Rewrite your response with all sentences written on a new line. Tear it up so each sentence is on a separate piece of paper. Give it to a classmate and see if they can put it back in the original order. (Best done in pairs)
Write a new response to something you hate or strongly dislike: write the opposite of what you wrote before, so if you wrote about something you liked, write now about something you hate, and vice-versa). (can be a performer, or other person), but don’t mention the person thing by name. Give it to a classmate and see if they can guess the work of art or artist.
Write a response to a fictional work of art or artist/performer/athlete or sports team that you created/invented.
Re-write your #1 essay (the persuasive one I returned to you today). You have two weeks for this assignment. Ask me in class if you have any questions.
Today’s class:
Textbook p. 112: answer the questions on loose-leaf paper
Textbook p. 114 Practice 1: answer the questions on loose-leaf paper.
Re-write your free-writing #2 from last week by re-arranging the sentences to be as disorderly as possible.
None. Today was the deadline for essay #1: problem-solution essay. If you were absent today, email me your essay today or tomorrow. Overdue essays may not receive correction or feedback.
Homework: Choose a topic for your next essay (read textbook p94 Section D and the model essay on pp 91-2), and write the first draft. Bring it to class next week (October 25). We will read and comment on each others’ drafts. Handwritten is ok at this stage.
Returned last week’s freewriting. Reminder to keep them.
Homework review: what are the main purposes of the first 4 essays in the textbook? (1st is Explanation, 2nd & 4th are Exposition, all others are Discussions)
Welcome to Sheffner’s Academic Writing II. Did you have a good vacation? I had a very good vacation. I went back to England for the first time in 13 years, met my parents and my brother and sister and their families. (Click this link to read more).
First, here’s the schedule for this semester.
October 4th
October 11th
October 18th
October 25th – Essay #1 due
November 1st (cancelled 休講）
November 8th
November 15th
November 22nd
November 29th – Essay #2 due
December 6th
December 13th
December 20th
January 10th
January 11th (makeup 補講）
January 17th – Essay #3 due
January 24th – All essays and freewriting due
Homework:
Read the model essay in Unit 4 of the textbook and answer these questions:
What is the purpose of this essay? (Choose from the list below.)
What is the purpose of each paragraph? Choose from the list below:
describing
explaining
persuading
reporting
telling someone how to do something
explaining the rules of something
Today’s class
Free writing about your summer vacation (10 minutes)
Editing your free writing (about 5 minutes)
Differences between formal, written, academic language and informal, spoken and non-academic language.
Written language
Time-delayed
tends to be formal
avoids colloquial (conversational) style
avoids slang
avoids using personal pronouns (we, I, you, etc)
avoids starting sentences with conjunctions
tries to be as precise and accurate as possible
tries to be as concise as possible (using as few words as possible)
Spoken language
“live”, in real time
tends to be informal
often conversational
slang is ok
uses personal pronouns a lot
uses conjunctions a lot, even at the beginning of sentences
precision and accuracy are not always high priorities
conciseness is not always a priority
Then we looked at the first essay in the textbook (p. 4-5) and asked, What are its charactersitics as formal, written, academic language?
Answers:
organization
paragraphs
format (indentation, margins, name of writer, class, teacher and date at the top of the first page)
title
Then we re-wrote our free writing to make it more academic and formal.
We looked at the first 4 essays in the textbook and asked, What is the purpose of each essay? What is the writer doing in each essay?
