Roosevelt University - Writing Program - ENG 100, Basic Writing Practice
Instructor Resources for ENG 100
(Basic Writing Practice)
Roosevelt University
Compiled by
Priscilla Perkins
Director of Composition
rev. 5/02
Contents
Guiding principles and practices for teachers of ENG 100 .................................... 3
Official grading rubric ....................................................................................... 11
Sample classroom resources ............................................................................. 17
First-day writing samples ................................................................................... 18
Student responses to sample passages ............................................................... 22
Examples of writing assignments ........................................................................ 23
“Seed” exercises ............................................................................................... 25
Quotation exercises ........................................................................................... 26
Peer feedback sheets ......................................................................................... 30
One example of a “grammar lesson” .................................................................. 32
A set of sample student essays from ENG 100 ................................................... 35
Some “basic” things to know about ENG 100 at Roosevelt University....
Understanding what ENG 100 is and isn’t
ENG 100 is not a “remedial” writing course. In other words, it doesn’t set out to “remedy” deficiencies in a student’s education; in most cases, placement in ENG 100 tells us little about a student’s innate abilities or level of investment in his/her education (though it’s true that some ENG 100 students do enter the course with what appears to be an “attitude problem,” once they recognize the new challenges that the course presents, these students usually buckle down and concentrate on their work). The majority of students who place into ENG 100 have not had a substantive introduction to the strategies of academic reading and writing; some were “tracked” into lower-level, less challenging courses when they were very young, while others attended schools that emphasized rote learning of grammar and mechanics and taught highly formulaic approaches to essay writing. Most, however, are eager to learn and to succeed at Roosevelt University.
At Roosevelt University, ENG 100 1) introduces current conventions of academic reading and writing; 2) focuses on the critical thinking skills that students will need in their academic work across the curriculum as well as in their careers and civic lives; 3) offers tools for making informed choices about text development and organization; 4) helps develop strategies for controlling sentence-level error. In order to give each student adequate individual attention, the course is capped at 13 students per section. Apart from this difference, however, ENG 100 is noteworthy more for its similarities to other courses in the Roosevelt writing sequence than it is for its differences. Students who place into ENG 100 may have a very limited range of academically-acceptable cultural allusions to work with and are generally unfamiliar with academic conventions of argumentation, quotation, and textual format-one reason why the course focuses so diligently on broadening students’ horizons through reading-but they rarely have cognitive differences from their peers who test into ENG 101. The gap between the two courses is much narrower than many instructors imagine; though we can’t expect to turn students into entirely confident and independent writers in a single term, a combination of academic rigor and empathetic support can help these students prepare themselves for the challenges they face in their post-100 writing experiences.
The roles of reading in ENG 100
Challenging reading from a variety of genres (academic texts from various disciplines, substantive journalistic pieces, occasional personal experience narratives or short stories) provide a touchstone for most of the work that students do in ENG 100. Instructors should assign reading anthologies that include few readings of fewer than five pages; in order to give students appropriate exposure to college-level texts, most of the readings instructors assign should fall in the 7-12 page range. Instructors should assume that students will find their reading for ENG 100 fairly challenging; as the semester wears on, the students’ comfort level with these difficult readings will increase. Through their discussion and drafting practices, they will begin to think of “mastery” more in terms of their abilities to work actively with particular ideas from a text than their ability to summarize an entire argument or use all of the vocabulary in an essay. With continued practice in courses beyond ENG 100, their level of mastery will continue to grow.
How can instructors approach reading activities in 100?
1) Teachers can help students see their reading as a form of conversation between their own life experiences and the ideas they find in published texts. Just as in a “real” or person-to-person conversation, the interplay of ideas from reader and text leads the reader to create new knowledge about a subject.
2) Course readings can offer examples of how experienced writers handle textual structure, generate material, and work with other writers’ words/ideas. In this use of reading, the texts are not “models” in the rhetorical sense; rather, the students are “immersed” in the ways of reading and writing that bring power to people in the academy, and they slowly but surely take on those ways. (As literacy theorist James Paul Gee writes, every time a person-including you or I-learns a new discourse, s/he spends a great deal of time “mushfaking” that way of thinking/talking/reading/writing/acting. In other words, we all “fake it till we make it.”)
3) Though the goal of assigning difficult academic readings in a composition class is to introduce students to the usual ways of thinking and communicating at the university level, these readings offer obvious opportunities for students to learn vocabulary and concepts that may carry over into other academic fields. For example, students may encounter concepts from gender studies (“othering”), psychology (“role overload”), or economics (“alienation”); encountering such concepts helps students see the relevance of the work they do in ENG 100 for their other courses. A central goal of ENG 100-to learn how to trace how a concept works in multiple texts-contributes to their abilities to develop theories, in itself a central activity of academic life. Students can do this very early in their college careers if they are given low-pressure opportunities on a regular basis; getting this kind of experience increases their confidence levels dramatically.
The roles of writing in ENG 100
As its name suggests, Basic Writing Practice is ultimately a writing course. But whatever success we achieve with ENG 100 students (and, together, we can achieve a great deal) happens only insofar as students begin to see the interrelatedness of reading and writing. By the end of the semester, we hope that most of our students are prepared to succeed in ENG 101 or LIBS 201 (Writing Social Justice in the Academy)-that they’re prepared, in other words, to produce recognizably “academic” essays for their General Education and major-related classes. Many different kinds of writing can help them achieve this goal.
Some ways to think about writing in ENG 100
1) Before they tackle a new reading assignment, students can write informally in order to take stock of what they already know or believe. Writing about personal experiences and assumptions helps students grant a degree of authority to their own perceptions, something which can be difficult for inexperienced college writers (many of whom have been taught to look to their teachers or other “experts” for affirmation and confirmation).
2) Students can also write to reflect on new questions or unfamiliar ideas raised by their reading or class discussion. Writing can help them see what they don’t yet understand; beginning to see the interplay between the familiar and unfamiliar becomes an important spur for more writing.
3) Once they’ve carefully reflected on their own experiences/perspectives and carefully read something new or unfamiliar, students can “write to learn.” In other words, they can use ideas from their reading in order to re-frame familiar experiences; likewise, they can use their own histories in order to build upon or even challenge the theories of the “expert” writers they read in class.
4) Perhaps a final important use for writing in ENG 100 is to produce knowledge that is in some way new to their community of learners. By sharing their texts and responding to each other’s ideas, students learn skills of dialogue and negotiation that serve them well in their lives as students and beyond.
Roles of revision in ENG 100
We frequently tell students that “revision is more than editing or proofreading.” But what are some of the concrete practices and effects that revision can have in the ENG 100 classroom?
1) Revision can be a way for students to “see again” in order to see more about their ideas. In order to help students become more comfortable with this kind of revision, teachers need to encourage students to see their drafts as working documents that are open to radical change; the students need to feel that they can take big risks with what they’ve already written.
2) When students use each other’s responses to guide their revision work (and this is extremely important for ENG 100 students-except during one-on-one conferences, instructors should avoid commenting directly on rough drafts), they learn how to deal with other readers’ questions, objections, and affirmations. (If your students have trouble with the idea of peer revision, discuss the “Nine Common Myths About Basic Writing Practice” handout with them).
3) By giving students a new reading to work with once they’ve produced a preliminary draft of an essay, teachers can help students use revision to broaden or narrow the scope of their inquiries. For students who tend to see their drafts as “etched in stone,” this strategy can help students become more flexible about their writing (it’s very hard for students to “protect” their essays when they are presented with-and accountable for discussing-an entirely new set of arguments and assumptions). Teachers can tell a great deal about students’ analytical skills by watching what they do with a newly-introduced reading. If their new ideas are “tacked onto” the ending of a draft rather than integrated into it, they clearly need to practice generating material and transitional structures (see some of the class-tested exercises in this packet for ways of teaching what rhetoricians call “invention strategies”).
4) Finally, when students have used other revision practices in order to generate ideas, respond to readers’ insights, and complicate their arguments, it’s time for them to make their essays more readable. Revision for readability involves paying attention to mechanical and grammatical conventions, as well as reworking an essay so that it conforms to the structural and discursive conventions of academic writing (many ENG 100 students, for instance, don’t give their essays accurate and lively titles. Initiating them into this discourse convention is one simple way of making them feel more at home in the university.)
Roles of grammar and mechanical instruction in ENG 100
1) Students who have worked their way through ESL programs, either at Roosevelt or at other schools, frequently have a surprisingly complete familiarity with the terms for English grammatical structures, though they may have trouble consistently controlling these alien forms as they write. Native English speakers, on the other hand, may have little formal knowledge of English grammar--though, being native speakers, they have an innate ability to produce grammatically correct English sentences. Because native English speakers have often been taught to confuse dialect differences or colloquial usages with “grammatical errors,” however, an important function of grammar/mechanical instruction must be to increase native English speakers’ awareness of their intuitive linguistic competence. For ideas about how to do this, check out Rei Noguchi’s classic book, Grammar and the Teaching of Writing: Limits and Possibilities.
2) An especially effective way of helping students control sentence-level error is to teach them what composition theorists call a “patterned approach to error recognition.” This kind of teaching is best done one-on-one, and should begin with a student’s graded essay. In your narrative comments on the essay, ask the student to set up an appointment with you; before the appointment, it’s the student’s responsibility to pick out two or three sentence-level problems that you’ve marked more than once. During your meeting, give the student a brightly-colored sheet of paper (this will help the student find the sheet later on, when she’s revising a new essay) and have her write out the problematic sentences as they appear in her paper. Below each sentence, have her explain in her own words-not using grammatical or mechanical terms that you supply-why the sentence doesn’t work as it’s written. Ask her also to come up with some context-based clues that might help her spot similar errors in a future draft (for example, she might notice that when she starts a sentence with “because,” she frequently ends up with a fragment). Finally, have her rewrite each sentence as she now believes it should be written. Realistically, the likelihood that one round of error detection will “cure” a particular pattern is small, but continued work usually can. Students who have learned the “patterned approach to error” can work more productively with tutors in the Learning Resource Center.
3) This might not sound like a kind of instruction, but helping students become more familiar with external sources of grammatical or mechanical help (like Writing First or traditional writing guides) helps them connect so-called “prescriptive” resources with their own language and writing habits. Knowing where to look for help can make the difference between a confident writer and one who flounders.
What information should appear on an ENG 100 syllabus?
In order to help classes run smoothly, minimize administrative problems, and maintain consistency among sections of ENG 100, the following information should appear on all instructors’ syllabi:
*Your contact information and preferred modes of out-of-class communication
*A list of required texts (a reading anthology and Writing First)
*The weights of each assignment and course activity, as well as your policies about rough drafts, peer revision sessions, and rewrites
*Procedures for compiling end-of-semester portfolios (see below)
*The Composition Program attendance policy: Students must attend class. Students who miss more than three once-a-week meetings or six twice-a-week meetings for any reason risk failing the class, even if their work is passing (instructors may consult with the Program Director in unusual situations). Because emergencies (personal or family illness, job problems, funerals, car troubles), cannot, by definition, be planned or predicted, students need to save their allowed absences for truly unavoidable circumstances. Of course, for maximum learning, the goal is for students to attend every class meeting.
*A statement about ADA compliance: Students who believe they may need accommodation for a documented disability should contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester.
*The university’s policies on plagiarism and academic integrity (available for printing and duplication on the Roosevelt Intranet)
*Your policies about classroom courtesy (cell phones and pagers; respectful listening; punctuality; food and drink in the classroom, etc.)
*A statement that policies, assignments, and due dates are subject to change.
*Information about the final exam in ENG 100 (included in this packet)
*The Composition Program’s guidelines for assessing passing work in ENG 100 (included in this packet)
Remember that students (and some courts of law!) tend to treat college syllabi like legal contracts. Spelling out your expectations will undoubtedly save you headaches.
The ENG 100 Portfolio
Your syllabus should advise students to keep all their work for the course, including rough drafts and in-class exercises, in a folder that they bring to every class as well as to your office for one-on-one conferences or appointments. At the end of the term, students should select what they believe are their most accomplished essays and place them in their folders, along with a two-page cover letter or essay discussing 1) the specific writing challenges they faced coming into the course, 2) how specific assignments have shaped their approach to academic writing, and 3) what new or continuing challenges they plan to work on in their next writing course(s). Along with the final exam, this portfolio should be used as a reference point for instructors and grading
partners as they assess each student’s readiness to move on to ENG 101 or LIBS 201. Instructors should make arrangements with students who wish to have their portfolios returned to them by mail (students should provide self-addressed envelopes with plenty of postage) or who prefer to pick them up early in the next term.
The final exam in ENG 100
Roosevelt’s Composition Program tries to strike a balance between a “process” approach to writing instruction-which assumes that reader feedback and multiple drafts are important components of much academic writing-and a pragmatic recognition that students occasionally have to perform well on “one-shot” writing experiences like essay exams. The final exam, then, is designed to ensure that, in addition to skills in critical reading, summary/response/analysis, and feedback-based revision, our students have the ability to write a timed essay in response to a single reading. Because students receive a minimum of assistance in preparing for the exam, it can help teachers spot students who may have succeeded at their other assignments for the course through a combination of in-class and out-of-class (sometimes unauthorized) coaching.
Here’s the process for the final exam. Around mid-semester, the Director of Composition issues a call for readings and prompts that instructors have not used in their ENG 100 classes that term. The Director compiles and distributes a set of three readings and prompts to each teacher; teachers are responsible for making enough copies of the packets for their students. The Director will also circulate a list of exam dates/times and grading partners for the exam. During the last class meeting before each section’s scheduled exam period, instructors should facilitate a student-centered discussion of the readings in the exam packet. Instructors should neither “teach” the essays nor coach students on appropriate responses to the prompts; instead, they should help students work through their own specific questions about the essay each of them has chosen to write about.
Students may bring their exam packet, a dictionary, and Writing First or another grammar guide to the two-and-a-half hour exam period. They may refer to marginal notes written on the exam reading, but may not bring outlines or any predrafted materials for their essays. If students prefer to use computers for their exams and facilities are available, instructors may reserve a computer classroom for the exam period, keeping in mind that they should pay special attention to the possibility of plagiarism (reminding students that computer plagiarism is easy to spot may dissuade any borderline students who might be tempted to use unauthorized materials on their exams). Experience suggests that the grammar-checking feature of MS Word does not give students a meaningful advantage on the ENG 100 exam, as students must be able to recognize correct forms in order to effectively edit their writing with this software; therefore, teachers have the option of allowing or excluding the use of this software on their students’ exams. Please give ESL students and students with documented disabilities extra time to proofread the exam if they request it. You should already know who these students are, and make arrangements individually with them. In most cases, such students need no more than 20-30 minutes after the exam period ends.
Immediately after his/her class’s exam, each instructor should place a photocopied set of the students’ essays in the mailbox of his/her grading partner, along with contact information for discussing the students’ work. These photocopies should not have any grades or comments written upon them, as one of the purposes of team grading is to get a relatively objective perspective on each students’ readiness to move to ENG 101 or LIBS 201. As soon as possible after receiving the copies, each grading partner should confer with the instructor of record in order to compare their assessments of the exams. In the event that partners disagree about a given students’ readiness to move on, both partners should refer to that student’s portfolio in order to make a more informed judgment about the student’s skills. Should reference to the portfolio fail to clarify the situation, the instructor should contact the Program Director, who will serve as a “tie-breaker.”
What should graders look for on ENG 100 exams? In general, the assessment guidelines for 100 (included in this packet) can be used to determine whether a student is ready for ENG 101 or LIBS 201; for students whose writing reveals problems not addressed by the assessment guidelines, graders should consider whether the writing in a student’s exam and portfolio suggests that this student should be able to succeed in ENG 101 or LIBS 201 without heroic tutoring measures on the part of his/her instructor. This is the “bottom-line” criterion for ENG 100 student assessment.
How does the “IP” grade work in ENG 100?
With a lot of work, most students pass ENG 100 on their first try. For a few students each term, however, second-language issues or especially stubborn difficulties with reading, analysis, sentence-level error, and/or organization mean that another semester’s enrollment in ENG 100 is appropriate. If, at the end of the term, a student’s portfolio and/or final exam suggest that he or she will not have a good chance of passing ENG 101 or LIBS 201 (in the case of transfer students) on a first try, instructors should award an “IP”; during his/her next enrolled semester, the student should register for ENG 100A (Basic Writing Completion) for 0 hours of credit. (Roosevelt will cover the costs of one semester of ENG 100A; students who are still not passing at the end of the term will receive an “F” and must re-enroll in ENG 100 at their own expense.)
For each student who receives an IP, the instructor should fill out and turn in an “IP Information Form” (available from School of Liberal Studies secretary Joyce Vernay). This form tells both the program director and the student’s subsequent ENG 100 instructor what particular writing issues the student needs to focus on during the coming term. Because the stakes are so high for them, instructors should work especially closely with students enrolled in ENG 100A in order to increase their chances of passing the course.
Peer Tutoring and the Writing Center
Peer tutoring is an effective technique for helping composition students become more proficient in college-level writing. Peer tutoring at Roosevelt University can be done one-on-one at the writing center or through group work in the classroom. Despite what some may think, the writing center is not an editing service. Tutors actually help students develop and revise their assignments, but the main goal is to help students become independent writers.
The tutoring program at Roosevelt comes from the belief that education consists of dialogue. For example, when a tutor asks a peer, “What do you mean here? What were you thinking when you wrote this passage?,” she is modeling this dialogue. Through peer tutoring students learn which questions they might want to ask and which questions are important to them and to the conversations that take place in academic settings. All students can benefit from occasional tutoring, but instructors might find that some students need on-going attention to their writing. For these students we can set up a weekly standing appointment. On-line peer tutoring will be available for Schaumberg students and those students who have limited time on campus.
The main reason the writing center uses peer tutoring is because peer tutoring fosters mutual learning. Tutors are students too, so they can help relate to what their peers are going through when writing an assignment. While the tutor is primarily helping the tutee, a tutor has the opportunity of learning from the students they help through the process of tutoring. As Kenneth Bruffee notes in “Peer Tutoring and the ‘Conversation of Mankind’,” “What peer tutor and tutee do together is not write or edit, or least of all proofread. What they do together is converse. They converse about, in an academic context, their own relationship and the relationships between student and teacher. Most of all they converse about writing.” Bruffee’s article can be found in Landmark Essays on Writing Center, which is available in the writing center.
Peer tutoring energizes academic conversation, helps students realize that writing is a social activity, assists students in discovering one another as resources, and helps create a community within the university. Although the writing center is a resource primarily for students, there are a number of services open to instructors. The Writing Center hosts various workshops and roundtables for faculty on writing issues and the teaching of writing. The center’s detector is also willing to work with faculty to develop more specified workshop for a particular class. As a composition instructor, consider taking advantage of the following services:
Introductions: Someone from the Writing Center would be happy to come to your class and talk with your students about our services. This encourages students to come to the Writing Center who may not have thought of it on their own. It also sends the message that you, the instructor, think tutoring is worthwhile.
Group Work: The Writing Center can send a group of tutors to your classroom to facilitate group work.
Feedback on Assignments: Faculty find that having a conversation with a tutor about a writing assignment provides a useful student perspective. Tutors can shed light on how students might interpret an assignment or what language might be confusing.
Workshops: The Writing Center gives class workshops on documentation, thesis development, organizational strategies, and common grammar errors. We also would be happy to work with you to develop a workshop geared to your class.
Writing Community: The Writing Center is a space on campus devoted entirely to writing. A space where writing happens and conversations about writing and the craft of writing are what we do. Stop in and chat.
Roosevelt University Writing Center
Auditorium Building Room 650
writingcenter@roosevelt.edu
312.322.7141
Carrie Brecke, Director
cbrecke@roosevelt.edu
Official Grading Rubric for ENG 100
Students in 100 should demonstrate that they are making improvements in both their reading and writing skills. However, as with all Writing Program courses, their grade is not based upon improvement. Rather, their grade is based upon their demonstration of basic reading and writing skills. Students' papers should show their proficiency in:
. Locating and understanding the author's argument.
. Making an argument using supporting evidence from the readings.
. Selecting and quoting relevant textual material for the argument they are making.
. Showing the reader how to read the passages quoted or showing how the quote makes the argument.
. Making connections between texts (particularly between ideas in texts).
. Demonstrating an understanding of the structure of an argument.
. Controlling grammatical and sentence-level errors.
. Demonstrating an ability to proof-read their own writing for typos and punctuation errors.
At the end of the semester, then, before moving on to 101, the student should have:
. The ability to make her/his own point, and keep that point moving through the paper, at least at a rudimentary level.
. Some sense of academic paper writing conventions: the basic ability to make paragraphs; contextualization of the authors' ideas and his/her own ideas; integration of quotations into her/his text.
. Connections between ideas that clearly make sense, even if they are rudimentary. Those connections need to go beyond similarity or comparison/contrast.
. The ability to demonstrate good reading comprehension.
. Sentence-level error more or less under control.
Grammar and Sentence-Level Errors:
Although students are not expected to leave 100 with "perfect" grammar, they should have acquired the ability to control serious errors. Pay particular attention to students who achieve a certain level of control in their papers, but are not able to replicate this fluidity on their exams--this may suggest that they have been relying too much on a tutor, teacher, or friend in their out-of-class writing. A passing paper may have one or two minor errors (i.e., incorrect possessives or missing articles) and even an occasional instance of a more serious error like subject-verb agreement or sentence fragments. However, if the student has a consistent problem with verb forms or sentence integrity and cannot control this problem with careful proofreading, the student has not reached passing level in 100.
Another serious problem that will prevent a student from passing is a paper that is very erratic and does not have an easily identifiable pattern of error. This kind of paper may have two lucid sentences followed by three sentences that are incoherent. Often such students cannot tell the difference between a sentence that makes sense and a sentence that does not. Also play close attention to students whose sentences sound complex, but which make very little sense; this often indicates an effort to emulate the language of the readings without an understanding of it. Problems like this usually worsen if the student is allowed to go on to 101.
Reading Comprehension:
Students in Basic Composition come to the course with many reading skills, but they are skills which often need to be strengthened. Students may display various reading problems in the papers they produce in 100. Since we are trying to teach students how to approach and interpret difficult texts rather than suggesting that there is one "correct" reading, we should not necessarily fail papers for instances of misreading. In evaluating reading problems, consider why the student is misreading. If a student does not seem to understand the author's argument and might have trouble summarizing it if asked, the paper is probably failing. Similarly, if the student misreads throughout the paper, or if the student simply puts two unrelated ideas together and states that there is a connection, it is likely that the paper will not be passing. However, if the student misreads because s/he is challenging the text or taking some risks with writing (by trying to apply terms from one essay to another in a creative and interesting way, for instance), we should give the student credit for having a sense of the project of 100 even if the outcome is not entirely successful.
Grading for papers in 100
Though students receive grades of “Pass,” “In Progress,” or “Fail” at the end of ENG 100, instructors may find that giving letter grades on essay assignments gives students (and teachers!) a more nuanced understanding of where students are succeeding and where they need to work harder. If you prefer not to assign letter grades to student writing, you may still find that this rubric helps you offer much more detailed feedback on essays. (Keep in mind that whether you give letter grades or not, marginal comments and detailed narrative feedback play crucial roles in students’ improvement as writers.)
Reasons Why a Paper Might Not Pass:
. Major reading comprehension problems.
. Serious sentence-level errors. In assessing the seriousness of grammatical errors, consider whether there are one or two types of easily identifiable and correctable errors that crop up intermittently, or multiple types of errors scattered throughout the paper so that the paper becomes difficult to follow. Students with pervasive sentence level error at the end of the semester should repeat Basic Composition. ESL students should be given a little extra time to edit in-class work, such as final exams: about 15-20 minutes.
. Structural problems that interfere with meaning (e.g.: the student's sense of what a paragraph is needs work).
. Lack of organization.
. Too much summary.
. Avoidance of the text (perhaps because it is solely a personal response), or a paper where the writer projects his/her opinions onto the text to the point of serious misreading.
. Lack of clarity in the discussion to the point of incoherence.
. Language or word choice is often vague, interfering with student's ability to make her/his point.
. Lack of meaningful connections between the ideas of at least two authors. Such a paper might summarize the ideas of one author with a bit of analysis and then do the same thing for another author without being able to establish connections between them. Alternatively, the paper may suggest connections, but they do not make sense, or the paper may place disparate ideas side by side and imply that there is a connection when there is not one.
. Failure to develop the point, to the extent that the paper falls short of the page requirement. Papers that do not meet the page requirement cannot pass.
C Paper
. The student understands the difference between summary and analysis and is beginning to move beyond summary in a number of significant places.
. The student has her/his own rudimentary point to make about the ideas in the text. A comparison of two texts (telling the reader that the texts are the same) should not be the point of a passing paper.
. The best point of the paper may end up most clearly at the end of the paper. If it is a strong enough point, and if it is hinted at strongly enough earlier in the paper, this paper may be passing, especially if the point is a "promising moment" that goes beyond comparison/contrast.
. The student has the ability to make meaningful connections between at least two ideas or two texts. A C-level student may not be able to work successfully with more than two texts.
. The connection between those moments of analysis may not be developed quite as extensively as they could be. In addition, the student may have good points or analysis, but then may drop those points (leave them undeveloped) in places.
. There are places where the student looks at the ideas of two authors together in the space of a paragraph rather than switching from author to author between paragraphs.
. The student is beginning to develop a sense of how to choose quotations that are relevant to the point s/he is trying to make, though s/he will often generalize about the quotations rather than link them in specific ways to his/her own text.
. The quotations may not be well-analyzed, but they are used within the context of the reading from the text and serve to help make the student's emerging point. Passing use of quotations should demonstrate good reading comprehension.
. The student is able to define key terms and has a rudimentary sense of how to take terms from one reading and apply them to another reading.
. There may be intermittent grammatical errors, but not to the point where they interfere with the reader's ability to make sense of the paper. One has the sense that the student is able to recognize and correct grammatical errors if s/he takes the time.
C+ Paper
A "C+" paper does everything a "C" paper does, and in addition:
. The student is beginning to take more risks than s/he might in a C paper. This may result in instances of misreading but the misreadings are the result of the student's effort to grapple with the issues raised by the texts.
. Quotation choices are stronger than in a C paper. They are less "dropped in" and focus more on ideas in the text rather than on descriptive passage from the text.
. The student's sense of what constitutes a paragraph is stronger than in a C paper.
. The paper does not have severe grammar problems, but the writing may often be awkward.
B Paper
A "B" paper does everything a "C+" paper does, and in addition:
. The student is beginning to develop a sense of how to make transitions between paragraphs and between ideas.
. The student focuses more directly on the language of quotations in his/ her interpretations and is beginning to develop a sense of the conventions for incorporating quotations into the argument.
. The student is able to develop his/her ideas much more than a C level paper does. S/he analyzes quotations in detail.
. The student has a sense of what a paper should look like--how it should be organized, etc. S/he uses paragraphs to organize ideas and help the reader through them.
. The student shows that s/he has good reading comprehension skills.
. The paper has a sense of purpose. Even if the argument is not particularly complex, the writer should have a main idea that s/he does not lose sight of and that s/he traces throughout the paper.
. The student's word choices are less vague.
B+ Papers
A "B+" paper does everything a "B" paper does, and in addition:
. The student goes beyond what has been said in class and is beginning to develop his/her own original ideas about the text.
. Although a B+ paper should go beyond what is said in class, its originality may lie more in the way the writer interprets quotations than in his/her introduction of new issues.
. The paper is well organized, clearly written, and coherent, though there may be "C" level moments here and there (e.g. a quotation that isn't quite put into context).
. B+ papers should have several strengths, but they may also have three or four places where the paper does not quite work; for instance, there may be a few places where connections between paragraphs need to be more developed or where the writer needs to analyze quotes more fully.
. Summary is used only strategically, to help the student move to her/his point.
A Papers
An "A" paper does everything a "B+" paper does, and in addition:
. An A paper should have at least a few original ideas or take an original approach that has not been discussed in class. There should also be consistency--an A paper may have intermittent awkwardness, but ideas and connections are developed throughout the paper.
. High-range 100 papers may not have the stylistic smoothness of 101 papers.
. An "A" paper may have "B" or even "C" moments, but they do not interfere with the overall significance of the student's point.
. Connections between the ideas in the texts are more original than in a B paper, and connections between paragraphs are well developed.
Quotations are well chosen, introduced, and integrated more smoothly in the student's writing.
Sample classroom resources for ENG 100
On the following pages, you’ll find class-tested exercises suitable for different points in the semester or essay-writing cycle. These exercises are included as examples for you to work with as you create your own teaching materials; you may, however, reproduce them as-is for classroom use if they seem appropriate for the issues your students are working with.
First-Day Writing Sample
ENG 100: Basic Writing Practice
Carefully read this passage and write as much as you can in response to the assignment that follows it, keeping in mind that there is no “right” answer.
Culture shapes the way we think; it tells us what "makes sense." It holds people together by providing us with a shared set of customs, values, ideas and beliefs, as well as a common language. We live enmeshed in this cultural web: it influences the way we relate to others, the way we look, our tastes, our habits. But as culture binds us together it also selectively blinds us. As we grow up, we accept ways of looking at the world, ways of thinking and being that might best be characterized as cultural frames of reference or cultural myths. These myths help us understand our place in the world--our place as prescribed by our culture. They define our relationships to friends and lovers, to the past and future, to nature, to power, and to nation. Becoming a critical thinker means learning how to look beyond these cultural myths and the assumptions embedded in them.
Take, for example, the myth of freedom. A strong belief in freedom unites us; we have only to reflect on the number of lives lost in wars fought "for freedom" to grasp its power as a cultural myth. However, look beneath the surface of our collective belief in freedom, and you'll find that we understand it in very different ways. Some see freedom as the right to participate in the electoral process by casting a ballot and electing representatives and leaders. Others say it's freedom of choice, or speech, or unlimited economic opportunity. One person will argue passionately that all government exists solely to guarantee the freedoms enjoyed by individual citizens. The next one will argue just as passionately that our obsession with freedom has become the single biggest problem in modern society. The list of possible definitions is endless, and so is the debate about whether each of us is genuinely free. But the power of myth lies in its ability to override these differences. Politicians and advertisers rely on our automatic emotional response to treasured cultural ideas: when they invoke the ideal of freedom, they expect us to feel a surge of patriotism and count on us not to ask whether the candidate or product really embodies the specific values we associate with freedom.
--from the introduction to Rereading America
Use specific ideas and terms from this passage to help you write about your own understanding of freedom or some other "cultural myth."
First-Day Writing Sample
ENG 100: Basic Writing Practice
Carefully read the following passage about the social power of medical experts and write as much as you can in response to the questions that follow it:
There are many possible abuses of power attached to membership in the expert class. Owned power becomes a problem when the role of the expert and the need to consult experts over every detail of day-to-day living are taken for granted. It is easy for the physician to deny under these circumstances that he or she has any such power since the self-image of the expert healer is to be helpful, not manipulative for selfish ends. But power that is unrecognized is hard to channel into responsible uses. Shared power is difficult to achieve so long as the physician occupies the expert role. To empower the patient might, in some ways at least, threaten the social control of the expert class and put experts out of their jobs. Despite this pull, most experts genuinely want to be helpful and see an overdependence as unhelpful to their clients. But the more subtle problem is that even given the urge to empower, the ideology may be so strong that the empowerment itself becomes a reinforcement of helpless dependence. It may, in the end, seem as if one can get power only by going to the right expert and following his advice precisely; one cannot get power simply by choosing to exercise it. In an age when people pay lots of money to attend seminars that purport to teach assertiveness and self-esteem, this danger seems real.
The challenge for physicians (and other experts) is to find ways to make their patients feel genuinely more powerful to control their own lives and health; to be more aware of the actual ends of their social and cultural power, not only the ends that bear the most benign interpretation; and to be willing to accept responsibility for the use of power with a realistic understanding of all its facets.
--adapted from "The Social Power of Expert Healers,"
by Howard Brody
Working closely with terms and ideas from this passage, apply Brody's theories about medical expertise to your own experience as a student. In what ways may the experience of a student be like that of a patient? How can the issues of power that Brody describes be worked out in the classroom setting? What happens when they are not?
First-Day Writing Sample
Basic Writing Practice
Carefully read the following passage and write as much as you can in response to the question that follows it:
Anyone who has truly struggled to comprehend another person--even those closest and most like himself--will appreciate the immensity of the challenge of intercultural communication. A greater exchange of people between nations, needed as that may be, carries with it no guarantee of increased cultural empathy; experience in other lands often does little but aggravate existing prejudices. Studying guidebooks or memorizing polite phrases similarly fails to explain differences in cultural perspectives. Programs of cultural enrichment, while they contribute to curiosity about other ways of life, do not cultivate the skills to function effectively in the cultures studied. Even concentrated exposure to a foreign language, valuable as it is, provides access to only one of the many codes that regulate daily affairs; human understanding is by no means guaranteed because conversants share the same dictionary. (Within the United States, where people inhabit a common territory and possess a common language, mutuality of meaning among Mexican-Americans, White-Americans, Black-Americans, Indian-Americans--to say nothing of old and young, poor and rich, pro-establishment and anti-establishment cultures--is a sporadic and unreliable occurrence.) Useful as all these measures are for enlarging appreciation of diverse cultures, they fall short of what is needed for a global village to survive.
What seems most critical is to find ways of gaining entrance into the assumptive world of another culture, to identify the norms that govern face-to-face relations, and to equip people to function within a social system that is foreign but no longer incomprehensible. Without this kind of insight people are condemned to remain outsiders no matter how long they live in another country. Its institutions and its customs will be interpreted inevitably from the premises and through the medium of their own culture. Whether they notice something or overlook it, respect or ridicule it, express or conceal their reaction will be dictated by the logic of their own rather than the alien culture.
--from "Communication in a Global Village"
by Dean Barnlund
Working closely with ideas from the passage, discuss some of your own experiences of inter-cultural communication (either outside or inside the U.S.).
First-Day Writing Sample
Basic Writing Practice
Carefully read the following passage (written by an African-American college professor) and write as much as you can in response to the question that follows it:
When I first entered the multicultural, multiethnic classroom setting I was unprepared. I did not know how to cope effectively with so much “difference.” Despite progressive politics, and my deep engagement with the feminist movement, I had never before been compelled to work within a truly diverse setting and I lacked the necessary skills. This is the case with most educators. It is difficult for many educators in the United States to conceptualize how the classroom will look when they are confronted with the demographics which indicate that “whiteness” may cease to be the norm ethnicity in classroom settings on all levels. Hence, educators are poorly prepared when we actually confront diversity. This is why so many of us stubbornly cling to old patterns. As I worked to create teaching strategies that would make a space for multicultural learning, I found it necessary to recognize...different “cultural codes.” To teach effectively a diverse student body, I have to learn these codes. And so do students. This act alone transforms the classroom. The sharing of ideas and information does not always progress as quickly as it may in more homogeneous settings. Often, professors and students have to learn to accept different ways of knowing, new epistemologies, in the multicultural setting.
-from “Teaching to Transgress,” by bell hooks
Working closely with ideas and terms from the passage, discuss some of your own experiences with diversity in your college or high school courses. How well do bell hooks’ ideas reflect the experiences you describe? How could you adapt her ideas so that they would fit your experiences more closely?
ENG 100: Basic Writing Practice
Sample student responses to first-day writing assignments
(These students are responding to the passage from bell hooks’ Teaching to Transgress. Compiling a sheet of student responses can be an effective way to get students involved in discussion on the second day of class.)
When I walk into a room with people of every kind of background I watch what I say so I don't offend anyone, until I know them better and see what kinds of things they believe and how they feel about things. That's what I think the author means by different "cultural codes," how a person feels about their background and how strong their feelings are. The people that are really strong about their beliefs might have problems dealing with other people of different beliefs and that's what the author might mean by saying "many of us cling to old patterns." Those people just do not like the changes that our economy is facing and are not going to get along with most people.
It is quite important to know how to communicate in a multicultural class, because most of the time, teaching and learn strategies are influenced by the social lifestyle. For example, in India we have big essay questions in high school and the final exam is everything, while here, all you have is multiple questions in high school. You lose some points if you fail the final exam but you won't have to redo the whole year. And if the teacher says there are some essay questions, the students are all against it. Although they can't get away with it, they try hard to make the teacher take these questions out of the test! I was really surprised when I saw this.
Teachers that teach inner city kids may fail to realize that these kids have many different responsibilities and problems compared to your average "old patterns" and "ways of knowing." Kids have to face peer pressure and having working parents. Many times you get home and they do not arrive until 6 or 8. You're left with the responsibility of cooking, cleaning house, watching over siblings, and the biggest problem of all, homework, especially when you do not understand. You can't ask your parents; they probably barely speak English. You cannot go to an afterschool problem; you have to get home, start dinner, pick up your siblings. I think these are things that don't relate to what the teacher is teaching in class, but you must keep in mind this is the environment that affects a student's ability in class. Therefore a teacher must take the time to get to know his or her students in order to understand their work and potential.
ENG 100: Basic Writing Practice
Sample essay assignments
The following assignments reflect some of the key goals of ENG 100 at Roosevelt University.
*They ask students to work actively with more than one reading at a time, as well as to make active choices about the passages or ideas from the reading that are particularly significant to them.
*Especially at the beginning of the semester, they encourage students to use their own experiences as a “lens” or framework for making sense of the ideas they encounter.
*They ask students to participate in conversations about central cultural values and controversies (i.e., conflicts over educational ideals, definitions of ethnic identity, gender roles, and social class).
*They teach students to build revision and peer collaboration/commentary into the writing process.
*Because they are about subjects that are important to students (even if they haven’t thought systematically about them in the past), they reward students for taking interpretive and organizational risks. Once they begin to understand the process, most students try hard to work through their personal responses to the readings and class discussion so that they can make coherent statements about the central issues involved.
*Finally, they give students an increasing sense of mastery as each assignment requires more thought and writing than the one that comes before.
(Most of these assignments are based on readings from Colombo et al.’s Rereading America; if you don’t have a copy of this reading anthology, you can order one from the Bedford-St. Martin’s websiteAs you read these sample assignments, you’ll notice that they include due dates for rough and final drafts. These dates can give you an idea of how these assignments can be used in once- and twice-a-week sections of ENG 100.)
Essay Assignment #1: Working with examples from Wood and Fishman, discuss some skills that make a person "educated." Based on your reading of these essays, explain who you think should have the authority to decide what education is. What should society do when these definitions conflict with each other?
Minimum length: 700 words
Draft One due: Wednesday, February 7 (BRING YOUR ORIGINAL AND TWO PHOTOCOPIES FOR YOUR REVISION GROUP TO WORK WITH)
Draft Two due: Monday, February 12
Final draft due: Wednesday, February 14
NNN
Essay assignment #2: Working closely with ideas and passages from the essays by Judith Ortiz Cofer and Lynell George, explain how you think people develop their "racial" or "ethnic" identities. You should also explain why you think this might be an important question.
Minimum length: 750 words (about 3 typed pages)
Rough draft due: Tuesday, March 7 (bring your original and two copies for your revision group)
Final draft due: Tuesday, March 14
NNN
Essay Assignment #3: Which details of Nora Quealey's life do you think Paula Gunn Allen might find significant, and why? Working with specific ideas from Allen's essay, explain what you think Allen would find noteworthy about the experiences and feelings Quealey describes.
Minimum length: 1000 words
Revision day: Thurs., April 4 (bring your original and two copies for your revision group)
Final draft due: Thurs., April 11
Remember: students who do not participate actively in both revision sessions with a complete draft will lose half a grade on the final draft.
NNN
Essay Assignment #4: Choose several concepts from Lynda Workman that discuss how different understandings of “policy” can guide people’s behavior or relationships. Use these terms to explain the actions of Señora Ines and Rosaura during the party in Liliana Heker’s story, “The Stolen Party.” How do you need to revise Workman’s concepts so that they provide more satisfying explanations for the behavior of these two characters?
Minimum length: 1000 words
First revision day: Wed., April 24
Second Revision day: Mon, April 29
Final draft due: Wed., May 1
“Seed” exercises
As their name suggests, “seed” exercises help students learn how much mileage they can get out of relatively small chunks of the texts they’re working with. They can be used as the basis for longer, more difficult essay assignments; students who have already written 400 words (or even 200 words) about a particular idea will feel more confident about their ability to complete the assignment. And, if they’re really off-track, it will be easier for an instructor to figure out what they’re not understanding before they get too far into the process.
At the same time I was seeing the world in paragraphs, I also picked up that Superman comic book. Each panel, complete with picture, dialogue, and narrative was a three-dimensional paragraph. In one panel, Superman breaks through a door. His suit is red, blue, and yellow. The brown door shatters into many pieces. I look at the narrative above the picture. I cannot read the words, but I assume it tells me that “Superman is breaking down the door.” Aloud, I pretend to read the words and say, “Superman is breaking down the door.” Words, dialogue, also float out of Superman’s mouth. Because he is breaking down the door, I assume he says, “I am breaking down the door.” Once again, I pretend to read the words and say aloud, “I am breaking down the door.” In this way, I learned to read. (p. 74)
Find and write about some passages from the essay that, in your opinion, help to explain what Alexie is talking about in this passage. How does “breaking down the door” describe the act of learning to read? How is literacy a means to freedom for Alexie? You are looking for specific examples within the text to support your explanation. You should write about 400 words.
This should be typed, double-spaced, 1” margins, and proofread.
For this Seed exercise, you will respond to two different passages:
The reading of these documents enabled me to utter my thoughts, and to meet the arguments brought forward to sustain slavery; but while they relieved me of one difficulty, they brought on another even more painful than the one of which I was relieved. The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers…I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy. It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but no ladder upon which to get out (Douglass pp. 131-132).
I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive. I certainly wasn’t seeking any degree, the way a college confers a status symbol upon its students. My homemade education gave me, with every additional book that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness, and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America (Malcolm X p. 250).
Your assignment: Working with specific ideas from both texts, what connections can you make between these passages? Why and how does literacy serve as a freedom for Malcolm X, but feels more like a “curse” for Douglass? What accounts for these differences?
This should be about 400 words.
During her time in prison, Nancy Birkla kept a “Prison Journal.” She says, “Those daily scrawls—some detailed reports from the front, others rage-filled rants—had been crucial to my survival at the Kentucky State Penitentiary for Women” (114).
Working closely with specific ideas from Birkla’s journals, discuss the ways she uses these informal writings to help her “survive” her stay in prison. What insight do these give her about herself? What does this say about the power of writing?
You should write about 400 words. This should be typed, double-spaced, 1” margins, and proofread.
As you will notice, Freire’s text is particularly dense and theoretical—you will need to read it several times, use a dictionary, and make notes while you read. I’m willing to bet that each of you have experienced the “banking” concept of education, where the teacher “fills” the student with knowledge—passive learning, in other words. I do hope, however, that you have experienced, at least at some point, the “problem-posing education,” where you take an active role as critical investigators in the learning process. The following passage addresses both kinds of “education”:
Once again, the two educational concepts and practices under analysis come into conflict. Banking education (for obvious reasons) attempts, by mythicizing reality, to conceal certain facts which explain the way human beings exist in the world; problem-posing education sets itself the task of demythologizing. Banking education resists dialogue; problem-posing education regards dialogue as indispensable to the act of cognition which unveils reality. Banking education treats students as objects of assistance; problem-posing education makes them critical thinkers…In sum; banking theory and practice, as immobilizing and fixating forces, fail to acknowledge men and women as historical beings; problem-posing theory and practice take the people’s historicity as their starting point. (265)
Find and discuss some passages in Freire’s text that help explain the ideas in the passage above. How do your own experiences fit into these educational concepts? This should be about 500 words.
ENG 100: Basic Writing Practice
Quotation exercise
The following exercise introduces ENG 100 students to the logic and logistics of summary, paraphrase, and quotation. In ENG 100, we don’t expect students to master these conventions (not by a longshot), but we do want them to begin to understand that quotation has both conceptual and mechanical implications for how they approach college writing. The quotations in this exercise come from Liliana Heker’s “The Stolen Party,” bell hooks and Cornel West’s “Black Women and Men in the 1990s,” and James Baldwin’s “Down at the Cross.”
Some techniques for using quotations accurately and effectively.....
Most of the time, when you want to incorporate an idea from a reading into your own essay, it’s best to paraphrase or summarize it. By putting the idea into your own words (and documenting it, of course), you are able to use another writer’s insights without taking the reader’s attention away from your own focus or argument. At other times, however, you might want to draw your reader’s eye to the language another writer uses, perhaps because you think the writer’s word choice is very significant, because you want to place special emphasis on one part of the writer’s idea, or because you believe you have a different interpretation of the idea than other people do.
Whenever you use a direct quotation in your writing, it’s important to quote it exactly. This doesn’t mean, however, that you have to use all of a long quote, especially if only part of the passage actually relates to your own argument. The Simon and Schuster writing guide (used in ENG 101 and 102) will show you how to use ellipses and brackets in order to adapt a quote so that it flows with your own writing. Doing this will take some practice, though.
In order to make a quotation meaningful, it’s also crucial for you to “package” it effectively. First of all, this means that you need to use your own words to introduce the source; your introduction needs to “flow” grammatically with the quotation so that the whole sentence (which is made up of your introduction and the quotation) makes sense. Often, you may need to paraphrase part of the quote in your introduction so that your reader knows which part of it is important for what you want to say. Finally, and just as important, you always need to tell the reader why you have included a quotation. Your interpretation of the quote, or your application of it to your own argument or focus, shows that you are in control of your own essay. If you don’t explain to your reader how the quote contributes to your own ideas, then you are writing a report rather than an essay (which comes from the French verb essayer, a word that means “to make an experimental effort”). Needless to say, from this perspective, essay-writing takes more intellectual energy and ingenuity than report-writing does. The payoff is also much larger.
Practice the “mechanics” of quotation using the following passages from our course readings. For each one, you should first paraphrase the quote (that is, summarize the idea as carefully as you can using your own words) so that you can show your awareness of the significant ideas it contains. Then write a brief introduction to the quote, including as much of the paraphrase as you think is appropriate. Create a parenthetical page citation at the end of the quote. Finally, discuss what you think is the significance of the quote, perhaps by explaining how it connects to one of the others quotes in this exercise, or by talking about it in terms of your own experience.
1. Page 320: Rosaura remembered a story in which there was a queen who had the power of life or death over her subjects. She had always loved that, having the power of life or death.
2. Page 329: Later, she found the source of her defiance in religion. It was the belief in spiritual community, that no difference must be made between the role of women and that of men, that enabled her to be “ready from within.”
3. Page 54-55: The person who distrusts himself has no touchstone for reality-for this touchstone can be only oneself. Such a person interposes between himself and reality nothing less than a labyrinth of attitudes. And these attitudes, furthermore, though the person is usually unaware of it (and unaware of so much!), are historical and public attitudes. They do not relate to the present any more than they relate to the person.
ENG 100: Basic Writing Practice
Quotation exercise
The following passages were assembled by the instructor from drafts written by a single group of ENG 100 students, all of whom had read the texts mentioned in the exercise. Working with writing produced by their peers gives students opportunities to debate the meanings that each student derives from the course reading, and shows them how the mechanical choices they make (in this case, choices related to the “packaging” of quotations) affect their readers’ abilities to understand what they’re trying to say. While Roosevelt’s Composition Program does not expect ENG 100 students to use MLA style correctly, teachers should introduce the conventions of quotation in ways that help students understand why and how they might use the words and ideas of other writers.
Your job is to revise these passages so that the writers' references to Alistair MacLeod's story "The Vastness of the Dark" and Bruno Bettelheim's essay "The Ignored Lesson of Anne Frank" are correct and effectively presented. If a reference is already presented as a quotation, you must make sure that the punctuation and page citation are correct. You should also add whatever is necessary to the writer's sentence in order to make the quotation make sense in the context in which it appears. If the material is being presented as a paraphrase (that is, a quote that has been summarized in the essay writer's own words), you should find the actual quote and then proceed according the instructions for quotations listed above.
1. MacLeod writes about James who has only known one type of lifestyle; I'm not saying that is bad, but to James there has to be more. MacLeod states that James's father was looking out the window when he came downstairs to say good-bye. His father asks him where he is going, and why doesn't he stay. It's as if he wants James to stay but does not want to tell him to stay because he does not want to show his feelings.
2. James's grandfather would not accept the offer James bestowed on him about walking him home. The grandfather said, "I am perfectly capable of walking home myself, James." "No one is taking me home, I only want company," (311). This shows that James's grandfather thinks he is able to take care of himself, but what would happen if he passed out or got mugged? He is eighty-eight years old.
3. James thought about returning, but the story doesn't tell what he did. James realized that maybe his leaving wasn't the right thing to do. He realized that family identity was a big part of his life, even if he didn't like mining or being around his family. James thought leaving would be easy, but it wasn't.
4. I have observed that my father and James's grandfather both have a deep sense of pride as shown in this exerpt: "A small slightly embarrrassed boy and a staggering but surprisingly old man who wanted me beside him but not to physically support him as that would hurt his pride." (MacLeod) 310
5. Anne had faith in the goodness of all men which in the end led to her death. "In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." (p. 74)
ENG 100: Basic Writing Practice
Feedback sheet for peer revision
One of these sheets must be filled out for every paper you help revise. At the end of the period, after you have filled out the sheet and written comments on the other writer's draft, give the sheet and the draft to the writer. Each member of the class must turn in all the feedback sheets he/she received with his/her final draft. I will note how complete and helpful your feedback for other writers was in my gradebook with a check, a check+, or a check-.
Remember that the following questions and tasks are intended simply to get you started--in order to be helpful, you should go beyond these questions by making whatever comments you think are necessary in order to help the writer improve his/her essay. Use extra sheets of paper if needed.
1) How completely does this essay respond to the assignment that was given? List three places in the essay where the writer is clearly responding to the assignment; then list three places where the writer's ideas seem to be doing something else. For these places, give the writer some concrete suggestions for making the connection between his/her ideas and the assignment clearer.
2) How effectively does the writer use quotations in order to support and expand upon his/her ideas? Find two quotations that need to be discussed in more detail and suggest what the writer might say about each quotation. Is the writer introducing and documenting quotations correctly? Offer help with these problems.
3) Does the writer's introduction to his/her essay give the reader a clear idea of the arguments and opinions that the writer will discuss in the essay? After carefully reading the whole essay, write what you think would be an effective introductory paragraph. [Writers should not copy their revision partners' suggestions, but may use ideas from them].
4) How clearly and effectively does the writer move from one idea to the next, and from one paragraph to the next? Point out three places where the writer's transitions could be clearer. Offer some specific suggestions for making his/her ideas flow more smoothly.
5) Point out sentences that are fragments and run-ons, or which have comma splices or other serious mechanical problems. Comment on the writer's use of paragraphing and on any other mechanical issues you can think of.
PUTTING YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF GRAMMAR TO WORK: How to spot sentence-boundary problems in your own writing
We’ve talked in class about the various categories of “sentence-boundary problems”: fragments, comma splices, and run-on sentences. We’ve also discussed and practiced a couple of ways of spotting such errors (especially fragments, which most readers tend to think of as serious obstacles to understanding).
KFor example, you have tried reading your essays from the last sentence to the first, so that you can “defamiliarize” your own writing by seeing how your sentences sound when they are separated from the point you are trying to make.
KWe have also talked about the types of words and phrases that may lead you to write an unintentional fragment. When you begin a sentence with a word like although, because, if, though, unless, until, when, where, who, which, or that, you create what is called a subordinate clause-in other words, a grammatical structure that can’t stand on its own and needs to be combined with an independent clause. Likewise, when you start a sentence with an “-ing” word (called a verbal), you may be in danger of writing a fragment. Finally, sentences that introduce examples or explanations sometimes become fragments; you need to be very careful when you start a sentence with also, and, but, especially, for example, for instance, in addition, like, mainly, or, and such as. Remember that it’s ok to start sentences with all of these words....just be sure to check your sentence to make sure it’s complete.
What follows is a somewhat more involved, but also more accurate, way of testing whether or not your sentences are “complete” and correctly punctuated. If you practice the following “diagnostics” on your own writing, you will gradually get better at spotting sentences with boundary problems. The important thing to remember is that these “tests”simply get you to use what you already know about English grammar....if you are a native speaker of English (and also, in many cases, if English is your second or third language), you automatically possess the knowledge of grammar that you need in order to tell if a sentence is correct. It’s just a matter of recognizing and acting on what “sounds right.”
Here are the “diagnostics”:
rEvery complete declarative sentence (in other words, a sentence that is not a question or command) can be turned into a question that can be answered with “yes” or “no.”
rLikewise, every complete declarative sentence can be rephrased in the form of a “tag” question.
Example: We re-read the essay before we worked on our drafts.
Yes/No questionºDid we re-read the essay before we worked on our drafts?
“Tag” questionºWe re-read the essay before we worked on our drafts, didn’t we?
Example: Because the line is long right now, I will register for classes tomorrow.
Yes/No questionºWill I register for classes tomorrow because the line is long right now?
“Tag” questionºBecause the line is long right now, I will register for classes tomorrow, won’t I?
"""Here’s the beauty of this method: If a sentence is not complete, or if it contains a comma splice or “fused” independent clauses, it cannot be rephrased in the form of a yes/no or “tag” question. It won’t make sense.
Try these examples of incomplete sentences:
The difference between families today and families yesterday.
We’ve got bills to pay the pressures never seem to go away.
Looking for a way out of his trouble.
OPractice this strategy on the following sentences. Some are incomplete, while others are fine “as is.” Can you tell which are which, and why?
Î Sometimes a manager can’t see the problems with her attitudes until many months later. When it is usually too late.
ÏMaking a living is never easy it’s even harder when a person has big phone bills to pay.
Ð I had read about the embezzlement investigation, however, I did not think it applied to my department.
Ñ My staff suggested that I, of all people, should have seen the signs of trouble.
Ò Per usual, I couldn’t pay attention at staff meetings I was too busy reading my horoscope.
Ó I noticed one morning that my computer was not on my desk. Which seemed strange, since everyone knows that I like to surf the net while I drink my first three cups of coffee.
Ô All around my cubicle, I heard malicious whispers. Fearing the worst, I asked my boss about the terrible rumors.
Õ She looked at me like I was crazy and told me to find another line of work. Such as stand-up comedy or ditch-digging.
ENG 100: Basic Writing Practice
Sample student essays
Reprinted here are three end-of-the-semester student essays from one section of Basic Writing Practice. These students, all living in rural Oklahoma, are analyzing discussing how Ray Parillo’s theories about prejudice help them understand their own experiences with racism (Parillo’s essay is included in Colombo et al.’s Rereading America). Lila, a white woman in her sixties, has probably the most nuanced understanding of Parillo’s terms; her essay is also relatively well-organized and free of surface errors, though she has a limited sense of paragraphing. Joe, a white man in his twenties, shows a lot of insight but works somewhat less gracefully with Parillo’s concepts and has significant problems with spelling (an indication that he probably doesn’t read a lot, especially in an academic context). Finally, in Rocky’s essay, we see a basic (and in many ways moving) understanding of Parillo’s central concepts coupled with difficulties generating material (his essay is very short) and a number of errors that interfere with meaning. These essays, while shorter than the ones we hope our students will write by the end of the term (these were produced during class time over two hour-long periods), reflect some of the different levels of analytical and mechanical fluency that students in Basic Writing Practice may achieve during a semester’s worth of guided writing practice. Viewed within the context of Roosevelt’s Composition Program, students who write like Lila and Joe are probably in a good position to succeed in ENG 101 or LIBS 201 at the end of the term, while a student like Rocky might need another semester of ENG 100.
Lila
Prejudices in Our World
I grew up with prejudices in my home. My father was prejudice against blacks and showed this openly. While reading Vincent Parrillo's writing "Causes of Prejudice" I came to realize why I, in my life, had prejudice against blacks also. I will talk of some of these ways that I feel caused me to have such prejudices.
The feelings about blacks, particularly, were very openly spoken and practiced in my home as I grew up. My father very often spoke outwardly of how he felt. I often heard the word "nigger" used in reference to black people. In fact "nigger" or "colored" was all I heard growing up when anyone referred to the black race.
My father was from the era before civil rights. At that time in History blacks had separate schools. They had to use separate public rest rooms and water fountains. There were signs on rest room doors and on walls above water fountains "white"--"black." I often wondered why? Why can't we all use the same facilities?
I feel that this background of prejudice I have fits into Parrillo's concept of the socialization process. He says that children in a family will usually conform to their parents beliefs and understandings of certain social cultures (377). A child will, almost without questioning his parents, go right along with their values.
Therefore, in my life, for a long time, I followed the example, the prejudice beliefs and language that I saw and heard in my family atmosphere. As Parrillo shows, this is how prejudice attitudes are transmitted from generation to generation. (377)
Parrillo introduces the idea that through learned cultural beliefs and learned prejudice beliefs people put up a kind of screen through which we view the world around us. But we don't always see things accurately. I think this is what I did for a long time. I believe I looked, but my screen was clouded over by my father's influences during my developmental time in my life. As I began to look around and through those clouds, I saw a different view.
With this new look threw the screen, I began to develope some social norms all my own. I began, at least to try, to look not at color of skin, what race a person was, or how a person was dressed. Where before I think my prejudice had a tendency to lean towards expectation of society, I now believe I am forming my own social norms.
In the area where Parrillo introduces a cause of prejudice he calls social norms, he uses a theory of rules shared by a culture, like things that are proper and that are not proper behavior. An individual learns these and by habit accepts prejudice as a norm. (386)
"This theory says that there is a direct relationship between degree of conformity and degree of prejudice (Parrillo 386)".
I can't believe this theory could always hold true. I believe in my situation, I have moved into areas of less prejudice. My ideas have changed, I believe, dramatically. I now see intermarriages as "almost" an acceptable thing. I know that blacks and Jews or any other race are smart and have a right to go to the same schools, all races and social classes together. To be honest with myself, I think that believes I learned as I grew up will always be with me. But I know I have overcome some of these through my own learning.
My screen that I view the world through has become less cloudy and I see more clearly a world where these is less prejudice regarding color, race, or social class.
Joe
I grew up as a dependent of an officer in the U.S. Army. I was always taught that all people are created equal. I don't believe that I was prejudice as a youngster; because of the beliefs that my parents instilled in me. Parrillo states that socialization is one of many reasons for prejudice, "Prejudice, like cultural values, is taught and learned through the socialization process" (377).
My first experance with prejudice was in 1978. My father had gone overseas; and, my mother and I wwere living with my grandparents in Temple Oklahoma. Temple is a small farming town with a population of maybe 1000 people. In this town there is still some segragation happening. I estamate that 90% of the black families live on one side of the railroad tracks. The Whites live on the other side. Generally the whites live in the better part of town and are closer to the school.
I recall my Grandfather sitting on the porch watching a black child riding a bike down the street. He said, "Damn niggers, are gona make this side of town look as trashy as their side of town." Being an impressionable child I thought there must be something wrong with black people. I asked my grandfather why black people are so messey. I don't remember his response but; my mother sat me down and reinforced what I had been taught. It wasn't until years later that I was thrown into a situation were prejudice was brought into my mind.
I believe that a person becomes prejudice against a group of people do to situations they are placed in and how they interpret them. Parrillo states, "This perception of group position is an outgrowth of the individual's experiences and understanding of them." (377) I went to a predominantly Black school in Indianapolis Indiana from 1981-1983. The first year I went to school there I had one friend (out of school). I got into many fights. My friend could do nothing but see it happen because of fear of being rejected by the in-group he was a member of. I was looked at like the outsider. I don't believe that I was being rated as less of a human. I think that the majority had a low-self-esteem, and were experiencing frustration from how their familys were forced to live.
I remember wishing I was black while I lived there. I thought if I were black I would not get beat up so often. I think that the parents of the students I went to school with were frustrated with where they were forced to live. Parrillo said that, "Frustrated people may easily strike out against the perceived cause of their frustation. The students heard their parents frustration and these parents used the "whites" as "scapegoats." Parrillo describes scapegoating as, "Placing blame on others for soemthing that is not their fault is known as scapegoating." 9381) Because of the "free-floating aggression" the parents had it showed threw in their children. Parrillo explains that, "In such instances the result may be a displaced or free-floating aggression."
I spoke about a black friend earlier in this paper. His name is Correy and he was present several times that I got beat up. I was a big kid so most of the time, when I got beaten, it was by three or four members of Correys "in-group." I asked Correy why he didn't help me and understood when he told me the same thing would start happening to him if he helped me. This is an experance that I will never forget. This experance has molded me to the prejudice I have today.
I learned that when a black person is prejudice the aggression directed at the group is much more sevear.
I have also been to an all white school in Alabama. There was a black family that moved in to the all white community of Good Hope. This family's children started to school however they didn't experance the same type of treatment I did at P.S. #106. These black students were shuned by the student body. And the student body would talk behind their backs. Sometimes those black children were close enough to hear what was being said about them. This family lived there for about a month. What finaly made them decide to move was the three crosses that were burned in their yard. The prejudice that people have is released in several ways. This is shown by the experances I have told.
My prejudice will never leave me completely. My feelings are the same as many whites that I know. We say there is a difference between a black man and a nigger. Who are we to decide? Most of the time we isolate ourselves from black people and don't give them a chance to prove that they are good people. I think that prejidce is the offspring of negative experances when dealing with an out-group. If I were black and almost every time I saw a white person the white called me "nigger" or "boy" I don't think I would like white people much.
Rocky
As we observe one another we tend to try to be as the others around us, adjusting to "the norms of one's culture" (Parrillo 386). We all have a need to be accepted and wanted, and to fill this need we sometimes try to conform to societal expectations. A person tryin to fit into society may also exhibit agresive behavior. Parrillo states "economic competition and conflict breed prejudice" (Parrillo 384). I have seen people that I have known for a great while trying to achive the American dream. It seems once they began to tired and things got rough, I would hear statements like, I can't get a decent job because all the jobs are being taken up by people who a month ago was not even an American. My father for example I found out after digging up my family tree is African, Spanish, and commanche Indian. I found my information out with no help from my family because this information causes them great embarrasment. As a child I would ask what Race do we belong and the answer was always, we are white. We Taylors are all a little dark but for the most part fit into the caucasion Race niceley.
I think my father and uncles to forget who they were and group themselves with people that hated blacks, Indians, and mexicans was done for my family's sake. I have three Uncles that are millionaires and my father is pretty close himself.
I wonder if as a family we could have prospered so well if they would have told the truth about themselves and hung out with a different crowd? This is a family secret to this very day. I just think its a shame to judge one by his color or religion by his past or his family. My family is full of people that use one of Parrillo's theories, self justification. "To denigrate a person or group to justify our maltreatment of them" (Parrillo 378).
I guess as humans we are not perfect, but if we are not afraid to say who we are, and to stand proud for ourselves, only then we will be able to reach perfection, to stand by the one who created us, to live forever in peace, leaving prejudice and hate far behind.