Class #9

Hand in your Remembering papers.

We discuss writing about readings.

We read "Teach Diversity -- with a Smile" by Barbara Ehrenreich, page 158.

You write about this article.

Grammar exercise.

Homework

1. Use pages 162-164 to help you write a paragraph of response to "Teach Diversity" in your journal.

2. Read in Reid pages 361-367, an essay by Debra Tannen called "How Male and Female Students Use Language Differently."

3. Look at the article choices below for your next writing assignment, the Summary/Response paper. You must choose which article you will write about; if you want me to print out a copy of an online article, you must send me an email before class Thursday with your request. Otherwise, you will need to make your own copy to work with. (Make sure that you print out ALL the pages of the article. There will be a minimum of six pages, usually more.) If you dislike all these choices, you may choose another article from the New Yorker archives, and ask for my approval by email.

4. Finish the grammar assignment.

5. Two vocabulary words.

THE ARTICLE CHOICES:

In Reid, "The Homeless and Their Children" by J. Kozol, pages 304 to 311.

In Reid, "Miss Clairol's Does She or Doesn't She?: How to Market a Dangerous Product" by J. Twitchell, pages 245-250.

Link to "What Helen Keller Saw" by Cynthia Ozick.

Link to "The Naked Face" by Malcolm Gladwell. (Can we read minds?)

Link to "How David Beats Goliath" by Malcolm Gladwell. (How can underdogs win?)

Link to "Hellhole" by Atul Gawande. (Solitary confinement)

Link to "Troublemakers" by Malcolm Gladwell. (Pit bulls and more)

Link to "Crimson Tide" by Atul Gawande. (The science of blushing)

Class #8

I return your journals.

We go over grammar a bit (click on "a bit" for help with combining ideas), and groups work on Exercise 24.2, discuss Alice Walker's piece and share beginnings.

Peer review.

Homework

1. Read in Reid "The Red Chevy" pages 145-148.

2. Create the final version of the Remembering paper. Edit carefully, with special attention to fragments, c.s. and run-ons.

3. In your journal write out a completely different beginning for your Remembering essay. Try to think of a totally new way to begin -- it won't necessarily be better, but it should be different.

4. Make sure that in your journal you list the beginnings you brought to class for today.

5. Two vocabulary words.

Class #7

First off, I talk about memoirs, including fake ones , Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by David Eggars. If you want to read that book, try to get the paperback edition because he changed it between editions.

We discuss "Lives on the Boundaries."

Grammar practice: coordination and subordination, again. Everyday Writer Exercise 24.2.

Peer Review of draft #1 of the Remembering Essay.

Beginnings: examples of hooks famous, infamous, good and bad. Here are some by Mitchell Melville , Dickens, and the man himself, Bulwer-Lytten. And then there is Solzhenitsyn.

Homework

1. Read Alice Walker's "Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self" pages 117-124 in Reid.

2. Write Draft #2 of your Remembering Essay. Now is the time to focus in on your dominant idea and make sure that you are having the effect you desire.

3. Bring examples of three different beginnings of books or articles to class. They can be either effective or ineffective hooks, in your estimation. When you have your journal back, you will list what these are in your journal.

4. Two vocabulary words (to add to your journal when you have it back).