prompt for monday 28 january

For Monday, your only homework is to select a topic for your own Personal Essay. You can use the writings you have done for this class over the past two weeks, including

• the room from your childhood
• your collection of items for your writerly roles
• the experience of stereotyping
• the object you brought to class
• the list of potential topics,

...or something entirely different you've thought about outside of class. If you have trouble thinking of topics, you can use some of the activities on pp. 110-114 for ideas. Also, remember the suggestions we discussed from the textbook about what makes an effective topic.

Once you've chosen a topic, you'll compose a blog posting reflecting on your choice of topic. In it, please cover the following:

• what your topic is
• how you came to decide on that topic
• what questions do you have about the topic that you expect to work through in your writing (or, what do you want to understand about this topic that you don't fully understand now?) - remember that you don't need to have a perfectly neat 'thesis' at this stage in the process

Keep in mind that blog posts are expected to be written in paragraph form but can have a casual, conversational tone. These are more for you as a writer to practice writing and to learn to discover what you think by writing.

We'll begin to brainstorm and start drafting on Monday. Have a great weekend!

prompt for friday 18 january

As I mentioned in class today, your prompt for Friday is to write about the concept Ballenger mentions on page 8 of Chapter One: "One belief, though, undergirds them all: the most important thing that influences a writer's growth is believing that he or she can learn to write well."

So, you will begin your post of 250-500 words with: "I believe that I can learn to write well..." and develop from there. Like our in-class writing, your blogs are meant to be fast-writing and they can certainly include some 'bad writing.' The point is to just be writing because the only way to get better at anything is to practice it. And hopefully, as you're writing this blog, you'll begin to gain confidence in the potential for learning to write well (or if you already write well, better than well).

welcome & first assignment

Welcome to our class blog for English 10803! You'll use this page to see announcements related to the class and to access prompts for posts on your own blog. Once you've each created a blog for this course and emailed me the URL, there will be a list of links, so that you can easily find each other's blogs to read and comment. Your first assignment for this class is to actually create your own blog using Blogger and to write your first post. Here are the instructions:

[1] Set up your blog: To do so, go to www.blogger.com, and follow the on-screen directions for setting up a free blog. Please take some time to personalize your blog. This is a way for both me and your classmates to get to know you, so feel free to include a photo, links to other sites you enjoy, etc. Please make sure that your name (first/preferred name and last initial) is clear on your blog. As I mentioned in the syllabus, I know that some/many of you already have a blog where you write posts; however, for the purposes of this class, you will need a separate blog that is focused on reflecting about your reading. Feel free to provide a link to your other blog if you would like to share that with your classmates as well. Keep in mind that I will post your blog address on the course website, so your class members will have access to your blog. You can restrict general public access to your blog, however, under “Settings” by marking “no” for the question “Add your blog to our listings?”

[2] Write your first entry: Write a letter of introduction about yourself. In addition to the basics—where you are from, what year you are at TCU, what major you are considering, etc—I want to know a few things related to your participation in this course. Here is a series of questions to think about as you write (you are not expected to answer all of these, of course; pick a few from the list that you would find beneficial to describe given your own history as a writer):

• Why are you interested in taking this writing course? If your answer is simply that it’s required, then what would you like to get out of it?
• What types of writing do you primarily do now (think beyond traditional school papers to other kinds of writing and technologies, like email, texting, etc.)? How do you feel about your writing? Why?
• What type of writing would you like to do if you had the time? Why?
• What type of writing have you always liked? Why?
• What type of writing have you always disliked? Why?
• What types of texts (autobiographies, histories, essays, short stories, poems, plays, reviews, editorials, something applicable to your major, etc.) do you most enjoy writing? Why?
• Who has had a great influence on how you write?
• What strategies do you use when you write and where did you learn them? Do you use the same strategies for every piece you write, or do they differ according to the context? What are these differences?
• What themes or issues attract you most in your writing?
• What do you find most difficult about writing? What makes writing easy (or at least less difficult for you?
• Why do you find writing important—or not—in your life?
• If you could change one thing about yourself as a writer, what would it be?
• Overall, how would you assess your strengths and weaknesses as a writer?
• What areas do you hope to improve upon as a writer this semester?

At the end of your letter to me (it should be around 500 words), please write a final statement letting me know that you have read, understand, and agree to the terms of the course syllabus, which I see as a contract for our course. Also let me know if you have any questions regarding the syllabus or anything discussed in our first meeting of the course. Remember that all of your blog entries should be in paragraph form.

[3] Follow up: Email me at april.patrick@tcu.edu with your blog address (http://____.blogspot.com), so that I can add it to the list on our course page.