Wednesday, February 13, 2013

English 1301 & 1302, 13 February 2013

Review your syllabus re class requirements; don't lapse into a high school 'tude; that outdated script compromises your professional development.

About those little electric boxes - no one should have to remind you to put them away.  Disconnect from your BFF and focus on building your professional skills. 

Review the MLA format occasionally; again, this is a matter of professional development.  You are preparing to become a young professional.

Remember that you are in college, not high school.

English 1301 - read / study that lengthy handout on persuasive writing.  Consider especially both logical arguments (professional writing) and emotional arguments (common in advertisements, speeches, and editorials).  Take a look at the Real Clear series of essays daily on the 'net.  Read persuasive articles by people with whom you do not agree; learn how to develop arguments and, simultaneously, how to refute them, all in a professional manner.

I should -- should -- have your essays read and marked for you by Monday the 18th.

English 1302 - Read / study Chaucer.  I am boring but Chaucer really is fun.  Consider direct and indirect character development.  Chaucer employs direct development; almost all stories, novels, and films employ indirect development.  Consider why. 

Your mock-Beowulf creative writing pieces were consistently a joy -- genuinely creative, imaginative, thoughtfully-developed.  Thank you.  I urge you to keep such efforts as well as your journals; You will enjoy them in a couple of decades.

Over all, I am pleased with your professional demeanor in class (two or three of your classmates could make a better effort).  If you maintain your personal sense of professional and industriousness, you should do well in four-year school and in life.  Don't develop senior-itis, though; that's the curse of many a final GPA. 

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