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assignments ENGL 101 Writing Rhetorically: READER'S NOTES

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LEE TORDA
310 Tillinghast Hall
Bridgewater State University
508.531.2436
[email protected]
www.leetorda.com
FALL 2013 Office Hours
Monday & Wednesday: 3:30 to 4:30
Tuesday: 2:00 to 3:00
and by appointment.
Overview. Reading is complicated. To read well is harder work than most people think. It’s more active than most people think it is—you have to use your brain to really make good sense of a text. And, more than that, reading for college—or in your career, say, not to be confused with your job at Dunkin’ Donuts but a career—usually doesn’t just ask you to read. You almost always have to do something with it—write about it, take a test from it, have a conversation about it. 

Added to this, a lot of students I’ve worked with say that they don’t like to read things they aren’t interested in. Newsflash: nobody likes to read what they aren’t interested in. The problem, of course, with that, is that you have to do a lot of reading in college that you won’t necessarily be interested in, and, more than that, you’ll have to do it well.

This is why we will spend a lot of time this semester working on improving your ability to get the reading you need to do done and to get it done well. This is an absolutely possible thing to figure out. One way we will do this is book club. Another way we will do this is with Reader’s Notes.

Details. Almost every class, you will be responsible for two-pages, double-spaced and typed, of reading notes for each reading we do in class. You will turn it in at the end of class for me to read. You should expect to share this writing with your classmates during class as well. What you have to read for class is listed next to  “READ” on the syllabus. When you have Reader’s Notes due it will be listed next to “DUE” on the syllabus. The reading and the notes are due on the day it appears on the syllabus.

In your two pages you should make sure you include the following information:
1) Give a short summary of the main things that happen in the essay. What people are talked about? Where does it take place? What events happen during the essay? What order does it happen in? So sort of like the plot of the essay.

2) Don’t make your summary too long, though, make sure you save room to talk about the thesis of the reading is—the main point, the big idea, the reason the author is telling you about all this stuff in the first place.

3) If you are struggling with answering number two, it is acceptable to talk about what confuses you in the essay and to ask questions about what is going on. You can try to answer your own questions and not worry if you are right or wrong—you can take a guess at what the essay is about even if you aren’t sure.

4) If you are really good at this, you can try to make a connection between number one and number two. So explain to me how the stuff that is going on in the essay proves that the author wants us to get some big point from the essay.

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  • Home
  • POLICIES ENGL 511 SPECIAL TOPICS: YA LIT
    • CLASS PROFILES YA LIT
    • LT UPDATES ENGL 511 YA LIT
    • Discussion Board YA Lit
    • SYLLABUS ENGL 511 YA LIT
    • ENGL 511 profile instructions
    • ENGL 511 YA LIT Mentor Text Memoir
    • ENGL 511 YA LIT Reader's Notes
    • ENGL 511 YA LIT pecha kucha final project
    • ENGL 511 Write Your Own YA
    • ENGL 511 FINAL PROJECT (individual)
  • Previously Taught Classes
    • ENGL406 RESEARCH IN WRITING STUDIES
    • ENGL344 YA LIT
    • ENGL101 policies
    • ENGL 226 policies
    • ENGL 303 policies
    • ENGL 301
    • ENGL102
    • ENGL 202 BIZ Com
    • ENGL 227 INTRO TO CNF WORKSHOP
    • ENGL 298 Second Year Seminar: This Bridgewater Life
    • ENGL 493 THE PERSONAL ESSAY
    • ENGL 493 Seminar in Writing & Writing Studies: The History of First Year Composition
    • ENGL 511 Reading & Writing Memoir
    • ENGL 513 >
      • ENGL 513 MONDAY UPDATE
      • ENGL 513 DISCUSSION BOARD
      • CLASS PROFILE ENGL 513 COMP T&P
      • SYLLABUS ENGL 513 COMP T&P
      • PORTFOLIOS ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY
      • ASSIGNMENTS ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY: READING RESPONSES
      • ASSIGNMENTS ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY: Literacy History
      • ASSIGNMENTS ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY: Pedagogy Presentations
      • ASSIGNMENTS ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY: Reverse Annotated Bibliography
      • ASSIGNMENTS ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY: ETHNOGRAPHY/CASE STUDY
      • ASSIGNMENTS ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY: final project
    • DURFEE Engl101
  • BSU Homepage
  • Blog