English

Student 1

The video is the explanation of the first chapter ( Introduction to college reading & writing) of the book (named- College composition & reading information and stretergies) written by Professor Lukas.

The video clearly explains the two ways of communication: Narration and Exposition. Professor has clearly explained the both methods of communication with citing examples and showing appropriate slides consisting of the main ideas of the both methods. The differences in the both methods of communication are stated appropriately further making it clear for the viewer to know which is the better way to college communication: Exposition. This is mainly because narration is based on chronological order of the events having just an intention to report the events without using any evidences and the connection in these events are just based on time by using " and then". Exposition, on the other hand, focuses on interpretation of the ideas in a more organised way and analyse the events to make it clear to the reader how everything is connected. All this is clearly mentioned in the video with stating examples for further clearification.

Then the video further explains the format and the structure of a college essay. In this part the professor guides the listeners about the main characteristics of a good essay by giving references of pages from the written book in order to clarify the doubts about writing introductions and body paragraphs. For example, when having problem in writing an introduction page no. 10-11 of the book can be visited to get an idea how to write a good and appropriate introduction. The video suggests when (in an essay) and how to write an introduction, which is a great help for those who find it difficult to do. The video is good in respect that it clearly mentions from where to take reference when finding any problem in writing the essay. The suggestions that what should be avoided while writing an introduction are presented with examples of a poorly written introduction and comparing it with a strongly written introduction of an essay about "School Uniform" . The video further moves to the body paragraphs. It suggests the role and purpose of the body paragraphs which is to hold and explain the thesis statement with evidences to support. The idea is made clear by showing example from the same essay about "School Unifirm". Finally, it states how to close an essay with a good summary: conclusion.

In its further explanation the video moves to the ways of expanding the essay by a five paragraph essay approach, which is considered not so appropriate and effective for a college essay. The good approach is the second one: expansion method. In this approach the ideas are explained clearly and therefore it is recommended. The difference between the both approaches is explained with the example if the same essay topic about "School Uniform". Where in the first approach each paragraph explained with just one point, the second approach clarifies how the sub points to the main ideas make it more clear to the reader about the topic.

Overall, the video clearly explains the ways and approaches to college writing with citing examples from the book by the professor in order to make it easier for the students to write an essay. The video has a good picture quality and audio. The presentation is made easy for the viewers to understand the principal idea of the video. The language used in the video is understandable.

Student 2

This video is been discussed by Dawn Lucas, some of the most important concepts from chapter 1, Introduction to college reading and writing.

According to professor Lucas, they are two different methods of communication. Narrative and exposition. The narrative is just a story whereas narration is storytelling and/or reporting what happened which is the method of communication that many of us are familiar with. In the method Narrative communication which is in chronological order which means from start to finish and is often used in the connection of the word “then”, which tells the reader what’s happening in every event from start to finish. It is basically used to report any events which occurred with an individual. It is whether telling one of our friends about your day, sharing what happened on your recent trip, or reading a book. I think we are all surrounded by narration in our daily lives and we use this method often. The narration has also several identifying features. Narratives are told in chronological order, like always there is a beginning and concludes with an end adding what happens first then what happened second and then third, and then so on. Narratives can also be identified easily because they are simply reporting the events and not using those events to prove any particular point and mostly stating what happened and they typically connect with various parts merely with and then type transitions.

Whereas, Exposition writing is more useful in college. According to professor Lucas, this form of writing is organized more on ideas instead of the time of events. The ideas are proven by the facts. The form of writing is used to prove a point using all the facts and surveys. It also includes elements like thesis statements, introduction, and conclusion. Exposition is a more youthful style of communication for college-level writing because it focuses more on interpretation or argumentation rather than simply reporting. There are also some ways of identifying exposition writing: this writing is organized by ideas instead of time. Includes analysis and some common structural elements like introduction, thesis statements, topic sentences, and conclusions. In the second phase, Professor Lukas explains the format of college writing and its main structures which keeps the audience interested. First would be the introduction of the topic and a thesis statement.

 

 

 

 

Reference

Prof. Dawn Lucas,” Chapter 1 Introduction to College Reading and Writing” Retrieved from

Introduction to College Reading and Writing