A migraine has me floored and while I'm slowly picking my way through rough drafts, it won't be in time to be useful. So...
Go ahead and turn your essays in on Wednesday.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Essay #3
Essay #3: Out of Class Definition Argument
For this class we will read several perspectives on the myth and evolving nature of family in the United States. Using compatible criteria from your readings, studies, and experiences, as well as evidence from these readings and any outside sources you wish to integrate (using MLA format) write an 8-page essay (approx. 2000 words) defining what family means to you. There are several options for this essay, including, but not limited to defending the American ideal of family, redefining the American family, defining your own family as the typical American family, or even the radical approach of delineating chosen families from biological ones. You may even use one or two television families to support your definition. You are only limited by your own set of criteria and what you can convincingly support.
Requirements:
- Eight pages (2000 Words), typed, double-spaced, 12-pt font (Times or Arial).
- At least three (3) criteria for your definition. At least two (2) sub-criteria for each criterion.
- The bulk of your examples must come from readings, either in class or ones you find on your own.
- Personal examples must include specific details.
- Television examples must refer to specific characters in specific episodes.
- Specificity is the key.
- Your essay must consider at least one objection to either your definition as a whole or one of the criteria.
- Your conclusion must discuss how feasible it is for society to accept your definition of family.
Rough Draft Due Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Bring (or distribute) three copies for workshop.
Turn it into turnitin.com by end of day (30 points)
Final Draft Due Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Also turn it into turnitin.com (out of possible 120 points)
Final Reminder
Bring 3 copies of your rough draft to class today. If you haven't already, turn an electronic copy of your essay into turnitin.com. So far, section 50 is in the lead with all but two of its students signed up. Section 10 is a close second. Sections 5 and 54 are tied for third.
I will have a sign up sheet in class for optional conferences, to be held on Monday, Feb. 21 in lieu of class. Please only sign up for time slots during your class block or my office hours. Yes, it might seem neat to get that extra hour of sleep, but I want to accomodate the students who can only see me during their class times first.
I will have a sign up sheet in class for optional conferences, to be held on Monday, Feb. 21 in lieu of class. Please only sign up for time slots during your class block or my office hours. Yes, it might seem neat to get that extra hour of sleep, but I want to accomodate the students who can only see me during their class times first.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Turnitin.com
This is another reminder to sign up for turnitin.com. It is required that each rough draft and final draft be submitted to this site. Final drafts will say "revision 1." Rough drafts are worth 25% of your essay grade, just for having them complete. Here are the codes again.
Edit to add: As of 6PM, Sunday night, fewer than half of you have signed up. The class that is first to sign up completely gets a prize. Section 10 is currently ahead.
- Sec 05: 3769767
- Sec 10: 3769772
- Sec 50: 3769781
- Sec 54: 3769783
Edit to add: As of 6PM, Sunday night, fewer than half of you have signed up. The class that is first to sign up completely gets a prize. Section 10 is currently ahead.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Parallelism and Thesis statements.
I have a few simple rules about thesis statements.
- A thesis is never a question.
- There is an impulse with students to try to use the question from a prompt as their thesis statements. This is a poor impulse. At the very least, the thesis statement should be the answer to the question, but never the question itself.
- A thesis is never a fact.
- We will be doing a couple of compare and contrast essays in class, mostly in preparation for the final. The most common thesis structure for for these kinds of essays is "There are similarities and there are differences between X and Y." This isn't very useful information. There are similarities and differences between myself and a kumquat, but that doesn't make for good essay writing. In fact, there are similarities and differences between all sorts of things. These simply exist and are not arguable. However, the minute you claim that those similarities mean something, the minute you give them weight in the world, give them implication, is the minute when you've gone from facts to an arguable position.
- A thesis takes a position.
- It does not matter if you can see all sides of an issue, which, in itself, is something to be applauded. You must take a stance when making an argument. You must choose one side, out of all the possible sides, that you most lean toward. It is problematic to argue the middle, even if it's desirable. Choose a position, even if it's one with which you only sort of, kind of agree.
- A good thesis outlines the rest of the essay
- I'm a big fan of what I call the roadmap method of thesis statements. A good thesis not only states your position, but calls attention to the structure, or at least the big, structural ideas, you're going to use to support your thesis. These ideas should come, if not in the thesis statement (and let's face it, with compound and complex sentences at your disposal, there is little reason why they should not) then as physically near to it as you can make it. These ideas should also be in the order in which you plan to present them in the essay. Always check your thesis statement after completing an essay to make sure that your paragraph order matches your roadmap. Sometimes things change while your writing. Make sure your opening reflects those changes.
- A good thesis is elegant and maintains parallelism.
- Parallelism is the act of making sentence structures parallel, or grammatically even. It is when you give structures in sentences the same grammatic slope. Not every sentence need maintain perfect parallelism, but your thesis statement should stive for as perfect a parallelism as you can muster. Remember: when in doubt, break your sentence into several sentences and look at the structures
- Marriage is a sacred act between two people who sign their autonomy away on a piece of paper, give rings, and make sure that a priest or rabbi or minister or rabbit or duck or friend with access to the internet witnesses the whole thing so that the state will recognize their union.
- Marriage is a sacred act between two people who sign their autonomy away on a piece of paper.
- Marriage is a sacred act between two people who give rings
- Marriage is a sacred act between two people who make sure that a priest or rabbi or minister or rabbit or duck or friend with access to the internet witnesses the whole thing so that the state will recognize their union
- Notice the lack of parallelism?
- Marriage is a sacraed act between two people who sign their autonomy away on a piece of paper, give each other rings to signify their bondage, and make sure that a minister legalizes the deal.
- Better.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
What is a Sentence?
A sentence, at its core, is merely a collection of words that gives meaning. In fact, different languages have different standards for what is required in a sentence and how they're structured. English only requires two things: a subject and a verb.
He runs.
In fact, English is called a Subject-Verb language, but this is only part of the truth. Everything that is not the subject is also known as the predicate.
Any sentence with a single independent clause (a subject-predicate construction) is called a simple sentence.
The rat gave fleas to his wife.
The rat is the subject of this sentence. Gave is the verb. The fleas are what are known as the direct object. Finally, the wife is what as known as either the indirect object or the object of the preposition.
A lot of the time, young writers, in some vain attempt to sound academic, like to squeeze as much information into sentences as they can. Usually the result looks like thus:
The rat gave fleas to his wife she filed for divorce.
When you have two independent clauses jammed together, you create a compound sentence. This, however, is not a compound sentence. This is a run on sentence, because the two clauses are joined together with nothing but spit and a prayer. So this is usually the solution students attempt:
The rat gave fleas to his wife, she filed for divorce.
This is no solution at all. This creates another, more insidious error called a comma splice. A comma splice is a run on with jewelry. It's got bling. That little dangling earring of a punctuation is certainly pretty, and looks nice between those two burly independent clauses, but it's about as effective at holding them together as a paperclip is at holding 2x4s steady. It just won't do it.
Want to know the solution?
Nail that sucker in!
The rat gave fleas to his wife; she filed for divorce.
By nailing in the comma with a period, and thus creating a semicolon, you have created a punctuation that is sturdy enough to hold two independent clauses together. Really, the semicolon is the bastard lovechild of the period and the comma, taking up where the duties of both are not up to the task. Coming to the end of an independent clause? Use a period. But you don't want to end the idea? Use a comma. But that's grammatically incorrect! Use a period. But the next idea is linked to the first. Use a comma. But I should end the sentence! Period. But I don't want to end the sentence! Comma.
Aw, forget it. Let's just use both. Semicolon.
Of course, if you don't want to nail in your independent clauses, you can always mortar them together.
The rat gave fleas to his wife, and she filed for divorce.
Conjunctions are the glues that hold independent clauses together, although the different glues have different effects. And, but, or, and for are the most common coordinating conjunctions, and they each create different meanings in a sentence. Be sure to use the proper glue for each set of independent clauses.
Of course, if you're really sold on using that comma -- I mean, it certainly is pretty! -- then you can always revise the sentence so that it is no longer two big, inflexible independent clauses into a more flexible and lightweight structure. Turn one of the clauses into a dependent clause (sometimes known as a subordinate clause). A dependent clause is a clause that cannot stand alone as a sentence the same way independent ones can.
After the rat gave fleas to his wife is a fragment. A dependent clause is quite literally dependent on more information, or more specifically, an independent clause. This is also why your elementary school teachers told you, rather erroneously, that you cannot and must not ever, ever, ever, ever begin a sentence with because; however the word because only creates a dependent clause, so were you to finish the sentence off with an independent clause, it would be correct. In fact, let's change that after in the example into because.
Because the rat gave fleas to his wife, she filed for divorce.
Because of the flexibility of this structure, the comma, as I said earlier, is well up to the task of holding this together. This more efficient and elegant structure is known as a complex sentence.
We'll get to paragraphs later, but suffice it to say that the best strategy when writing is to change up structures based on need. A paragraph of all simple sentences or all compound sentences or all complex sentences becomes droningly rhythmic.
I have one last word on sentences, however: active voice. Okay, those are two words. While many teachers ask for the active voice, I will, in fact, demand it. Remember my three goals of writing: Clarity, Concision, and then Elegance. The active voice lends itself to all three. Here is all you need to know about the difference between the active and passive:
In the active voice, the subject verbs, or the subject verbs the object.
In the passive voice, the subject gets verbed.
Be kind to your subjects; don't let them get verbed.
~Prof. Peter
He runs.
In fact, English is called a Subject-Verb language, but this is only part of the truth. Everything that is not the subject is also known as the predicate.
Any sentence with a single independent clause (a subject-predicate construction) is called a simple sentence.
The rat gave fleas to his wife.
The rat is the subject of this sentence. Gave is the verb. The fleas are what are known as the direct object. Finally, the wife is what as known as either the indirect object or the object of the preposition.
A lot of the time, young writers, in some vain attempt to sound academic, like to squeeze as much information into sentences as they can. Usually the result looks like thus:
The rat gave fleas to his wife she filed for divorce.
When you have two independent clauses jammed together, you create a compound sentence. This, however, is not a compound sentence. This is a run on sentence, because the two clauses are joined together with nothing but spit and a prayer. So this is usually the solution students attempt:
The rat gave fleas to his wife, she filed for divorce.
This is no solution at all. This creates another, more insidious error called a comma splice. A comma splice is a run on with jewelry. It's got bling. That little dangling earring of a punctuation is certainly pretty, and looks nice between those two burly independent clauses, but it's about as effective at holding them together as a paperclip is at holding 2x4s steady. It just won't do it.
Want to know the solution?
Nail that sucker in!
The rat gave fleas to his wife; she filed for divorce.
By nailing in the comma with a period, and thus creating a semicolon, you have created a punctuation that is sturdy enough to hold two independent clauses together. Really, the semicolon is the bastard lovechild of the period and the comma, taking up where the duties of both are not up to the task. Coming to the end of an independent clause? Use a period. But you don't want to end the idea? Use a comma. But that's grammatically incorrect! Use a period. But the next idea is linked to the first. Use a comma. But I should end the sentence! Period. But I don't want to end the sentence! Comma.
Aw, forget it. Let's just use both. Semicolon.
Of course, if you don't want to nail in your independent clauses, you can always mortar them together.
The rat gave fleas to his wife, and she filed for divorce.
Conjunctions are the glues that hold independent clauses together, although the different glues have different effects. And, but, or, and for are the most common coordinating conjunctions, and they each create different meanings in a sentence. Be sure to use the proper glue for each set of independent clauses.
Of course, if you're really sold on using that comma -- I mean, it certainly is pretty! -- then you can always revise the sentence so that it is no longer two big, inflexible independent clauses into a more flexible and lightweight structure. Turn one of the clauses into a dependent clause (sometimes known as a subordinate clause). A dependent clause is a clause that cannot stand alone as a sentence the same way independent ones can.
After the rat gave fleas to his wife is a fragment. A dependent clause is quite literally dependent on more information, or more specifically, an independent clause. This is also why your elementary school teachers told you, rather erroneously, that you cannot and must not ever, ever, ever, ever begin a sentence with because; however the word because only creates a dependent clause, so were you to finish the sentence off with an independent clause, it would be correct. In fact, let's change that after in the example into because.
Because the rat gave fleas to his wife, she filed for divorce.
Because of the flexibility of this structure, the comma, as I said earlier, is well up to the task of holding this together. This more efficient and elegant structure is known as a complex sentence.
We'll get to paragraphs later, but suffice it to say that the best strategy when writing is to change up structures based on need. A paragraph of all simple sentences or all compound sentences or all complex sentences becomes droningly rhythmic.
I have one last word on sentences, however: active voice. Okay, those are two words. While many teachers ask for the active voice, I will, in fact, demand it. Remember my three goals of writing: Clarity, Concision, and then Elegance. The active voice lends itself to all three. Here is all you need to know about the difference between the active and passive:
In the active voice, the subject verbs, or the subject verbs the object.
In the passive voice, the subject gets verbed.
Be kind to your subjects; don't let them get verbed.
~Prof. Peter
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