1. GE117 – Composition I Instructor Neal Peters

2. Like, what’s happening today? Introductions—you, me. Pep talk—how to succeed in class Course description/ syllabus Review of major assignments Two in-class writing assignments Lecture

3. Instructor Information Neal Peters, MFA Eastern Washington University. Phone: 206.353.7322 Email: neal.peters.itt@gmail.com Email is the best way to contact me. Class Website: http://ittcompclass.blogspot.com Go here for lectures slides, syllabi, course project information, and other handy documents,

4. Who are You? Introduce yourself—what are you studying at ITT and what’s a good book you’ve read recently.

5. The Pep Talk What will it take to succeed at ITT? What is expected of me in this class? Reading materials for the week should be read BEFORE class. In-class work cannot be made up. Because this is an 11-week course, papers cannot be turned in late. I know that sucks…but sometimes that’s life. What should I expect of my instructor How much time should I spend out of class? Why do I need an English class? How should I take notes In-class laptop use is acceptable for note taking only—no email or games or your cousin’s latest YouTube post or whatever else. And please no texting during class. If you are ever struggling in class with the material or assignments, please see me. I am available at class breaks, after class, and via email/phone.

6. Plagiarism Fight the temptation—you will be caught. I have a zero tolerance for plagiarism. See your handbook for official ITT plagiarism policies. The key to successful writing is to start early and revise revise revise revise revise. Don’t procrastinate. There are many resources available to you—LRC, Library, your instructor. If you are struggling, see me. I am here to help.

7. Course Description The intent of this course is to lay a firm foundation in process writing, paragraph patterns and writing essays. The course will prepare you for Comp II, which focuses on argument skills and logic. Who thinks they might need to articulate themselves effectively in their future careers? Spoken? Written?

8. Today’s Lecture--Overview Writing Matters Pre-writing The Writing Process

9. Today’s Lecture—the writing process What is writing anyway? All writing is an attempt to transform ideas into words, thus giving order and meaning to life. Writing is HARD---for everybody, even writers. Don’t feel bad if you’re nervous about writing. This means you’re normal.

10. The Basic Steps of The Writing Process 1. Pre-write/planning 2. Identify your thesis 3. Support the thesis with evidence 4. Organize the evidence 5. Write the paragraphs of the first draft 6. Revise meaning, structure, and paragraph development 7. Revise sentences and words 8. Edit and proofread.

11. Prewriting Prewriting: the generation of ideas before starting the first draft. Prewriting is like the warm-ups you might perform before exercising—they loosen you up. Don’t be critical during the prewriting process—simply get ideas down on paper. This can be very liberating. The random associations of typical prewriting tap the mind’s ability to make unusual connections.

12. Prewriting Techniques Keep a journal. Various forms—traditional journal, small notebook, digital notes, poems, snippets of dreams, automatic free writing, brainstorming, etc. The journal is a place for you to get in touch with the write inside you. You don’t have to be concerned with spelling, grammar, sentence structure, or organization. Write down your reflections and insights any way you want to. Writing openly takes practice—try to complete a one-page journal entry three to five times a week. This may help you identify recurring themes that you’re interested in—possible essay topics or subjects

13. Prewriting/Planning Planning: track down the material you want to include in your writing. Brainstorming: let thoughts tumble out either in conversation or on paper. Ideas tend to generate other ideas, and a variety of thoughts will surface. See PHRG pg. 7. Discuss brainstorming list. Free writing: a mind dump. The most important thing is to keep it going. The writing can go in any direction. This can be very liberating. Let’s practice. 10-minute timed exercise: Key Words: Blue. Sneakers. Chocolate. Pick one. Outlining: Outlines are plans. As a first stage, many writers begin to find ideas by outlining or listing what they know about a subject. Clustering and Branching Conversation or Collaboration Journal keeping Reading Who? What? When? Where? How? Why?

14. Outline Why use an outline? The uses of an outline: 1. Listing what you know and what you want to write about. 2. Organizing your material Chronologically, cause-and-effect, compare-and-contrast, Visualizing the design or structure of the document or whether or not it seems balanced. I.e., this allows you to see what the main ideas and subsections of main ideas are and whether one main idea is dominating the whole paper while other ideas are not discussed adequately.

15. Types of Outlines Informal—sometimes called a working outline. Easy to revise. See page. 9 in PHRG Formal outlines consistently use sentences, words, or phrases in a system that clearly indicates relationships and indicates levels of coordination. You can show how various headings and sub-headings relate by using Roman numerals or decimals for main headings. See page 9 and 10 in PHRG. Most word processing programs have software that will help you create outlines.

16. Clustering and Branching Clustering establishes the relationships between words and phrases. Begin writing a topic in the middle of a sheet of paper and circling it. Then as related ideas come to mind, draw lines to connect these ideas to other ideas. When you keep an open mind, ideas spill out onto the page. Let’s practice. 10-minute clustering exercise on the topic of your choosing: 1. Friends 2. Malls 3. Leisure 4. Television 5. Required courses 6. Manners 7. Auto Racing 8. Favorite Sports 9. Favorite foods

17. Clustering and Branching Reflection on Clustering and Branching Did you find either of them helpful? Do you think you might use these techniques again? Do you think other techniques in this lesson might be more helpful?

18. Conversation or Collaboration Some writers prefer to plan by themselves; others benefit from talking with a peer response group, a writing center tutor, or a friend. Remember—almost everyone benefits from airing out their thoughts now and then with a trusted individual. Talk produces more talk, and if the listener asks questions, even more ideas can develop in the writer’s mind.

19. Reading Obviously, reading is an important source of material for the writing you intend to do. You can search relevant information in libraries or on the Internet.

20. Who? What? When? Where? How? Why? Journalists often use these question words as they gather information for news articles. Such words can be helpful when thinking more fully about a topic. Read PP pp. 11

21. Let’s see where you’re at In a brief in-class, handwritten essay (around 40 minutes), refer directly to this reading, and illustrate your own view of being a student. Describe or narrate one specific experience from your own life in detail, and comment on how this experience shows who you are as a student. . Turning in the essay will be awarded a 100-percent grade for the assignment.

22. Homework for Week Two Read Longman Writer pp. 21-24; PHRG pp. 2-6 Spend 10 minutes clustering/mapping (by hand) one of the topics you did not do in class . Friends 2. Malls 3. Leisure 4. Television 5. Required courses 6. Manners 7. Auto Racing 8. Favorite Sports 9. Favorite foods TYPE 3-4 sentences answering these questions: A. How did free writing and clustering work to warm up my mind? B. What challenges did you find? C. Do I think I will use free writing/clustering again? READ: Superman and Me, By Sherman Alexie