Melissa.Knox-Raab@uni-due.de
R12 S04 H22
Office
hours: By Zoom appointment
Phone:
183-2162
Academic
Skills II
Group One: Thursday
8-10 R12 R04 B11
Group
Three: Thursday 14-16 R12 R04 B11
Group Four:
Thursday 16-18 R12 R04 B11
This class will help you learn to
write different types of essays. Bear in mind the templates we used last
term—you’re welcome to use them anytime they seem helpful. But the focus will
now be on reading different kinds of essays, among them the “how-to” essay, the
“definition” essay, and argumentative essays, namely essays driving home
particular points in controversial areas like religion and politics.
The goal of the course is to learn
how to persuade your readers to respect your opinion, and if possible to change
the reader’s opinion. Each week you will get a different method but you will
choose your own topics.
The course consists in a series of
enjoyable readings, all online or available as PDFs on the syllabus,
that will be mined for particular techniques: good thesis statements,
that is, the announcement in your essay of why or how your opinion should be
followed; definition, that is, your explanation of important terms in
your essay; method, that is, how you arrive at your opinion as well as
justify it, and finally tone: with your topic of choice, does it make
sense to be serious, humorous, straightforward, satiric? Read each essay
twice, first to understand it, then to examine the ingredients of the argument.
Identify what you’d consider the point that needs to be argued and then see how
the writer argues it.
Requirements: All students must come
to class with thoughts about the reading. All students must meet essay
deadlines. Do all the readings during the week in which they are assigned and
turn in all essays on time. Essays must be typed and proofread. Every week, you
will produce an essay of 2-3 pages on a topic following the method of that
week. You may write more if you wish. Every week, you will be ready to offer
editing help on essays written for this class and receive help with your own.
Every week, we will spend some time writing in class.
You will get to select topics and
suggest readings. There is no reader for this section of the course: you are
invited to consult the following links:
Useful links: (not required, just
helpful)
http://tetw.org/post/51496965520/10-classic-essays
https://www.academia.edu/38213964/Karen_Elizabeth_Gordon_The_Deluxe_Transitive_Vampire
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/composition/composition.htm
(Note: check out their essay on
writer’s block—it helps!)
https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar
http://jacklynch.net/EngPaper/thesis.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thesis_statement
(Take this with a grain of salt—it’s
a useful overview, not a formula)
How to do a close reading: https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/how-do-close-reading
(To write well about someone else’s
writing, whether it’s a poem, an essay, a novel, or anything else, you need to
do a close reading of it. This link gives you one way of doing so).
Recommended (NOT required):
Birkenstein and Graff, They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in
Academic Writing
Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some
Instructions on Writing and Life
Strunk&White, The Elements of
Style, 4th edition
Gordon, Karen Elizabeth. The New
Well-Tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager and
the Doomed.
Remember the following for every
single class:
Your writing should always concern
topics that interest you. I, or any teacher, may assign a particular theme, but
you must find a way to make it interesting to yourself. As a general rule, any
subject that provokes a strong feeling—one that makes you feel either “I love
that,” “I hate that” or “I don’t want to think about that!” will provide good
material. Controversy is nearly always good in essay writing: it is also good
mental training to pick your way through minefields of public opinion in, say,
an election year. It is good to show where you stand and why. It is also good
to thoroughly imagine the point of view of a reader unsympathetic to your
topic.
Topics that traditionally provoke
conflicting opinions include,
but are not limited to, the following: Politics, Religion, Family, Sexuality,
Money, Food. If you can’t think what to write about, gravitate to these topics.
Along the way, issues of grammar and mechanics—“the rules”—will be important,
but it is well to remember that the rules are generally there to make things
easier for the reader. Some rules are just conventions, and have changed within
the last fifty years, and will probably change within your lifetimes.
Bearing these comments in mind,
answer ONE of the following questions in as much detail as possible. Set a
timer and write for at least 30 minutes. We'll read some of these out loud and
look at ways to use this writing in essays.
(1) What has your experience
with writing been thus far? You may go back as far as elementary school, if you
wish. Discuss the ways in which you have been taught to write (and not write)
and please include your opinion of teachers and methods.
(2) Read the following
excerpt from the King James Bible. Then, put it into YOUR OWN WORDS and
comment on it:
I returned, and saw under the sun,
that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet
bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to
men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
April
7: Introduction to the Course. In-class writing
April 14: The How-To Essay: Step by
Step
First, read this essay:
George Orwell “A Nice Cup of Tea”
http://www.booksatoz.com/witsend/tea/orwell.htm
Write an essay in which you explain
how to do something. Remember that you are making a point about something or
someone—you’re not just giving information on, say, how to bake chocolate
cupcakes or tame rioting teenagers, but telling your reader why anyone would
want to do so. Yes, you’re offering facts, but you’re also giving those facts
meaning.
April 21: Definition
First, read this essay:
E.M. Forster, “What I Believe”
http://spichtinger.net/otexts/believe.html
Write an essay entitled, “What I
Believe.” Your topic need not deal with religious belief. You may write what
you believe about politics, certain types of employment, ice cream or ballet,
for example. Before you begin: notice that in this essay Forster is doing
something very difficult—trying to define abstractions like “belief” and
“faith.” Doing so is more difficult than offering definitions of things you can
see or feel, like baseball mitts and face masks. What techniques does Forster
use? Would you want to imitate them in your own essay?
April 28: Definition, continued
In this unit you will learn how to
define something or someone by saying how or why you are not that thing.
First, read this essay:
Bertrand Russell, “Why I Am Not a
Christian”
http://www.naturalthinker.net/trl/texts/Russell,Bertrand/Religion/Bertrand%20Russell%20-%20Why%20I%20am%20not%20a%20Christian.pdf
You may listen to Russell reading
his essay here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdDYvvevLZk
Write an essay about why you are not
something: “Why I am not a Cook,” for example, “Why I am not an Ax
Murderer,” or “Why I am not a Physicist.” Again, give reasons for your
preferences. Go beyond, “I’m not interested in measuring flour and melting
butter.” For example, if you’re writing about why you’re not a baker, offer up
a “because” that convinces us we’d rather forget the kitchen and head for the bakery.
You might think of the end point of the essay as: “I am this because I am not
this other thing—or these other things.” While you’re writing, think of useful
contexts in which you could apply this type of thinking—for example “This poem
I’m reading is not a sonnet, and not a ballad, and not blank verse—so what is
it? And why is it important to know what kind of a poem it is?”
May 5: Argument
In the following essay by George
Orwell, written seventy years ago, observe the point he’s making—see if you can
find his “thesis statement” in the first paragraph—and think about whether you
would think about politics and the English language in the same way today.
Think also about some of his comments about particular words, whether you agree
or disagree and why.
George Orwell, “Politics and the
English Language”
http://www.public-library.uk/ebooks/72/30.pdf or https://archive.org/details/PoliticsAndTheEnglishLanguage/page/n7/mode/2up
Write an essay in which you tackle
the political issue of your choice. You may, for example, discuss a political
candidate or leader; you may dissect the results of an election; you may
suggest conditions under which a politician may be elected. You need not stick
to national elections. Feel free to limit your understanding of “politics” to social
or cultural situations—like the way different governments handle the COVID-19
pandemic.
May 12: Contemporary politics and
religion in the personal essay:
Alexis Okeowo, “The Fight Over
Women’s Basketball in Somalia”
Notice how this essay makes a point
with an accretion of stories rather than a thesis
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/09/11/the-fight-over-womens-basketball-in-somalia
Write an essay about women and
sports. Should women play sports? Why or why not? Feel free to argue the point
either way.
May 19: Politics and women. Edwidge Danticat, “We are Ugly but
We are Here” (1996)
http://faculty.webster.edu/corbetre/haiti/literature/danticat-ugly.htm
Consider the work of Okeowo and
Danticat, both of whom write about women in the developing world. Write an
essay dealing with some aspect of human rights, women’s rights, LGBTQIA+ rights
or characteristics of the developing world that have an impact on your own
life. (If you like, check out the following essay on that: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/21/style/lgbtq-gender-language.html)
You may consider a range of topics
from immigration to social customs like single parenthood, drug or alcohol
abuse, forced marriage and FGM .
May 26: Why Write? George Orwell “Why I Write”
https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/why-i-write/
Write an essay entitled “Why I
Write,” and consider at least one topic that makes you want to express your
opinion strongly. Try to use that topic in an argument about why you write.
June 2: Why Read?
Read Virginia Woolf, “How Should One
Read a Book?” https://www.nottinghilleditions.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/NHE-Woolf-HowShouldOneReadABook.pdf
This essay articulates the need to
trust one’s own instincts about writing. I’ve added it to the syllabus not just
for Woolf’s message, but also to answer the question she raises. You read for
enjoyment as well as information, and you read because doing so provides you
with ideas and opinions to which you can react in your own essays. Write an
essay that raises a question and answers it. For example, “Why Eat?” or “Why
Stay Inside During This Pandemic?” or “Why Read?”
June 9: The Uses of Irony and Satire
Before starting, look up irony and
satire and think of where you’ve seen them in writing or any other medium—The
Simpsons, for example, or even Family Guy.
Read Jonathan Swift, “A Modest
Proposal”
https://www.owleyes.org/text/modest-proposal/read/modest-proposal-by-dr-jonathan-swift#root-422325-33
Think of a topic about which you
have a strong opinion, preferably one you wish interested others more. Become
an activist advocating this cause, and assume that normal means of persuasion
have already failed. Write a “modest proposal” mimicking the style of Jonathan
Swift; maintain a “reasonable” tone like the authorial persona in Swift’s essay
and write your proposal for an organization or institution with the ability to
work toward a solution to the problem.
June 16: Irony and Satire, continued. Charles Lamb, “A Dissertation
Upon Roast Pig” http://www.bartleby.com/380/prose/491.html
Ever wonder who thought up the
barbecue, or why? Charles Lamb’s humorous invention of its origins are designed
to comment on the foolishness inherent in human ingenuity. How many things get
invented by accident or luck?
Consider any custom that appeals to
you, or one that you hate. Write a satiric essay inventing its origins.
June 23 I’d like you to select a topic or a method that
interests you. Possibilities:
Topic One
“Food, Glorious Food”
Read AT LEAST ONE of the essays from
this site: http://ruthreichl.com/2016/05/food-race-gender.html/
(NB: a few of these essays, mainly
from Gourmet magazine, are no longer available, but there’s still
plenty)
Write a letter to a restaurant
explaining why you did or did not like their food or their service OR write a
letter to a young person explaining to them how to cook a particular dish.
June
30 The Braided
Essay: This is a form of personal essay weaving together two strands. One might
be historic, cultural, instructional, the other a personal story. The
non-personal sections illuminate the personal story. Here are some examples to
emulate:
Brenda Miller’s Swerve
Lee Ann Roripaugh’s The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed
Nicole Walker’s Superfluidity
Matthew Komatsu’s When We Played
July 7 Revise completely the essay of your choice.
July 14 Revise completely the essay of your choice.
