In Class Workshop: Orientation and Introductions

EngC 1011 University Writing and Critical Reading

Kevin L. Callahan

EngC 1011 Writing Instructor

call0031@tc.umn.edu

(612) 623-7685

In class:

This class is primarily taught as a workshop with considerable outside work. All psychological studies show that people need to meet and introduce themselves before they can work together effectively in a workshop learning environment. Your first task then is to meet and to introduce someone else to the class and to learn the names of everyone by the end of the first class. People remember and access information in the visual, auditory, and emotional areas of the brain. We will try to stimulate all three areas today.

You will be given a 5 x 8 card that you should fold in half and write your name on. You will also draw a card from a shuffled deck of playing cards.

You will then be randomly assigned to seats at various tables (using the deck of cards) and will pair up with a partner. If your card's suit is a heart or a diamond you will interview the person at your table with the same colored suit (i.e. red). Similarly if your card is a club or spade, you will interview the person at your table with same colored suit (i.e. black). Bring your name card to the next class and remember your playing card (you can keep it).

You will interview your partner and introduce them to the class. Your goal is to learn and remember everyone's name and something about them by the end of the day (Hint: There might even be an informal quiz on this at the end of the workshop!). To facilitate the process of interviewing (i.e. asking questions of your partner that will produce something interesting that we can remember them by), you will be furnished with an example of personal questions a newspaper recently asked a candidate running for political office and the questions asked of the original applicants for the TV show "Survivor." Pick out a couple of the more interesting questions from each "exemplar" and ask them of your interviewee.

Before the next class:

1). Read the syllabus, first written assignments, and handouts carefully before the next class (i.e. Thursday).

2) Bring any questions that you have about the syllabus to class.

3) Practice copyediting and proofreading by circling any errors on the syllabus (there are some) and bring this with you to the next class.

3) Buy the Longman textbook at Williamson Bookstore. Decide whether or not you want to buy a copy of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary 10^th Edition or use the online version. The M-W Dictionary 10^th edition can be purchased at Barnes and Noble and has a red hardcover.

4) Buy a red pencil for copyediting your own and your classmates' first drafts in the editing practice/peer response workshops.

5) Find, visit, and familiarize yourself with a computer lab that you would like to work in on campus (even if you will primarily be working at home).

6) Begin working on the Listserv Assignment that is due next Tuesday (7 days from today).

7) Begin reading Chapters 14 and 43 in The Longman Handbook. There is a quiz next Tuesday (7 days from today).

8) Begin working on the Bulletin Board Assignment that is due a week from Thursday (9 days from today).

9) Begin thinking about a topic for your Autobiographical Sketch e.g. a personal narrative or autobiographical incident that makes a point, persuades, or entertains.

10) Suggestions for being a better student: Create a specific written weekly study schedule with 8 to 10 hours set aside for outside work for this class. Start "thinking like a writer" and observe how other people write. Read more than one newspaper. Start a manila "Exemplars File" of good writing that you come across. Cut it out and file it. Look for examples of good persuasive writing. Think critically about arguments and persuasion that you are exposed to from newspapers, politicians, news programs, and advertisers. Do the arguments make sense? Start reading newspaper columnists and letters to the editor for exemplars of personal narratives that make a point, persuade, or entertain. You will be doing this soon. Start asking yourself, "What do I specifically need to know and focus on to become a better writer?" (e.g. I don't know where to put commas or I need to spell better), and ask yourself "What can I learn from what I am reading that will make me a better writer and critical thinker?"