Response to Graff and Birkenstein

By Friday, April 6, blog a paragraph responding to Graff and Birkenstein's lecture. If you didn't attend (ahem), then you'll have to interview a class member and get his or her reaction. To show my good faith on this blog assignment, I am blogging my own paragraph below:

I agree fundamentally with their general thesis. Effective writing is all about "argument" and "joining the conversation." Their book gives writers the "moves" they need to do so. However, what the lecture made me realize was that their general thesis is nothing new. Argument had been the fundament of academic writing since Aristotle. What is effective in their book is their identification of the templates and phrasings that typical academic writers use to engage in such writing activities. Also, to some degree, they were not talking to their audience. Referring to "your students" in the third person was unintentionally demeaning to both the students, who made up the vast majority of the audience, and the few writing instructors who were present. Good writers don't refer to their main audience in the third person. Also, writing teachers at Ohio Wesleyan haven't used the "five-paragraph essay" for a decade or more. Implying that we use outmoded techniques suggests that Graff and Birkenstein didn't evaluate that part of their audience very well. After all, we invited them to OWU because many of us are using their book. We must agree with their basic principles or we wouldn't have done so.

Your greatest weakness as a writer

By next Wednesday, April 4, post a paragraph on your greatest weakness as a writer. Don't worry about exposing yourself in public. To show you my good will on this topic, I will expose my greatest weakness: I write too much. My first drafts are scatterbrained, 2,000-word attempts to produce 650 words of prose. I spends hours/ days trying to cut down and refine the mess into something that resembles a persuasive and powerful essay. I'm never sure whether all that labor is successful.

So what's your weakness? Procrastination? Bad grammar? Ineffective use of secondary sources as evidence? Weak vocabulary? Ineffective academic tone?

BTW, in case you think this assignment is too negative in its tone, the next blog assignment will be to identify your greatest strength as a writer.

I've been writing seriously for 40 years. I am still unsatisfied with the results. How about you?

Research Project Paragraph

By Wednesday, March 28, post a paragraph describing the topic of your research project for ENG 105. The paragraph doesn't have to be anything fancy. Chose a topic and try to limit it to something about which you can write 1,500 - 2,000 words. Be as specific as you can, but note that at this stage, you can't be very specific.

Research Project

Research Project

Length: 5-6 pages (about 1,500 words)

Due dates: see syllabus

Discuss a technologically based disaster or problem, giving a history of the event or a discussion of its causes. Analyze its implications for life on the planet and possible steps for preventing its occurrence in the future.

By the due date listed on the syllabus, complete and hand in a copy of the worksheet below.

Use at least five sources from at least three of the categories of sources (internet, books, newspapers, journals, magazines, and other reference works). Choose sources carefully to reflect the best, most reliable, and most recent information on the topic.

Narrow your topic, especially when the listed topic is a general problem rather than a specific disaster.

Create an argumentative thesis. Include at least one paragraph of refutation. Use evidence from the sources to support your arguments. Don’t over quote. No more than 20% of your essay should be direct quotation. Remember that quotation and paraphrase should be acknowledged with parenthetical citations in the text. Include a “Works Cited” page that lists all the sources cited in the text of your essay.

The following are some suggestions, but you shouldn’t feel limited to them:

The Hindenburg disaster

Three-Mile Island

Chernobyl

Love Canal

The Challenger or Columbia accident

The Exxon oil spill

The New York garbage barge

The Ferald nuclear power plant

The year 2000 computer problem

The Nimitz Freeway disaster

The energy crisis

The Amazon rain forest

International terrorism via Internet

The ozone layer

Global warming

Acid rain

Toxic waste

Dioxin

Land fills

Genetic engineering

Electronic money laundering

Recombinant DNA technology

Biological/chemical weapons

Internet identity theft

Infrastructure failure (some aspect of it)

Nuclear power along the earthquake belt or some other specific problem with nuclear power)

Computer viruses/ spyware/ Trojan horses

Thalidomide babies

The spread of thermonuclear weapons among smaller nations

Cyber bullying

Music piracy (or some other form of piracy)

Criminality on the internet (narrow the focus to, for example, trafficking in slavery, identity theft, prostitution, child pornography, etc.)

Research Project Worksheet

Name:

Topic of your research paper:

Research questions:

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2.

3.

4.

5.

Temporary thesis:

Key words:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Scratch outline:

Sources:

1.

2.

3.

4.

Draft of WA#2 (Fast Food)

Here's a spot to blog the draft of WA#2. Depending on the length, you might have to split it into two posts.

Don't forget to bring a copy with you to your conference time.

Conferences, BTW, are in my Sturges office (313).