english easy course

ASSIGNMENT 1: Introduction; Assumptions and Attitudes; Reader Expectations

Assignment 1 Purpose 1. Become familiar with the tools within the eLearning system. 2. Become familiar with the Course Syllabus, and 3. Understand how a college level engagement with words is crucial to producing a successful college-level educational experience.

Assignment 1 Objectives 1. Identify key terms in Introduction that will be used throughout course 2. Examine and describe teacher and student assumptions that both have in a writing

course (Chapter 2) 3. Explain how Frye’s concepts about words will improve the student’s engagement with

college-level thinking. 4. Begin to understand the Principles of Reader Expectations (PRE).

Reading Assignments

• eLearning Tutorials

• Course Syllabus • Epigrams and Introduction • Chapter 1: Examining Assumptions and Premises • Ch. 5 on PRE

• Inside Front Cover of the textbook Instructor Comments: View the video about the purposes of some of these assignments using the “Video on Writing Assignments in Assignment 1” link provided in the Assignment 1 folder. For this video, click on the small box on the LEFT to view full screen what I’d intended to be full screen. (I was still unsure how to use Panapto at that point!) Epigrams

Please read over the Epigrams and read them often while you are taking this course. They say something about the intellectual experiences you are having with this course. The epigrams clarified my thinking about the human condition and the role of college in improving the human condition. These statements might seem strange to include in a course on writing, but words are used in all courses in liberal

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education, and I hope students taking this course see the adult application of words can be universal. The first three epigrams describe the historical and biological situation that adults in commercial civilization find themselves in and the latter three epigrams suggest what the individual student can do – though you can choose not to – as Alan Bloom notes – get a liberating critical distance on the assumptions that you bring into college. The writing exercise for this section is below in the “Writing Assignments” section.

Introduction The Introduction explains the context for this particular class, and it explains some of the implications involved in developing one’s writing skills while in college. In fact, the list on p. v provides observations that occurred to me while using the first edition of this textbook. I’m most proud – if that is the right word – of the diagram on p. ix. This image of the cube with squiggly lines on it occurred to me while using the first edition, and I think it shows quite graphically the fact that students (of any age!) enter college with ideas that must be scrubbed or rubbed off if they want to think critically at the adult level, and then express their views well in their writing assignments. Click on the “Cubes” video link in the Assignment 1 folder to see my comments about the meaning of these cubes. Note: you will find an assignment for the Introduction below– in the “Writing Assignments” section. You will click on a link to a list of study guide questions. Please read over these questions before reading the Introduction – the questions use key words from the chapter, which then can help you find what I think is key information. Follow the instructions on the study guide to type in your answers, and then submit your answers to the study guide.

Chapter 1: Examining Assumptions Brought into College This chapter discusses “first principles” or assumptions which I think you –

and any college student – need to examine so that both teacher and student are on the same “page” as to goals and rationale.

I think that you should incorporate the assumptions that faculty (mostly) bring to the classroom into your own body of assumptions, because my own experiences have led me to embrace these faculty assumptions. I think they will help the student master college level material.

BIG NOTE: these assumptions that faculty use are not meant to make you think like an academic. These assumptions help you get “adult level understanding” of adult ideas that we are taught in childhood.

Finally, in the “Writing Assignments” section you will find the writing exercise for this chapter, which is also a list of study guide questions. Please read over these questions before reading the chapter 1 – the questions use key words from the chapter so that should help you find what I think is key information, and then you will submit your answers.

Chapter 5 – Principles of Reader Expectations (PRE).

When you get to this chapter, I’d like you to just focus on the PRE for SENTENCES (p. 100 – 1). Notice this, too about the list: the first two expectations deal with the LOCATION of subjects and verbs, while the other 3 deal with the IDENTITIES of the subjects and verbs.

Also, read the longer explanations of Sentence PRE that are on p. 101 – 102. Then, please read p. 104 – 7.

Please re-read the first page of the Introduction where I discuss the two readerships that the college student needs to be aware. Really spend time thinking about this, how the two readerships have the same expectations about the location of subjects and verbs, but then the Academic has different expectations about the Identities of Verbs and their subjects than those of the “Civilian.” It is important to know and understand these PRE about sentences because you will be reading lots of academic level texts before you do any formal writing at the college level, and many students have difficulty with academic texts. Because of this, I’ve found that this list helps students 1) understand why an academic text can be hard to understand and 2) find ways to “digest” that academic writing.

More interesting – it turns out we adults who use English all have these expectations or preferences about the sentence (and the paragraph) but we didn’t know we had them. They’ve been subconscious in our minds (for natural reasons, not nefarious reasons). But now we can know them and deliberately apply them to texts we find hard to understand. We can understand why the sentence doesn’t get traction in our minds. In addition, you can use these PRE to understand why a sentence does get traction in your mind.

Finally, in the “Assignment 1” folder you will find an assignment for Ch. 5. This is a test to see how well you can identify subjects and verbs in a sentence. I will often have you examine these features of a sentence. This might seem a questionable practice, but the sentence happens to be the smallest unit of words by which we get meaning across. It is the bedrock of any extended piece of writing. Subjects and verbs are like two towers by which we build a bridge of understanding between ourselves and the readers. You can also envision the SV Combos as stepping stones by which we move out of inadequate adult understanding (IAU) of adult ideas we were taught in childhood and into an enlightened adult understanding (EAU) of those ideas. There are features to this EAU that never become outdated, and are forever making the adult feel energized

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about their engagement with the world (even with all its problems and tragedies and stupid adult thinking).

Please view the video where I explain how to find “Subject-Verb combinations” (SV combos) in sentences we read by clicking on the link in the Assignment 1 folder. If the monitor shows you two viewing screens, click on the one on the right to fill the screen with the text from the textbook.

Finally –

Please provide me with a biographical sketch about yourself. Please tell me if you are on campus here at UNI or living somewhere else, what your plans for after college, or if you have a job, and anything else you would like to share. I especially need to know if don’t live near the campus of UNI because our research project requires that you have access to a library with college level scholarship. Only books can be used for the research project in this course: No web sites or e- books are allowed for the research project in this course. So please be aware of this aspect of the course. I look forward to working with you in this course.

NOTE – the research component of this course is explained in chapter 9. WRITING ASSIGNMENTS Epigrams Assignment 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. Assignment: in a fully developed paragraph or two (each paragraph having 5 to 7 sentences, total words for each paragraph around 100 words), discuss one of the epigrams and how it either 1) conveys an insight that you had known of already or it now opens your eyes to something about yourself or life or 2) it seems to make you uneasy as to what it implies or 3) it conveys something you don’t understand how this can be the reality. If the last point is your situation, describe what issues you have with the claim(s) in the epigram. Introduction Assignment (10 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.

Click on the “Guideline Questions for Introduction” link in the Assignment 1 folder to access the study guide questions. Down load as a Word file and type in answers as instructed. Save and submit. Chapter 1 Assignment (10 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. Click on the “Study Guide for CH 1” link in the Assignment 1 folder to access the study guide questions. Down load as a Word file and type in answers as instructed. Save and submit. Chapter 5 Assignment (10 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. Click on the “Ch. 5 Assignment on SV Identification” link in the Assignment 1 folder to access the study guide questions. Down load as a Word file and type in answers as instructed. Save and submit. Biographical Sketch (10 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 as a file attachment.

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