Journal Review (10-15 min)
Review your journal so far. You have written three entries on: goals, belonging at college, and for today about learning things you want to learn more about. How’s it going so far? This semester? What is new, different, exciting, frightening, confusing, weird, etc.? Where do you fit into all of that?
Choose one thing that most intrigues you from your journal writing thus far and post about 25 words or so about it here on Padlet (click the “+” sign at the bottom right corner of the page, give it a title, write your post, and then click “publish”).
Writing Emails (20-30 min)
Emails help you do stuff, so it is a good thing to learn about now. Before emails, there were memos and letters. They exist still but are used less frequently. Letters would be longer and have a deeper approach to style than memos; memos would be shorter and more direct. Emails have properties of both.
You received the following email; how do you react?
***
SUBJECT: (no subject)
did you get what i sent yet. I gave it to you a while ago. Please let me know as soon as you can. Thanks
***
What are some of the good parts here? What could be improved?
Try to rewrite this email with the following information in mind:
This is a student emailing a professor. They asked the professor to write a letter of recommendation for an internship and the professor has not responded. It was a week ago when they sent that email so they are following up because the deadline for the letter is in one month on October 5 by 11:59pm.
How might you write it differently? What are some things to consider?
- use formality if first email (address by title)
- descriptive subject line
- Clear ask
- Politeness
- Grammar as best you can
- Sign off
- Details provided that are needed to meet the request
Write emails as sandwiches!
- Greeting / pleasantries (e.g., “I hope you are well”)
- The Ask (i.e., what you want or need)
- Gratitude / Sign-off (e.g., “thank you” and signing off with your name)
Let’s try writing emails.
When ready, send me an email asking me some kind of question. It can be about the class, it can be about your literacy narrative, it could be about the meaning of life, it could be about whatever you want to know as long as it is appropriate to ask! Send this email so you can get credit for participation today!
Email Strategies: I’m going to pick some emails to display and talk through so we can think about strategies.
1-on-1 Conferences Logistics for Week of Sep 23 (10 min)
First, make sure you actually schedule a time to meet with me! I still need a scheduled meeting with: Natanael L, Kory, Luciano, Andre. Click here to schedule a time to meet with me.
What to bring:
- Some way to access your half-draft of your literacy narrative
- Some way to take notes while we discuss your draft (e.g., pen/paper, laptop with notes app)
- Some ideas for how you can move your literacy narrative forward to the next draft
- Any questions you have for the class or whatever
- Any goals you want to accomplish this semester
Where to go:
- Monday, Sep 23: meet me in my office at Newman Vertical Campus, floor 7, room 295. If you enter from the main entrance of the English Department, go towards the back and make your first right. Then, keep right until you eventually see room 295.
- Tuesday, Sep 24: meet me on Zoom (I have to stay home on Tuesdays to help with kids). I will be in touch with a link to Zoom. If you have not used Zoom yet, here is more information on how to use it. Make sure you test your device using Zoom before you meet with me, to make sure the sound and microphone works alright. Make sure you are in a room where you can hear me and carry on a conversation. Examples of bad places to have a Zoom meeting: while in the waiting room at the dentist, while grocery shopping, while competing in breakdancing during the Olympics for Team Australia, etc.
- Wednesday, Sep 25: meet me in my office at Newman Vertical Campus, floor 7, room 295. If you enter from the main entrance of the English Department, go towards the back and make your first right. Then, keep right until you eventually see room 295.
If there is some reason you rather meet in person, and you have a meeting scheduled on Tuesday, find another time on Monday or Wednesday (and, if nothing still available works, let me know).
If there is some reason you can’t be on campus on Monday or Wednesday, let me know. If you have other classes on Monday, there’s no reason we can’t find a time in person unless it is an emergency. We have class on Wednesday anyway, so I’m sure that should work fine. However, if not, let me know.
Descriptive Writing (30-45 min)
Tell me what happened on your commute today, how did you get here. Alternatively, tell me about breakfast or another recent meal. Describe it as best you can. Write this on another piece of paper or on your device.
Let’s look at this video about quick tips for helping with descriptive writing.
Try at least one of the tips while rewriting what you had written privately. Those tips again are:
- Add sensory details (things that engage the five senses and give readers a chance to feel like what it would be like to be in the scene you are describing)
- Visualize that scene as you write (so you keep the scene close to your mind as you write)
- Avoid redundancy (adjectives and adverbs can be helpful but don’t overdo it! Sometimes they just get in the way…the well-timed simile or metaphor can do more for you…though even those can also be overdone)
- Emphasize overlooked items (focus on things that stand out…everyone knows there is sand at the beach, so talk about something else or a peculiar feature of that sand)
- Don’t let a list like this tell you what to do (these are suggestions and not religious doctrine; try some things out you haven’t tried before or let these confirm things you’ve done already as good moves to try out)
Okay, go. Rewrite.
Trying something for the Literacy Narrative
Turn to page 88-89 of the textbook. Read the three paragraphs from “Naturally…” to “…that were present within my high school for its Asian population.”
How does the writer use the descriptive writing to help them think through the meaning and relevance of their personal experience for an understanding they are trying to grasp about themselves and the world around them?
Return to the commute description you wrote. Try the extra step: so what? What did you find meaningful about this scene? Tell me your thoughts and feelings as best you can, significant or insignificant. Like the example, we want to try to combine description and reflection.
Let’s try a memory you have about learning or thinking about your topic for your paper. Try to describe and reflect.
Finally, why write literacy narratives? What is the point of this kind of writing? What’s it do? What does it say about what one of the functions of writing can be? What is something like a literacy narrative vs. something like an email?
Next Time
-No class on September 23. Bring the five things I mentioned above to your meeting with me on Sep 23, 24, or 25.
-On Sep 25, you’ll have a reading to do about revision called “Making and Unmaking,” along with at least 4 annotations to complete.
-Also on Sep 25, you’ll have to complete your fourth journal entry. Here is the prompt: How have you been managing your time so far? What has worked well? What has not worked well for you? Think about all of the unstructured time for your classes that you have in college vs. high school when you had to be somewhere from early in the morning through the afternoon. Now, you might have whole days where you don’t have to attend a class. So, how have you managed that? Does anything need to change? If so, what? You don’t need to answer all of these questions, but write for at least 10 minutes about how you have been managing your schedule for your learning.
-On Sep 30, you have to turn in your first full draft of your literacy narrative.