Composition 151

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Composition 151

• McHenry County College
• Instructor Mark Andel
• Week One

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Course Introduction

• Biography/Background Notes
• www.andelmedia.com
• Syllabus
• Folders (Portfolios)
• Value of Writing
• Practical and Academic Writing
• Immortality Sullivan Ballou
• Ballou letter

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Course Introduction

• Syllabus (Overview) Angel
• Expectations
• Providing Tools to become better writers
• Attendance (points)
• Handouts (portfolio)
• Writers Workshop method Here to assist

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Course Introduction

• Getting Organized to Write

• Shut out distractions
• Have a designated place (no big fancy desk)
• Focus Tap into deep reservoir of thinking
• Experience
• Feelings
• Thoughts and Knowledge

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Course Introduction

• You know more than you think you do.
• - Dr. Benjamin Spock

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Course Introduction

• Goal Cards
• What do you expect and need to get out of this
  class?
• What are working toward?
• What profession are you planning to enter how
  will writing play into it?
• (Ten minutes)

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Things to Consider

• Purpose
• Audience
• Form

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Guidelines

• Be fearless in your expression.
• Put your head on the chopping block
• If you restrain yourself, your writing will
  suffer.
• Look for the Universal
• Have a point

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Guidelines

• Audience Whos reading this and who do you want
  to read it?
• Be proud of your work
• Strive for clarity of vision
• Make your experience relevant to your reader be
  respectful of your reader

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Guidelines

• Make your experience your readers experience
  with well-chosen detail
• Make your reader see
• Make your reader feel
• Involve senses ALL of them
• Research papers can be heartfelt, too

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The Value of Writing Well

• Business (email is king)
• School (writing across the curriculum)
• Correspondence (Distinguish yourself with style
• Journals (To enjoy later in life)
• Persuade people, encourage, inspire!

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The Value of Writing Well

• Writing is often an employers first impression
  of you vital importance
• Web presence
• Business reports
• Other jobs law enforcement, nursing, marketing,
  management, media

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Chapter One

• Critical Thinking and Reading
• Interpret an image (p.15)
• Synthesizing Ideas (p. 21)

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(No Transcript)
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Overview Text, p. 18

• Be curious be patient
• Focus Make connections
• Value other points of view (Rogerian)
• Tolerate ambiguity Avoid jumping to conclusions
• Test evidence Be creative
• Take notes Get involved Be receptive

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Reading Strategies

• Scan and survey
• Ask Questions
• Recite (5 Journalism Questions)
• Review
• Marginal notes in text (Annotate)

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Annotate what you read
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Reading Strategies

• The Media and the Ethics of Cloning (p. 7)
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• Read critically
• Take notes
• Ask Questions
• On the horns of a moral dilemma

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Clustering Cloning
God
Humans vs. Animals
Moral Concerns
Frankenstein
Cloning
Spare Parts
Ethical concerns
Media Treatment
Dr. Seed
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Clustering You
College
Hopes and Fears
Relationships
Work/Career
You
Memories
Family
Time Management
Friends
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Looping

• Keychain or rear view mirror object
• What is the object?
• What is its history?
• What does it mean to you?
• Is there a larger context?

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Objects in the Rear View Mirror

• (Handout of column)
• Personal reflection
• Significant Life events
• What matters to you?
• Can you make your life relevant to readers and
  make them care?

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Objects on the Rear View Mirror
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To begin writing . . . .

• Robert Blys Tree Theory
• Bubble Meditation
• Journalism Questions
• Cinematic Thinking
• Concrete, not abstract thoughts
• Make writing a visual medium

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Chapter 11 Description and Reflection

• To a Mouse Robert Burns

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Assignment

• Write an Observation Essay

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Essay 1 Comp. 151   Instructor Mark
Andel Observation Essay Describing a
Person   Write an essay about a person you know
first-hand. Go through the process of collecting,
shaping, drafting, and revising your work in
order to arrive at a distillation of that
persons essence and character. Make use of
clustering and brainstorming as part of your
collecting of information, and shape this raw
material into some visual, sensory-rich details
that show the reader what this person is like
(not He is a nice man, but rather Dogs and
children would follow him around.) Select your
details carefully so that you have a focused look
at some distinctive traits that are unique and
worth mentioning. By the end of your essay, your
reader should have a good idea of who this person
is and what they are like. Avoid vague, general
words that are opinion-driven, like beautiful
or handsome or ugly. Make yourself
invisible as a writer. We should know this
person not by your personal judgments but by the
details we are shown.     Format/Length
considerations   Title (centered) Last name/page
in upper right-hand corner Stapled upper
left Keep margins at 1 default Double-spaced
text Indented paragraphs Normal font,
12-point 2-4 pages, which means a minimum of 2
full pages
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• Read Chapter 10
• Narration and Description
• OVERVIEW p. 146
• Topics to Consider
• That Morning on the Prairie (p. 152)