Homework for Monday, March 30th

Please read the two essays listed on the course schedule for Monday (Ricks on page 645, Eggers on 648 of the Current Issues textbook) and write a comparative response. The reading response should provide a brief summary of each piece and then identify similarities and differences between them (in terms of how they are written, what topics are addressed, who the writer is, the intended audience--all of the areas we discussed in class). Also, be sure to include what effects those aspects have on the essays. The reading response is due by the beginning of class on Monday as a dropbox submission.

Also, please continue to search for sources related to your research topic, since the rough draft of the Compare/Contrast essay is due in one week. The assignment sheet has been available in the content section for viewing/downloading; if you have not reviewed it yet, please do so as soon as possible. You can email me any questions you might have about the assignments, too.

Homework for Wednesday, March 25th

Please read the two essays that are listed on the course schedule (Tierney on 622, Hanson on 624) and be prepared to discuss the rhetorical elements that effect the way the messages are communicated. We'll focus on comparing the two pieces to one another in preparation for the next reading response, as well as the Compare/Contrast essay.

The assignment sheet for the Compare/Contrast essay is available under the Content section of D2L. Please review the guidelines and note the due dates for the assignment, then let me know if you have any questions.

Homework for Wednesday, March 23rd

The reading assignment is listed on the Course Schedule--that is unchanged--however, we will not be writing/submitting a reading response on Monday. Simply read the two essays that are listed on the Course Schedule for the 23rd, and be prepared to discuss them in class. Also, please be sure to post a breakdown of a broad topic to your blog by Monday. I have uploaded the example (titled, Exploring Narrower Topics) to the Content section to give you an idea of what needs to be done. I will have more information about the next major writing assignment on Monday; if you have any general questions, please feel free to contact me via email.

Homework for Wednesday, March 18th

Please remember to submit the final draft of your interpretive essay to the D2L dropbox by the beginning of class this Wednesday. There are no additional assignments due, though I would like you to have a broad topic chosen for your final research paper. We will go over how to narrow down that broad topic in class tomorrow.

Here are directions to find our class page that Lynne setup for us yesterday. There you will find the four databases she showed us, as well as other important resources.

• Go to the library homepage: lib.mnsu.edu
• Along the left side of the page, you will see a link titled Class & Subject Guides; click that link
• You'll need to scroll down to the English Composition link; click it
• Our class should be appear under that heading; it will be titled English 101 Daniel DeWolf, Instructor; you know what to do
• The toolbar along the top of the screen will help you navigate our page

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Wednesday's Workshop

We will not be meeting in the class this Wednesday, BUT we will be workshopping each other's interpretive essay drafts. The discussion board is setup with the same groups as last time, and you will need to post your draft (in a compatible format--.doc, .docx, or .pdf) by 6pm. After you have posted your draft, you will read your partner's draft--I will list the partners in the D2L discussion forum--and response with at least 250 words of written feedback (not line-edited corrections). I will post to the content section of D2L a list of questions to consider when providing feedback.

Feedback must be posted in response to the discussion board by 11:59pm CST on Wednesday, March 4th. Posts made after that will not be considered for your participation grade. In order to receive full credit for the rough draft, you need to have at least 2 full pages of text, plus a Works Cited page. In order to receive full credit for the workshop, you need to have posted your draft by 6pm and have posted at least 250 words of feedback before midnight.

I have an example of a previous student's Interpretive essay in the content section of D2L for you to reference. Remember: this paper needs to include a brief summary of the story or poem being analyzed, it needs to have a central interpretive claim, there needs to be evidence from the text used to support the interpretations, and there needs to be connections made to examples outside the text (other works by the writer, critical/scholarly reviews, connections to news stories or other research). If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.