Updates. I have returned the Cause and effect essays. Overall, this class is doing a great job maintaining academic integrity - the way in which most folks cited sources and quoted, paraphrased, and summarized effectively showed me that you're careful and thorough when it comes to documentation. Good work! Keep it up!
While grades are up for the Cause and effect papers, some of those grades aren't accurate. I need to go back and deduct points for those of you who missed peer review. If that's you, please be aware that you'll see a 30-point drop in your grade per the email I sent out earlier.
Some students have had questions about grades in WebCT. I'm still in the process of reconciling my gradebook with WebCT's Grades - I keep detailed and up-to-date grades in another program, and occasionally the WebCT version doesn't get updated when it should. I hope to be done going through those records soon. Please know that you do have an opportunity to verify that everything is accurate in my books. I'll send out individual grade reports as we near the end of the semester. When you receive yours, please check it carefully for any inconsistencies. Then contact me so that we can chat about it.
Quick list. Here's a quick list of the things you need to do this week. Keep reading to find out more about each item:
- Read
- Patterns Chapter 9 introduction
- Thoreau, "Walking"
- Kay, "Total Eclipse of the Son"
- Holston, "Rhythm Four Strings"
- QA Chapter 20, Chapter 32, and Chapter 33 - read and reread the information in QA about MLA style documentation carefully. You'll be required to cite sources throughout your academic career.
- Write
- Definition essay. For information about the assignment, including approved topics, see the Course packet.
- Reflective writing associated with this assignment. No peer review is required for this assignment, but it's always a good idea to get a second opinion - ask a partner for advice, schedule an appointment with a Learning Center tutor, or call me with questions about your paper!
Green text updated 11 November 2007 @ 1:30pm
About the reading. This unit's samples are pretty good. The first, "Walking," always inspires groans. While I understand that students don't often appreciate Thoreau's long-winded explanation of the finer points of walking, there are some good things to get out of this sample: he talks about the history of walking in terms of sauntering and the difference between what most people think of when they think of walking and what he thinks of when he thinks of walking. He makes this distinction clear, and we get the idea that while his definition may be non-standard, it's fair.
In "The Total Eclipse of the Son," Kay talks about the differences between the Western and Japanese understanding of hikikomori. She gives us synonyms, and provides us with useful professional opinions from psychologists.
In "Rhythm of Four Strings," Holston talks about the history, the categories, and the uses of the instruments discussed. We also get the idea that this information is relevant to a certain group of people, namely musicians, but also music fans worldwide.
Take a look at the words that I italicized here, and see if there are any other common themes among these samples - they provide a good general look at what definitions are all about - making a concept clearer through extensive explanation that makes use of other modes of development.
About the writing. Definitions take a variety of shapes, but generally, there are three ways to attack the problem of defining a term or concept: first, you can give synonyms, if there are any. That helps solve the problem if you and another person have the same idea but use different words to express it. The second way to attack the problem is through negation, discussing what something is not. In this way, you'll help cut bad connections that people have to the term you're tyring to clarify. The third way of attacking the problem is through classification, by establishing how this term connects to related ideas that people are familiar with.
By making use of these three strategies, authors oftentimes provide us with effective definitions of unfamiliar terms or concepts. Their definitions make use of additional strategies to make their ideas important to us: explaining the history, discussing why we should pay attention, or comparing and contrasting their ideas to ours are all ways that authors make their ideas, that we aren't familiar with, relevant, useful, and productive for us. Perhaps you took something away from this week's reading that you didn't know before - that's the power of definition. Ultimately, even if you find samples like Thoreau's "Walking" irritating, it's still beneficial because he is working on getting you to see things his way. In that sense, definitions are a kind of argument that clarifies an unfamiliar term (or a term about which we may have different ideas).
This week, your task is to choose a term and make your meaning clear to your audience. It's your choice how to accomplish that task, but try applying some of the strategies that I discuss briefly here, and you may find that you 1) have more to write about than you otherwise would, and 2) a more precise explanation results. This time around, you're not doing peer review. Instead you're going to do some reflective writing. As always, put your reflective writing in a note at the top of your final draft of your paper. Here is yuour reflective writing prompt:
Reflective writing prompt: After reviewing the comments you received on your last paper, what skills or aspects of the writing do you plan to focus on for the upcoming assignment?
Please contact me with questions or concerns about this project BY PHONE.