composition i cm107 cecelia munzenmaier (515) 727-6899, x6921 cmunzenmaier@kaplan

Composition ICM107

Cecelia Munzenmaier(515) 727-6899, x6921cmunzenmaier@kaplan.edu

Course Objectives Compose original materials in Standard

American English Use appropriate documentation

as required Illustrate the steps in the writing process

Apply course knowledge of communication to a chosen profession

Standard American English

I am the “experienced instructional designer” yoo seek in todays Harald Sun. Im versatile, have developed training program’s, and the creation of teams two guide training decisions. I am ready too start, if necessary, as early as next week. I, has the solid Training Experience you specified. As well as the strong Computer skills you Desire.

Would you hire this person?

Standard American English

I am the “experienced instructional designer” you seek in today’s Herald Sun. I’m versatile, and have developed training program’s, and the creation of created teams to guide training decisions. I am ready too start, if necessary, as early as next week. I, hasvethe solid Training Experience you specified, As well as the strong Computer skills you Desire.

Would you hire this person?

Standard American English

A Baltimore police officer reported that “Subject did abducted woman without no illegal right.”

Would you trust this person?

Standard American English Correcting 20 common errors will correct

91.5% of all grammatical errors.Based on Lunsford and Connors’ 1992 study of 3,000 papers

Write first, then edit. Target a few errors at a time. Target the errors that matter most.

2: Use documentation In academic writing, your ideas

are only as good as your evidence.

Your paper should be based on four credible sources.

What’s credible? Do people who watch shows like CSI make

better jurors?

Personal experience + Informed

Opinion=Conversation

Defenseattorneys

Prosecutors

Researchers

What’s credible? Evidence-based information

or opinion (in Comp II)

Personal experience + Informed

Opinion=Conversation

Associations EBSCO

ExpertsQuestion

Problem

Disagreement

Pathfinders

What’s credible? “Alpha roosters”

Professional literature Peer-reviewed journals Professional associations

Respected sources Harvard Business Review National Institutes of Health

Expert opinion H. Selye—stress M. Seligman—happiness, learned helplessness C. Dweck—praise

What’s credible? Personal experience

raises questions gives you background helps you evaluate evidence

(does it fit your experience or not?)

can motivate you is anecdotal

How many sources?

+

• critical mass = 4 reliable sourcesincluding one scholarly: peer-reviewedor written by expertsfor people with background

• rule of thumb: at least one source per page

Why document?“Although one should not necessarily judge an article by where it appears, there is a pecking order in clinical medicine. The New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) are the alpha roosters.”

roosters” (Groopman, 2007, p. 215).

00

Groopman, J. (2007). How doctors think.New York: Houghton Mifflin.

in-text citation

reference list entry

Why document?What is plagiarism?

Find the Plagiarism Policy in the syllabusand jot down a short definition.

Be sure to quote any wording you take directlyfrom the policy.

Why document?Is this plagiarism? • Compare it to the original• Does it fit your definition?

Plagiarism is the theft of someone else’s ideas and work. Whether a student copies verbatim or simply rephrases the ideas of another without properly acknowledging the source, it is still plagiarism.

“Plagiarism is the theft of someone else’s ideas and work. Whether a student copies verbatim or simply rephrases the ideas of another without properly acknowledging the source, it is still plagiarism” (Kaplan University plagiarism policy, 2008).

Turnitin will help

Course Requirements Baseline essay (ungraded) Topic Exploration paragraph (Unit 2) List of sources (Unit 3) Working Thesis (Unit 4) Working outline (Unit 5) 5-paragraph draft (Unit 7) 3-5 page informative essay (Unit 8) Informal presentation (Unit 9)

correctcitationrequired for credit

practice

Look Over Sample Projects Final product—

3-5 page informative essay — pp. 136-142 Assignments build toward essay—

List of sources Working outline Draft

models available in your textand on eCollege platform

Where to Get Help http:/word-crafter.net/CompI

Assignments Syllabus Subject-specific resources Grammar help

Academic Success Center (ASC) Library

In person Email: agress@kaplan.edu

3: Writing is a process

True or False? There is one right way to write. Good writers don’t need to revise much. Only people who love writing write well. Comp I will destroy my GPA. My beliefs about writing can make me smarter.

Myth: There is one right way to write.

Reality: The writing process is anything a writer

does from the time the idea came until the piece is completed or abandoned. There is no particular order.     —Donald Graves,        writing researcher

Writing Process Get ideas Get them down Revise them Polish/publish

Take time to plan

“Those who focus on form before generating ideas find it _______ difficult to develop the body of their papers” (Hillocks, 1986).Hillocks, G. (1986). Research on written composition: New directions for teaching.

Urbana, IL: National Conference on Research in English.

“Experienced writers spend upto _____% of their timeplanning” (Davis, 2005, p. 15).

Davis, K. W. (2005). The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course in Business Writing and Communication. New York: McGraw-Hill.

40

more

Polish after you draft

“Writers who try to catch every mistake as they draft can give themselves writer’s block” (Russell, 2005).Russell, M. (2005). The assumptions we make: How learners and teachers understand writing. Retrieved November 3, 2005, from National Centerfor Adult Learning and Literacy Web site: http://www.ncsall.net/?id=336

Is this good writing?

Who created that draft? A Kaplan student who’s retaking Comp I A returning student whose last comp

class was 10 years ago A Newbery-winning author

RealityYou have to get the bulk of it down, and then you start to refine it. You have to put down less-than-marvelous material just to keep going, whatever you think the end is going to be, which may be something else altogether by the time you get there.

—Larry Gelbart, M.A.S.H writer

Myth If writing makes me anxious,

I must be a bad writer.

Are you this anxious?Anne Lamott describes writing restaurant reviews:

I'd write a first draft that was. . . . so long and incoherent and hideous that for the rest of the day I'd obsess about getting creamed by a car before I could write a decent second draft. I'd worry that people would read what I'd written and believe that the accident had really been a suicide, that I had panicked because my talent was waning and my mind was shot.

—Bird by Bird

Writing takes effort In studies of writers, which variable do you

think made the biggest difference in quality? Whether they knew what they wanted

to say Whether they believed they were good writers How much they liked to write How much they revised How much they revised

Myth If I think I’m a bad writer, I can’t pass

this course.

Reality

mostly Cs Ds and Fs Bs and As

Normal Bell Curve Comp Curve(inverted Bell Curve)

Ds and Fs Bs and As A few Cs

Absences :: Grades

Based on Comp I grades from March-October 2008.No one who attended every class earned less than a B.Everyone who earned an F missed at least 33% of class.

Absences :: Grades

420 pts.

The Wizard of Oz The diploma

doesn’t make you smarter.

It’s the work you do to get the diploma.

Reality: Your beliefs about writing

can make you smarter.

How do I know? In a study by Carol Dweck, 4th-graders “were

given unsolvable problems followed by solvable ones. Once the ‘helpless students’ failed, their strategies deteriorated down to _____ grade level; whereas, the "mastery-oriented students" stayed at 4th grade level despite failures. They rolled up their sleeves and worked harder. The crucial element was whether the student saw the failure as having to do with ability or effort.”

How to Succeed Be here Find a topic you like Follow the rubrics for each assignment Read feedback Keep up with assignments Revise Back up your work Avoid the “Comp is hard” trap

Hairston(1981)

Beason(2001)

Connors &Lunsford(1988 )

Kantz & Yates

(1994 )

ReferencesBeason, L. (2001). Ethos and error: How business people react to errors. Retrieved from

http:// www.ic.arizona.edu/~profcomm/course/readings/PDFs/Errors.pdfConnors, R.,& Lunsford, A. (1988). Frequency of formal errors in current college writing, or Ma and Pa Kettle do research.

College Composition and Communication, 39, 395-409. Hairston, M. (1981). Not all errors are created equal. College English, 43, 794-806. Kantz, M., & Yates, R. (1994). Whose judgments? A survey of faculty responses to common and highly irritating writing errors.

Paper presented at the ifth Annual Conference of the NCTE Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar, Illinois State University, Normal, IL. Retrieved from http://www.ateg.org/conferences/c5/kantz.htm

Connors and Lunsford (1986) found an average of• 9.53 errors per essay• 2.26 mistakes per 100 words

Connors, A., & Lunsford, R. (1986). Frequency of formal errors in current college writing, or Ma and Pa Kettle do research. College Composition and Communication, 39, 395–409, Retrieved July 19, 2006, from http://www.english.lsu.edu/ dept/programs/ugrad/firstyear/articles/makettle.pdf

What’s a good topic? Something you care about

Enough to be interested Not so much you can’t be objective

Something that’s researchable Time limits Available information

Something you’re comfortable sharing Something that’s informative Something that can contribute new insights

E.g., not