Who am I?
What does this mean?
 This is not a typical College English class.
 I’m going to treat you as though you were
capable of coherent thought and
professional writing.
 What I tell you comes from real world
experience – not something dreamed up to
make it possible for software to mark
essays.
So this is important...
Pay attention!
Come to class! Much of what is
being taught here requires lecture
and conversation.
Take part! Ask questions!
Trust no one!
Class information
 Don’t use WebCT or George Brown e-mail.
 Class website:http://gbccollegeenglish.wordpress.com/
Class E-mails
Monday 1 – 3 comm1007a@gmail.com
Wedesday 8 – 10 comm1007b@gmail.com
Thursday 8 – 11 comm1007c@gmail.com
Thursday 2 – 5 comm1007d@gmail.com
WHAT IS COLLEGE
ENGLISH?
Nobody knows.
• It involves writing.
• It involves essays.
What is an essay?
 We don’t know.
 What then is time? If no one asks me, I
know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him
who asks, I do not know (Augustine).
 Essays can include short stories, editorials,
articles in newspapers and magazines,
special news reports, documentaries,
commentary, and way, way more.
How you have been prepared
The Five Paragraph
Essay
(5PE)
The 5PE teaches
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
That an essay should have a beginning, a middle and
an end.
That arguments should have a number of supports.
That text should be broken into discrete blocks, called
“paragraphs.”
That each paragraph should have an internal
consistency.
That essays should begin by introducing the overall
topic, and end by stating the conclusion.
But the 5PE has limitations
It is mechanical
It is a tool
It is imaginary
The 5PE does not exist
 The Five Paragraph Essay is an artificial construct
virtually impossible to find in the real-world.
 The only Five Paragraph Essays (as described in
the so-called “Hamburger Essay” format) are
those which have been created for one of two
reasons:
 Showing how a Five Paragraph Essay is done
for English classes.
 Written after having been shown how to
write one in English classes.
So...
 We don’t know what College English is.
 We don’t know what an essay is.
 And the Five Paragraph Essay you’ve
been taught all through your schooling is
crap.
 What’s left?
Analytical writing
 Analysis tends to take the form of an “essay.”
 The word comes from Old French, essayer, and
means “to try.”
 In analytical writing the best we can do is try.
 Analysis is never finished:
 New information
 New definitions
 New shifts of knowledge
Analytical writing
Analytical writing is special
We can never consider a subject
“finished.”
In analysis, as in real science, “the
debate” is never over.
What can we analyse?
 Anything
 Feelings
 Humour
 Traffic patterns
 The relative merits of dental materials
 Writing
 Analysis
Analytical writing
 Unlike “College English,” Analytical
Writing is what people do in the real
world.
 It consists of two parts:
 Analysis
 Writing
 Both parts rely on clear thinking.
Rules for Clarity
 The rules are flexible and can be bent, but they
can’t be broken.
 Be concise: Keep to the topic
 Make sure the reader understands what you
mean.
 Use concrete examples.
 The “blocks,” or “paragraphs” must be organic to
the subject matter and help reader
comprehension.
 The information must “flow.”
Clear Analysis
Involves knowing the difference
between:
Valid and invalid conclusions.
Logical and illogical reasoning
Your thoughts and other people’s
thoughts.
Clarity & the Style Guide
 The style guide can help keep your thinking
and writing clear.
 APA = American Psychological Association
 Different disciplines have their own style
guides:
 Humanities: MLA (Modern Language
Association
 Histories: Chicago Style Guide
Style guides cover...
 Distance between lines
 The manner in which titles are written.
 The form and placement of citations.
 The form and placement of references.
 Example: The titles of independent
publications are written in italics. A book
title, for instance (A Farewell to Arms). This
also applies to movies (The Dark Knight)
Know your own mind
Style guides also help develop the
habit of distinguishing between
what you know personally and
what you have been told.
Know your reader’s mind
Write to an audience.
Style guides can help:
They provide a kind of audience,
fairly conservative in nature
Two Prime Directives
In order to write well, you have
to:
Have something you want to say.
Honestly try to express it to a given
audience.
Why is this important?
There are many reasons for learning
to think and articulate clearly, but
the most important one is this:
You’re being lied to.