Tuesday, September 11, 2007

 

English 201 Today and Yesterday

Today we read from Rose. Ironically, the poem was on page 11. No one shared. We then reviewed the terms discussed yesterday: thesis, declarative sentence, etc.

Students answered aloud the questions on pages 9 and 10 in the handout from Writing with a Thesis.

A thesis is restricted, unified, and specific. A thesis is not: the title of an article, an announcement, or the entire essay. A thesis is the controlling idea of the essay. It is the stand you take on a topic. It is the claim the essay seeks to prove.

Wednesday, English 201, 8-9 a.m., is meeting in the library for an orientation. All 8-9 class assignments are due Thursday, Sept. 13. The homework is to develop five thesis sentences on themes from Dear Mama. The topic is parenting or Tupac and his mother, Afeni Shakur. I also want students to read Chapter 2 (Dyson), pages 47-57.

Students are still finishing up the Too Short assignment, which was to answer the question: Does Too Short make an appropriate role model for youth? You do not have to agree with Eric Arnold's premise. I asked that the response be minimally 250 words. This is an essay response, so there needs to be a introductory paragraph, a body paragraph where the topic is explored and a conclusion where the writer draws the discussion to a close and perhaps sheds new light on the topic.

If you are confused or unclear about anything ask me the question.

Continue with your logs, which are short entries for each chapter which look at key themes, especially the reoccurring ones. In the logs students can also pose any questions they might have about the text which can be brought out in class discussion. List vocabulary words here, plus their definitions.

You can also ask me questions in the comment section of the blog and I will respond to you.

There is a great article in the Oakland Tribune about Kanye West and 50 Cent by Jim Harrington. Check it out, the writing is excellent. The writer models his research skills well. Note where he sites his sources and the smooth way he incorporates them into the material.

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