Wiki Topic

As soon as possible, post a paragraph describing your group's wiki topic and how you have divided up the labor. Be as concrete and specific as you can on both fronts. Make sure that you have identified your group in the paragraph. Post your paragraph by Tuesday at 5 PM.

Sometime Tuesday evening, look at the paragraphs submitted by the other members of your group. Have you reached a consensus about the topic and the division of labor?

Don't worry about grammar, usage, and punctuation. This assignment is not a PA. I've designed it to make sure that you're all on the same page as far as the wiki is concerned.

They Say -- I Say #4 (Refutation)

PA#4 -- They Say, I Say (Refutation)

Look again at the cartoon on p. 282. Identify ONE claim that it seems to be making about your generation.

In a topic sentence, state that claim and exactly how you disagree with it. Then, show with examples and details that the cartoon makes that claim.

Then, disagree with one specific argument against the cartoonists original claim.

Finally, provide evidence -- as specific as you can find from your own life -- that the claim is not true.

You are being asked to write a classic refutation paragraph. Downshift. Get very specific.

Post a draft of the paragraph ASAP, but no later than 5 PM on Tuesday night.

Feel free to use any of the templates in Chapters 4 and 5 of TSIS.

PA#3: Definition/ Division Paragraph

PA#3: Definition/ Division Paragraph

You will be meeting with a class member on Monday, January 23, to write a descriptive paragraph about that class member. Interview each other. Try to find an important characteristic of that person and write a paragraph about her or him and it.

Post that paragraph ASAP -- as soon as you can get to a computer and keyboard it in -- but certainly by Friday, 1/27/2012 at 5 PM, so we can talk about it in class.

Important: You cannot possibly capture the entire person in one paragraph. As I hope you learned from the previous assignment, you must think of the paragraph you are writing as part of a whole essay. Isolate one defining characteristic and write a paragraph about it. Think about that one characteristic as part of a larger essay about the person, but don't try to write the entire essay. Write about that one characteristic that might be part of the larger essay.

We'll talk in class about how to organize the paragraph. However, please note that you'll be looking for a defining characteristic for the topic sentence, and you'll be isolating a PARALLEL set of sub-characteristics that subdivide and develop the main characteristic.

Paragraph #2

Post PA #2 below as soon as possible, but certainly by Wednesday at 5 PM.

Notes for PA #2 -- They Say

For Monday, I've asked you to read the Preface and Chapter 1 of TSIS. Please do so, and read the book to class. You'll be reading about the basic "They Say" paragraph.

In the meantime, take a careful look at the cartoon on p. 282 of TSIS. Blog a set of notes (not a paragraph analyzing what you think the cartoon says. Look carefully at details in the cartoon and note the ones that support your point of view.

Blog your notes below by Sunday at 5 PM, and bring a hard copy of your notes to class on Monday so that you can write the paragraph in class.

Paragraph #1 -- Basic Downshifting

We'll actually write the paragraph in class on Wednesday, January 18, so you need only bring detailed notes to class. In the meantime, observe your environment. Look around. Take some notes.

Define and describe a problem here at Ohio Wesleyan. Start with a topic sentence that defines the problem. Then describe the problem in more detail in subsequent sentences. Finally, give a detailed example of the problem. Use the details to illuminate the description above.

Write a well developed paragraph that follows the basic downshifting pattern we will discuss in class. Sometime over the weekend, post your paragraph to the blog as a "comment" to this assignment. Also, BRING THE PARAGRAPH TO CLASS on Friday so we can spend some time in class editing it.

We will follow that basic pattern on all the paragraphs you write during the first weeks on the semester:

Day 1: Draft the paragraph. Blog it ASAP.

Next class day: Edit the previous paragraph and draft a the next one.