english easy course

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Assignment 6: Reading at a College Level Part 2

Purpose

1. Develop college level reading skills 2. Improve or begin usage of MLC citation mechanics. 3. Demonstrate correct quotation mechanic usage. 4. Understand the Reader Expectations for Paragraphs

Objectives

1. Explain how essays you read are observing PRE at the sentence and paragraphs level

2. Describe how a writer observes paragraph PRE or not (Sanders essay) 3. Verbalize new concepts that help to explain the linkage between words and

thinking (Frye essay) 4. Improve usage of MLC citation mechanics.

Reading Assignments

• Chapter 8: The Phenomena of Paragraphs (see comments below before reading)

• Chapter 4: “Reading at a College Level” • Chapter 10: “Research Paper Mechanics”: especially p. 221- 225 on citing

sources within your paragraphs.

Instructor Comments : read the following before you read the assigned readings

Ch. 8: the PRE of Paragraphs – you will need to spend some time reading and studying this chapter. I list the Principles of Reader Expectations (PRE) for Paragraphs on p. 174, but then pay special attention to the paragraph after the list of PRE. Once you use these concepts to analyze the structure of any paragraph you write, you will be able to KNOW if a paragraph will get traction in the mind of the reader. In addition, if you realize your paragraph doesn’t meet PRE, you know how to revise the paragraph so it does. And then as you revise in light of paragraph PRE, you will realize you are seeing aspects of your topic you have not seen before. At least that is what has happened to me.

There are two major concepts with paragraph PRE – the contract (which just deals with the ‘topic sentence’) and the sentences that follow the contract. Those sentences will contain the expectation that is described on p. 176: at the start of every sentence after the contract, we expect the first information to be information we are familiar with. After the familiar information is provided at the start of every sentence (after the contract), we will accept new information.

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Then be sure to study the statements on p. 177 that are in bold. They give you information you can use about the nature of this familiar information.

One more point: the idea of old to new is not used for analyzing the contract (which we use to call the topic sentence). The idea of old to new is just used for sentences after the contract.

Turn to Chapter 8 now and read and study the chapter, then access the first two assignments. Those assignments show you how to analyze a paragraph in the light of Paragraph PRE. When done with those assignments, return to these comments before reading the Sanders assignment

Read the following before reading Sanders and completing the assignment:

1. Ignore the writing assignment for the Sanders essay that is given on p. 69 and instead do the following:

2. Describe the paragraph structure using the vocabulary of PRE for the structure of the following two paragraphs: a. the first paragraph of the essay on page 69 b. the first paragraph on p. 71

3. Note: you don’t need to type out the paragraphs in your analysis. 4. Also, those two assignments you studied have a description of the

paragraph using the vocabulary of PRE for Paragraphs. You need to use the same vocabulary. So I expect to see words like ‘contract,’ ‘character,’ ‘concept,’ ‘old to new’ in your descriptions.

Click the “Paragraph Fragging” link in the Assignment 6 folder to watch a video on how to “Frag” a paragraph.

Return to these comments before you read the Frye essay

ABOUT THE FRYE ESSAY:

I believe that all students should read Frye’s essay on the links between words and thinking. He offers some challenges to our assumptions about how thinking occurs and the role of words in thinking. Frye forces us to realize that we are not always thinking. We always have mental activity going on in our minds, but we should reserve the term thinking to refer to mental activity that involves our engagement with words.

In any case, ignore the “writing assignment” instructions on p. 66 and follow these instructions for your response:

Write a 500 word response to this question: How will Frye’s ideas change the way you approach writing a first draft and your assumptions about writing in

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general? In answering this question, quote three sentences from Frye’s essay. In the final draft, each quotation must be a stand-alone sentence (don’t add your own wording before the quote or after it) and the tagline is in a different place for each quotation. You can consult p. 221- 225 for examples of tagline placement and punctuation as well as the worksheet on quotes you did.

Also, see the “Tear Out Sheet” on p. 95 and provide answers to just the following: #1, #2, #5, #7 and #8. You can write those answers down just after your response.

Assignments

Assignment #1: Analysis of a paragraph for PRE NO POINTS Click the “Example of Revising in the Light of Analyzing Paragraph for Paragraph PRE (P-PRE)” link in the Assignment 6 folder to access this analysis of a paragraph for its observance of PRE. Study how the student identifies the character, concept and significance in the contract and then how he ‘frags’ the paragraph to help see if the writer has observed the Paragraph PRE. You do not submit any assignment with this reading. Assignment #2: Analysis of a paragraph from an academic text for PRE #2 NO POINTS Click the “Analyzing Paragraph for PRE from Academic Text” link in the Assignment 6 folder to access the analysis of a paragraph from an academic text for its observance of PRE. Study how in his analysis, the student identifies the character, concept and significance in the contract and then how he ‘frags’ the paragraph to help see if the writer has observed the Paragraph PRE. You do not submit any assignment with this reading.

Sanders Response (35 points)

Type your responses to this assignment using a word processing program and save as a file. If you are using a word processing program other than Microsoft Word, then please save the file as Rich Text Format. Submit the file as an attachment.

After reading Ch. 8 on Paragraph PRE and studying the two examples of Paragraph PRE analysis, read the Sanders essay (p. 69 – 72) with an awareness of his paragraph structure. Then , instead of choosing your own paragraphs, I’d like you to describe the structure of the following two paragraphs:

1. the first paragraph of the essay on page 69

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2. the first paragraph on p. 71

Note: you don’t need to type out the paragraphs in your analysis.

Frye Response (35 points)

Type your responses to this assignment using a word processing program and save as a file. If you are using a word processing program other than Microsoft Word, then please save the file as Rich Text Format. Submit the file as an attachment.

Ignore the “writing assignment” instructions on p. 66 and follow these instructions for your response:

Write a 500 word response to this question: How will Frye’s ideas change the way you approach writing a first draft and your assumptions about writing in general? In answering this question, quote three sentences from Frye’s essay. In the final draft, each quotation must be a stand-alone sentence (don’t add your own wording before the quote or after it) and the tagline is in a different place for each quotation. You can consult p. 221- 225 for examples of tagline placement and punctuation as well as the worksheet on quotes you did.

Also, see the “Tear Out Sheet” on p. 95 and provide answers to just the following: #1, #2, #5, #7 and #8. You can write those answers down just after your response.

Keep these thing in mind as you read Frye and complete this writing assignment:

• Think of “ironies” as pointing out “contrasts” • Think of the Flush Left diagramming as illuminating an aspect of

“structure” that Frye intends to mean. • I hope this class is showing you something of the “calculus” of

words. • Notice he says his is a “militant” job – is he in the war on error with

word-swords too? • I like to think your verbal practice here is causing a maturation of

mental process and you are acquiring intellectual skills that “never become obsolete.”