ENGLISH 050
Welcome to English 050. In this course, we define composition as combining two or more communicative elements to make meaning. This semester, we will co-construct an inclusive discourse community so we can enact social writing processes, explore myriad genres and literacies, animate rhetorical situations, build author identities, and compose texts to make meaning.
COURSE MATERIALS
INFORMAL ASSIGNMENTS
FORMAL ASSIGNMENT #1: MEMOIR
Assignment Sheet
Texts
- Teach Writing as a Process Not a Product (Don Murray)
- Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life | pp. 28 -34 | Short Assignments & Shitty First Drafts (Anne Lamott)
- Against Vanity: In Praise of Revision (Mary Karr)
- What is Genre?
- What is Creative Nonfiction? (Lee Gutkind)
- To You, I Belong (Becky Thompson)
- The Fundamental Differences between Memoir and Autobiography
- What is a Memoir?
- Making Scenes in Memoir (Lee Martin)
- My Name is Margaret (Maya Angelou)
- Hills Like White Elephants (Ernest Hemingway)
- List of Emotions
- Writing For Emotional Impact (Karl Iglesias)
- Proverbs for Revising a Novel (Lee Martin)
Additional Resources
- What's the Story? (Lee Gutkind)
- My Mother Gives me a Writing Lesson (Martin Lee)
- Developing Theme Scene by Scene (Martha Alderson & Jordan Rosenfeld)
- Material and Non-Material Culture
- Ferris Bueller's Day Off (Opening Action Scene)
- Ferris Bueller's Day Off (Information Scene)
- How to Write a Narrative Essay Using Scenes
- Narrative Arc
- Narrative Arc (Visual)
- Kurt Vonnegut on the Shapes of Stories (please ignore the comment about semicolons)
- Keys to Realistic Dialogue
- How to Format Dialogue
- Types of Conflict
- Literary Devices
- Using Literary Analysis to Interact with Texts
- Plato's Divide Line
- The Cave: An Adaption of Plato's Allegory in Clay
- College Writing Tips: How to Write a Good Literacy Narrative
- Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives
- What You Don't Know (Lulu Wang) | Transcript of the Podcast | Overview of Podcasts
- This I Believe Home Page | About This I Believe
- Life is an Act of Literary Creation | Featured Essays | This I Believe Themes
- Chef's Table Franic Mallman (trailer)
Student Samples
FORMAL ASSIGNMENT #2: OP-ED
Assignment Sheet
Texts
Additional Resources
Assignment Sheet
Texts
- Op-Ed as a Genre
- Sample Op-Ed Article: Is Masculinity Really Toxic or Is It Unfairly Under Assault ? (Cathy Young)
- Sample Op-Ed Article: Amber Tamblyn Writes Powerful Op-Ed on Sexual Harassment...(Leah Campbell)
- Sample Op-Ed Article: This is What Happens When Gender Roles are Forced on Kids (Emanuella Grinberg and Victoria Larned)
- Sample Op-Ed Article: Let's Be Honest About Aziz Ansari (Lucia Brawley)
- Sample Op-Ed Article: What are Fathers For? (Multiple authors in NYT Room for Debate forum)
- Submit to The Op-Ed Project
- What is Rhetoric?
- Exigence in Rhetoric (ThoughtCo.)
- Aristotle's Rhetorical Situation (Purdue OWL)
- The Representation Project
- Miss Representation Film (Kanopy)
- The Mask You Live In (Kanopy)
Additional Resources
FORMAL ASSIGNMENT #3: REFLECTIVE LETTER
Assignment Sheet
Texts
Additional Resources
Assignment Sheet
Texts
Additional Resources
- Reflection in the Writing Classroom (Kathleen Blake Yancey)
- Identifying Components of Meta-Awareness about Composition... (Crystal VanKooten)
- The Myth of Creative Inspiration
- Glen Gould in Rapture (The 'Flow State') / Punch the Keys! (Finding Forrester)
- Why You Need to Fail (Derek Sivers, TED Talk)
- The Power of Believing You Can Improve (Carol Dweck, TED Talk)
- The Power of Belief -- Mindset and Success (Eduardo Briceno, TED Talk)
- When Students Feel They Belong, They Thrive
- Fixed Mindset vs. Growth Mindset
- Neuroplasticity