your evidence. • Your paper should be based on four credible sources.
What’s credible? • Do people who watch shows like CSI make better jurors? Researchers Informed Opinion Personal experience Conversation + = Defenseattorneys Prosecutors
What’s credible? • Evidence-based information or opinion (in Comp II) Experts Question Informed Opinion Personal experience Conversation + Problem = Disagreement Associations EBSCO Pathfinders
What’s credible? • “Alpha roosters” • Professional literature • Peer-reviewed journals • Professional associations • Respected sources • Harvard Business Review • National Institutes of Health • Expert opinion • H. Selye—stress • M. Seligman—happiness, learned helplessness • C. Dweck—praise
What’s credible? • Personal experience • raises questions • gives you background • helps you evaluate evidence(does it fit your experience or not?) • can motivate you • is anecdotal
How many sources? + • critical mass = 4 reliable sources including one scholarly: peer-reviewed or written by experts for people with background • rule of thumb: at least one source per page
Why document? “Although one should not necessarily judge an article by where it appears, there is a pecking order in clinical medicine. The New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) are the alpha roosters.” roosters” (Groopman, 2007, p. 215). 00 in-text citation reference list entry Groopman, J. (2007). How doctors think.New York: Houghton Mifflin.
Why document? What is plagiarism? Find the Plagiarism Policy in the syllabus and jot down a short definition. Be sure to quote any wording you take directlyfrom the policy.
Why document? Is this plagiarism? • Compare it to the original• Does it fit your definition? Plagiarism is the theft of someone else’s ideas and work. Whether a student copies verbatim or simply rephrases the ideas of another without properly acknowledging the source, it is still plagiarism. “Plagiarism is the theft of someone else’s ideas and work. Whether a student copies verbatim or simply rephrases the ideas of another without properly acknowledging the source, it is still plagiarism” (Kaplan University plagiarism policy, 2008).
Course Requirements • Baseline essay (ungraded) • Topic Exploration paragraph (Unit 2) • List of sources (Unit 3) • Working Thesis (Unit 4) • Working outline (Unit 5) • 5-paragraph draft (Unit 7) • 3-5 page informative essay (Unit 8) • Informal presentation (Unit 9) practice correctcitationrequired for credit
Look Over Sample Projects • Final product—3-5 page informative essay — pp. 136-142 • Assignments build toward essay— • List of sources • Working outline • Draft models available in your textand on eCollege platform
Where to Get Help • http:/word-crafter.net/CompI • Assignments • Syllabus • Subject-specific resources • Grammar help • Academic Success Center (ASC) • Library • In person • Email: agress@kaplan.edu
True or False? • There is one right way to write. • Good writers don’t need to revise much. • Only people who love writing write well. • Comp I will destroy my GPA. • My beliefs about writing can make me smarter.
Myth: • There is one right way to write.
Reality: • The writing process is anything a writer does from the time the idea came until the piece is completed or abandoned. There is no particular order. —Donald Graves, writing researcher
Writing Process • Get ideas • Get them down • Revise them • Polish/publish
Take time to plan • “Those who focus on form before generating ideas find it _______ difficult to develop the body of their papers” (Hillocks, 1986).Hillocks, G. (1986). Research on written composition: New directions for teaching. Urbana, IL: National Conference on Research in English. more • “Experienced writers spend upto _____% of their timeplanning” (Davis, 2005, p. 15). Davis, K. W. (2005). The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course in Business Writing and Communication. New York: McGraw-Hill. 40
Polish after you draft • “Writers who try to catch every mistake as they draft can give themselves writer’s block” (Russell, 2005). Russell, M. (2005). The assumptions we make: How learners and teachers understand writing. Retrieved November 3, 2005, from National Center for Adult Learning and Literacy Web site: http://www.ncsall.net/ ?id=336
Who created that draft? • A Kaplan student who’s retaking Comp I • A returning student whose last comp class was 10 years ago • A Newbery-winning author
Reality You have to get the bulk of it down, and then you start to refine it. You have to put down less-than-marvelous material just to keep going, whatever you think the end is going to be, which may be something else altogether by the time you get there. —Larry Gelbart, M.A.S.H writer
Myth • If writing makes me anxious, I must be a bad writer.
Are you this anxious? Anne Lamott describes writing restaurant reviews: I'd write a first draft that was. . . . so long and incoherent and hideous that for the rest of the day I'd obsess about getting creamed by a car before I could write a decent second draft. I'd worry that people would read what I'd written and believe that the accident had really been a suicide, that I had panicked because my talent was waning and my mind was shot. —Bird by Bird
Writing takes effort • In studies of writers, which variable do you think made the biggest difference in quality? • Whether they knew what they wanted to say • Whether they believed they were good writers • How much they liked to write • How much they revised • How much they revised
Myth • If I think I’m a bad writer, I can’t pass this course.
Reality mostly Cs Ds and Fs Bs and As Ds and Fs Bs and As A few Cs Comp Curve(inverted Bell Curve) Normal Bell Curve
Absences :: Grades Based on Comp I grades from March-October 2008. No one who attended every class earned less than a B. Everyone who earned an F missed at least 33% of class.
Absences :: Grades 420 pts.
The Wizard of Oz • The diploma doesn’t make you smarter. • It’s the work you do to get the diploma.
Reality: • Your beliefs about writing can make you smarter.
How do I know? • In a study by Carol Dweck, 4th-graders “were given unsolvable problems followed by solvable ones. Once the ‘helpless students’ failed, their strategies deteriorated down to _____ grade level; whereas, the "mastery-oriented students" stayed at 4th grade level despite failures. They rolled up their sleeves and worked harder. The crucial element was whether the student saw the failure as having to do with ability or effort.”
How to Succeed • Be here • Find a topic you like • Follow the rubrics for each assignment • Read feedback • Keep up with assignments • Revise • Back up your work • Avoid the “Comp is hard” trap
Hairston(1981) Connors &Lunsford(1988 ) Kantz & Yates(1994 ) Beason(2001) References Beason, L. (2001). Ethos and error: How business people react to errors. Retrieved from http:// www.ic.arizona.edu/~profcomm/course/readings/PDFs/Errors.pdf Connors, R.,& Lunsford, A. (1988). Frequency of formal errors in current college writing, or Ma and Pa Kettle do research. College Composition and Communication, 39, 395-409. Hairston, M. (1981). Not all errors are created equal. College English, 43, 794-806. Kantz, M., & Yates, R. (1994). Whose judgments? A survey of faculty responses to common and highly irritating writing errors. Paper presented at the ifth Annual Conference of the NCTE Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar, Illinois State University, Normal, IL. Retrieved from http://www.ateg.org/conferences/c5/kantz.htm
Connors and Lunsford (1986) found an average of • • 9.53 errors per essay • • 2.26 mistakes per 100 words • Connors, A., & Lunsford, R.(1986).Frequency of formal errors in current college writing, or Ma and Pa Kettle do research. College Composition and Communication, 39, 395–409, Retrieved July 19, 2006, from http://www.english.lsu.edu/ dept/programs/ugrad/firstyear/articles/makettle.pdf
What’s a good topic? • Something you care about • Enough to be interested • Not so much you can’t be objective • Something that’s researchable • Time limits • Available information • Something you’re comfortable sharing • Something that’s informative • Something that can contribute new insights • E.g., not