12.9 Turning in your work, grades, and next week's class

This evening you worked on posting to your sentence pattern pages, and finishing up your memoirs.  Before we began the workshop, we discussed the following.

Turning in your work :
All work should be posted to your google.site, either as an attachement (successive drafts of your memoir/biography using), or pasted into the page (for vocabulary entries, and sentence patterns for revising your writing). Work will be due by the beginning of class, 12.16.   If you have trouble with your site, or have questions, schedule a time to work with me in my office.

Grades:
As discussed in class, your grade will be assigned in terms of the following allocation of points.

350 points – Class participation (individual and group work) and daily homework (We had a total of 25 points/class; everybody will get 25 points for the class I missed).  Daily homework includes assignment to post writing to your site (see course blog for dates), which I then returned to you with comments.  

150 points – Entries on vocabularly web site (10 points/post, one post a week for the duration of the course)

150 points – Entries on grammar patterns web site (minimum 5 posts at 30 points each)

  200 points – Completed memoir  or biography 

The syllabus originally required journal posts, but we did not do those, so they are not included here.  This means there were a total of 850 points possible for this course.  

You will need over 70% to pass, or a total of 596 points.

Reading next week.
We will be meeting in CAS 308 next week.  You will share your with your classmates.
Each of you should bring a printed copy of the material you want to read.  For your reading, begin by providing some brief background on:
an overview of what your reading will be about;
how you chose your topic,
and any writing issues you faced as you wrote your memoir.

Each reader will have about 10 minutes.


Good class this evening, and I'm looking forward to hearing you read your work.

12.2 Workshop

Tonight's class focused on revising.  I described revising as part of an overall writing process which begins with gathering ideas through talking or writing, then moves to finding a focus and drafting a body of writing which develops that focus.  It is usually best not to begin revising for correctness and style until you have developed a significant amount of writing.  This is because the drafting process is about keeping your mind open and letting the ideas flow, while the revising process is about choosing among ideas, and being particular about language choices and forms.

Once you are ready to revise, I suggested starting with considerations associated with focus, organization and development.

Ask: if your points or in the right order, if your research has enough detail and background to follow your ideas, and if each point/paragraph of your essay develops/connects to your focus.

Once you have revised for focus, organization and development, and are satisfied that you the right material to work with, you can begin "proofreading" for correctness and then finally for style.

When proofreading for correctness, I suggested that you work on one writing issue at a time, and that you notice YOUR particular patterns associated with that issue.  For example, if you are working on pronoun use, pay attention to the places where you use them correctly & incorrectly.  Review what your grammar book says about your pattern, or look up your issue on the Purdue OWL or in a writing handbook. Make a note of your frequent mistakes!

After you have worked on your most frequent patterns for error (I have made a list of 3 in most of my comments to you), read through to see if you can find other kinds of errors.  Once you identify an error - look for other errors of the same kind.

Assignment:
Post examples of your error patterns on the sentence pattern page.

1.Name the pattern (pronoun use)
2. Paste in  examples of your mistakes followed by their corrections.
I hung the pan on his rack over the sink.
I hung the pan on its rack over the sink.
The city council released his decisions in the news paper
The city council released its decisions in the news paper.

Patterns we have identified in your essays include:
verb forms (use of tense,  infinitives, -ing forms and so on)
run-on sentences/ comma splices
pronoun use
use of articles

You should post at least 5 different kinds of patterns to on your page.

For Dec 9 & 16: In class next week, you will continue to work on finishing your memoir and posting to your sentence pattern page.  We may spend some time in class sharing sentence patterns to work on - if the technology allows us to.  We will also talk about setting up for our final class where you will share your memoirs with one another.





 

Places to read and publish immigration/first generation college graduate stories

Some of these sites are more "political" than others, and there are many more sites
"out there" which I have not posted here.   I was thinking that since you have written your memoirs, and since many of you wrote about your journey to/experience of coming to the United States,  I thought you might be interested in seeing writing by others.  Some of these sites also invite writers to post their stories.

 Angel Island Immigration Station Stories

MyImmigrationStory.com

We Are America

The White House

I'm First  

Winning Essays in a Contest by US Immigrant Students

11.25 Worskshop

This evenings class was a workshop.  Writing posted to your site was returned to your email with comments  meant to direct your work during the class.

As you find patterns which need revision in your work: post them to your site on the page for "sentence patterns."  Each of you will have different patterns.  As stated in class, individuals do not make errors randomly - but in systematic ways.  By identifying and naming your patterns for error, you will be develop NEW patterns for  composing and revising your work that will be closer approximations of standard written English.

Next week, 12.2, is the last week I will be giving written feedback. If you do not require further comments from me and you have submitted 7 or more pages of writing, you are not required to submit your work.   For feedback, send your essay (updated using track changes) to the course email by Sunday, 3:00, 12.1.  This is the last week I will be providing written feedback before your final drafts are due on 12.16.

We have only 3 classes remaining.  The schedule is as follows
12.2: workshop; presentation on writing about composing processes

12.9: discussion of revision; workshop on revising

12.16: final memoir/biography + reflective writing due as attachments sent to course email by the end of class