Writing 106 Midterm
What are the four steps of Savini's looking for trouble?
1. Noticing 2. Articulating a problem and its details 3. Posing fruitful questions 4. Identifying what is at stake
What are some tips for how to introduce source material well? (Graff and Birkenstein)
1. Signal Verbs 2. Offer context 3. Blend their words with your own
What are two major questions most papers should answer?
1. So what? 2. Who cares?
When would you want to search using the Databases by Subject?
After you've narrowed your research subject
What is the main point of "Annoying Ways People Use Sources"?
"Use your turn signals" to help the reader -- be clear and concise when integrating quotes; it can make or break your paper
What are some mistakes people make when integrating source material? (Graff and Birkenstein)
1. "Hit and run" quotations 2. Over quoting and neglecting to paraphrase 3. Not blending the author's words with their own
What are some ways to introduce naysayers?
1. "Inner skeptic" 2. Broadly label naysayers 3. Frame objections like questions
What are the ways to use voice markers to distinguish what you say from what they say?
1. "Yes and no..." 2. "Yes, but..." 3. "I agree up to a point, but..." 4. "X says..." "I say..." 5. Embed what they say into what you say "I have a problem with what X says..."
What are the reasons for why you may disagree?
1. "duh" 2. Fails to take into account relevant factors 3. Faulty or incomplete logic 4. Flawed logic 5. Questionable assumptions 6. Overlooking the real issue
What is General English?
1. A middle style, a compromise between formal and informal 2. Involves the mingling of contraries: formal and informal diction, objectivity and subjectivity, and impersonality and directness.
What is a "roadmap," where does it usually appear, and how can this help you?
1. A roadmap gives you a good idea of the paper's layout 2. It usually appears in the introduction 3. It can help you follow the paper's logic and not get lost
What are some strategies Allen offers to help you get past the myth of the Inspired Writer?
1. Adopt strategies of established authors as a framework 2. Turn to readers with expertise for help 3. Practice
What are the advantages and disadvantages of Primo/Searchbox and Google Scholar?
1. Advantages: Convenient, easy to use, contains credible sources 2. Disadvantages: Google Scholar sorts sources by how many times they've been cited, which makes it harder to find lesser known or smaller sources
What are the three ways you can respond to sources?
1. Agree, with a difference 2. Disagree, but explain why 3. Simultaneously agree and disagree
What are three things you look for when you're trying to define an author's project?
1. Aims 2. Methods 3. Materials
What are his specific examples (i.e. what are the six categories he has clever names for)?
1. Armadillo Roadkill (poorly introduced quotation) 2. Dating Spider-Man (abrupt departure from quote -- no analysis) 3. Uncle Barry and His Encyclopedia of Useless Information (quote offers irrelevant information) 4. Am I in the Right Movie? (quotation is poorly integrated grammatically) 5. I Can't Find the Stupid Link (poor in-text citation that makes it difficult for the reader to find the source of the material) 6. I Swear I Did Some Research (the author cites a source, but does not make it clear what information/ideas came from that source)
How are Assignment 1 and Assignment 3 different from each other?
1. Assignment 1: 4-5 pages, focuses on pop culture text, written for a general audience, will teach readers about something not understood or misunderstood, help readers understand how the text matters in terms of a wider cultural context. 2. Assignment 3: 10-12 pages, creates new knowledge by investigating a pop culture text through a specific scholarly lens. Focus on the conventions of academic writing in a single discipline.
What are some strategies you can use to help you care about words?
1. Read writers who mimic the kind of writing you'd like to do 2. Use dictionaries 3. Learn to care about the definitions of words and how they can be understood 4. Be able to defend your usage of a certain word
What ideas does a conclusion often include?
1. Restatement of the introduction (aim) 2. Limitations 3. Unanswered questions
What are the differences between scholarly, popular, and trade/professional sources?
1. Scholarly: original research, specialized knowledge required, specialized jargon, no ads, pictures only when they explain/add to argument 2. Popular: written for general audience, ads, does not require background knowledge 3. Trade/Professional: written for people of a certain job, specified jargon, knowledge is assumed, not original research
What are some ways that you can use Wikipedia to help you with your research and writing?
1. Source of ideas 2. Links to other texts 3. Figure out what search terms to use
Why does Harris want us to think about an author's project, rather than thesis?
A thesis is static and unchanging, project implies something more complex, a plan of work, something the writer is working on, to show what the writer is trying to accomplish, not only what they are saying
What is the main point of "Wikipedia is Good for You?!"?
Use Wikipedia as a starting place in order to engage with sources and learn more about the ongoing conversation
What is the "moreover" approach? (Harris)
Using "moreover" after discussing another text/idea to suggest that there is something that it fails to make visible, or may even hide. This allows the writer to neither simply endorse nor reject the perspective of the text/idea but point out its uses and limit
Where is my office?
Battelle 245
What is agonism?
Ritualized opposition, not disagreement or conflict
What is formalism?
Writing in a formal style, different from how you would talk
What are the four ways to forward?
1. Authorize 2. Illustrate 3. Borrow 4. Extend
What are our course's learning outcomes?
1. Become critical readers 2. Become academic writers 3. Become critical thinkers
What are the five ways to quote?
1. Block quotes 2. In-text quotes 3. Scare quotes 4. Epigraphs 5. Allusions
Why is it important to plant naysayers?
1. Bolsters credibility 2. Gives you the opportunity to answer critics before they have a chance to respond 3. Not doing so can seem close-minded
What do you need to do to earn an A in participation?
1. Come to every class having prepared the text with notes and questions for discussion. 2. Adds to the conversation during class discussions and brings out quality discussion from classmates. 3. Diligently works to help classmates improve in and outside of class meetings. 4. Makes a semester long effort to improve writing, reading, and critical thinking skills.
What are the four issues you consider during the internal revision process?
1. Content 2. Form and structure 3. Language 4. Voice
What specific pieces of advice does he suggest at the end of the chapter "Readability"?
1. Contractions are okay 2. "I" is okay 3. Dashes for emphasis 4. Minimize adjectives and adverbs 5. Use and & but at the beginning of sentences 6. Answer questions swiftly after asking them
What are some ways to use Primo/Searchbox to help you refine your research topic?
1. Evaluate the strength of your keywords 2. Manipulate the list of results: adjust date, subject, document types 3. Read abstract of articles to see if you're on the right track 4. Save the sources you may use
What does it mean to "entertain an objection"? (Graff and Birkenstein)
1. Expand the idea for a couple sentences or paragraphs 2. Look at your topic from an outsiders perspective
What are the genres of the three major essays we're writing this semester?
1. Feature Essay 2. Literature Review 3. Scholarly Essay
How can you write for yourself and for your audience simultaneously?
1. First focus on writing clearly, using the proper tools to construct your writing the correct way (craft) 2. Second is focusing on what you want to say; if you fully express your thoughts and ideas, they should represent yourself in the paper (attitude)
What are some strategies for preparing or creating a good ending?
1. Give the reader an interesting thought to take away 2. Maintain surprise 3. Don't be close ended
What are some reasons for using a quotation? How do quotes often work in your or someone else's work? (Harris)
1. Illustrate your view of a text, what your perspective make visible 2. Flashpoints: Single out terms or passages that strike you in some way as interesting, troubling, ambiguous, or suggestive 3. Draw the reader's attention to the work you're doing with the quoted text 4. When what is being said is contentious 5. When you want to do further work with the quote, or bring pressure upon it. 6. To show respect for specificity of tones, ideas, phrasing 7. As a break on paraphrase 8. Intensify paraphrase
What are the reasons for why you might want to introduce source material? (Graff and Birkenstein)
1. Introduce the "they say" 2. "Standard views" 3. Introduce the ongoing conversation 4. Introduce something implied or assumed 5. Make the "they say" what "I say"
Savini has four approaches for "articulating a problem and its details." What are they?
1. Juxtapose texts from the same genre and identify tensions 2. Identify conflicts between your own expertise and the arguments offered by a text 3. Identify troubling assumptions that may undermine the central arguments/ideas of a text 4. Note a gap or something relevant the text overlooks.
What are some strategies for preparing or creating a good lead?
1. Keep the reader on their toes 2. Use humor 3. Use paradox 4. Use rhetorical devices 5. Provide concrete details of what the purpose is, but don't give away too much 6. Give more details as you go
How do you format a works cited page in MLA?
1. Last name page number ½" from top of page 2. "Works Cited" centered 3. Sources listed in alphabetical order 4. First line of source 1" from left, the rest of the lines indented
How do you format the first page of an essay in MLA?
1. Name, instructor, course, then date (day, month, year) aligned on left one inch from top of page. 2. Title centered
Why do they want you to use "I"?
1. Not using "I" can limit your ability to differentiate your stance from other's 2. It is an effective persuasive device 3. Subjective opinions can strengthen your argument 4. Makes your writing more interesting 5. Makes your writing more natural
What are the reasons for why most instructors don't want you to use Wikipedia?
1. Open participation 2. Anyone can edit 3. It doesn't remain the same over time Unreliability
How do you format titles of books, essays, databases, journal titles, webpages?
1. Place titles in quotation marks if the source is part of a larger work. (Essays, webpages) 2. Italicize the title if the source is self-contained and independent. (Books, databases, journals)
What are the three ways you can agree with a difference?
1. Point out an unnoticed line of reasoning or evidence 2. Cite a corroborating experience or piece of evidence 3. Translation of a confusing point
What are the four stages of the "vision" process?
1. Prevision 2. Vision 3. Internal Revision 4. External Revision
What are some strategies you can use to improve your research process? (Googlepedia)
1. Start by getting a basic understanding of the topic or issue through an encyclopedia such as Wikipedia. 2. Don't focus your research during the learning stage. 3. Verify the credibility of the sources of the information you're using. 4. Use visuals as a research aid. 5. Use the CRAAP test, (Currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, purpose) 6. Use different search terms and phrase them different ways or put them in quotes to generate different results. 7. Learn to use an annotated bibliography.
What are good ways to enter a classroom discussion?
1. Summarize what someone else has said before responding 2. Be explicit 3. Signal you're changing the subject 4. Only make one point
What are the four parts of most abstracts?
1. The main problem 2. The approach 3. The "shiny new thing" 4. Why people in the field should care
What are the five parts of an article you should read before you actually read the article?
1. The title 2. The abstract 3. The introduction 4. Section Headings 5. Conclusion
What are some strategies for avoiding agonism?
1. Think in terms of reshaping or rethinking, not shooting down 2. "Believing game" instead of "doubting game" 2. "Barn raising" 3. "Knead the dough"
How should you approach an assignment? What does Lunsford want you to consider before you start?
1. Time 2. Genre 3. Medium 4. Organization 5. Documentation of source
What are the basic components of a thesis, according to Lunsford? What makes a good thesis?
1. Topic 2. Commentary on topic 3. It's specific to the topic, limiting enough to be manageable, and potentially interesting
What are some strategies for achieving unity?
1. Unity of tense 2. Unity of pronoun 3. Unity of mood
What are some good questions to ask when you read? (Graff and Birkenstein)
1. What is motivating the author? 2. Who is their audience? 3. To what are they responding?
What are some questions you should ask before you start reading? (Bunn)
1. What is the genre 2. What is the surrounding context 3. Is this paper published or student produced 4. Will I have to do this type of writing
What are some questions to ask as you are reading? (Bunn)
1. What techniques does the author use? 2. Why does the author use these techniques? 3. Are these techniques effective? 4. What would be the advantages/disadvantages if I used these techniques?
What should you consider in terms of audience? (Reading Games)
1. Who is the primary audience 2. Are you a part of the primary audience 3. Is there prior knowledge assumed but the author 4. Do you need to research anything
What are some tips for writing good marginal comments in a classmates' draft?
1. Write in pencil 2. Use "I" statements 3. Try to explain what it was like to read an idea 4. Offer specific suggestions 5. Look for opportunities to praise as well as critique
What are the Writing Studies Learning Outcomes?
1. Writing and research are meta-cognitive processes 2. Information has a life cycle and value 3. Writing requires entering an ongoing conversation 4. Structure, style, and mechanisms are rhetorical
Why does Zinsser think writing is work?
Because clear writing requires the writer to also think clearly, or write from the mind of the reader. "If the reader is lost, it's usually because the writer hasn't been careful enough."
What is the difference between borrowing and extending?
Borrowing: borrowing a term or idea from another writer to use in thinking through your subject. Extending: commenting and, sometimes, changing or inflecting the meanings of the texts brought forward. Unlike borrowing, the writer goes beyond simply what the text used is saying.
What are the Subject Guides?
Compilation of resources specific to different subjects to help guide your research
What are the "do's" and "dont's" of writing good reviews?
Do not use a single feature of a work and characterize the whole thing based upon it. Do explain why the work is important. Do examine the work in a greater cultural context
What is the main point of "Reading Games"?
Don't try to read academic writing in order, instead use rhetorical reading, which implies dissecting the article and reading the individual parts first, determining what the main argument or idea is, then use this information to see how and where you can enter the conversation.
How does Baxter's list apply to writing about other kinds of texts (aside from the literary ones he describes)?
Every work in question should be examined from a greater cultural perspective
How can you cut out clutter and still sound like yourself?
Focus first on the simple things (Word choice, syntax, grammar) before looking to add flair
What's the difference between jargon and usage?
Jargon is fancier language that could be by a simpler word that serves the same purpose Usage is a word or phrase that serves a specific purpose or paints a specific picture
Can you hand in your papers late?
Late work can be handed in one class meeting late and will lose a full letter grade
Where would you look if you were trying to find newspaper articles?
LibX>ALADIN Catalog/interlibrary loan
What is the main point of Savini's "Looking for Trouble"?
Look for something that troubles you, seek out difficulty, find problems and write about it. Write about something that doesn't have an immediate answer and when there is something at stake.
What is the main point of "Googlepedia?"
Google and Wikipedia can be beneficial to the research process. Using them allows us to move towards a research process that blends technological comfort and savvy with academic standards and rigor.
What does it mean to "come to terms" with a source? (Harris)
Incorporate the source into your own project, explain what it means and the perspective from which you're reading it. 1. Define the project of the writer in your own terms 2. Note key words or passages 3. Assess the uses and limits of this approach
What does it mean to assess the "uses and limitations"? (Harris)
Instead of simply taking a fixed side, an attack or defense, academic writing should center on the weighing of options. Acknowledging the moments of insight or blindness
What is the difference between internal and external revison?
Internal revision focuses on content, form language (for the author) External revision focuses on tone, style (for the audience)
Why can it be good to agree and disagree simultaneously?
It moves past a simple two sided debate
What is the attendance policy?
More than three unexcused absences may be grounds for failure. Excused absences are as defined by the university, "major religious holidays, medical or mental health events, approved disability-accommodation related absences, and approved varsity athletic team events."
Why should you care about the words you choose?
Readers read with their eyes- they take in (at a minimum) what you were thinking, up to infinitely more than your words mean
What is clutter?
The use of unnecessary words (words "not doing work") or jargon in the place of clearer language
Why is it important to anticipate your reader's response?
This helps the writer stay attuned to how to captivate the reader's attention and keep them from tuning out
What specific pieces of advice does he suggest in each section of ch. 10?
Verbs - Use active verbs Adverbs - Most adverbs are unnecessary Adjectives - Most adjectives are unnecessary Little Qualifiers - Prune out the small words that qualify how you feel, how you think, and what you saw Punctuation - The quickest way to break out of a long sentence is to break it into two or three short sentences Mood Changers - Learn to alert the reader as soon as possible to any change in mood from the previous sentence Contractions - Your style will be warmer and truer if you use contractions, but don't invent contractions like "could've" That and Which - Always use "that" unless it makes your meaning ambiguous Concept Nouns - Ensure you have a subject within the sentence Creeping Nounism - Avoid useless noun chains Overstatement - Don't overstate Credibility - Don't inflate an incident to make it more outlandish that it actually was Dictation - Dictated sentences tend to be pompous, sloppy, and redundant Writing is not a contest - Go at your own pace The Subconscious Mind - Stay alert to the currents around you The Quickest Fix - Delete the problem sentence Paragraphs - Keep your paragraphs short
What's the difference between a novice and veteran writer?
Veterans consider the reader with every move they make, novices write in a vacuum, without considering the reader
Why does Harris use the metaphor of "forwarding" to talk about using sources?
When forwarding a text, you take its ideas and phrases and reuse them in approaching a different set of issues and texts. You put them to use in new contexts, testing the strength of its insights and the range and flexibility of its phrasings. In forwarding a text, you shift the focus of your readers away from what its author has to say and toward your own project.
How do you know when to make a quotation a block quote or an in-text quote?
When it's more than 4 lines of prose, or 3 lines of verse
What is the main point of "How to Read Like a Writer"?
When reading like a writer, the goal is to carefully consider the choices the author made the techniques that he or she used, and then decide whether you want to make those same choices or use those same techniques in your own writing
Why does Harris consider most writing rewriting?
When you are writing you are making the work of others a part of your own work, meaning you are engaging with and rewriting what others have said to question, rethink, and reinterpret what has already been said
What does "enter the conversation" mean?
When you're writing on a topic, there has been conversation before you and there will be conversation after you, you are simply stepping in, saying what you have to say, then leaving, like a dinner party.
Which of the four help readers think "with" your topic? Which of the four help readers think "about" your topic?
With: Authorizing, borrowing, extending About: Illustrating
What is positive opposition? (Harris)
Words and values that don't contradict each other yet still exist in some real and ongoing tension (Generous and assertive)
What are signal verbs?
Words that indicate that you are going to introduce a quote or source, and how you are going to use that material
What is the main point of "The Inspired Writer vs the Real Writer"?
Writing doesn't come naturally well to anyone, you have to work with it Writing can be frustrating, even those who appear to be good at it might not "like" writing per se
Why is it important to write for yourself?
Writing for yourself means writing in a way that entertains you. Setting a certain attitude or writing to fit a tone you are seeking show aspects of who you are as a writer, which should not fundamentally be changed
How is RLW different from "normal" reading?
You are reading to learn about writing as opposed to reading for content or to better understand the ideas in the writing
What does it mean to cite key words and passages?
You cite to show what your perspective on it makes visible and allows you to notice something new
Why do you need to write for your audience? (Zinsser)
You need to write for the audience in terms of clarity; you cannot get so carried away in writing to fit your style that the reader gets lost in clumsy sentences or confusing organization
What happens if you miss a class workshop?
Your participation grade will drop a full letter.
