CM107 Overview
Cecelia Munzenmaier
Kaplan University
Course Housekeeping

Instructor
– Cecelia
– Mun - zen - MAI -er
– German for money maker

Contact
– Email: several times a day
– Voicemail: once a day
– Program cell: 515-727-2100
x6921
Course Goals





Construct logical arguments
Develop strategies for effective problem
solving
Conduct research to support assertions
made in personal, academic, and
professional situations
Articulate what constitutes effective
communication in personal, professional
and diverse contexts
Demonstrate effective listening strategies
Course Housekeeping

One 8 - 10 page paper
– With at least 5 sources
(including 2 academic sources)
– Credited in a list of references
– See KU Handbook, p. 136
Course Housekeeping

Assignments build
225 points
U9
Share
U8
Final
50 pts.
Draft
25 points
U1
Writing
U4
Plan
U3 Controversies 100 pts.
100 pts.
U7
U6
Peer
Rough Edit 225 pts.
Draft 85 pts.
150 pts.
Pace yourself

Report progress
to a writing buddy
or supervisor
 Produce 9 times
as many pages
• Write when they
feel like it
• Produce 17 pages
vs. 157
for steady
tortoises
Research says…
Boice compared three groups of writers in a 1989 experiment. One group wrote as little
as possible. Another wrote whenever they felt like it. The third group was to write every
day. If their writing goals were not, they had to write a check to a cause they detested.
Those who wrote every day produced 4 times as many polished pages as “spontaneous”
writers. If they reported progress to Boice, their output was 9 times greater.
Pacing tips
• Keep a regular schedule
• Write often for a short time
•
•
•
•
15 minutes can be effective
30 minutes (Boice)
1 hour is maximum for many
2 hours (Silvia)
• Don’t let writing become so fatiguing
that you don’t feel like coming back.
(Boice, 1960)
Course Housekeeping

Assignments build
225 points
U9
Share
U8
Final
50 pts.
Draft
25 points
U1
Writing
U4
Plan
U3 Controversies 100 pts.
100 pts.
U7
U6
Peer
Rough Edit 225 pts.
Draft 85 pts.
150 pts.
Is this good writing?
Is this good writing?
• Raskin donated her drafts
to show her writing process.
The Westing Game manuscript. (n.d.) Retrieved July 28, 2010,
from University of Wisconsin, Cooperative Children’s Book
Center website: http://www.education.wisc.edu/
ccbc/authors/raskin/intro.htm
Reality
You have to get the bulk of it down, and then
you start to refine it. You have to put down
less-than-marvelous material just to keep
going, whatever you think the end is going to
be, which may be something else altogether
by the time you get there.
—Larry Gelbart,
M.A.S.H writer
Writing takes effort
In studies of writers, which variable made
the biggest difference in quality?
 Whether they knew what they wanted
to say
 Whether they believed they were good
writers
 How much they liked to write
 How much they revised
Course Housekeeping



Directions and models are on KU-ACE
Rubrics, or grading criteria, are in your syllabus
Supplemental resources are available at
http://word-crafter.net/CompII
Read Comments
Revision makes a difference

Grades follow an inverted Bell Curve.
mostly Cs
Ds and Fs
As and Bs
Normal Bell Curve
Ds and Fs
Bs and As
Cs
Comp I Curve
Back Up Your Work
Thumb drive
 Email to yourself as attachment
 Download from dropbox

Double-click
attachment icon
Corollaries to Murphy’s Law

A device is most likely to fail when
– it stores the only copy of your paper
– recreating the paper will take maximum
effort and time you don’t have
– the paper is worth hundreds of points
Attendance matters

I support:
Source: Mintzes, J. J., & Leonard, W. H. (2006).
Handbook of College Teaching. Arlington, VA:
NSTA Press.
Weight of evidence

I support:
Given two people of approximately the same ability and one
person who works ten percent more than the other, the
latter will more than twice outproduce the former. The
more you know, the more you learn; the more you learn,
the more you can do; the more you can do, the more the
opportunity…. Given two people with exactly the same
ability, the one person who manages day in and day out to
get in one more hour of thinking will be tremendously more
productive over a lifetime.
Source: Hamming, R. (2006). You and your research.
Available at http://paulgraham.com/hamming.html
Is this Comp I all over again?
Comp I
 Informative paper
 Step-by-step
 3-5 pages
 4 sources;
1 scholarly
Comp II
 Persuasive paper
 Step-by-step
 8-10 pages
 5 sources;
2 scholarly
 Counterargument?
(yes, but)
What can you add?

You have greater choice of topics.

You can
– agree
– disagree
– apply
– compare/contrast
– evaluate strengths/
weaknesses
Critical/
original
thinking
Bloom’s Taxonomy
You’ll develop persuasive skills

Is personal
 Expresses feelings
and ideas
 Can bring healing
and/or clarity
 Allows people to
experiment with
making beautiful
language

Is objective (not just
true for one person)
 Expresses an opinion
backed by evidence
 Explores ideas
critically
 Aims to be clear and
formal
 Anticipates readers’
questions and
objections
Personal  Informed

Are multi-taskers more efficient?
Poldrack
Personal
experience
+
Conversation
Rubenstein
=
Meyer
Informed
Opinion:
Experience +
Evidence
Research on multitasking
Informed opinion
In academic writing, your opinion is
only as good as your evidence.
Personal Experience
Community of Experts
Parents: Home movies show
no autism symptoms before
vaccination
Doctors detected signs of
autism in the movies.
Schwetter: These
dinosaur bones smell.
Huh? DNA was
recovered.
Rhetorical triangle

rhetoric: the art of composing
effective discourse (exchange
of ideas, conversation)
PURPOSE
WRITER
AUDIENCE
Argument

argument: in speech and writing,
an assertion made about a topic
that is supported by at least one
reason (claim + evidence)
PURPOSE:
ARGUMENT
WRITER
AUDIENCE
Developing an argument





Choose an arguable topic.
Read about pros/cons.
Take a position.
Anticipate objections.
Make your case.
– State your claims (pros).
– Counterargue (show why cons are wrong)
– Provide evidence.
Work the writing process
Get ideas
 Get them down
 Revise them
 Polish/publish

Kuhlthau’s Model of Research
Stage
Task
Feelings
Initiation
contemplating the task
and possible topics
uncertainty
Selection
selecting a topic
optimism
Exploration
encountering inconsistency
and incompatibility
confusion
Formulation
forming a focused
perspective
clarity
Collection
gathering/documenting
confidence
Presentation
connecting and extending
satisfaction or
disappointment
Anxiety does not mean failure
5 Stages of Accomplishment:
Denial
I can’t do it!
Uncertainty
Maybe I can do it!
Resistance
There’s no way I can do it!
Panic
AAAAARGH! What if I can’t do it!
Acceptance
I did it. Let’s party!
How to Succeed









Be here
Find a topic you like
Follow the rubrics for each assignment
Read feedback
Keep up with assignments
Ask questions early
Revise
Back up your work
Avoid the “Comp is hard” trap
It is the hardest
thing in the world
to frighten a
mongoose, because
he is eaten up from
nose to tail with
curiosity. The motto
of all the mongoose
family is “Run and find
out,” and Rikki-tikki
was a true mongoose.
—Rudyard Kipling
“Rikki-tikki-tavi”
The Jungle Book
What’s a good topic?

Something you care about
– Enough to be interested
– Not so much you can’t be objective

Something that’s researchable
– Time limits
– Available information
– Objective information



Something you’re comfortable sharing
Something that’s arguable
Something that can contribute new
insights
How do I know?

In a study by Carol Dweck, 4th-graders
“were given unsolvable problems followed
by solvable ones. Once the ‘helpless
students’ failed, their strategies
deteriorated down to _____ grade level;
whereas, the "mastery-oriented students"
stayed at 4th grade level despite failures.
They rolled up their sleeves and worked
harder. The crucial element was whether
the student saw the failure as having to do
with ability or effort.”
Directions: Rate these errors as
1.
2.
3.
Status-marking (outrageous)
Mechanical mistakes (serious)
Noticeable (annoying)
1. The teacher said I done a good job
on the editing test.
2. We can get extra help in the ASC, but I don’t
need none of that.
3. Although some people do. (fragment)
4. Me and my friends write our papers the night
before they’re due.
5. As far as i’m concerned, losing a little sleep is no
big deal.
Corrections
Hairston’s respondents considered all of these errors
to be status-marking, or outrageous.
1. The teacher said I done a good job
on the editing test. (wrong verb tense)
2. We can get extra help in the ASC,
but I don’t need none of that. (double negative)
3. Although some people do what? (fragment)
4. Me and my friends write our papers the night before
they’re due. (object used as subject)
5. As far as i’m concerned, losing a little sleep is no big
deal. (capitalization)
Directions: Rate these errors as
1.
2.
3.
Status-marking (outrageous)
Mechanical mistakes (serious)
Noticeable (annoying)
6. My friend Shan, always does at least a rough
draft and a revised draft.
7. I’m trying to decide whether to go into criminal
justice, study business management, or
paralegal.
8. Any one of these programs are a good choice.
9. If I do good in my classes, my chances of getting
a good job will increase.
10. Our textbook is heavy, so I am glad to sit it down
when I get to class.
Corrections
Hairston’s respondents considered these errors
to be serious.
6. My friend Shan, always does at least a rough
draft and a revised draft. (appositive)
7. I’m trying to decide whether to go into criminal
justice, study business management, or paralegal.
(parallelism)
8. Any one of these programs are a good choice for
me. (subject-verb agreement)
9. If I do good in my classes, my chances of getting
a good job will increase. (adverb, not adj.)
10. Our textbook is heavy, so I am glad to sit it down
when I get to class. (sit vs. set)
Do you believe Hairston?
Hairston, M. (1981). Not all errors are created equal:
Nonacademic readers in the professions respond to lapses
in usage. College English, 43, 794-806.
Kantz, M., & Yates, R. (1994).
Whose judgments? A survey of faculty
responses to common and highly
irritating writing errors. Retrieved July 19,
2006, from http://www.ateg.org/
Women tend to be more irritated than
men.
conferences/c5/kantz.htm
Usage matters: A comparative study
of judgments of English usage
errors. (1999, June 7). Retrieved
Linguistics students replicated the
study; results confirmed.
July 19, 2006, from English department Web
site, California Polytechnic State University:
http://cla.calpoly.edu/
~jrubba/390/survey/390.RESULTS.html
Yonkers, V. (2009, February
13). Teaching business writing. Message
posted to
http://connecting2theworld.blogspot.com/
2009/02/teaching-business-writing.html
Beason (2001) found that business
professionals perceived writers as
hasty, careless, uncaring, or
uninformed if the reader identified
multiple errors
Myth:

There is one right way to write.
Myth

If I think I’m a bad writer, I can’t pass
this course.
The Wizard of Oz
The diploma
doesn’t make
you smarter.
 It’s the work
you do to get
the diploma.

Course Goals
Compose original materials
in standard American English
 Use appropriate documentation
as required
 Illustrate the steps in the writing
process
 Apply knowledge of communication
to chosen profession
