english easy course

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Assignment 5: Reading at a College Level

Content

Purpose

1. Develop college level reading skills 2. Increase one’s ability to deliberately engage with parts of the

sentence 3. Familiarize self with quotation mechanics

Objectives

1. Explain the nature of the beginning of a writing project (Stafford essay) 2. Improve or begin usage of MLC citation mechanics. 3. Demonstrate ability to convert Passive and Active voice verb forms 4. Demonstrate correct quotation mechanic usage.

Reading Assignments

• Chapter 4: “Reading at a College Level” – p. 55 – 9; 60 – 5; 65 – 9 (see comments below before reading)

• Chapter 10: “Research Paper Mechanics”: especially p. 221- 225 on citing sources within your paragraphs

• Chapter 6: “Flush Left Diagramming”

Click the “Intro to Assgt 5” link in the Assignment 5 folder for a video that introduces you to the activities of the next three Assignments

Instructor Comments

Assignments 5 through 7 will be focused on Ch. 4 in the textbook, “College Level Reading in the Light of Imaginative Literacy and the Two Readerships.” You will be writing formal responses to three essays that are presented in Ch. 4, as well as completing other exercises meant to help you firm up your “adult engagement” with words, sentences and paragraphs.

I cannot emphasize enough that I want you to realize that this course is meant to develop your adult understanding of words and engagement with words, and that this level of engagement is what non-academics as well as academics would possess. In addition, the adult engagement with words leads the adults to recognize how there is a verbal basis to adult thinking. The Frye essay you will read underscores this point (in Assignment 6).

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BEFORE YOU READ p. 55 – 9, read below:

The quotation from Mark Van Doren contains one key phrase: when you read a page of words, I want you to see a page of objects, which would be images popping up from metaphors or keywords from your past that will conjure up images in your mind. When you are “entertaining” these images and understanding how they help you digest the information, you are getting adult engagement with words (which is not the same as academic engagement with words).

One other thing to emphasize in this “Introduction” is my claim that thinking is largely done in response to words we read or hear. Reflect on your past discussions you have had in class or things you read which you are asked to comment on. You are commenting on ideas conveyed through and with words. By now, after the experiences of Assignments 1 to 4, you will have now more sensitivity to words and sentence structures than ever.

Finally, about the reading method for essays and textbook chapters, while all of the info is good, pay special attention to the ‘summing up’ I do on p. 59.

NOW READ PAGES 55 – 9, and complete Assignment #1 listed under “Assignments,” and then return to these Instructor Comments before reading p. 60 – 5.

BEFORE YOU READ p. 60 – 5, read below:

Since you’ve already done the exercise converting PVV into AVV and AVV into PVV, and know about preferences of academics of Subject and Verb identities, you now see such things “in action.”

I’d also like you to appreciate the ‘quantification’ of that I did for the abstracts on p. 63 and p. 65. It is fascinating (to me) how there are 14 SV combos in this academic text but NO people subjects and only 2 AVV out of 14. Again, academics would say, “Beautiful!” while Joe Civilians would react, “Ahh, can you translate?”

NOW READ PAGES 60 - 5, then return to these Instructor Comments before reading p. 221 – 225.

BEFORE YOU READ p. 221 – 5, read below:

You will be reading a short essay by William Stafford (p. 65 – 9), and in your response I want you to quote 3 sentences from his essay. So I want to provide a refresher activity on quotation mechanics (or introduce you to them if you haven’t used quotations before). You will be quoting from the other two essays in Ch. 4 and then when we get to the latter Assignments, you will provide quotations in those essays, too.

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NOW READ p. 221 – 5, and complete Assignment #2 listed in the “Assignments” section, then return to these Instructor Comments.

BEFORE YOU READ p. 65 – 9, read below:

I’ve used some Stafford’s ideas in the chapter on the writing process (Ch. 3). He is really good at explaining the attitudes we need when we start writing an essay. But it is interesting he says that “we can’t keep from thinking,” and then Northrop Frye will say in his essay that thinking is a specific mental activity (associated with words) and so it isn’t that we can’t keep from thinking. (Indeed, we CAN keep ourselves from thinking by not accepting how there is a verbal dimension to adult thinking.)

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 Stafford’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 Stafford’s essay. Make each quotation a stand-alone sentence (don’t add your own wording before the quote or after it) and place the tagline 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. 91 and provide answers to just the following: #1, #2, #3 and #8. You can write those answers down just after your response. For #3, write down the words that are transitions between paragraphs. Notice that he signals a transition often by repeating a key word from the prior paragraph(s).

NOW READ p. 65 – 9 and complete writing assignment as explained below.

Assignments

Assignment #1: PVV/AVV conversions (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.

Click on the “Changing PVV to AVV in an Academic Abstract” link in the Assignment 5 folder to access the activity that has you change passive voice verbs

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(PVV) to active voice verbs (AVV). Down load as a Word file and type in answers as instructed. Save and submit. Assignment #2: Quotation Mechanics (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.

Click the link in the Assignment 5 folder to access this “Quotation Worksheet.” The responses you write to the Stafford, Koch and Frye essays will involve quoting sentences from them and using MLA format correctly, so this worksheet will help you solidify your quotation mechanics. Down load as a Word file and type in answers as instructed. Save and submit. Assignment # 3: Stafford 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 file as an attachment.

The assignment explained above is repeated here:

Write a 500 word response to this question: How will Stafford’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 Stafford’s essay. Make each quotation 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. 91 and provide answers to just the following: #1, #2, #3 and #8. You can write those answers down just after your response. For #3, write down the words that are transitions between paragraphs. Notice that he signals a transition often by repeating a key word from the prior paragraph(s).

Assignment #4: Flush Left Diagramming (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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Click link in the Assignment 5 folder to access the “Flush Left Diagrams of Sentences Found in Academic Texts” exercise. You will be asked to flush left several sentences found in academic texts. See more instructions in the exercise.