Essay Writing Fall 2020
2020.12.03
We wrapped up Chapter 8 this session, and got ready to write a first draft of the Chapter 8 essay as assigned on pages 166 and 167.
Please remember to post a first draft of the essay assignment from Chapter 8 to the class Canvas discussion area before 11:59 p.m. Monday, Dec. 7th. That will give everyone time to complete peer reviews for two classmates before we meet to take our writing exam. Be sure to use the Chapter 8 Peer Review form on page 335 to help you make comments on two classmates' essays. You should also use the Chapter 8 Self-Check on page 336 to give your own writing a second look.
Having everything reviewed and ready to revise before our timed writing exam Dec. 10th will give you enough time to make improvements to both your revised essays before submitting them before 5 p.m. Dec. 17th. Those essays should be submitted to your assignment folder in Canvas.
Come to our Zoom classroom at class time Thursday, Dec. 10th, ready to take an in-class writing exam based on a timed writing topic from either Chapter 6, 7, or 8.
After you’ve submitted your revised homework essays the following week, scores for those two essays, plus the final exam, will make up the second half of your quality points score for the semester. The other 40 percent of your score will come from homework completion, which includes posting to Canvas and quizzes.
Let me know if there are any questions or concerns. Thanks for a great semester and good luck on all your exams!
JBH
2020.11.19 & 11.26
The week of 11.19 was reserved for one-on-one feedback sessions with the instructor, and on 11.26 we got back into action with a busy session, first talking about plagiarism, paraphrasing and quoting by going over highlights from pages 48-60 in the text.
We moved on from our plagiarism session to wrap up Chapter 7-Comparison/Contrast Essays, which students had already begun the week before while some of us were doing one-on-one sessions.
Finally, we got started looking at chapter 8-Argumentative Essays. We will continue with Argumentative Essays next week starting on page 156.
For next week, please follow the instructions for the writing assignment on pages 147 and 148 to create a comparison/contrast essay on a topic related to culture. Please limit yourself to the topics listed on page 146.
Follow Steps 1-5 in your writing. Please write at least 250 words; it will be even better with 350 to 500 words. But don’t be wordy. Include examples and specific details to make your essay more interesting.
Follow the instructions to complete steps 1 through 5, look your work over for errors, and upload it to the class Canvas discussion area. Please use the subject heading "Your Name/Chapter 7" for this post. Use the Writer’s Self-Check on page 334 before you submit your draft.
Also, please use the peer review form on page 333 to give thorough, helpful feedback to two classmates. Remember to post your first draft before 11:59 p.m. Sunday. That will give everyone time to complete peer reviews for two classmates before we meet. We will continue in Chapter 8 next week.
We will take a timed writing Final Exam on Dec. 10th in the Zoom room from Chapter 6, 7, or 8. The following week, Dec. 17th, you will also need to turn in your best revision of two chapters, either Chapter 6 and Chapter 8 or Chapter 7 and Chapter 8, for a final quality points score.
Thanks!
JBH
2020.11.12
This week in class we took a quiz on chapter 10 and had a brief talk about scores so far this semester. We also took time to look at some common problems that a lot of students have in writing, with word usage, grammar, and meaning.
For next week, please get going on Chapter 7 on your own time, reading and answering questions in the book and getting started on writing a comparison/contrast essay first draft. Next week's session is Zoom only, and both Tuesday and Thursday (Nov. 17th and 19th) will be devoted to students who want a one-on-one conference with me about their writing.
Please sign up for a time slot at this link, first come, first served. These conferences are not mandatory, but they are available for anyone who wants some feedback from me. If you can't find a time here that fits your schedule, let me know and we can talk at another time.
When we meet again Week 13, we will take a look at how to incorporate material from outside sources into our writing. There seem to be a few problems with that on our papers. Plagiarism is a gray area, and I have no problem with borrowing ideas from others if you give them credit. Citing another source gives your paper more power, not less.
But I do have a major problem with simply copying the words someone else has written and expecting credit for it in a writing class, and I understand that some people still haven't learned how to do that correctly. We will talk about it in class. Just so you know, I run all student writing through Turnitin plagiarism checking software. Every semester I have to fail students for copy and pasting their writing assignments. Please don’t make me do that to you this semester.
See you in class!
JBH
2020.11.05
Class this week started off with a preliminary explanation of mid-term scores (still being processed). To understand your writing scores, check IELTS Writing descriptors under Writing Resources on the class web page.
We also talked about common problems with the mid-term essays and timed writing. Information about common writing problems from Korean students can be found here, here, and here.
We then wrapped up Chapter 6 with collocations on page 129. Please get a revised draft of your Chapter 6 essay posted to Canvas as the final comment under your first draft before class time next week. I will be looking them over for scoring later.
Then we moved on to Chapter 11, dealing with noun clauses. We will finish that chapter when we come back next week and move on from there to do more writing in Chapter 7.
Don’t be surprised if there is a quiz on Chapter 11 next week.
See you in class!
JBH
2020.10.29
In today’s class, we got moving on Chapter 6, looking at Cause/Effect essays. We analyzed some models with different organizational patterns, looked at transition signals for these types of essays, and did some sentence practice exercises on pages 125-128. We will continue with Chapter 6 next week. Please be ready.
Also, please follow the instructions for the writing assignment on pages 130 and 131 to create a cause/effect essay on a topic related to psychology. Please limit yourself to the topics listed on page 130. Follow Steps 1-5 in your writing. Please write at least 250 words; it will be even better with 350 to 500 words. But don’t be wordy. Include examples and specific details to make your essay more interesting.
Follow the instructions to complete steps 1 through 5, look your work over for errors, and upload it to the class Canvas discussion area. Please use the subject heading "Your Name/Chapter 6" for this post. Use the Writer’s Self-Check on page 332 before you submit your draft.
Also, please use the peer review form on page 331 to give thorough, helpful feedback to two classmates. Remember to post your writing before 11:59 p.m. Sunday. That will give everyone time to complete peer reviews for two classmates before we meet. We will continue in Chapter 6 next week, and possibly look at some student writing together.
As we look toward the end of the semester, expect to write an essay from chapters 6, 7, and 8 before we finish the class. Feel free to look ahead and get started on ideas for those essays. We will also take some time to look at a chapter or two on sentence structure in the last section of the book.
Thanks!
JBH
2020.10.15
This week was wrap-up week for sentence problems in Chapter 10. Please get ready for mid-term exam week by revising and editing the two essays you've written so far this semester, and upload them to the link to "Mid-term Revised Essays" in the assignment folder of our Canvas page before class-time Week 8.
During that Week 8 class, we will also be taking a timed writing exam. I may be using the timed writing prompts from chapters 4 or 5 for the exam. If not, I will use something similar. You cannot study for this writing exam. It just tests your ability to write under time constraints.
You are NOT required to come to campus during exam week. We will be doing our timed writing essays online in the Zoom room. Please take your exam online. I will give you detailed instructions about how to uploadyour exam, time limits, and anything else I can do to help.
I will not be on campus that day.
Week 9, we will move on to the next chapter.
Have fun,
JBH
2020.10.08
We moved to Chapter 10 this week, taking a break from essays for a quick look at parallelism and sentence problems, such as sentence fragments, choppy writing, run-on sentences, comma splices, and stringy sentences, which are not quite run-on sentences, but can be difficult to follow.
We will wrap up Chapter 10 next week in class and then move on to Chapter 6, Cause/Effect essays. You should be revising your writing from chapters 4 and 5 this week so you'll be prepared to submit them for scores at class time Week 8 (Oct 22nd).
During our class time Week 8, we will also be taking a timed writing exam. I may be using the timed writing prompts from chapters 4 or 5 for the exam. If not, I will use something similar. You cannot study for this writing exam. It just tests your ability to write under time constraints.
You are NOT required to come to class during exam week. We will be doing our timed writing essays online in the Zoom room. Please take your exam online. I will not be on campus that day.
Please note that HUFS changed the attendance guidelines Friday, Oct. 9th. Beginning Week 9, we will start face-to-face classes alternating by student numbers. See our class homepage or the HUFS site for more information.
Have fun!
JBH
2020.09.17
In class today, we worked our way through the remainder of Chapter 4 in the text, talking about parts of essays such as thesis statements, body paragraphs, conclusions, and transitions. We also took a look at a student paper or two, made some comments, and suggestions for improvement.
Please look over your peer review comments for your essay on Canvas, as well as using your own ideas after looking over the Writer's Self-Check on page 328. Then post an improved revision of your essay as the final comment under your initial first draft post before next week's class.
Editing, cutting, and revising that essay should be your focus this week. We will move on to Chapter 5 in class next week (9-24) and continue writing in Chapter 5.
Have a great week!
JBH
2020.09.10
After making sure that everyone who had added the class after the first session was up to speed on the textbook, website, and Canvas class page, we got started with Chapter 4 of the text this week.
We started off looking into essay structure, analyzing a model essay, talking about what goes into a good introduction, and started going over thesis statements before we wrapped up talking about the writing assignment for the chapter.
Please continue reading and learning from Chapter 4 on your own, along with completing the first draft of the writing assignment on pages 98 and 99. Follow the instructions to complete steps 1 through 3, look your work over for errors, and upload it to the class Canvas discussion area. Please use the subject heading "Your Name/Chapter 4" for this post. Also, please use the peer review form on page 327 to give thorough, helpful feedback to two classmates.
Remember to post your writing before 11:59 p.m. Sunday. That will give everyone two days to complete peer reviews for two classmates before we meet.
We will continue next time talking more about thesis statements, body paragraphs, conclusions, and different types of essay organization from the chapter. We will also look over a few drafts and some feedback together and provide group comments to a few lucky students.
Have fun!
JBH
2020.09.03
Hi everybody and welcome to Essay Writing!
This is a writing class, which means we are going to be writing. Please bring paper and pencil to class every day, along with your textbook, and be prepared to write some things after class too.
Did I mention that we will be writing? It's a writing class. Expect to write a lot. In English.
Please buy the book ASAP. -------------->
It is available at the HUFS bookstore or from online textbook distributors in Korea.
For this first session, please check out my webpage (profjbh.com), read and pre-answer all individual questions in Chapter 4 of the textbook and be ready to talk (and write) about them when we meet again in class.
You will also get an email invitation from Canvas to join our online class discussion. Follow instructions to sign on and post your response to this question: "What kind of a writer are you?" Please respond with a post of at least 200 words in the Canvas discussion area. Please get your post done by midnight Sunday. Also in Canvas, please respond thoughtfully to two classmates in a brief "getting acquainted" conversation before we meet next Thursday.
For the discussion subject or title use "Your Name/Writer".
A pdf file of Chapter 4 of the text can be found in our class Canvas site under "Files." That way, you can start working on the text before you get your copy. We will move on to the writing assignment in chapter 4 after our second class session, posting it online and giving each other feedback on our writing.
To Do List:
1. Get the book.
2. Pre-read and pre-answer all questions in Chapter 4 (Use the pdf in Canvas if you don't have a book yet).
3. Post your (at least 200-word) response to the question "What kind of a writer are you?" to the class Canvas discussion area.
4. Comment on at least two classmates' answers to the "writer" question.
See you next week!
JBH
2020.09.01
Hi class,
We will meet at our regular class time each week in this Zoom room online:
(3-4 class Meeting ID 838 8102 3323);
(5-6 class Meeting ID 829 2850 4732).
You will receive an email from me with the classroom password. Please do not share it with anyone outside our class.
You can access Zoom discussions with your computer, tablet, or phone, but something with a big screen and a webcam will work much better.
See you in class!
JBH
