Welcome to ENGLISH 145: Writing in

the Academic Disciplines (013)

Session # 1

8/24/2010

AgendaAgenda Getting to know your writing partners: Find

someone who activity

Going Through the syllabus, course theme (Social Action) and assignments

Introduction to the Class Blog

Opening Individual Blog Accounts

Free writing exercises (if time allows)

Assignments

Course Description Aiming to improve your academic research

and writing skills.

Focusing on various types of genres (film reviews, summaries, research writing, writing CVs and cover letters, and more)

Main focus: “Research writing”

Conducting Social Action Research Projects

AN OVERVIEW OF CLASS PROJECTS

1. Blog writing: 20%

2. Film Analysis: 10 %

3. Class Presentation (in pairs): 20 %

4. Social Action Research Project (SARP) 50 %: An action oriented project aims to make a contribution and shed light into social issues.

a) Annotated bibliography

b) Introduction

c) Literature Review

d) Research Design (Methodology)

e) Data Analysis and Findings

f) Conclusion

Why Social Action? Social Action project aims to give you independent service learning experience

where you will be going after a social issue and investigate it throughout one semester (and, hopefully beyond) to make a change in the community you live.

For your projects, you will choose a social issue and research an organization, a group of people, a social problem etc.

Read extensively about your topic

Interview various people such as students, workers, teachers, an officer of the local chapter, analyze what you collected (your data), write about it. Alternatively, you can analyze visual data (take photographs, video-record etc.)

Give a presentation and prepare a visuals about your social action project in class or in larger community.

Key words: raising social consciousness, focusing on empowerment, dealing with civil rights issues, community building, making a change.

See the examples: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5l7-d7NAwI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T08zy5eiFOw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-XCqz1pB3s

Opening Blog Accounts

Go to https://www.blogger.com/start

Open an individual account

First Blog Entry: Introduce yourself

Second Blog entry- see the next class activity!

Class Blog: http://english145.blogspot.com/

Agenda 8/26/2010Agenda 8/26/2010 Welcome to our second session! Please take

a class syllabus and visit my office today if you missed the first class.

Assignments on the Blog

Readings @ Digital Reserve

Genre Knowledge. Everyday writing vs Academic Writing—Class Discussion

CR Exercise 1

CR Exercise 2

EVERYDAY WRITING UNIVERSITY WRITING/ACADEMIC WRITING

Talking about academic Talking about academic writingwriting

In groups of 3-4 please discuss the following questions?

What are your writing anxieties?

What are your weak points in writing?

What are your strengths?

How is academic writing different than other sorts of writing?

Curious researcherCurious researcher Page # 2

Discuss in your groups.

Report back to the whole class.

Getting started is a major problem for every writer.

It gets better if you keep writing. Keeping a writing-log helps.

If you can’t seem to write, stand up, walk around and do some breathing and stretching activities.

Don’t try to write everything at once. Separate your writing into several sections.

Writing is an enjoyable and social process. If you feel stuck, draw diagrams, mind maps, go to the writing center, talk to your teachers or a classmate. Don’t be afraid of asking questions!

Having difficulty in writing does not mean that you are not a good writer or you are unable to study well.

Accept yourself as a writer

Remember that getting started is a common problem.

Writing and Reading are not inactive and isolated activities.

Keep a record of your growth as a writer in this class.

Note that writing is an important part of making contribution to the discipline you are in.

Writing is not only a way of producing an assignment but also it is an important part of learning. Don’t be afraid of expressing yourself in academic writing!

Steps to writing your Steps to writing your research projectresearch project

Curious Researcher page 6

Writing as process

How important has reading and writing been in your academic, personal, and professional lives? What kinds of writing do you do outside the school? (i.e. facebook, emails, journals)

What is the most difficult part of academic writing? What areas of your writing do you need to improve?

What type of genres do you read? How has reading different genres facilitated your writing? What is the connection between reading and writing for you?

What assumptions do you have about “research” and this course?

What do you want to “research” about in this course? Think about what motivates you, what you are passionate about, and how this “burning topic” is related to your areas of major/interest/professional goals?

How might you go about conducting this research? (e.g. interviewing, taking photographs, video recording, doing a library research etc.)

AssignmentsAssignments See your academic calendar