...My first year at Alma College has been an eye-opening experience. I have learned a lot academically, about myself, and about life in general. As I progressed though the year my viewpoints had changed. I had many new experiences that broadened my horizon. My classes opened me up to knowledge I could apply to my life, that I found interesting, and benefitted me. I learned a lot about myself, including what I want out of my college experience, and what my passion is. Despite the numerous papers, multitudes of exams, tremendous amount of course work, and athletics I believe I have done well. One of the many demanding classes this semester was English 101. In this rigorous course, students were asked to gain rhetorical knowledge, engage in critical writing, perform research writing, and improve their style and grammar. These goals are closely related to those of the WPA Outcomes published by the Council of Writing Program Administrators. The WPA...
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...materials i) How the self-assessment sheet can be used ii) Workshop using the self-assessment sheet 34 34 34 iii) How ‘Writing essays: A guide for literary studies students’ can be used 35 iv) Workshop using the essay guide 35 Impact on staff and students i) Student response to the self-assessment sheet ii) Student response to workshops using the materials iii) Staff response to the materials 37 37 37 37 Further references About the authors Acknowledgements Appendices i) Example of completed self-assessment sheet with essay 39 39 39 41 3 4 Project mission statement T he Assessment and the Expanded Text Consortium is a project directed by the English division at the University of Northumbria. It involves collaborating with colleagues who teach English courses at Sheffield Hallam University, Staffordshire University and the University of East Anglia. We came together three years ago to build on existing relations between our various institutions, relations which often developed from the role of the external examiner and as a result of the Teaching Quality Assessment visits...
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...Elements of an Essay/Research Paper Writing Process The series of steps that most writers follow in producing a piece of writing. The five major stages in the writing process are finding a topic and generating ideas (discovering), focusing on a main or controlling idea and mapping out an approach (organizing), preparing a rough draft (drafting), reworking and improving the draft (revising), and proofreading and correcting errors. Discovering – The first stage in the writing process. It may include finding a topic, exploring the topic, determining purpose and audience, probing ideas, doing reading and research, planing and organizing material. Discovery usually involves writing and is aided considerably by putting preliminary thought and plans in writing. Organizing – The sequence in which the information or ideas in an essay are presented. Drafting – The stage in the writing process during which the writer puts ideas into complete sentences, connects them, and organizes them into a meaningful sequence. Revising – The stage in the writing process during which the author makes changes in focus, organization, development, style, and mechanics to make the writing more effective. Editing – The last stage in the writing process during which the writer focuses on the details of mechanics and correctness. Discovering Audience – The readers for whom a piece of writing is intended. Many essays are aimed at a general audience, but a writer can focus on a specific group of readers...
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...Commentary on Review 1. Analysing the topic Notice how this review topic is asking students to do two things – to summarise a text (in this case a book chapter) and then to evaluate it. This is what most review tasks will require you to do – though you may find some variation on this theme. It’s important to always read the topic instructions carefully. Hint: When you are reading a text to be reviewed – keep the following two questions uppermost in your mind: • What is this text saying? (summary); • What do I think about what it’s saying? (evaluation) 2. The text being reviewed Notice how this review begins with the full bibliographical information about the text being reviewed – author, date, title publisher, place etc. Hint: Always commence your review with this information. 3. Introduction Rather than going straight into reviewing the text, notice how this student writer has begun by introducing the broad issue that the text is addressing. In this case it is the problems that international students can experience in Australian universities. Hint: Think about how you can relate the text you are reviewing to its broader context. 4. Summarising the text (see paragraphs 2-6) As we noted, one of the main components of a review is to summarise the original text. A good summary like this one will do the following: • accurately represent the ideas in the original text • focus on the more important ideas • be perfectly understandable to someone who has not read the original How long...
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...------------------------------------------------- ASSIGNMENT 4: PERSUASIVE PAPER PART 2: SOLUTION AND ADVANTAGES November 23, 2014 English 215 Professor Weslea Bell Erica L. Smith November 23, 2014 English 215 Professor Weslea Bell Erica L. Smith In 2001 President Bush presented the “No Child Left Behind Act of 2001”. He wanted to emphasize equal access to education and establish high standards and accountability. While in office, President Bush intentions were good however the Act itself has raised many issues and concerns with parents. Even though we all share the common goal, which is to better educate our youth, we must look more into depth regarding the pros and cons of the “No Child Left Behind Act”. The Act hinders our children, effects the ethics and morals of the school system, and our economy (Eugene Hickok, 2002). The thesis statement is the argument of demands of the reform “No Child Left Behind” have resulted in insufficient provision and implementation of services for special needs students in “failing” schools. The “No Child Left Behind Act” affects many, but perhaps the most affected are the children. The law was enacted to improve our children’s academic achievement, yet it has hindered them. Our children go to school 180 days out of the year and in those days they are expected to learn the necessary tools to help them be successful in the next grade level and in life. The Act raises concerns because...
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...STARTING, FINISHING, AND STYLING 15. Developing the Introduction and Conclusion 16. Using Language 1 22 1 23 1 31 PART 5 • DELIVERY 1 Choosing a Method of Delivery 7. 18. Controlling the Voice 19. Using the Body 1 39 1 40 1 44 1 48 PART 6 • PRESENTATION AIDS 20. Types of Presentation Aids 21. Designing Presentation Aids 22. A Brief Guide to Microsoft PowerPoint 154 155 161 164 PART 7 • TYPES OF SPEECHES 23. Informative Speaking 24. Persuasive Speaking 25. Speaking on Special Occasions 1 74 1 75 188 21 7 PART 8 • THE CLASSROOM AND BEYOND 230 26. Typical Classroom Presentation Formats 27. Science and Mathematics Courses 28. Technical Courses 29. Social Science Courses 30. Arts and Humanities Courses 31. Education Courses 32. Nursing and Allied Health Courses 33. Business Courses and Business Presentations 34. Presenting in Teams 35. Communicating in Groups 231 236 240 243 246 248 25 1 253 258 262 APPENDICES A. Citation Guidelines B. Question-and-Answer Sessions C. Preparing for Mediated Communication D. Tips for Non-Native Speakers of English Glossary Notes Index 267 268 282 284 286 290 309 323 This page intentionally left blank A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking THIRD EDITION Getting Started ■ ■ Development ■ ■ Organization ■ Starting, Finishing, and Styling ■ Delivery...
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...CHAP TER Rhetorical Modes 1. NARRATION L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S 10 1. Identify the purpose and structure of narrative writing. 2. Recognize how to write a narrative essay. Rhetorical modes simply mean the ways in which we can effectively communicate through language. This chapter covers nine common rhetorical modes. As you read about these nine modes, keep in mind that the rhetorical mode a writer chooses depends on his or her purpose for writing. Sometimes writers incorporate a variety of modes in one essay. In covering the nine rhetorical modes, this chapter also emphasizes these as a set of tools that will allow you greater flexibility and effectiveness in communicating with your audience and expressing your ideas. rhetorical modes The ways in which we effectively communicate through language. 1.1 The Purpose of Narrative Writing Narration means the art of storytelling, and the purpose of narrative writing is to tell stories. Any time you tell a story to a friend or family member about an event or incident in your day, you engage in a form of narration. In addition, a narrative can be factual or fictional. A factual story is one that is based on, and tries to be faithful to, actual events as they unfolded in real life. A fictional story is a made-up, or imagined, story; the writer of a fictional story can create characters and events as he or she sees fit. However, the big distinction between factual and fictional narratives is based on a writer’s purpose...
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...87 .,~. Peer Tutoring and the "Conversation of Mankind" by Kenneth A. Bruffee The beginnings of peer tutoring lie in practice, not in theory. A decade or so ago, faculty and administrators in a few institutions around the country became aware that, increasingly, students entering college had difficulty doing as well in academic studies as their abilities suggested they should be able to do. Some of these students were in many ways poorly prepared academically. Many more of them, however, had on paper excellent secondary preparation. The common denominator among the poorly prepared and the apparently well prepared seemed to be that, for cultural reasons we may not yet fully under stand, all these students had difficulty adapting to the traditional or "normal" conventions of the college classroom. One symptom of the difficulty was that many of these students refuSed .help when it was offered. Mainly, colleges offered ancillary programs staffed by professionals. Students avoided them in droves. Many solutions to this problem were suggested and tried, from mandated programs to sink-or-swim. One idea that seemed at the time among the most exotic and unlikely (that is, in the jargon of the Sixties, among the most "radical") turned out to work rather well. Some of us had guessed that students were refusing the help we were providing because it seemed to them merely an extension of the work, the expectations, and above all the social structure of traditional classroom learning. And...
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...Connecticut State Department of Education Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT) Third Generation Handbook for Reading and Writing Across the Disciplines Contents Technical note: If using an electronic version of this handbook, click on any underlined text to link to the specific section in the document. Foreword 3 Position Statement 4 Introduction 6 Reading Across the Disciplines: • Response to Literature 8 • Reading for Information 11 Writing Across the Disciplines: • Interdisciplinary Writing 15 • Editing and Revising 18 Instructional Strategies to Use All Year 19 CAPT Strategies for All Students 22 Additional Assessment Information 25 Released Items 26 Foreword On behalf of the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE), I am pleased to present the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT) Third Generation Handbook for Reading and Writing Across the Disciplines. The third generation CAPT, developed in 2004 and piloted in 2005 and 2006, will be administered live for the first time in March 2007. This handbook has been developed to provide Connecticut’s public school educators with important information about the CAPT reading and writing across the disciplines assessments. It should serve as a reference for all content area teachers as they prepare their students. It is designed to answer the frequently asked questions about...
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...Teaching and Teacher Education 36 (2013) 77e91 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Teaching and Teacher Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tate Grammar matters: How teachers’ grammatical knowledge impacts on the teaching of writing Debra Myhill a, b, *, Susan Jones a, Annabel Watson a a b University of Exeter, UK University of Wollongong, Australia h i g h l i g h t s Teachers’ grammatical knowledge influences what students learn about writing. Limitations in teachers’ grammatical content knowledge can generate student misconceptions. Teachers’ ‘applied’ knowledge is more significant than declarative knowledge. a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Received 27 June 2012 Received in revised form 17 July 2013 Accepted 19 July 2013 Teaching grammar has been mandated in statutory curriculum documents in England since 1988. Yet despite this, research evidence continues to suggest that metalinguistic knowledge is an area of challenge for many teachers. Drawing on data from a larger study, this paper considers the role of teachers’ grammatical knowledge, both content and pedagogical content knowledge, in mediating learning about writing in the classroom. It also illustrates how students’ learning about writing is influenced by teachers’ metalinguistic knowledge. The study highlights that grammatical pedagogical content knowledge is more significant than grammatical content knowledge in supporting meaningful...
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...BS (4 Years) for Affiliated Colleges Course Contents for Subjects with Code: ENG This document only contains details of courses having code ENG. Center for Undergraduate Studies, University of the Punjab 1 BS (4 Years) for Affiliated Colleges Code ENG‐101 Year 1 Subject Title Introduction to Literature‐I (History of English Literature‐I) Discipline English Cr. Hrs 3 Semester I Aims: One of the objectives of this course is to inform the readers about the influence of historical and socio-cultural events upon the production of literature. Although the scope of the course is quite expansive, the readers shall focus on early 14th to 19th century Romantic Movement. Histories of literature written by some British literary historians will be consulted to form some socio-cultural and political cross connections. In its broader spectrum, the course covers a reference to the multiple factors from economic theories to religious, philosophical and metaphysical debates that overlap in these literary works of diverse nature and time periods under multiple contexts. The reading of literature in this way i.e. within the sociocultural context will help the readers become aware of the fact that literary works are basically a referential product of the practice that goes back to continuous interdisciplinary interaction. Contents: • Medieval Period • Renaissance and Reformation • Elizabethan Period • Milton, the Metaphysical...
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...main finding of this paper indicates that there are two main interpersonal functions of lexical bundles that dominate in this domain: attitude markers and emphatics. 1.1 Lexical Bundles Lexical bundles, as a particular and relatively recent category of word combinations with a possibly formulaic status (Biber and Barbieri, 2007: 263), are coined and defined by Biber et al (1999:990). They define lexical bundles as "recurrent expressions, regardless of their idiomaticity, and regardless of their structural status" simple sequences of words that commonly co-occur in natural language use. One of the earliest studies of lexical bundles is reported by Altenberg (1998:113) who analyzed “recurrent word-combinations” in English. He...
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...Approaches to Classroom Research with English Language Learners Patricia A. Duff University of British Columbia Address: Department of Language & Literacy Education University of British Columbia 2125 Main Mall Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada Courier: 2034 Lower Mall Road University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2 Canada Qualitative Approaches to Classroom Research 2 ABSTRACT This chapter provides an overview of recent qualitative research in classrooms examining English language learners (ELLs). I first present common features of qualitative research and review debates regarding research paradigms in the social sciences and humanities. I also discuss the role of triangulation and capturing participants’ insider or emic perspectives in qualitative research and highlight various data collection methods and ways of combining macro-level and micro-level analyses, particularly in ethnographic research. Ethical issues, difficulties obtaining informed consent in classroom research, and criteria for evaluating qualitative research are then considered. Three qualitative studies that have been deemed exemplary and meritorious by scholars in English language education are then presented and some common themes in current qualitative classroom research with ELLs are identified. The chapter concludes with directions for future qualitative research. Introduction Over the past 2 decades, research in language education, as in other academic disciplines, has...
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...planning for an 8-week scheme would surely but multiply. While the freedom at my fingertips was invigorating, there was the gnawing sense that failure to grasp the key issues involved would lead to the teacher’s greatest fear – wasted lessons; wasted lessons after which the class would struggle to maintain a respect for the teacher. Furthermore, it would be the waste of an outstanding opportunity. As commentators to the publication Teaching History have repeatedly stressed, the new History National Curriculum for Key Stage 3 offers teachers a ‘glorious flexibility’ to throw out the straight-jacket of centralised requirements beholden to political overlords (Dawson 2008, 18). Instead, led by a relit passion for their discipline, teachers are able to respond to the very specific needs of their school and construct personalised routes towards a variety of objectives. For some commentators, the National Curriculum Key Concepts and their accompanying levels represent the vestiges of an ancien regime of central control that prevent true pupil ownership developing (see Knight 2008). However, a determination to facilitate pupil progression in six concepts at the heart of our subject should be valued as a way to structure our planning, teaching and assessment. What is more, aspiring to teach such crucial concepts – in addition to the corresponding Key Processes – should complement rather than devalue what is, in my opinion, the history teacher’s unique advantage; insodoing, it would release...
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...Using Facebook to Teach Rhetorical Analysis Jane Mathison Fife The attraction of Facebook is a puzzle to many people over the age of thirtyfive, and that includes most college faculty. Yet students confess to spending significant amounts of time on Facebook, sometimes hours a day. If you teach in a computer classroom, you have probably observed students using Facebook when you walk in the room. Literacy practices that fall outside the realm of traditional academic writing, like Facebook, can easily be seen as a threat to print literacy by teachers, especially when they sneak into the classroom uninvited as students check their Facebook profiles instead of participating in class discussions and activities. This common reaction reflects James King and David O’Brien’s (2002: 42) characterization of the dichotomy teachers often perceive between school and nonschool literacy activities (although they are not referring to Facebook specifically): “From teachers’ perspectives, all of these presumably pleasurable experiences with multimedia detract from students’ engagement with their real work. Within the classroom economy technology work is time off task; it is classified as a sort of leisure recreational activity.” This dichotomy can be broken down, though; students’ enthusiasm for and immersion in these nonacademic literacies can be used to complement their learning of critical inquiry and traditional academic concepts like rhetorical analysis. Although they read these texts daily...
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