ENG 101: College Composition I
Spring I 2010
Section 0812: Mon./Wed. 10:30 AM-12:45 PM
                    Room M-157

Keys for Writers, 5 ed.Keys for Writers, 5 ed.

Brian T. Murphy

LaGuardia Community College
Schedule and Office Hours
e-mail: bmurphy@Brian-T-Murphy.com
or bmurphy@lagcc.cuny.edu

Important Announcements and Updates

Monday, June 14, 2010:
I have finished grading your final exams, plugged your scores into the spreadsheet, and calculated your final grades. Grades may be accessed online at the LaGuardia website (login required), or here by Student ID number. Enjoy the rest of your summer.

 

Thursday, June 3, 2010:
On Monday, June 7, we will meet for Essay 5: Final Exam (In-Class Essay). Remember, we will not meet next Wednesday, June 9, as I need to get your essays back from the reader and evaluate them myself. After the Final Exam we will not meet again until Monday, June 14, for the course wrap-up and final conferences.

Monday, May 24, 2010:
As repeatedly announced in class, and as per your syllabus, Wednesday, May 26 is the last day to submit late or missing online exercises, and the last day to submit any final revisions. Any work not submitted before or during class time will not be accepted, nor will there be any exceptions or extensions.

Remember, Wednesday will be devoted to In-Class Writing: Practice Essay 1, and next Wednesday will be In-Class Writing: Practice Essay 2 (we do not have class next Monday, due to the holiday weekend) in preparation for Essay 5: Final Exam (In-Class Essay) on Monday, June 7.

Monday, May 17, 2010:
As announced in class, the upcoming schedule is as follows:

Wed. 19 May: King, “Three Ways of Meeting Oppression” (BW 5 ed. 237-241; 6 ed. 279-282); also here or here (in Microsoft Word)

Mon. 24 May: “Writing to Persuade” (BW 5 ed.432-440; 6 ed. 404-421), including Goodwin,  “My Favorite Class: Indentured Servitude” (5 ed. 436-38; 6 ed. 416-18)

Wed. 26 May: In-Class Writing: Practice Essay 1. This is also the last day to submit late or missing online exercises, and the last day to submit any final revisions

Mon. 31 May: No Class

Wed. 2 June: In-Class Writing: Practice Essay 2

Mon. 7 June: Essay 5: Final Exam (In-Class Essay)

Wed.  9 June: Class does not meet

Mon. 14 June: Class does meet;  Course wrap-up, Final conferences

Note that the only change is Monday, May 24 (formerly TBA); everything else remains unchanged, including the due dates and deadlines.

Saturday, May 1, 2010:
On Monday, May 3, be prepared to discuss Issa and Al-Marayati, “An Identity Reduced to a Burka” (BW 5 ed.142-146; 6 ed. 124-128); we will also discuss several other things, including block quotation format (for extended passages of quoted material), your midterms and second revisions of Essay 1 and revisions of Essay 2, and a few upcoming due dates.

Note the following changes to the upcoming schedule: the readings for Wednesday, May 12 and Monday, May 17, have been switched:

For Wednesday, May 12, read Carol Tavris, “In Groups We Shrink” (.pdf version, with slight changes, here) (BW 5 ed.227-230; 6 ed. 261-263).

For Monday, May 17, read Coleman, “Discrimination at Large” (BW 5 ed. 201-205; 6 ed. 198-201); the possible in-class writing assignment has
also been changed to Monday.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010:
Tomorrow (Wednesday, April 28), we will discuss Why Does My Race Matter?” by Yasmine Bahrani. As per your syllabus, and as announced in class, this essay is not in your textbook (unless you are using the fifth edition); please read it before class, here, here, or, with slight differences here.

Also, it is looking as if I will not have all of your midterms graded by tomorrow; although I have been through all of them at least once, I have not finished grading them all yet. If I do not return them tomorrow, then you will have to wait until Monday, and we will discuss revision due dates then.

Remember, the second revisions of Essay 1 and revisions of Essay 2 are due tomorrow.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010:
Tomorrow (Wednesday, April 21), you will write your midterm exam (in-class essay). You should be prepared to write an essay of at least six hundred words, on one of the topics to be provided, based on essays we have read and discussed recently: “Thanksgiving.” “The Good Daughter,” “Are Families Dangerous?” and “Uncle Sam and Aunt Samantha.” Be sure to bring your textbook (or printouts or photocopies); you may also use a dictionary and/or thesaurus (in any form, hardcopy or electronic), but no other sources or materials.

Remember, the homework assignment, second revisions of Essay 1, and revisions of Essay 2 are all due Monday, April 26.

 Saturday, April 17, 2010:
On Monday, April 19, class will meet in the Library Classroom, E-101-B, from 10:30–11:30, for our Library Research Orientation. We will  meet in our normal classroom, M-157, afterwards, from roughly 11:30–12:45. Be prepared to think about whether society continues to
stereotype, discriminate against, and oppress either the disabled or Hispanic women; this class will be useful for writing Essay 4.

Also, be sure to read Doing Research/Evaluating Sources (Keys 6-8, pp. 97-126), as I may assign a homework assignment to be completed after class.

Finally, I will return Essay 1 revisions and (probably) Essay 2. Second revisions of Essay 1 and revisions of Essay 2 will be due one week later, on Monday, April 26.

Monday, April 12, 2010:
On Wednesday we will discuss Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers, Pronouns, and Parallelism, so be sure to read Keys 40b-c (pp. 371-373),  44 (pp. 409-421), and 40j (376-377). There will also be some in-class work, in addition to online exercises (to be completed as homework).

Please note, next Monday (April 19), we will have the required Library Orientation. Class will meet in the Library Classroom, E-101-B, from 10:30–11:30 AM (class will then meet in our normal room, M-157, from 11:30–12:45).

Finally, I have been enjoying the Diction Exercises from those who submitted them. Ordinarily, the formal versions are boring, but this is an exception:

There is a young man by the name of George who appears to be attracted to the young ladies in his class.
He inappropriately touched them, causing the girls to cry. Upon [the] arrival of his fellow male classmates,
George fled the playground.

The colloquial and pretentious versions are, in general, more entertaining. Below are a few of my favorites thus far (including several from previous semesters).

     Colloquial:      Pretentious:

This cat named George is a player. He likes to flirt, he's a straight heart breaker. Because he's a punk, when he sees the girls dudes, he splits.

Yo, der wuz this gian egg that sat on this wall this giant egg busted its fxxxen a$$ the kings ridarz and his boys tried to fix that giant egg but he splatterd and broke so bad that he couldn’t be put back together again.

Yo, dere was 5 little piggies
One went to da market
Da otha one stayed home
The next one ate roast beef
He aint give the otha one any
And da last one cried like a b****h
All the way home.

Yo tell me why
Shorty up the block was sitting on her a**
Eating mad food and s***
And the big-a** roach came beside her
And Shorty was out.

Yo, come here son I gotta story to tell ya.
Yesterday my homeboy and his shorty Jill
Went up a mound to bring some drool back to the Hood,
The dude fell Bust his ass, and before I knew it,
His homegirl was eating rocks, just like he was.
But umm anyways, he got up and jetted to his mama's joint,
And all she did was put some alcohol on a bandanna and tied it to his dome.

Harold perched himself on high
Harold got knocked the f*** down
All the head pimps hoes
And his manwhores too
Couldn't stack that s*** up how it was posed to be.

The miniscule vermin, of the family arachnid, ascended a hollow shaft associated with the deterrence of hydrogen bonded to oxygen that comprises a molecular structure in liquid state. Due to precipitation, the said arachnid was taxied downwards and came to an end in a perpendicularly state to the afore-mentioned shaft. Abruptly afterwards, the largest known star in the solar system directed its effect upon the residual precipitation and the above mentioned fauna reconvened its vertical ascension previously attempted.

The miniscule arachnid was violently flushed down the drain by severe meteorological conditions. After the storm system dissipated and the aqueous hydrogen dioxide evaporated into its gaseous state, the hapless arachnid somehow managed to escape its doom.

Propel your vessel down the rivulet, while joyfully examining existence.

As the daylight comes to a conclusion, the grand celestial bodies of twilight become apparent in the upper atmosphere. I covet the chance to be able to take into my possession the desired outcome I beseech from the blazing heavenly bodies above.

Oh, ball-shaped gaseous celestial body
That shines by its own light,
Incomparable solitary star on this night,
Allow myself to accomplish
My desire [and?] wishes on this day.

As I apprehended the vital aquatic vertebrate animal, it made a laceration on an appendage of the right hand. Following that action, I propelled it back into the body of water.

 

 

Tuesday, April 6, 2010:
George Orwell’s essay “Politics and the English Language” can be found here, here, or here. As previously announced, bring your dictionary and/or thesaurus, as well as your smart phone, laptop, netbook, or tablet PC. to class on Wednesday for the in-class writing assignment.

Monday, April 5, 2010:
Now that the break is over, everyone should be prepared to get back to work. Essay 1 revisions are due in class on Monday, April 12, as is Essay 2 (to be discussed in class on Wednesday of this week).

Also, in addition to completing the assigned readings for Wednesday, be sure to bring your dictionary and/or thesaurus, as well as your smart phone, laptop, netbook, or tablet PC. While not strictly necessary, these will make the in-class writing assignment both easier and more interesting. Think carefully about the following:

A trio of pestiferous rodentia, of the family Muridae, genus Mus, all equally afflicted with extreme visual impairment: observe their locomotion at high velocity! This afore-mentioned triad pursued the domestic partner of the agricultural worker, who responded in a retaliatory fashion by removing their posterior appendages utilizing a large kitchen implement intended to dismember prepared animals preparatory to consumption. Has such an extraordinary spectacle ever previously intruded itself upon your ocular organs?

 Wednesday, March 24, 2010:
Today Essay 1 was due, as per the syllabus. Unfortunately, as of 10:00 this evening (more than nine hours after class ended), I have received only 21 essays instead of 28, or exactly  75% of what I should have received.

Remember, late work is not accepted, and students must have at least one passing draft of each essay in order to pass the course (again, as per the syllabus).

Monday, March 8, 2010:
Today was the first day of class. If you were not present, you have already missed over two hours of class time; departmental policy allows only four hours of unexcused absence for the entire semester. On Wednesday, we will discuss planning and drafting essays, so be sure to read
The Writing Process: Keys 1-5 (pp. 3-94) and BW 7, 8: “Getting Started...Now!” and “Organizing and Drafting an Essay” (5 ed. 322-368; 6 ed. 329-380); (cursorily, at least), as per the syllabus.

 

Wednesday, March 3, 2010:
The main page and syllabus have both been updated for the Spring I 2010 semester.
Monday, March 8  is the first day of class; we will meet beginning promptly at 10:30, and we will have a full class session, so be prepared.

If you are looking for the previous Announcements page (Fall II 2010), please see here.

 

 

 

 

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