Thursday, August 23, 2012

English 1301 -- Your First Week

M. Hall
English Department
Angelina College

English 1301, Week of 27 August

This lesson is for the Monday and Wednesday morning class, and for the Monday night class. 

1.    Roll call – be on time. Always.
2.    Administrivia
A.   Syllabus – much, much exposition by the instructor.  Attached to your syllabus are:
i.             MLA Format for Essay Writing
ii.           Business Letter Block Form
iii.          “Keys to College Success”
iv.          Review of Attendance Requirements
v.            Matrix for Scoring: How Will My Essays be Graded?
3.    Long-term reading assignments, The Bedford Handbook
4.    Research paper
A.   Due dates
i.             Monday, 19 November, NLT beginning of class, for ten extra points
ii.           Monday, 26 November, NLT beginning of class
iii.          Monday, 3 December, NLT, with a loss of ten points
B.   Handout – an outline of expectations
C.   Topics – We will discuss these throughout the beginning of term, and finalize at mid-term
i.             Topics will be assigned from world literature
ii.           Topics may also derive from your professional preparation
iii.          Topics will not derive from contemporary cultural, psychological, political, or other fuzzy issues
iv.          Topics must be approved by instructor
D.   All our earlier work helps prepare for the research paper
5.    Filler language and cliches’ – handout
6.    Descriptive writing
A.   Essay, “Summer Rituals,” Ray Bradbury.  Handout
i.     Always read the prefatory material
ii.   In class, read and discuss the essay in detail
iii.  Understanding Details, read and discuss
iv.  Analyzing Meaning, read and discuss
v.    Rhetorical Strategies, read and discuss
vi.  Preparing to Write, read and discuss
B.   First writing assignment – descriptive essay. Instructor discusses in detail
7.    I doubt if we’ll get this far the first week; some overage is built in, and we will continue next week. A due-date for the essay will be set later.

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