Introduction to Composition Spring 2018

Arranging a bowl of flowers in the morning can give a sense of quiet in a crowded day–like writing a poem or saying a prayer. What matters is that one be for a time inwardly attentive.   –Anne Morrow Lindbergh, b.1906 Good day, to you all.  Hope you are well. T oday we will  start by reviewing assigned readings (Cisneros's "Eleven"), how to read critically ( Mosaics  chapter 2) the narratives you were to practice for essay 3 and the  grammar of verbs, sentence punctuation, and use of quotations.   We will get through as much as we can, including the summary work described as homework last week. The midterm essay composition is now scheduled for next week. -------------- There are modes of developing and arranging information, and we have looked closely at two thus far: narration and description.  Several other commonly used mo...

  Blue and Black , by Lee Krasner (1908-1984) Good day, to you all.  Hope you are well. T oday we will  start by looking at past work and then to the narrative work you were to get started on for essay 3.  This means we will spend a little bit on last week's blog post, which we had no time for in class.  We will review the  grammar of verbs, sentence punctuation, and use of quotations.   We will get through as much as we can, including the use of apostrophes!, reserving the final draft of summary work described as homework below to next week's classwork. Your narratives (essay 3) are due in class this week or next, as you like.  We are scheduled for a very short midterm essay next week in the latter half of class, but I may push that to week 6. Here's a link to a piece on storytelling–spoken word–that contains points that apply to the writing of stories, too.   ---------------------- Home...

Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye. –Helen Keller Good morning.   How are you? The familiar question, asked so often for courtesy's sake, may be just the thing for an exploratory freewrite.    What words would you use to describe how you've felt this past week?  What challenges, fears, delights or joys?  What details of person, place, activity?  What large or general ideas can you draw from the specifics of your focus?  With such questions in mind might you begin writing your next essay, a narrative, to convey some of the drama of life as you see it.     T oday   we  pick up where we left off last week and that was with directions to write a piece in descriptive mode.  I'm curious about the subject you chose, and how you thought to bring the concrete, physical aspects of your...