November 1, 2012

After two weeks of conferences and tests, we are back to a routine of meeting each Thursday, analyzing the structure of essays, and continuing to shape and develop our college writing skills.  Students should have completed and sent in an electronic copy of Major Essay 2's rough draft.  Those who sent in a copy already have them back.  The final draft of Major Essay 2 is due in class tonight.

We'll then move on from the Expository Unit and into our Persuasive/Research Unit.  We have two goals for this unit: 1. to write effective persuasive essays, and 2. to integrate research into our writing with proper formatting and citations.  We'll start our work toward these two goals by discussing and evaluating what makes an effective thesis.  We'll also have some writing practice over persuasion and integrating a source with Minor Essay 3a, which we'll start in class tonight.

Objectives

• Use the writing process to shape the development of the essay
• Identify and analyze how authors manipulate structure to achieve their purpose
• Identify and analyze dishonest and honest persuasive techniques

Activities

• Major Essay 2 due, discuss and hand in
• Discuss Carr and Gatto
• Assign and begin working on Minor Essay 3a 
• Create a thesis for the essay during class
• Notes and discussion over Creating an Effective Thesis
• Evaluate the current thesis for Minor Essay 3a
• Integrating research discussion and practice

Homework

• Minor Essay 3a (written or typed) due next week
• In The Writer's Presence, read:
• Zinn, 861-868
• Jefferson, 696-699
• Ehrenreich, 650-654