Prose & Paragraphs
The 3-4 period Prose and Paragraphs class Zoom ID is 208-6562-7737
The 5-6 period Prose and Paragraphs class Zoom ID is 144-879-222
The 5-6 period Prose and Paragraphs class Zoom ID is 144-879-222
2020.06.18
We zoomed through Chapter 5 this week, looking at the elements of a process essay. We got started by going over the features of a process essay thesis and body paragraphs, then analyzing a model paragraph and coming up with some of our own ideas to plug into the model.
For next week, please write the first draft of the process essay assignment on pages 112-114 and post it to the class Canvas discussion area under the subject heading Your Name/Chapter 5 Essay. Please make sure your first draft is submitted before midnight Sunday, June 21st . Then, as soon as possible, please comment on two classmates' first drafts in the Canvas discussion area using the feedback form on page 329 of the text. You do not have to write another essay for feedback, but please be thorough and helpful. Get feedback done Monday if possible, so your classmate can write a revision before class time Thursday.
At class time Thursday, June 25th, we will be writing a timed writing essay exam in the Zoom room for your final exam. It will be a timed writing from one o fthe chapters we have gone over in the second half of the semester.
Also on June 25th, please submit your best revision of the Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 essays to an assignment folder in Canvas. You should upload these essays as Microsoft Word document files. Make sure they are typed in Times New Roman 12 point font, and double spaced. That is standard operating procedure for almost all college writing classes.
Let me know if there are any questions.
Good luck and thanks for a great semester,
JBH
2020.06.11
This session, we wrapped up Chapter 4 in the text, covering the structure of an essay we had left, such as thesis statements, body paragraphs, and conclusions.
Please give feedback to two classmates in the Canvas discussion area guided by the Peer Review form on page 327, go over the Writer's Self Check on page 328 and submit a revised draft as the final comment where you posted your first draft before class time next week (June 18th).
We will talk about Chapter 5 next week, write the Chapter 5 essay, and be ready for a sit-down writing exam when we meet June 25th.
Have fun,
JBH
2020.06.04
We finally got around to getting started on Chapter 4 this week. And the best way to get started was with a quiz on the chapter. Fortunately, it wasn't too tough this time around. Next we got serious about looking into essay structure, looking over a model essay and talking about what goes into a good introduction.
We will continue next time talking more about thesis statements, body paragraphs, conclusions, and different types of essay organization. Please continue pre-reading and answering individual questions in Chapter 4, AND complete the writing assignment on pages 98 and 99 before class time next week. You do not have to give each other feedback before class; writing the first draft is enough for this week. After next week's class, you'll be giving each other feedback and completing a revised draft.
Have fun!
JBH
2020.05.28 & 06.01 & 06.02
These days were reserved for Zoom one-on-one sessions to talk with students about their writing so far.
As I mentioned in our one-on-ones, I use a modified IELTS scoring system to score your papers. The public version of this scoring system can be seen on my page under writing resources, linked here.
See you in class June 4th. On that day, we will be working on Chapter 4 in the text. Please pre-read and pre-answer all individual questions before class time.
Thanks!
JBH
2020.05.21
We started off class this week with a quiz from Chapter 3 of the text, covering quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing. Following that, we wrapped up Chapter 3 with a more intensive look at using quotations and building paraphrases and summaries.
For next week, please follow the instructions on pages 70 and 71 to complete the Chapter 3 writing assignment. Instead of holding a class session next week, we will have one-on-one class sessions during class time and the following week on Monday and Tuesday to talk about your writing. Please sign up for a time slot as soon as you can on a Google document now posted under “Announcements” on our class Canvas page.
I will meet with students on Thursday, Monday and Tuesday, May 28th and June 1st and 2nd.
When we meet again in class June 4th, we will be working on Chapter 4 in the text. Please pre-read and pre-answer all individual questions before that session.
See you next week!
JBH
2020.05.14
Now that you have submitted your midterm exam to the class Canvas discussion area, I have another item for you to take care of before we meet next week.
Please look carefully at the writing assignments you have completed so far in this class. You should have saved them in your computer files, but they are also visible in Canvas. We had writing assignments in chapters 1, 2, and 9.
Take your two best pieces of writing, give them another look, and polish them up as much as you can. Before class next week, I want you to upload them both to Canvas. Although we talked in class about uploading them under your exam, that plan has changed. Please upload your two pieces of writing under the heading Assignments. Look under the assignment “Mid-term Writing Assignment.” Please upload only two documents as Microsoft Word files. You need to convert them from .hwp or Apple .pages files if you use those programs to to .doc or .docx. It’s easy to convert documents to MS Word from any program.
I will be giving you a quality score for your writing during the first half of the semester. It will come from the combined scores for your mid-term exams and the two assignments you turn in for a grade. The three pieces of writing together will make up your score for the first half of the semester. So that score is worth 25 percent of your grade for the course (1/2 of 50 percent). Another 25 percent comes from your writing quality during the second half of the semester on future writing assignments and the final exam. The rest of your grade will be from quizzes and homework (40 percent) and 10 percent is for attendance and participation.
As I told you last week, Week 10 (May 21st), we will continue with Chapter 3. Please make sure you have read and answered all "on your own" questions before you attend class. Don’t be surprised if there is a quiz. We will move on to Chapter 4 and start writing essays soon.
Let me know if there are any questions.
Thanks!
JBH
2020.05.07
During this mid-term exam week, we had a regular Prose and Paragraphs class session. We started out start talking about using outside sources. While our text focuses mostly on the basics and and refers to MLA citation style. MLA (Modern Language Association) style is used in the Humanities. Literature Students may want to learn more about MLA style. Chicago/Turabian style is generally used in Business, History, and the Fine Arts. A comparison of these three styles is at this page.
I prefer American Psychological Association (APA) citation style in my field, and most EICC and linguistics students might want to learn that style too. For the most part, APA style is used in education, psychology, and social sciences. We went over some examples of APA style citations, both in-text and reference lists.
More detailed info can be obtained from the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University by a combined Google search using “Purdue OWL” and whatever you are searching for. For example: “Purdue OWL APA style in-text citation.” Once you are in the Purdue OWL, a menu on the left of the page will let you select almost anything you might want to find.
Next week, we will have a timed writing exam on a prompt or two selected from the chapters we have worked on so far (1,,2, and 3). You do not need to study or memorize anything. It will be a test of your writing proficiency.
Week 10, we will continue with Chapter 3. Don’t be surprised if there is a quiz. We will move on to Chapter 4 and start writing essays soon.
See you in class!
JBH
2020.04.23
Thanks to printer problems, the class got lucky by not having a quiz on Chapter 9 today. Instead, we got right into talking about different types of clauses (dependent and independent) and sentences including simple, compound, complex, and compound/complex.
We finished off with the writing assignment from Chapter 9, which needs to be submitted to the class Canvas discussion area before class time next week (April 30th). There is no word limit, but that paragraph should be at least 8 to 10 sentences in length.
April 30th is also Buddha's Birthday, a national holiday, so we will not have class that day. However, it is still the deadline for your Chapter 9 homework. Please use the subject heading Your Name/Chapter 9 Writing when you post your paragraph to Canvas.
Although we will not meet Week 7, you should pre-read and pre-answer all individual questions in Chapter 3 before we meet Week 8 (May 7th). We will have regular class Week 8 and we will do a timed writing for our Mid-term Exam during class time Week 9.
Happy Buddhamas!
JBH
2020.04.16
We got started going over the remainder of Chapter 2, where we talked about coherence, repetition of key words such as nouns and pronouns, and transitions. Remember to use them enough, but not too much.
Homework for next week: Please write a revised version of last week's Chapter 2 writing and post it as the final comment to your first draft on Canvas. Also, pre-read and pre-answer all individual questions in Chapter 9. No guarantees, but be ready for a quiz.
Next week, we will zip through Chapter 9, write the paragraph at the end of the chapter, and get started moving into Chapter 3.
See you then!
JBH
2020.04.09
We went over the exercises in Chapter 2 through page 28. Then we looked over the Chapter 2 writing assignment on pages 42-45. Please complete your first draft of this assignment and post it to the Canvas discussion area by midnight Monday night. Remember to double-check your draft with the writer's self-check form on page 324. In Canvas, use the subject heading "Your Name/Chapter 2."
Before we meet next week, please provide helpful, thorough feedback to two classmates using the feedback form on page 323. We may look at writing in class and will move on to Chapter 3 in the text.
See you in class!
JBH
2020.04.02
We started our session today by going over a few guidelines for using Zoom. One of those guidelines suggests that students be "present" in class, on camera and using a mike, if at all possible. You are required to be on camera, if at all possible, just the same as you need to be in class when we are doing class face-to-face.
We took a quiz covering the material in Chapter 1 and scored ourselves, learning a thing or two about sentence topics and controlling ideas. Then we looked over a few student paragraphs on Canvas, giving helpful feedback and suggesting improvements.
For next week, please work through Chapter 2 through page 42. Please read and complete all individual tasks in the book before we meet next week. You do NOT need to write the Chapter 2 essay at this point.
However, please do write one of the paragraphs assigned on the bottom of Page 38 under "TRY IT OUT!" Post your paragraph to the class Canvas discussion area under the subject heading "Your Name/Chapter 2 Try." You do not need to give feedback to classmates on this assignment, but please write a strong paragraph.
Thanks,
JBH
2020.03.26
In our second Zoom session of the semester, we got started in the text for real. We began by looking at a model paragraph, analyzing its structure. We also looked at vocabulary, particularly the common features of word families.
We then went deeper into paragraph structure, discussing topic sentences, supporting sentences, and conclusions. At the end of the session, we looked at the writing assignment on pages 17-20.
Please write the paragraph as assigned and post your draft to Canvas before 12 noon Monday, using "Your Name/Chapter 1" as the subject of the post. After that, using the Peer Review form on page 321, please give helpful, thorough feedback to two classmates before we meet again on Thursday. We will be looking at some student writing and feedback together in class next week before moving on to Chapter 2.
See you in class!
JBH
2020.03.19
Hi everybody and welcome to Prose & Paragraphs!
This is a writing class, which means we are going to be writing. A lot.
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 every day. In English.
For this first session, please check out my webpage (profjbh.com), read and pre-answer Chapter 1 in the textbook and be ready to talk (and write) 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 a self-introduction based on the questions I asked you in class:
1. Who are you?
2. What do you want (from this class)?
3. Why do you need to write?
4. What can you add (to this class)?
Please write a few paragraphs addressing the questions you wrote about in class. Post your paragraphs in the Canvas discussion area (create a discussion) and respond to at least two classmates in a sort of online conversation. Please post your first post by noon Monday and respond to two classmates before we meet on Thursday again.
For the discussion subject or title use "Your Name/Intro Questions".
Please buy the book ASAP.
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It is available at the HUFS bookstore or from online booksellers.
Then, please pre-read and pre-answer ALL questions in Chapter 1 through page 17 before Week 2's class and be ready to discuss all the topics in class.
We will move on to the writing assignment in chapter 1 after our second class session, posting it in an online class discussion and giving each other feedback on our writing. We will go over instructions for posting our writing and feedback to the blog when we meet next time.
See you next week!
JBH
