Week 7 Homework (and other reminders)

To remind you, you've got three important things coming up in this course.

First and most importantly, your midterm is happening next week, on Monday, 3/2. If you know you can't make it, for a very urgent and important reason, let me know as soon as humanly possible. I'd like to make sure that everyone has taken the midterm, even people who have to make it up and take an alternate exam, before Spring Break.

Now, if you want to know how to prepare for your midterm, I'll give you a simple answer. What you have to do is to review the communication and rhetoric ideas we discussed in class, then see if you can read different articles online or in newspapers or magazines and identify these ideas. That's pretty much it. But as you read the articles you find, think especially of spotting specific phrases, maybe even complete sentences, that use these ideas directly. Imagine how you might copy these pieces down and include them in your own sentences, as part of your own discussion. The more you practice spotting these cues and using them in your own writing, the more prepared you'll be.

Second, we're already into our third essay, Essay 3. Your first draft for this essay is due on Wednesday, 3/4. I have to say: There's been quite a mess with some members of the class being unable to submit their first drafts or to get them to their classmates to write critiques for. Let's all try to avoid this mess. Try your best to be there, even if you're not feeling well and you just show up to exchange drafts with someone in the class and then go home to rest.

Third, by this time, most of you should have one major essay graded and commented upon and another handed in and hopefully ready to be returned to you next week. The thing you should think about now with regards to these essays is your next draft, your revised draft. Remember that revising your second draft for each of these essays is all about getting back points you've lost. So focus on the comments that I give you in each section, and weigh these comments against the number of points you got on that section. Don't find yourself making the mistake of, for example, simply correcting grammar if most of the points you've lost are in other sections. Sure, correcting grammar will get you points back, but not Content or Organization points.

So, with all that in mind, you've got a reasonable amount of things to work on. As a result, I've decided that your only homework due next week would be these three things: Prepare for your midterm, work on your Essay 3 first draft, and revise your Essay 1 (and consider how you might start revising your Essay 2, too).

As always, if you've got questions, email me right away.