Parallel play increases your score through the points you earn by spelling more than one word in a single turn. In the first play of the hypothetical game pictured above, the first player or team would score sixteen points by spelling enact with the t on the center double-word square. With the second turn, the other player or team could take advantage of the opportunity for parallel play. If the team knew that aa is a type of lava, they could earn twenty-four points with four words: whoa, he, on, and aa.
Aa is one of sixteen playable two-letter words beginning with a. Learning these two-letter words, as well as the others that follow in the alphabet, will enable you to see more options for play and increase the number of points you earn in a single turn.
aa: a type of stony, rough lava
ab: an abdominal muscle
ad: an advertisement
ae: one
ag: agriculture
ah: an exclamation
ai: a three-toed sloth
al: a type of East Indian tree
am: the first-person singular present form of to be
an: an indefinite article
ar: the letter r
as: similar to
at: in the position of
aw: an expression of sadness or protest
ax: a type of cutting tool (also axe)
ay: a vote in the affirmative (also aye)
Important Note about Challenges
The game rules inside the Scrabble box top do not specify that a player or team that challenges a playable word will lose a turn, but David Bukszpan’s book Is That a Word? notes that the player or team does lose a turn. According to Bukszpan:
“[I]f a word is challenged and found not to be legal (called a phony in Scrabble parlance), the player that set it down loses a turn. Conversely, if a challenged word is found to be playable, the challenger loses his turn” (19).
Work Cited
Bukszapan, David. Is That a Word?: From AA to ZZZ, the Weird and Wonderful Language of SCRABBLE. Chronicle, 2012. p.19.
Next Up
Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, look to the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website, and review this post devoted to Scrabble tips.
College writing offers you the opportunity to develop skills, such as supporting arguments with evidence, writing effective thesis statements, and using transitions well, but it also gives you the opportunity to develop habits. Successful college students develop certain habits of mind, a way of approaching learning that leads to success.
In 2011, the Council of Writing Program Administrators (CWPA), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and the National Writing Project (NWP) identified eight habits of mind that successful college students adopt.
In class on Monday, you began an exercise focusing on four of the eight habits of mind. Today in class, you will address one of those habits in a collaborative piece of writing.
The paragraphs that follow include the descriptions of the habits that you examined (and the ones you will examine today), as well as the questions that you answered in writing (and the ones you will answer in writing today).
Curiosity
Are you the kind of person who always wants to know more? This habit of mind will serve you well in courses in which your curiosity about issues, problems, people, or policies can form the backbone of a writing project.
WRITING ACTIVITY: What are you most curious to learn about? What experiences have you had in which your curiosity has led you to an interesting discovery or to more questions?
Openness
Some people are more open than others to new ideas and experiences and new ways of thinking about the world. Being open to other perspectives and positions can help you to frame sound arguments and counterarguments and solve other college writing challenges in thoughtful ways.
WRITING ACTIVITY: In the family or the part of the world in which you grew up, did people tend to be very open, not open at all, or somewhere in the middle? Thinking about your own level of open-mindedness, reflect on how much or how little your own attitude toward a quality like openness is the result of the attitudes of the people around you.
Engagement
Successful college writers are involved in their own learning process. Students who are engaged put effort into their classes, knowing that they’ll get something out of their classes—something other than a grade. They participate in their own learning by planning, seeking feedback when they need to, and communicating with peers and professors to create their own success. Write about a few of the ways you try (or plan to try) to be involved in your own learning. What does engagement look like to you?
WRITING ACTIVITY: Write about a few of the ways you try (or plan to try) to be involved in your own learning. What does engagement look like to you?
Creativity
You may be thinking that you have to be an artist, poet, or musician to display creativity. Not so. Scientists use creativity every day in coming up with ways to investigate questions in their field. Engineers and technicians approach problem solving in creative ways. Retail managers use creativity in displaying merchandise and motivating their employees.
WRITING ACTIVITY: Think about the field you plan to enter. What forms might creativity take in that field?
Persistence
You are probably used to juggling long-term and short-term commitments—both in school and in your everyday life. Paying attention to your commitments and being persistent enough to see them through, even when the commitments are challenging, are good indicators that you will be successful in college.
WRITING ACTIVITY: Describe a time when you faced and overcame an obstacle in an academic setting. What did you learn from that experience?
Responsibility
College will require you to be responsible in way you may not have had to be before. Two responsibilities you will face as an academic writer are to represent the ideas of others fairly and to give credit to writers whose ideas and language you borrow for your own purposes.
WRITING ACTIVITY: Why do you think academic responsibility is important? What kind of experience have you already had with this kind of responsibility?
Flexibility
Would your friends say you are the kind of person who can just “go with the flow”? Do you adapt easily to changing situations? If so, you will find college easier, especially college writing. When you find, for example, that you’ve written a draft that doesn’t address the right audience or that your peer review group doesn’t understand at all, you will be able to adapt. Being flexible enough to adapt to the demands of different writing projects is an important habit of mind.
WRITING ACTIVITY: Describe a situation in which you’ve had to make changes based on a situation you couldn’t control. Did you do so easily or with difficulty?
Metacognition (Reflection)
As a learner, you have probably been asked to think back on a learning experience and comment on what went well or not well, what you learned or what you wished you had learned, or what decisions you made or didn’t make. Writers who reflect on their own processes and decisions are better able to transfer writing skills to future assignments.
WRITING ACTIVITY: Reflect on your many experiences as a writer. What was your most satisfying experience as a writer? What made it so?
Next Up
Friday marks the first Wordplay Day of the semester. To prepare for class, review the Scrabble Ground Rules posted in Blackboard, as well as the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website. Also review the Scrabble blog entry that I will post tomorrow. Most weeks of the semester, usually on Thursday, I will publish a post devoted to Scrabble.
Am I the person who will teach your English 1103 class? I posed that question this morning at the beginning of class as a starting point for analysis, one of the key features of the course.
To begin the collaboration and inquiry that will figure prominently this semester, you worked together in groups today to find the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about the course. After class, continue to review the syllabus. (An additional copy is posted in Blackboard.) If you have any questions about the assignments, the course policies, or the calendar, please let me know.
Textbook
All of you in sections 19 and 20 of English 1103 are required to have the paperback edition of the textbook, Writing Analytically, 9th edition, by David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen. Bring your copy to class on the days when the title, Writing Analytically, appears in bold on the course calendar. On those days, we will examine portions of the chapters in class and you will address passages in the textbook in your own writing for the course .
Your first reading assignment in the textbook will be scheduled for the first week of February, which will give you ample time to order and receive your copy before you are required to have it in class. Note that on the class calendar you should omit Writing Analytically from January 24. The first day you will need to have your textbook in class in February 7.
Unlike my copy of the textbook, pictured at the top of this blog entry, your textbook will not be in a binder. Your textbook’s cover looks like this:
Other Required Materials
Writer’s notebook/journal, bring to every class.
Loose leaf paper (for drafts and short in-class assignments), bring to every Monday and Wednesday class
Pen with dark ink, bring to every class
Pocket portfolio (for class handouts), bring to every class
WordPress Blog
As practice in developing your web literacy and writing for a broader online audience, you will maintain a free WordPress blog for the class. As soon as possible, create a free blog at wordpress.com. After you create your blog, email the address, or URL, to me, and I will link your blog to our class page, English at High Point. If you encounter technical difficulties creating your blog or publishing a post, email help@wordpress.com or contact the HPU Help Desk: helpdesk@highpoint.edu, 336-841-HELP (3457).
You will post the revisions of all of your major writing assignments both to your blog and to Blackboard. The posts that you publish for class will be public. You are welcome to create additional posts on your own. If you prefer for some of those posts to be private, keep them in draft form or choose the private visibility option.
You may also be asked to post comments to your classmates’ blogs and to mine.
Set an alarm to ensure that you will not sleep through your final exam period. For students in section twenty, that’s 8 a.m. on Saturday, December 9; for students in section nineteen, that’s 8 a.m. on Wednesday, December 13.
Keep all of your required blog posts for the semester (your final essay and annotated bibliography, analysis, and literacy narrative) published (visible on your blog) until final grades have been posted. Also make sure that you have deleted all placeholders/sample posts. Since blog activity is a component of your course assignments grade, I will review your blogs before I finalize those grades.
If you haven’t done so already, submit course evaluations for ENG 1103 and your other classes.
Your course assignment grade has been updated to its preliminary final average; exemplary blog activity and class participation may raise it. If you wish to check that preliminary grade, please do so before 4 p.m. tomorrow, December 8. After that, the Blackboard course site for English 1103, sections nineteen and twenty, will no longer be available to students. Final grades for the course will be posted in eServices on the afternoon of Wednesday, December 13.
If you have any questions regarding your presentation grade or your final grade for the course, please email me the second week of January. I will be out of the office from the afternoon of December 13 until the morning of January 8.
This final Scrabble post of the semester features the names of authors and characters that are playable words. Learning these will not only increase your word power (and up your game), it will also broaden your knowledge of literature. If you haven’t read some of classics listed here, I encourage you to check them out.
eyre: a long journey (the last name of of the title character in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, 1847)
dickens: a devil (Charles Dickens, 1812-1870)
fagin: a person, usually an adult, who instructs others, usually children, in crime (from a character of that type in Dickens’ Oliver Twist, 1838)
holden: the past participle of hold (Holden Caulfield, the protagonist in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, 1951)
huckleberry: a berry like a blueberry (the first name of the title character in Mark Twain’s Adventures of Hucklebery Finn, 1884)
oedipal: describing libidinal feelings of a child toward the parent of the opposite sex (from the title character in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, c. 429 B.C.)
quixote: a quixotic, or extremely idealistic person; also quixotry, a quixotic action or thought (the title character in Michael de Cervantes’ Don Quixote, Part I: 1605, Part II: 1615)
Next Up
Your final assignment for the course will be your individual oral presentation, which you will deliver during the exam period. See my December 4 blog post, and the handout I distributed that day, for detailed instructions.
Today’s class period will be devoted to planning and preparation for your individual oral presentations, which you will deliver during the final exam period: 8 a.m., Saturday, December 9, for section 20 students; 8 a.m., Wednesday, December 13, for section 19 students.
As a finalist for a much-sought-after internship in your field, you are required to deliver a concise and engaging presentation that highlights your achievements in English 1103 and demonstrates your ability to effectively assume the responsibilities that the internship requires of you. Among the aspects of the course that you should address are one or more of your major writing assignments and the development of your critical thinking and collaboration skills. You are encouraged but not required to address additional aspects of the course.
Directions for Planning
Plan a brief presentation of five minutes or fewer that highlights your achievements in English 1103 and demonstrates your ability to effectively assume the responsibilities that the internship in your field requires of you.
Address one or more of your major writing assignments and the development of your critical thinking and collaboration skills. You are encouraged but not required to address additional aspects of the course.
Include the following in your presentation:
an opening in which you state your first and last names and your major,
concrete details in your blog that illustrate the development of your writing, your critical thinking, and your collaboration skills.
a close examination of one pertinent passage in your blog, and
a conclusion that provides closure and invites questions from the interview committee.
Directions for Rehearsing
In preparation for rehearsing, write your notes on index cards. If your notes are in complete sentences, rewrite them to include only words and short phrases for your key points. If your notes are too detailed, you will risk relying heavily on them and making minimal eye contact with the interview committee. Make as much eye contact as possible and be sure to make eye contact with committee members throughout the room rather than fixing your eyes on one or two people.
Familiarize yourself with the presentation station. Demonstrating that you are not adept at using the technology required for your presentation may jeopardize your chances for obtaining the internship. If you have not used the presentation station, I encourage you to devote part of today’s class period to familiarizing yourself with its setup.
Practice good posture. As you deliver your presentation, your ears should be directly above your shoulders. If you tend to shift your weight from one foot to the other—a distracting habit that’s sometimes called rocking the boat—stand with your feet perpendicular to each other. If you do, you will not be able to shift your weight from one foot to the other.
Avoid filler words, such as um, like, and you know. If you tend to use filler words, practice pausing at the points where you are likely to use fillers.
Rehearse with a classmate. Take turns delivering your presentations and offering feedback. Offer both suggestions for improvement and words of encouragement.
Next Up
Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website, and review the posts on my blog devoted to Scrabble tips.
Today’s Scrabble post features Shakespeare characters whose names are also playable common nouns.
ariel: a gazelle found in Africa (Ariel, The Tempest, 1611-12)
dogberry: the fruit of a dogwood tree (Dogberry, Much Ado about Nothing, 1598-1599)
hamlet: a village (the title character of Hamlet, 1600-1601)
lear: learning (the title character of King Lear, 1605-1606)
puck: a disk used in ice hockey and other games (Puck, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 1595-1596)
romeo: a seductive lover, a male lover (one of the title characters in Romeo and Juliet, 1594-1595)
shylock: to lend money with a high interest rate (Shylock, The Merchant of Venice, 1596-1597)
Next Up
Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website, and review the posts on my blog devoted to Scrabble tips, including this one.
Today in class you will plan and draft a short final reflective essay that documents your work in the second half of the semester, focusing on what you consider your most significant work and the feature or features of the course that have proven most beneficial to your development as a writer and a student. Features to consider include the following:
Planning, drafting, and revising your final essay and annotated bibliography. Since you recently composed a reflection on this assignment, it should not be the main focus of your final reflection.
Keeping a journal
Delivering your group presentation on one of the lessons in the Check, Please! course
Studying one of the readings examined in the second half of the semester, including “The Case for Writing Longhand,” “Skim Reading is the New Normal,” “Strawberry Spring,” the excerpt from On Writing, or the sample final essay and annotated bibliography.
Writing for an online audience beyond the classroom/creating and maintaining a WordPress blog
Collaborating with your classmates on in-class writing assignments
Playing Scrabble/Collaborating with your teammates on Wordplay Day
Writing longhand
Limiting screen time
Include in Your Reflective Essay the Following Elements:
A title that offers a window into your reflection
An opening paragraph that introduces your focus and presents your thesis
Body paragraphs that offer concrete details from your work to support your thesis.
A relevant quotation from Writing Analytically or a relevant quotation from one of the texts that we have studied in class. Introduce your quotation with a signal phrase and follow it with a parenthetical citation.
A conclusion that revisits the thesis without restating it verbatim
Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website, and review the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips,
Rosenwasser, David and Jill Stephen. “Integrating Quotations into Your Writing.” Writing Analytically, 8th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2019. p. 231.
Yesterday in class, before you began your blog review, you revised two passages of student writing that integrated quotations from Writing Analytically. The original passages and my revised versions appear below. Return to these sample revisions as you continue to plan your final reflection. Note how I have integrated the quotations more gracefully, omitted unnecessary words, and eliminated passive voice and weak diction. Also note where I have corrected spelling and punctuation errors.
Original
The article “Integrating Quotes into your Paper” from Writing Analytically was the most helpful source that we were given. In the first paragraph of this article, it discusses, “An enormous amount of writers lose authority and readability because they have never learned how to correctly integrate quotations into their own writing.” (Rosenwasser/Stephen, 231)
Revision
In “Integrating Quotations Into Your Paper,” the most helpful section of the textbook, the authors note that “[a]n enormous amount of writers lose authority and readability because they have never learned how to correctly integrate quotations into their own writing” (Rosenwasser and Stephen 231).
Original
In Writing Analytically by David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen in chapter eight the section on “Integrating Quotations Into Your Paper” helped me better understand how to do citations. In the reading Rosenwasser and Stephen addressed “always attach a quotation to some of your own language; never let it stand as its own sentence in you text” (Rosenwasser, Stephen 231).
Revision
“Integrating Quotations Into Your Paper” helped me better understand how to compose citations. In that section of the textbook, Rosenwasser and Stephen advise students to “[a]lways attach a quotation to some of your own language; never let it stand as its own sentence in your text” (Rosenwasser and Stephen 231).
Next Up
Tomorrow in class you will compose a short reflective essay focusing on the aspects of the course that have benefited you most in the second half of the semester.
Today’s class will be devoted to updating your blog, reviewing your classmates’ sites, and planning for the final reflection that you will compose in class on Wednesday. Devote the first half of class to updating your blog and reviewing your classmates’ sites. In the second half of the class, you will not be permitted to use your laptops, tablets, or phones. That time will be devoted to planning for your final reflection.
To update your blog, complete the check list below and make any necessary changes to your site.
All three of my major essay assignments (my literacy narrative, my analysis, and my final essay and annotated bibliography) are published on my blog.
My final essay and annotated bibliography assignment is the top post on my blog (followed by my analysis and my literacy narrative).
All three of the blog posts for my major essay assignments include an image that documents part of my writing process away from the screen.
All three of the blog posts for my major essay assignments include an embedded link to a relevant website.
I have corrected any errors of spelling, punctuation, grammar, mechanics, and style in my blog posts.
After you have updated your blog, devote the remainder of the first half of class to reviewing your classmates’ sites. You are encouraged, but not required, to type brief comments and/or like your classmates’ posts.
Directions for Planning Your Reflection
Review your class handouts and journal entries and determine what you consider your most significant work and the feature or features of the course that have benefited your development as a writer and a student. Features to consider include the following:
Planning, drafting, and revising your final essay and annotated bibliography. Since you recently composed a reflection on this assignment, it should not be the main focus of your final reflection.
Keeping a journal
Delivering your group presentation on one of the lessons in the Check, Please! course
Studying one of the readings examined in the second half of the semester, including “The Case for Writing Longhand,” “Skim Reading is the New Normal,” “Strawberry Spring,” the excerpt from On Writing, or the sample final essay and annotated bibliography.
Writing for an online audience beyond the classroom/creating and maintaining a WordPress blog
Collaborating with your classmates on in-class writing assignments
Playing Scrabble/Collaborating with your teammates on Wordplay Day
Writing longhand
Limiting screen time
You may focus on two, three, or four features of the course (but no more than four).
After you determine what features of the course you will address, select a minimum of one relevant quotation to integrate into your reflection. The quotation you include may be one from Writing Analytically or a relevant quotation from one of the texts that we have studied in the second half of the semester.
Next Up
In class on Wednesday, you will compose your final refelection for the course.
Jane Lucas 