Category: Writing

Posted in English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Conducting a Peer Interview/Creating a Primary Source

Posted on by janemlucas

Today in class, you will conduct a short personal interview that will serve as one of the sources for your project. If you decide that you do not want to use the interview that you conduct today, you are welcome to include another one in your project. Keep in mind, however, that the student interview you include must be conducted with a student currently enrolled in section eight, and the subject of the interview must be the subject of your project.

Directions

  1. As a group, discuss your subjects with your group members and decide who will interview whom.
  2. Conduct short one-on-one interviews that include the questions listed below. You are welcome to ask additional questions, but be mindful of your time constraints.
  3. Record your interviewees’ answers in your journal. If you aren’t able to record the answers verbatim as the interviewee speaks, ask him or her to repeat them. Questions to ask your interviewee include the following: (1) What experience, if any, did you have with the subject (the reading or the aspect of the course) before you encountered it in English 1103? (2) Has it changed your perspective on reading and/or writing? If so, how? (3) Will you continue to pursue the subject (read more work by the author, continue the classroom practice or activity) after the conclusion of the semester?
  4. After you conduct your interview, compose on the worksheet provided a sentence in which you introduce a quotation from the interview with a signal phrase, such as, According to . . . , or [insert first and last name] notes or observes or points out that . . . .” Your quotation will not be followed by a parenthetical citation because it is a form of oral communication (without page or paragraph numbers). See the sample on your worksheet.
  5. Follow your quotation with an annotated bibliography entry in this format: Last Name, First Name. Interview. Conducted by Your First Name Your Last Name. Day Month Year.*
  6. Complete your bibliographic entry with a three-paragraph annotation. Like the other annotations you will write, it will include a paragraph of summary, followed by a second of commentary. Because your interviewee is not a published writer, the third paragraph will differ from the credentials paragraphs in your model, “Scrabble as a Game Changer in the College Classroom.” See the sample below.

Sample Annotated Bibliographic Entry: Peer Interview

Brewer, Jesse. Interview. Conducted by Jane Lucas. 20 Oct. 2023.

English 1103 student Jesse Brewer recounts how he has played Scrabble for most of his life. Ever since he was a young child, he has played the game with his grandparents whenever he visited their home in Pennsylvania. Brewer will continue to play Scrabble after the end of the semester because the game remains a tradition in his family. In his words, “[M]y grandmother is still going to want to play it every summer.” Brewer also notes that the game has expanded his vocabulary, saying it has “introduced me to new words, which allows me to read and write more capably in everyday life.”

Brewer’s remarks on vocabulary building highlight the game’s verbal benefits, and his observations on Scrabble as a family tradition serve as a point of contrast to that of some other students’–such as Ava Salvant’s–who had not played Scrabble before playing it as a weekly exercise in English 1103.

Brewer is a junior computer science major at High Point University, where he was enrolled in English 1103, section 20, in 2023.

*Note that the bibliographic entries in your MS Word file or PDF should have hanging indents, and the first line of each paragraph should be indented five spaces or one-half inch.

Next Up

Wednesday’s class will be devoted to additional writing and research for your final essay and annotated bibliography. Details TBA.

Bonus Assignment

For the model final essay and annotated bibliography I am writing, I will conduct a student interview–possibly two. If you are available to be interviewed by me during my office hours or before class, between 10:10 and 10:30 a.m., be one of the first two students to email your available time to me no later than 5 p.m. tomorrow, March 24. I cannot interview you right before class. If you are not available to be interviewed during my office hours or before between 10:10 and 10:30 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, I cannot interview you for this bonus assignment.

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: One Writer’s Beginning

Posted on by janemlucas
My annotated copy of Tom Junod’s “The Falling Man,” along with March issue of Esquire, which features Tom Hendrickson’s article on Tom Junod

When I opened the current issue of Esquire, I didn’t expect to spot the name Tom Junod. What I saw out of the corner of my eye wasn’t a byline; Junod had left Esquire to write for ESPN The Magazine in 2016. The name I’d grown accustomed to seeing as a byline was instead the first words of a feature titled “Family Secrets,” by John Hendrickson.

Hendrickson’s feature focuses on the recent publication of Tom Junod’s first book, a memoir. I realized that “Family Secrets” could serve as a source in an annotated bibliography devoted to Junod’s writing–and, time permitting, I could read his new memoir, In the Days of My Youth I was Told What it Means to be a Man. And that book could serve as a source as well.

Although I could have begun my writing process by drafting a bibliographic entry for “Family Secrets,” instead I began with an bibliographic entry for “The Falling Man,” as a model for those of you who choose Junod’s writing as your subject.

I prepared to draft by rereading “The Falling Man” in its entirety twice, highlighting words and phrases on my first rereading, and writing extensive annotations in the margins on the second. As a result of that close examination of Junod’s article, I was not only able to draft a bibliographic entry but also discover patterns in his prose–including apparent contradictions and repetition of words or phrases for emphasis–that I will be able to address elsewhere in my essay and bibliography.

Twice rereading Tom Junod’s seventeen-page, 7,000-plus-word article was time-consuming, but the effort paid off by generating substantial material for my project. If your own essay and bibliography focuses on Tom Junod’s writing, you should follow the same steps. Examining only the first two paragraphs of a writer’s article is sufficient for a short analysis but not for a research project devoted to his work.

My annotated copy of Tom Junod’s “The Falling Man” and the first page of the draft of my bibliographic entry

Annotated Bibliographic Entry for “The Falling Man”

Junod, Tom. “The Falling Man, vol. 140, no. 3, Sept. 2003, pp. 176+. ProQuest, https://libproxy.highpoint.edu/login?url= https://www.proquest.com/ magazines/falling-man/docview/210268344/se-2.

Published in the September 2003 issue of Esquire, Tom Junod’s “The Falling Man” focuses on the now-iconic 9/11 image of an unidentified man in downward flight, who appears to bisect the Twin Towers. Junod chronicles the moments leading up to AP photographer Richard Drew capturing the photo, Toronto Globe and Mail reporter Peter Chaney’s search for the true identity of the Falling Man, the reactions to the picture—both those of the public and of grieving families (whose loved one could be its subject), and the photograph’s status as a national symbol.

Junod’s thorough and riveting account of Richard Drew’s photograph and its life beyond the frame illuminates the role of the Falling Man in American culture and showcases the writer’s award-winning prose. “The Falling Man” remains an essential reference for studies of the iconography of 9/11, as well as studies of Junod’s writing.

Tom Junod, a senior writer for ESPN, has also written for Life, Sports Illustrated, and GQ, where his articles garnered two National Magazine Awards. Among Junod’s other notable works are hisEsquire profile of Fred Rogers, “Can You Say . . . ‘Hero’?”—the inspiration for the Tom Hanks’ film It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood—and his newly-published memoir In the Days of My Youth I was Told What it Means to be a Man.

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website, or the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips.

Coming Soon

On Monday, as an exercise in creating a primary source for your annotated bibliography, you will conduct an interview with one of your classmates. Details TBA.

Posted in English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Beginning Your Final Essay and Annotated Bibliography

Posted on by janemlucas

Today, you will draft an annotated bibliographic entry for the source that serves as the starting point for your research. For a list of sources, see the complete assignment directions under the heading Final Essay and Annotated Bibliography.

Key Features

Your bibliographic entry will consist of these elements:

  • A complete MLA-style work cited entry for the source that serves as the starting point for your research.
  • A paragraph that summarizes the source.
  • A second paragraph, one of commentary, that elucidates the usefulness of the source to you and others researching your subject. Would it serve as a point of comparison or contrast to another primary or secondary source? Would it support or challenge an idea presented in another source? Is it a secondary source that sheds light on the meaning of a primary source? The last question pertains primarily to bibliographies that focus on one of the writers studied in the course. Do not write in your commentary, this source is useful because . . . Instead, demonstrate the source’s function
  • A third paragraph that consists of one or more sentences that provide the writer’s credentials: the qualifications and achievements that demonstrate his or her competence and credibility.

For models, look to the annotated bibliographic entries in “Scrabble as a Game Changer,” the sample assignment you will receive today.

Directions for Bibliographic Entry

  1. Draft a bibliographic entry that includes all the elements outlined above.
  2. For directions on drafting the third paragraph, see the Credentials section that follows.
  3. Compose your bibliographic entry on the lines provided on the exercise handout and/or additional paper, and submit it before you leave class.

Credentials

The third paragraph of each of your bibliographic annotations will consist of one or more sentences that provide the writer’s credentials: the qualifications and achievements that demonstrate his or her competence and credibility.

Directions for Credentials (Paragraph Three)

  1. Locate the author of your source in the list that follows
  2. Compose a short paragraph of one or more sentences that includes the writer’s first and last names and the credentials listed in the bulleted points. Do not comment on the writer’s qualifications. Like a summary, a paragraph of credentials is an objective presentation of information.

Aubrey, Allison

  • Correspondent for NPR (National Public Radio) and a contributor to CBS Sunday Morning, the PBS NewsHour,
  • Recipient of awards from the New York Press Club, the National Press Club, the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation, and the James Beard Foundation

Barthelme, Donald

  • Author of the novel Snow White and the collection Sixty Stories, among others
  • His short story collection City Life was named by Time magazine as one of the best books of 1971
  • Recipient of the National Book Award, the Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction, The Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship

Chu, Charlotte

  • Journalist who has covered science, health, and technology for Vox, Scientific American, Popular Science, Discover Magazine, Business Insider, and GenomeWeb, among others

Junod, Tom

  • Senior writer for ESPN.com
  • Previously wrote for Esquire, GQ, Life, and Sports Illustrated
  • Recipient of two National Magazine Awards from the American Society of Magazine Editors

Keller, Helen

  • Author of The Story of My Life and The World I Love In, among others
  • Named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century

King, Martin Luther, Jr.

  • Civil Rights leader
  • Author of Strength to Love and Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story
  • Recipient of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize

King, Stephen

  • Author of Carrie, The Shining, Pet Cemetery, and more than sixty other novels
  • Recipient of the 2003 National Book Award’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and the 2014 National Medal of Arts.

Klara, Robert

  • Senior Editor of brands at AdWeek
  • Author of three nonfiction books: FDR’s Funeral Train: A Betrayed Widow, a Soviet Spy and a Presidency in the Balance, The Hidden White House: Harry Truman and the Reconstruction of America’s Most Famous Residence, and The Devil’s Mercedes: The Bizarre and Disturbing Adventures of Hitler’s Limousine in America

Lee, Harper

  • Author of To Kill a Mockingbird, awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961
  • Wrote two posthumously published works: Go Set a Watchman and The Land of Sweet Forever
  • Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007, for her contributions to literature

Lewis, Michael

  • Author of The Blind Side and Moneyball, among others
  • Named a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2023
  • Two-time recipient of the Gerald Loeb Award for Feature Writing

Richtel, Matt

  • New York Times journalist
  • Author of A Deadly Warning (2014)
  • Recipient of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting

Sedaris, David

  • Author of Happy-Go-Lucky and The Land and Its People, among others
  • Recipient of the Thurber Prize for American Humor
  • Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2019

Wolf, Maryanne

  • Director of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners and Social Justice at UCLA
  • Author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain
  • Recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, the American Psychological Association Teaching Award, and a fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study of Behavioral Sciences at Stanford

Final Essay and Annotated Bibliography, Complete Assignment

An annotated bibliography is a list of sources on a subject that includes a summary of each source. Some bibliographies include additional information, such as commentary on the source and the authors’ credentials, which is the type of bibliography that you will compose along with your final essay for the course.

Key Features

  • Your final essay, an introductory essay of three or more paragraphs, presents the subject of your bibliography and addresses your purpose for compiling it. In other words: What drives your research? What interests you in the subject, and what question, or questions, do you seek to answer about it? Also, it considers what larger project might develop from your final essay and annotated bibliography, and lastly, what would serve as its theoretical framework? In other words, through what academic lens would you examine your subject?
  • A complete MLA-style bibliographic entry for each source.

Assignment Directions

  1. Begin by drafting an annotated bibliographic entry for the source that serves as the starting point for your research. See the accompanying handout for directions.
  2. Use the HPU Libraries site, https://www.highpoint.edu/library/, and Google Scholar to locate a minimum of three additional reliable and relevant print sources (articles, essays, and/or books) devoted to the same subject. Compose your summary, commentary, and credentials paragraphs in complete sentences, introduce quotations with signal phrases, and include parenthetical citations where needed. Your bibliography must include five sources, four of which must be print. (The interview you conduct is a nonprint source. Details TBA.) If you wish to include an additional non-print source, such as a video, you may include that as a sixth source. Also, if you choose to use both articles on limiting screen time that were distributed in class (Allison Aubrey’s and Maryanne Wolf’s), you will need to include an additional print source.
  3. After you have composed your annotated bibliographic entries, write an introductory essay that (1) presents the subject of your bibliography, and (2) addresses your purpose for compiling it. In other words: What drives your research? What question do you seek to answer about your subject? Also, (3) What larger project might develop from your bibliography? Would it be a project for a course in psychology, science, education, or another discipline? What would serve as its theoretical framework? In other words, through what academic lens would you examine your subject? Address all five of your sources in your essay and quote at least two of them.

Though your introductory essay will precede your annotated bibliography, you will compose it last because you will need to reread and summarize your sources before you will know how to address them in your essay.

Directions for Researching, Drafting, Revising, and Submitting

  1. Devote today’s class to drafting the annotated bibliographic entry for the source that serves as the starting point for your research.
  2. In class: Conduct a personal interview and compose an annotated bibliographic entry for the interview. Details TBA. Note: Additional class periods over the course of the next two weeks will be devoted to writing and research.
  3. Before class on the due date: Post a copy of your revision to Blackboard and to your blog. In your blog post, omit the first-page information included in your file submitted to Blackboard (your name, professor’s name, course and section, and date). Add to your blog post an image that documents some part of your writing process away from the screen, such as the summary of your source in your journal, today’s worksheet, or a page of your draft. Also, add an embedded link to a relevant website. Even though your work for this assignment will take place primarily in front of the screen, your writing process still involves putting pen to paper, and photographic documentation of that on your blog is a requirement of the assignment.

Sample Annotated Bibliography Entries

Aubrey, Allison. “A Break from Your Smartphone Can Reboot Your Mood: Here’s How Long You Need.” NPR, 24 Feb. 2025. https://www.npr.org/2025/02/24/nx-s1-5304417/smartphone-break-digital-detox-screen-addiction#:~:text= Researchers%20studied%20what%20happened%20when,felt%20better%20after%20the%20break.

Barthelme, Donald. “The School.” The Best American Short Stories 1975, edited by Martha Foley, Houghton Mifflin, 1975. pp. 8-11.

Hu, Charlotte. “Why Writing by Hand is Better for Memory and Learning.” Ed. Lauren J. Young. Scientific American, 21 Feb. 2024, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-writing-by-hand-is-better-for-memory-and-learning/.

Junod, Tom. “The Falling Man, vol. 140, no. 3, Sept. 2003, pp. 176+. ProQuest, https://libproxy.highpoint.edu/login?url= https://www.proquest.com/ magazines/falling-man/docview/210268344/se-2.

Keller, Helen. “The Day Language Came into My Life.” https://janelucasdotcom. files.wordpress.com/2025/08/a0461-3.thedaylanguagecameintomylife_keller.pdf.

King, Martin Luther, Jr. “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” King, Martin Luther, Jr. “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” U. of Texas at Austin, https://minio.la.utexas.edu/webeditor-files/coretexts/pdf/1963_mlk_letter.pdf.

King, Stephen. “Strawberry Spring.” Nigh Shift. Anchor, 2011. pp. 268-82.

Klara, Robert. “Scrabble.” Adweek, vol. 61, no. 13, 15 June 2020, pp. 22-23. ProQuest, https://libraryproxy.highpoint.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/magazine/scrabble/docview/241647624/se-2.

Lee, Harper. Chapter One. To Kill a Mockingbird. Lippincott, 1960. pp. 9-19.

Lewis, Michael. Chapter One: “Back Story.” The Blind Side. 2006. Norton, 2009. pp.15-23.

Richtel, Matt. “Blogs vs. Term Papers.” New York Times, 20 Jan. 2012. ProQuest, https://libproxy.highpoint.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/blogs-podcasts-websites/blogs-vs-term-papers/docview/2216251885/se-2.

Sedaris, David. “Me Talk Pretty One Day.” Me Talk Pretty One Day. Little, Brown, 2000. 166-73.

Wolf, Maryanne. “Skim Reading is the New Normal. The Effect on Society is Profound.” The Guardian, 25 Aug. 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/25/skim-reading-new-normal-maryanne-wolf.

*Note that the samples above lack the hanging indents that should be included in the Word document or PDF that you post to Blackboard. See the sample entries on the assignment handout for MLA-style format.

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website, or the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips, including this one.

Coming Soon

On Monday, as an exercise in creating a primary source for your annotated bibliography, you will conduct an interview with one of your classmates. Details TBA.

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Secondary Sources, Reporting, and Commentary . . .

Posted on by janemlucas

The four articles that served as the subjects for your group presentations are all secondary sources: texts that address information originally presented in primary sources. Primary sources include research studies and other original works, such as historical documents, essays, and fiction. Each of the essays, the short story, the letter, and the chapter that you read previously for class can serve as primary sources for your research. For example, David Sedaris‘s “Me Talk Pretty One Day” is a primary source for a study of Sedaris’s writing.

  • In “Blogs vs. Term Papers,” Matt Richtel reports on the findings of the National Survey of Student Engagement and a study of high school writing requirements conducted by William H. Fitzhugh, editor of The Concord Review, as well as the writing curricula of then-Duke University Professor Cathy Davidson and Stanford Professor Emerita Andrea Lunsford.
  • In “Writing by Hand is Better for Memory and Learning,” Charlotte Hu reports on research published in Frontiers in Psychology, conducted by Audrey van der Meer and Ruud van der Weel at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
  • In “A Break from Your Smartphone,” Allison Aubrey reports on research conducted by Noah Castelo, Kostadin Kushlev, Adrian F. Ward, Michael Esterman, and Peter B. Reiner, which was published in PNAS NEXUS, the journal of the National Academy of Science.

Although Maryanne Wolf’s “Skim Reading is the New Normal” cites research originally published in primary sources, she is not reporting on that research objectively. Instead, she argues that in light of researchers’ findings, “[w]e need to cultivate a new kind of brain: a ‘bi-literate’ reading brain capable of thought in either digital or traditional mediums” (par. 12). If you look at the heading on your copy of Wolf’s article, you will see the word opinion, which indicates that her article appeared in the opinion section of The Guardian‘s website and on the Op-Ed page of the physical paper.

Informed opinion pieces–such as Wolf’s, which draws on scholarly research–are suitable sources for your research, but it’s important to recognize the difference between reporting and commentary.

Great Britain’s The Guardian, which published Wolf’s article, and The New York Times, which published Richtel’s “Blogs vs. Term Papers,” are two of the most well-regarded newspapers of record, known for their accuracy and high-quality reporting. NPR (National Public Radio), which aired Aubrey’s “A Break from Your Smartphone,” is another premier news outlet. The magazine Scientific American, which published Hu’s “Writing by Hand is Better for Memory and Learning,” is yet another first-rate publication, one known for its authoritative and accessible coverage of science and technology news, written for a general audience.

AP Style vs. MLA Style

As you read the four articles that served as your presentation subjects, you probably noticed some differences among their styles and MLA (Modern Language Association) style, which you use for paper assignments in English 1103 and other courses in the humanities. Most news publications use AP (Associated Press) or their own in-house style book that shares many of AP’s rules. One of reason style rules are difficult to remember is the differences among the requirements. Here are some of the important distinctions between AP style and MLA:

  • In AP style, a sentence may begin with a quotation. In MLA style, a quotation must be introduced with a signal phrase. Otherwise, it is considered a dropped quotation.
  • AP style does not include parenthetical citations. In MLA style, quotations and paraphrases are followed by parenthetical citations–unless the sources are interviews or other nonprint sources.
  • In AP style, titles of publications are not enclosed in quotation marks or italicized. In MLA style, titles of short works are enclosed in quotation marks; titles of longer works are italicized (underlined in longhand).
  • Almost all numbers are expressed as figures in AP style. In MLA style, any number that can be expressed in one or two words is written as a word.
  • AP style omits the Oxford or serial comma, the comma before and in a series of three or more. Most publications other than newspapers use the Oxford or serial comma, and MLA advocates its use.
  • In AP style, an em dash is preceded and followed by a space. MLA style requires no space before or after an em dash.

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website, or the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips, including this one.

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Delivering Your Presentations, Observing Your Peers, and Reflecting

Posted on by janemlucas

This morning, in the first half of class, you and your classmates will deliver your group presentations. Keep in mind that when you are not presenting, you will still play a vital role in class as an audience member. Pay close attention to the other three presentations. Jot occasional notes in your journal, but don’t keep your head down for a substantial length of time. Making eye contact with the speakers and nodding your head are gestures that will convey your appreciation for your classmates’ efforts.

In the second half of class, we will look back at the four articles that served as your subjects, and you will compose reflections. Directions for your reflections are included below.

Directions

Compose a short piece of writing (two paragraphs, minimum) that reflects on your individual preparation and delivery of your portion of the presentation and your group’s presentation overall. Elements to address include the following:

  • The roles of your reading and writing: How did the processes of rereading the text and writing and rewriting your remarks contribute to the effectiveness of your delivery?
  • The introduction of your group members and opening remarks
  • The examination of points in the article
  • The conclusion
  • Poise, eye contact, and avoidance of filler words
  • The group’s cohesiveness

After you have reflected on your group’s presentation, compose an additional paragraph that addresses a presentation by one of the other groups. Choose the one that stands out the most to you. What element or elements of that presentation made it particularly effective and why?

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website, or the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips.

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Continuing to Prepare . . .

Posted on by janemlucas

As you continue to prepare for your presentation, be mindful of the valuable roles that reading and writing play in the process. Although the final product is your group’s three-to-four-minute oral presentation, your work began with reading and writing: reading the article that serves as your subject, and writing the plan that you composed in class yesterday.

Have you thoroughly reread the article that serves as your subject? If not, turn back to the text itself at least two more times before Wednesday. Chances are, on a second or third reading, you will notice details you didn’t notice before, ones that you may want to add to your presentation.

In addition to recording key words on your notecard, write out your portion of the presentation in your journal. Though you will not be permitted to have your journal in hand during your presentation, the act of writing down your remarks and rewriting them will help you commit them to memory.

As you practice delivering your presentation, be sure to limit the time that you look down at your notecard and your copy of the reading. Your ability to limit those glances will be greater if you spend ample time rereading the text and writing and reviewing your remarks in your journal.

Robert Klara’s “Scrabble”

Yesterday, while you were planning your presentations, I distributed copies of Robert Klara’s article “Scrabble.” If you plan to focus on Scrabble for your final essay and annotated bibliography, Klara’s article will serve as your starting point.

Unlike the articles you read for your presentations, Klara’s does not report on research, though he does quote journalist Stefan Fatsis, author of Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players. Klara’s article also provides historical context.

If you choose Scrabble as the subject for your final essay and annotated bibliography, include among your sources at least one newspaper or magazine article that reports on Scrabble research, or include the original research itself, published as a peer-reviewed article, such as “The World of Competitive Scrabble: Novice and Expert Differences in Visuospatial and Verbal Abilities,” by Diane F. Halpern and Jonathan Wai, available through the HPU Libraries.

Next Up

In class tomorrow, you will deliver your group presentations. Afterward, in the second half of class, you will compose a short essay that reflects on both your own presentation and one by another group.

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Looking Ahead . . .

Posted on by janemlucas

Group Presentations

On Monday, after your Scrabble debriefing, you will receive the assignment for the short group presentation you and three or four of your classmates will deliver on Wednesday, March 11. You will have the majority of Monday’s class period to devote to planning, and you will have the first ten minutes of Wednesday’s class for final preparations.

The subject of your presentation will be an article focusing on one of these aspects of English 1103:

  • Blogging
  • Limiting screen time
  • Reading printed texts (rather than reading online articles and ebooks)
  • Writing longhand

Although you and your group members will focus on only one of the four articles, all of you will read and annotate the other three in preparation for your classmates’ presentations.

If you decide to devote your final essay and annotated bibliography to one of the aspects of the course covered in the group presentations, the article focusing on that subject will serve as the starting point for your project.

Final Essay and Annotated Bibliography

Which aspect of the course or which of the writers we have studied are you interested in examining further? Your answer to that question will determine the subject of your final essay and annotated bibliography.

In preparation for beginning your research next week, review the list below and freewrite in your journal on the subjects that appeal to you most.

  • Donald Barthelme
  • Blogging
  • Tom Junod
  • Helen Keller
  • Limiting screen time
  • Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • Harper Lee
  • Michael Lewis
  • Reading printed texts (rather than reading online articles and ebooks)
  • Scrabble
  • David Sedaris
  • Writing longhand

If you choose to research one of the writers we have studied, keep in mind that your project will be an exploration of the author’s words, not his or her life. Your aim is not to write a biography, but instead a study of the writer’s craft.

Bonus Assignment

Directions

  1. Go to the class blog page, and click on the link for the blog of the classmate whose name precedes yours. If you are first on the list, go to the blog of the student whose name is last.
  2. If your designated classmate’s blog is not linked to the page, or his or her analysis is not published, choose another classmate’s blog. 
  3. Read the classmate’s analysis.
  4. Compose a one- or two-paragraph response (75 words, minimum) that includes both the classmate’s name and the title of his or her analysis. In your comment, address one or more of these elements: the title, the thesis, evidence to support the thesis and/other claims, organization, the conclusion, the image documenting part of the writing process away from the screen, the embedded link to a relevant website. Note that you will mention the classmate by name, but you will not refer to him or her in third person. In other words, you will not write, John’s examples of “The School”‘s incongruities effectively demonstrate Donald Barthelme’s postmodernist approach to storytelling. Instead, you will write, John, your examples of “The School”‘s incongruities effectively demonstrate Donald Barthelme’s postmodernist approach to storytelling.
  5. Recommended (not required): Draft your comment longhand in your journal.
  6. Type your response as a comment. You should see a leave comment/reply option at the top or bottom of the post. If you do not see that option, click the title of the blog post, and scroll down. You should then see leave comment/reply.
  7. Before you click leave comment/reply, copy your comment (on a PC, copy with control + c; on a Mac, copy with command + c).
  8. After you submit your comment on your classmate’s blog post, return to this post, and paste your comment as a reply (on a PC, paste with control + v; on a Mac, paste with command + v). This step is critical because your classmate may not approve your comment, which means it will not be visible on his or her blog post. To receive credit for the assignment, you must post your duplicate comment as a reply to this blog post, “ENG 1103: Looking Ahead.“ To submit your comment, click the title of the post, then scroll down to the bottom. There you will see the image of an airmail envelope with a box for your comment. Type your comment in the box and click Comment. Post your comment by the 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 12.

I will make your comments visible after the deadline.

Next Up

On Monday, you will begin planning your group presentations. For more details, see the first paragraph of this post. I will provide additional instructions in class.

Posted in English 1103, Scrabble, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Irritable Vowel Syndrome, Part II

Posted on by janemlucas

Last week, I published a blog post featuring playable four-letter words with three vowels. Knowing those words, and others with multiple vowels, proves useful when you’re faced with a rack of mostly, or all, vowels. Here’s a list of the remaining playable four-letter words with three vowels, beginning with the letters in the second half of the alphabet:

  • naoi: ancient temples (pl. of naos)
  • obia: form of sorcery practiced in the Caribbean (also obeah)
  • odea: concert halls (pl. of odeum)
  • ogee: an S-shaped molding
  • ohia: a Polynesian tree with bright flowers (also lehua)
  • olea: corrosive solutions (pl. of oleum)
  • olio: a miscellaneous collection
  • ouzo: a Turkish anise-flavored liquor
  • raia: a non-Muslim Turk (also rayah)
  • roue: a lecherous old man
  • toea: a currency in Papua, New Guinea
  • unai: a two-toed sloth (pl. unai; an ai is a three-toed sloth)
  • zoea: the larvae of some crustaceans

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website, or the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips, including this one.

Coming Soon

On Monday, after your Scrabble debriefing, you will receive your group presentation assignment, and you will have the remainder of the period to plan and rehearse.

Posted in English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Reflecting on Your Analysis . . .

Posted on by janemlucas

This morning in class, you will compose a reflective essay that documents the process of planning, drafting, and revising your analysis. Include at least one relevant quotation from Writing Analytically, introduced with a signal phrase and followed by a parenthetical citation. Questions to consider in your reflection include the following:  

Questions to Consider in Your Reflection

  • When you began transferring the words from your handwritten draft onto the screen of your laptop or tablet, what did you observe about the process?
  • What aspect of the writing seemed the most challenging? Choosing your topic? Deciding which text would serve as your subject? Determining your thesis? Identifying details to support your claims? Organizing the body of the essay? Composing the conclusion? Why did that aspect of the writing seem the most challenging?
  • Did the subject of your analysis change? If so, what was your original subject, and what did you change it to?
  • Did any of the sample analyses (“Wait Means Never,” “Princess of the Rock,” “The Strange Fruit of Sosnowiec”) prove helpful to you? If so, which one? How was it helpful?
  • What do you consider the strongest element of your analysis?
  • At what point in the process did you decide on a title? Did you change the title during the writing process? If so, what was the original title?
  • What image that documents part of your writing process away from the screen did you include in your blog post? Why did you choose that image?
  • What relevant website did you include an embedded link to in your blog post? Why did you choose that site?

Sample Works Cited Entries

Rosenwasser, David, and Jill Stephen. “Focus on Individual Words and Phrases.” Writing Analytically, 9th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2024. pp. 48-49. 

Rosenwasser, David, and Jill Stephen. “How Long?: Paragraphs, Readers, and Writers.” Writing Analytically, 9th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2024. p. 308. 

Rosenwasser, David, and Jill Stephen. “‘Interesting,’ ‘Revealing,’ ‘Strange’” Writing Analytically, 9th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2024. p. 24. 

Rosenwasser, David, and Jill Stephen. “Seems to Be About X, But Could Also Be (Or is ‘Really’) About Y.’” Writing Analytically, 9th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2024. pp. 104-7. 

Rosenwasser, David, and Jill Stephen. “What a Good Analytical Thesis Is and Does.” Writing Analytically, 9th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2024. pp. 241-42. 

Rosenwasser, David, and Jill Stephen. “Words Matter.” Writing Analytically, 9th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2024. pp. 49-50. 

Monday in class, I distributed copies of my study of a page of Art Spiegelman’s Maus, which I wrote as a model analysis in a previous semester. An additional copy, which complies with the guidelines of your analysis blog post, appears below.

The Strange Fruit of Sosnowiec

In his graphic memoir Maus, Art Spiegelman devotes a page to his father Vladek’s account of the hangings of four Jewish merchants in Sosnowiec, Poland. Vladek and his wife, Anja, learn from Anja’s father, Mr. Zylberberg, that the Nazis have arrested his friend Nahum Cohn and his son. With his head bowed in sorrow, Mr. Zylberberg says to Anja and Vladek, “The Germans intend to make an example of them!” (83). That image of Mr. Zylberberg speaking with Vladek and Anja overlies the larger panel that dominates the page, one that depicts the horror that Mr. Zylberberg anticipates: the murder of his friend Nahum Cohn, Cohn’s son, and two other Jewish merchants. That haunting panel and the smaller ones that frame it illustrate the complexity of Spiegelman’s seemingly simple composition. His rendering of the panels of the living in conjunction with the fragmented panels of the hanged merchants simultaneously conveys connection and separation: both the grieving survivors’ ties to the dead and the hanged men’s objectification at the hands of the Nazis.

The placement of the overlying panel not only hides part of the horror behind it, but it also connects Vladek’s father-in-law to one of the victims. Mr. Zylberberg’s head and torso appear directly above the suspended legs and feet of one of the hanged men, creating an image that merges the two.

Spiegelman further emphasizes the mourners’ identification with the hanged men by extending two of the nooses’ ropes upward to the smaller panel above them, linking the living to the dead. Additionally, Spiegelman underscores the link with Vladek’s line of narration at the bottom of the smaller panel: “I did much business with Cohn!” (83). The word with appears directly above the rope, punctuating the connection between both Nahum Cohn and his friend Mr. Zylberberg and Zylberberg’s son-in-law, Vladek.

While the panels of the hangings yoke the living to the dead, Spiegelman’s presentation of the hanged men in fragments also objectifies them. The final panels on the page depict only their shoes and part of their pant legs suspended above the onlookers, images that may evoke in some readers thoughts of the last remnants of the Jews who stepped barefoot into the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

Whether the hanged men’s shoes call to mind those mountains of leather left behind by the Jews, the separation of their lower legs and feet from the rest of their bodies turns them into something less than human—not people, but mere parts. Thus, Spiegelman creates a picture of the hangings that illustrates both the mourners’ identification with the victims and the Nazis’ perception of the Jews as less than human.

Spiegelman’s transformation of the Nazi propaganda portrayals of Jews as rats remains an astounding achievement thirty-five years after the publication of the first volume of Maus. But seeing the hanged merchants in Modrzejowska Street in the midst of the George Floyd murder trial in Minneapolis and less than three months after the January 6 Capitol riot reminds readers that the panels of Spiegelman’s memoir have grown more prescient. The nooses evoke images of Officer Derek Chauvin’s knee on George Floyd’s neck, the January 6 chants to hang the Vice President, and a T-shirt glimpsed in the Capitol crowd, one with a Nazi eagle below the acronym 6MWE (Six Million Wasn’t Enough), a reference to the number of Jews slaughtered in the Holocaust. Our heads are bowed in sorrow with Mr. Zylberberg’s. The strange fruit of our past, both distant and recent, should seem far stranger.

Work Cited

Spiegelman, Art. Maus I. Pantheon, 1986. p. 83.

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website, or the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips.

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Sample Analyses Follow-Up

Posted on by janemlucas

At the beginning of yesterday’s class, we examined “Wait Means Never,” the sample student analysis of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” and “Princessof the Rock,” the analysis of the prologue to Tara Westover’s memoir, Educated. Today’s post presents more detailed notes on the essays’ content and form. As you continue to revise, return to these notes for reminders of dos and don’ts for your own analysis.

“Wait Means Never” Content

  • Rather than beginning with a summary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” the writer comments on the letter by observing its relevance. Instead the writer should state what the letter is, an epistolary essay King wrote in 1962 while he was jailed in Alabama for leading nonviolent protests.
  • The writer ends the first paragraph with a thesis, but the statement is primarily description. Essentially, the writer states that King uses stylistic devices to deliver his message to a wider audience, but a thesis or main claim in a textual analysis should offer an assertion about how the writer’s use of those devices achieve a particular effect. The recommended revision that we examined in class–the one on the handout that I distributed–is included below, under the Revision heading.
  • The writer observes that King repeats “the word ‘wait’ throughout the letter” (par. 2), but King does not introduce that word until his eleventh paragraph. The writer could revise his thesis to focus specifically on King’s eleventh paragraph because that portion of the letter is the source of his claims and textual support.
  • In the body paragraphs, the writer effectively details King’s diction and sentence structure, but a couple of inaccuaracies undercut the prose. Neither “from bad to worse” (par. 3) nor “at the end of the letter” (par. 5) is accurate.
  • After ending the final body paragraph with ”’wait'” (par. 5), the writer turns to a conclusion that reads more like the ending of a history report than a textual analysis. Simply revising the opening of the last paragraph to begin, “[t]he words of Dr. Martin Luther King . . .” would maintain the focus of the analysis, the words themselves. The writer could still address the letter’s role in history by noting how the words have endured as a rallying cry for peaceful nonviolent protest. Consider how else the writer might give the analysis closure.

“Wait Means Never” Form

  • The document lacks a running header.
  • Because the writer is referring to wait and never as words in his title, both should be italicized.
  • In the first line, the writer defines King’s letter as a “speech of literature” (par. 1). Although King was an orator, his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” is not one of his speeches. As the title indicates, it’s a letter. Labeling the letter “literature” is unnecessary because the analysis that unfolds will reveal the literary quality of the prose. If the writer wants to address the letter’s status as a work of literature, in the conclusion, he might note that many students first encounter King’s letter in the pages of their high school and college anthologies.
  • In the first sentence of the introductory paragraph and the second sentence of the second paragraph, the writer uses coordinating conjunctions that indicate contrast, but the clauses those words connect are not in contrast. See “yet remains” (par. 1) and “but irked” (par. 2). In both cases, “and” would be the accurate conjunction. That said, “yet remains” introduces an assessment of the letter–in particular, its relevance–which shouldn’t be part of the summary at the beginning of the analysis.
  • The writer refers to King’s voice as “the narrator’s” (par. 2), but a narrator is a person who tells a story, usually a work of fiction or a narrative poem. King should be referred to as the writer or the author.
  • The clauses “it can easily be acknowledged” (par. 2) and “it can be identified” (par. 5) are passive constructions that de-emphasize the subject. The sentences that contain those clauses should be revised to show the action that King performs as a writer. The second-paragraph sentence might be rewritten as this: King’s repetition of wait emphasizes how frequently he has heard the word and how its “piercing familiarity” (par. 11) has increased his frustration. The two sentences convey the same idea, but the revision is eleven words shorter.

Introductory Paragraph

The paragraphs below are the first paragraph of “Wait Means Never” and my revised version.

Original Introductory Paragraph

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” is a speech of literature that was composed many years ago yet remains relevant. King’s words give insight into the life of an African American during the 1960s and symbolize the significance of taking action and standing up for what is right, justice for African Americans. In this particular letter, King speaks about how it’s easy for people who have never felt pain of being oppressed, discriminated against, and segregated to say the word “wait.” The letter goes further into detail about what “wait” truly means for an African American and specifically tackles the perspective of an American father who also has to explain to his children why the world is the way it is, yet that father does not quite know himself why people act in such a harsh manner. In this letter, Martin Luther King Jr. utilizes repetition, detail, vivid imagery, and sentence structure to deliver a message to not just one person, or even a hundred people, but the entire country that justice for African Americans cannot be a patient matter.

Revision

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” responds to the eight white clergymen who drafted an open letter addressing King’s involvement in the civil rights movement, urging him to seek justice in the courts rather than in the streets. In his answer to the clergymen, King asserts that a Christianity that permits racial oppression and prejudice is immoral and stands in direct opposition to the teachings of the gospel. Though King’s letter draws on his 1956 sermon “Paul’s Letter to American Christians,” the hallmark of his epistolary essay is not the rhythmic cadences of his baritone voice, but instead its artful composition. With the repetition of the word wait and a series of dependent clauses, King encapsulates his testimony and delays the end of the letter’s longest sentence, creating a holding pattern that forces readers to experience their own wait.

“Princess of the Rock” Content

  • The writer refers to the “unique setting” (par. 1) of Tara Westover’s childhood, but doesn’t specify the location of the mountains that are home to Buck’s Peak, which features the image of the Indian Princess, Westover’s friend and protector. Identifying Buck’s Peak as part of the Bear River Range in southeast Idaho would give readers a better sense of the setting.
  • What appears to be the essay’s thesis–the sentence that begins, “Her description of the rural farm . . .”–is itself description rather than analysis. Shifting the focus from the fact that Westover depicts herself as a child to what Westover achieves through the adult retrospective narrator’s presentation of her younger self would move the essay in the direction of critical study.
  • The writer states that Westover uses “lighthearted words” (par. 2), but the line that she quotes as evidence to support her claim is not lighthearted.
  • Only near the end of the essay–in the fifth of its six paragraphs–does the writer identify the excerpt she is analyzing as the prologue of the memoir. Identifying the text as the prologue in the introduction and addressing its function in the thesis is another change that would move the essay in the direction of critical study. (What background or context does the prologue provide? What does it foreshadow?)

“Princess of the Rock” Form

  • The memoir’s title, Educated, is incorrectly enclosed in quotation marks (par. 1).
  • Commas incorrectly follow closing quotation marks (par. 1).
  • The phrase “rural farm setting” (par. 2) is redundant.
  • The passive construction “[t]he lighthearted words used” (par.2 ) should be recast in active voice: Westover uses lighthearted words . . .
  • The first quotation from Educated (par. 2) should not include the author’s last name, and the Roman numerals should be lower-case.
  • The word “princesses” (par. 3) should be possessive rather than plural (princess’s).
  • The word “has” (par. 3) should be replaced with an action verb–such as demands or forces to enliven the sentence and give readers a better sense of Westover’s father. The writer should also note that the father’s name in the memoir is Gene, a pseudonym for Val.
  • The second quotation from Educated (par. 3) lacks both a signal phrase and a parenthetical citation.
  • The third paragraph ends with an instance of faulty predication.
  • The writer refers to “Tara’s family” (par. 4) and “Tara wish[ing]” (par. 6) when she should refer to Westover’s and Westover.

Conclusions

Effective strategies for concluding analyses include (1) offering an insight about the text or an additional quotation from it, (2) revisiting the thesis without stating it verbatim, and (3) pointing to the broader implications of the analysis. In “The Strange Fruit of Sosnowiec,” I employ two of the three, specifically one and three. Look back at the final paragraph and note how each sentence offers insights about Maus or points to its broader implications.

As I have noted before, you should avoid the phrase in conclusion or any variation on it at the beginning of the final paragraph of your essay. While that transitional phrase can be useful in a speech (because the audience cannot see that the end is near), there is no reason to write those words when readers can see for themselves that only one paragraph remains. For more, see Harvard University Writing Center’s notes on conclusions.

Relevant Embedded Links

The relevant embedded link that you include in the blog post for your analysis should be a primary or secondary source, not a background one, such as Wikipedia, Encyclopedia Britannica, or a social cataloguing website, such as Goodreads. Appropriate websites to link include the authors’ own sites, sites where the full-text of the essay or chapter is available (without a paywall), and authors’ pages on publications that employ them, such as Michael Lewis’s page on the ESPN site. The list below includes a link to one appropriate site for each of the seven subjects. If you are unsure whether a site is appropriate to link to your analysis, ask me or simply use the relevant link below.

Note that for search purposes, the sites above are listed as complete URLs, not as embedded links. In your blog post, the site address should be embedded in a word or phrase, just as the links are embedded in the earlier sections of this post (and in my other posts).

Next Up

On Wednesday, you will compose a short reflective essay focusing on the process of planning, drafting, and revising your analysis. If you are still in the process of completing your essay on Wednesday (since you have until Friday morning’s hard deadline to post it), your reflection will address your work in progress.

Before class, review the sections of the textbook, Writing Analytically, that have guided you in the writing of your analysis:

  • “Focus on Individual Words and Sentences” (48-49).
  • “How Long?: Paragraphs, Readers, and Writers” (308). 
  • “‘Interesting,’ ‘Revealing,’ ‘Strange’” (24). 
  • “Seems to Be About X, But Could Also Be (Or is ‘Really’) About Y’” (104-7). 
  • “What a Good Analytical Thesis Is and Does” (241-42).
  • “Words Matter” (49-50).

After you have reviewed those sections of Writing Analytically, choose a phrase, clause, or sentence relevant to your writing process and draft in your journal a short passage that connects that quotation to your writing. That passage will serve as part of your reflection. Detailed instructions for composing your reflection and including your chosen quotation will be included on the assignment handout that I distribute on Wednesday. Remember to bring your textbook to class.