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 Purpose
1. 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.
Syllabus
www.dianaluu.com
Part II: Demystifying The
Writing Process
“metacognition”
Definition: being aware of one’s own thought processes
Translation:
• “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?
P
W
R
Prepare:
Read Critically
Write:
Write Creatively
Revise:
Revise Carefully
Steps
1.Pose questions
2.Brainstorming
3.Creating a proposal and outlining
4.Drafting
5.Editing/proofreading
Determine the writer’s purpose and audience
What 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 organization
2. Paragraphing, to group related ideas and details
3. Cohesive devices, to connect ideas to one another and bring about
clarity
4. Transitions, to signal relationships or shifts in meaning
5. 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 Society
In 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 Hunting
Through 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