Daily Self Plans: 75 minutes

Week 1, Day 1—August 26, 2010.

5 Minutes
Self Introduction

15 Minutes
Distribute syllabus and briefly discuss it, focusing on the Rationale:

• In college, writing has a purpose, that is, to communicate a certain message to a specific
or general audience in the most rhetorically effective way possible. Do you know what I
mean by rhetoric? According to Aristotle, rhetoric is the ability to use language
persuasively.

• Promote critical thinking skills. Critical thinking skills are not merely route
memorization. It is not merely retention of information. It does have to do with
information though; it is actively analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information
generated by reflection, reasoning, and / or communication. Analysis is breaking apart
information {Give example}. Synthesis is putting that information back together in order
to reach a higher stage of understanding {Give example}. Evaluation is to make a
founded judgement call on a piece of information—it is the ability to decide whether the
information is good or bad, whether it is useful or not. Evaluation is a higher-level skill
that only comes after one carefully analyzes and synthesizes a respective piece of
information. Evaluation must be based on evidence. We will be working on helping you
develop these skills throughout the course of the semester, as they are skills that
transcend {rise above} subject matter and are necessary to your success in any field of
study or professional development.

• Research “Critical thinking skills” on the Internet to ascertain a more comprehensive

understanding of what it means to be a critical thinker.

***Essentially, this class’ purpose is to help you develop critical thinking skills through writing
while simultaneously teaching you how to write purposeful, rhetorically effective texts. These
skills are the foundation for success in college, the professional world, and life.

Explain that it will be discussed in more detail tomorrow because of the Placement Exam, and
emphasize that students must read and study it {the syllabus} thoroughly. Also, pass out
Academic Writing Conventions along with it and explain that the conventions will be discussed
over the next few weeks.

10 Minutes
Distribute and Discuss Placement Exam, that it is to determine whether a students’ language /
writing skills are advanced enough for English 101 (Day 1 Class Handout). Read the Directions
aloud after passing out the exam and ensure that students do not have any questions about it.
Remind them that they have 30 minutes to take it.
30 Minutes
Students take exam.

15 Minutes
First, pass out Meet and Greet Assignment, and read directions aloud. Second, explain that
they will discuss what they wrote in class, and then invite questions. Third, remind them to
review the syllabus carefully.

Week 2, Day 2—August 31, 2010 (Unit 1)

10 Minutes
Record points in the grade book to those students who completed the Meet and Greet
Assignment.

30 Minutes
Form circle and discuss answers to responses. Be sure to talk about deep revision as one
important way that college writing differs from high school writing (and remind them that
this is one of the learning objectives on the syllabus).

10 Minutes
Wrap up Discussion, pulling together overall trends.

5 Minutes
Pass out their responses to the True Beauty Essay.

15 Minutes
Discuss it. Considering our discussions today about writing, How do college and high school
writing differ? Clarity, Precision, Deep Revision, Critical thinking, Purposeful, Considering
the Reader.

5 Minutes
Homework: Keep the closing question in mind as you Review the syllabus, Academic Writing
Standards, and Rubric for Freshman Composition Papers Carefully in preparation for tomorrow’s
lecture.

Week 2, Day 3—September 2, 2010 (Unit 1)

5 Minutes
Take roll.

15 Minutes
Pass out Quiz on Syllabus, Academic Writing Standards, and Rubric for Freshman
Composition. Tell students they have 10 minutes to take the quiz.
USE BOX METAPHOR: You have to know what’s inside the box to think outside the box.
20 Minutes
After 10 minutes, take up the quiz. Go over the answers to the quiz; reiterate box metaphor.

30 Minutes
Lecture on Syllabus: (Reiterate)
Rationale
• Promote Critical thinking—What is it? Using logic and reasoning to analyze (break apart)
claims beliefs, or issues and reach a logical conclusion about them. Also involves
evaluation: the ability to judge the value of a claim, belief, or issue based on adequate
justification. (to show to be just-fair, right, or reasonable reason for believing or doing
something) {Give Personal Example}

• Promote Good Decision-Making—Realizing there are multiple ways to legitimately

interpret and write about texts, and the ability to make a decision as to the most effective
way to interpret / write about a text. Hopefully, teaching you to make good decisions in a
text will develop your ability to make good decisions in the real world. {Give Personal
Example}

• Use Language to Communicate with others EFFECTIVELY through writing.

A.) Emphasize how they’ll be communicating with others through writing no matter what
their career path. Science, Lab reports.

B.) Talk about how they’ll be communicating with others through writing in their personal
lives. Mention Facebook and the Internet.
Methods
• In class Discussion (including conferences and peer critiques) helps teach students how
to communicate with others effectively. {Listen to others. Learn from others.
Understand others.}

• Develop reading comprehension abilities. Learn more about writing through reading.

Go over remaining Aspects of Syllabus, Beginning with Learning Objectives.

5 Minutes
Distribute two sample E-Mails, one being professional and the other being unprofessional.
Week 3, Day 4—Sept. 7, 2010 (Unit 1)

10 Minutes
• Briefly talk about Homework E-Mails.
• Pass out Owl at Purdue Handout.

30 Minutes
Lecture on Email Strategies
• Stimulating Question: Why do we write? (answer: to communicate) What is
communication?

• Purpose: What do you want to say? (Talk about in relation to e-mails)

• Audience: Consider the Reader (give examples of various audiences)
• Try to put yourself in your readers’ shoes as you are writing / editing. If you don’t
understand why you are writing (what you want to communicate) or who you are
communicating to, then your writing will most likely not make sense.

***Before you begin any piece of writing, you must ask yourself two questions:
• Who is going to read this paper?
• Why are they going to read it?

20 Minutes
Lecture on Aristotle’s Rhetorical Appeals: Ethos, Pathos, Logos. Rhetoric, again, is the art
of persuasive writing.

• Ethos: appeal based on the character of the speaker. An ethos-driven document relies on
the reputation of the author.
• Logos: appeal based on logic or reason. Documents distributed by corporations are logos-
driven. Scholarly documents are also logos-driven.
• Pathos: appeal based on emotion. Advertisements tend to be pathos-driven.

WEBPAGE
Refer to The Art of Rhetoric: Learning How to Use the Three Main Rhetorical Styles
http://www.rpi.edu/dept/llc/webclass/web/project1/group4/index.html.

10 Minutes
• Class Discussion: Analyze E-Mails that they Read for Homework.

5 Minutes
• Handout: Writing A Professional E-Mail.
Week 3, Day 5—September 9, 2010 (Unit 1)

10 Minutes
• Record Participation Points for Professional E-Mail Writing.

20 Minutes
• Discuss what they wrote about and get them to talk about how they used Ethos, Pathos
and Logos in their E-Mails, in addition to other elements of language we have talked
about.

25 Minutes
Style, Refer to Academic Writing Standards
• Briefly Discuss Style and Polish Portion

Fundamental Concerns of Style; Precision and Clarity are the Most Important.
 Apply Precision and Clarity to E-Mails. Precision and Clarity ensure that your writing
(e-mail) is easy to read, or legible. If your writing audience cannot understand what you
wrote, then you would have written in vain. Why write a paper that no one understands
but you?)

A.) Point to Board: “Use the right word, not its second cousin. The difference between the
right word and almost the right word is the difference between “lightening” and
“Lightening bug.” Mark Twain
Diction / Precision: Diction is word choice. Another word for Diction is Precision. You must
say what you mean. You must choose the “right” word that best expresses what you are
trying to say {Example in relation to E-Mail}. The fewer, more precise words you use, the
better.

B.) Clarity : While precision means choosing the right words, clarity means not choosing any
wrong ones. (Don’t overwrite). Perhaps talk about True Beauty Essay.
C.) Style also means your sentences are varied and grammatically correct. Don’t use one
choppy sentence after another. Explain that grammar will be discussed in more detail
later in the unit. Also related to sentence variation is fluidity; fluid writing is smooth
writing; writing with transition; writing that moves from sentence to sentence, paragraph
to paragraph, without tripping the reader.
D.)
E.)
F.)
G.) Adjust your style according to your audience and purpose.
• Polish: Mechanical / Grammatical Errors are avoided.
5 Minutes
Homework
• Pass out Sample E-Mail for them to Read.
• Distribute and explain Handout: Writing a Professional E-Mail.

10 Minutes
Record points in the grade book for those who completed the Professional E-Mail Assignment.