ENG 090 March 21 and 22

We reviewed thesis statements for the five-paragraph essays and talked about parallelism. In groups, you wrote an introduction or conclusion to an essay about 12 Angry Men. Then individually, you completed the Five-Paragraph Essay Worksheet. (Click on the ENG 090 Files link to access the handouts.)

Due after Spring Break: First draft of essay

ENG 131 March 19

You finished up and turned in the research projects. (A couple of groups still need to e-mail the electronic copy, though.) I went over your current grades with each of you. Then you spent the balance of the time in groups getting started on your formal report.

There are a lot of sites on the internet that might be useful for your reports. Go to my bookmarks and click on the relevant tag(s).

ENG 090 March 19 and 20

After freewriting and clustering on the topic for your first essay, we discussed thesis statements and looked at some sample essays.

ENG 090 March 14 and 15

At the beginning of class I discussed the first essay you'll be writing. Click on the ENG 090 Files link to the right to get the Five-Paragraph Essay handout.

Then I held individual conferences to go over current grades.

For next class: Select the topic for your first essay.

ENG 131 March 12

We spent most of class working on research projects, though we did take some time to talk about informal reports and principles of design: proximity, alignment, repetition, and contrast. We'll talk more about page design next week.

ENG 090 March 12 and 13

We reviewed pronoun agreement (Writing @ RRCC 475-77) and worked through an exercise (Pronoun Agreement Exercise 1). For more practice, go to Grammar Bytes.

In groups, the students wrote paragraphs about characters from 12 Angry Men who used logic and reason--rather than emotion--to make their decisions. Eventually, we'll use these paragraphs to create an essay.

Descriptive paragraphs were due. I'll accept them on Wednesday or Thursday without deducting points, but I won't accept them after that.

ENG 090 March 7 and 8

We watched the rest of 12 Angry Men and did peer reviews of the description paragraphs. Next week we'll be writing about the movie, so don't forget what you saw.

Also, next week, please bring Writing @ Red Rocks with you to class instead of Evergreen.

Due next Monday and Tuesday: Final descriptive paragraph with worksheet and draft(s)

ENG 090 March 5 and 6

Peer reviews of the descriptive paragraphs have been postponed to next class. We watched the first part of the movie 12 Angry Men as an introduction to critical thinking and, hopefully, a starting point for the first essay.

Next class, we'll finish watching the movie, discuss it, and conduct peer reviews of the paragraphs.

I've made some changes to the syllabus because we're behind schedule. I'm cancelling the group essay, which should put us back on track. In order to keep the total points for the class at 1000, I've distributed the 75 points for that essay as follows:

Comparison-contrast paragraph -- 50 + 10 = 60
Descriptive paragraph -- 50 + 15 = 65
Five-paragraph essay -- 125 + 25 = 150
Process essay -- 150 + 25 = 175

ENG 131 March 5

We finished covering APA style. There's a sample References page in the ENG 131 folder. (Use the link on the right.)

I handed out group assignments and instructions for the research project. (Go to the ENG 131 folder.) The groups had time in class to get together to discuss their projects. If you weren't in class, please e-mail me (see the syllabus), so I can put you in touch with another member of your group.

ENG 090 (all) Wednesday and Thursday

We discussed similes and metaphors and looked at two sample descriptive paragraphs. Then you had time to complete the descriptive paragraph worksheet and go over it with me.

Due next Monday and Tuesday: Drafts of descriptive paragraphs