English 1A: Composition

Instructor: Diana Luu

Index Cards & Introductions• Name (w/pronunciation), and nickname if you go by that• Contact info (email)• Your Year (1st year, 1st semester, etc.)• Major (or if undecided, what you’re interested in)• Future plans (transfer, certificate, out of interest)• Writing Background (FY writing course? Repeat? Returning to

college? ESL student? English 475?)• Which area of writing would you like to improve? How will this

class help you? • Interests/Hobbies

On Characterization, Audience, and Purpose1. What is your favorite genre of writing, television, or film, and why?2. Who is your favorite character from a television series, movie, or

book, and why?3. What is your favorite television, film, or literature series, and why?4. Who is your favorite superhero or villain, and why?5. Who is your favorite advertisement character (or mascot), and

why? 6. What is the best advertisement you’ve come across, and why?

Rules of Write Club: A Writing Intensive Fast-Track 1A Course

• The first rule of Write Club is you think critically. • The second rule of Write Club is you think critically. • The third rule of Write Club is you write creatively. • The fourth rule of Write Club is you revise carefully.• Fifth rule: if this is your first fast track 1A, you must

write.

Syllabuswww.dianaluu.com

Part II: Demystifying The Writing Process

“metacognition”

Definition: being aware of one’s own thought processesTranslation: • “Thinking about thinking”; Much of this class will involve

thinking about writing and writing about writing

Freewrite #1

• How are you already a writer? • Is there a difference between a “writer” and

a “Writer”? How so?

PWR

Prepare: Read Critically

Write: Write Creatively

Revise: Revise Carefully

Steps1.Pose questions2.Brainstorming3.Creating a proposal and outlining4.Drafting5.Editing/proofreading

Determine the writer’s purpose and audienceWhat seems to be the writer’s main purpose?

• To understand what happened and why?• To work through complex and ambivalent feelings?• To win over readers?• To reflect on cultural attitudes at the time the event occurred?• To contrast current ways of thinking?

What does the author assume about the audience?

•Readers will have similar experiences and thus appreciate what the writer went through•Readers feel differently than the writer?•That the audience will have no background, some background, or are experts as well?

Techniques to convey purpose to audience:• Narrative + Argument = Persuasion• Think about how we use narratives in society…what’s the point?

• Did your parents ever tell you a story and then use that story to teach you something?

• Did your friends ever tell you a joke, adding characters with strong personalities, making sound effects, pausing dramatically…all to get to the punch line—the “AH HA Moment”

What do these scenarios have in common?• They all understand PURPOSE, AUDIENCE, and STYLE. • Writing an essay employs a similar philosophy

First Essay: blending two types—narrative and an argument. I’m asking you to share something about yourself and craft an argument about how you may have been influenced deeply by something deemed entertainment.

Readers:

- Naturally look for something that will tell them the point of the essay (a focus for the main diverse details and ideas they encounter as they read)

- Want a context for reading the essay, particularly if they are reading about a new or difficult subject.

- Thesis statement allows readers to anticipate the content of the essay and helps them understand the relationships among its various ideas and details.

What is a thesis/argument?

• The thesis (argument) of a paper is the main point driving the whole essay. • For narrative essays, sometimes this is a larger theme or the

significance—not necessarily a direct statement. • Thesis statement allows readers to anticipate the content of the essay

and helps them understand the relationships among its various ideas and details

Thesis Statements (cont.)• usually appears early in the essay• usually one or more sentences and operate as a cue by letting readers

know which is the most important general idea among the writer’s many ideas and observations.

Forecasting Statements: some thesis statements include a forecast, which overviews the way a thesis will be developed:

“In these days when the threat of plague has been replaced by the threat of mass human extermination by even more rapid means, there has been a sharp renewal of interest in the history of the fourteenth-century calamity. With new perspective, students are investigating its manifold effects: demographic, economic, psychological, moral, and religious.” – William Langer, “The Black Death” (p. 319)

Thesis Statement: Cueing the Reader (pp. 317-19)Readers need guidance (cues or signals) in the essay. There are 5 basic

kinds:1. Thesis and forecasting statements, to orient the readers to ideas and

organization2. Paragraphing, to group related ideas and details3. Cohesive devices, to connect ideas to one another and bring about

clarity4. Transitions, to signal relationships or shifts in meaning5. Headings and subheadings, to group related paragraphs and help

readers locate specific information quickly

Part III: Introducing the Essay and Brainstorming

Essay 1: Narrating Memory and Exploring Arguments

Topic• Return to a film you watched and liked in your childhood. Present an

exploratory argument about the film’s worldview (through the characters’ experiences, through setting, through dialogue, through song, through imagery) and how this film may have informed your then-blossoming view of the world. • (Option 2: Instead of a film, you may also use a book, but this book

must be non-religious in nature and must be a novel (i.e. not a children’s book ten pages long), and I must pre-approve this novel.)

Deconstructing the Prompt:

What are we being asked to do?You must choose a film that left an impression on you. Analyze the film to make an argument about the film’s worldview/moral/thesis. Explain how this film may have shaped your view of the world. (How did the film’s perspective of the world influence your outlook of the world growing up?) What is the essential question?How did this movie leave an impression on you? Are you a certain type of person today, with a specific view of the world, because of a movie you watched and loved in your childhood? (TBSW)

Brainstorming

• Two types:• Mapping: Brief visual representation of your thinking or planning• Clustering• Listing

• Writing: Composition of phrases or sentences to discover information, ideas, and connections• Freewrites

Brainstorm Activity

Generating information:• Think about your childhood and the movies you watched over and over

again. Take 5 minutes to make a list of your favorite movies.

Don’t over think it—list the ones that come to mind.

Organizing information (we’re looking for patterns)Now examine your list: do these movies have anything in common? How old were you when you watched these movies? Which is your favorite and why? (5 min)

Some working theses:

The Lion King:In The Lion King, the film uses songs and the repetition of images to argue that every character fulfills a role in society and is connected to each other, even when they are not aware of it. Watching this movie at a young age helped me realize that running from responsibility may have lasting consequences on others even though I may not see it.

Dead Poets SocietyIn Dead Poets Society, the film uses setting and imagery to argue for the importance of individualism over conformity as the source of happiness. The film’s perspective taught me the necessity of self expression as an important part of my identity, especially at a young age.

Good Will HuntingThrough the characters’ experiences and dialogue, Good Will Hunting argues that academic prestige does not measure the sole worth of an individual and gifted people can come from any background. The film taught me that my life experience was also a part of my education and that I was not limited by my socio-economic circumstances.

Assign Proposal #1 & Mini #1

What is the proposal for? - This gives me an idea of what you want to write about and the topics you

want to explore in your essay. The proposal provides the scope of your writing project and organizes the brainstorming you did earlier.

http://www.dianaluu.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Eng1A_Essay-1-Proposal.pdf

What is the Mini for?- This serves as a critical thinking exercise. This assignment will allow you to

practice reading critically and in a directed manner. It will also give you the opportunity to close read and annotate the text.

http://www.dianaluu.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Directions-for-Mini-Responses.pdf

Mini #1

• David Foster Wallace’s “This Is Water”• PDF on my syllabus, posted online• Dianaluu.com > Students > English 1A

HW: - Complete Proposal #1 (2x copies)- Complete Mini #1 (2x copies) *print out a copy of Wallace’s essay and bring it to class for discussion. - Print out LSC Sheet and schedule first appointment asap.- Acquire Textbook