APELC Class Notes
Juniors and seniors, as I thanked the freshmen, so I thank you for your patience with my absence. This appears to be my annual respiratory viral infection, which, since it came early, I’d not planned on being out three days―I’ll be out tomorrow, Wednesday, too. (This usually hits me in the second week of December.) This has, fortuitously, allowed me time to catch up on papers and planning as I convalesce in bed between sleeping and watching news and the History Channel.
Please check your class page for homework details. And while I have your eyes, lemme offer a few content and formatting ideas of what I’d like to see in your short essays you’re completing for each reading that may help you. First, avoid a meandering introduction; give me one clear and specific thesis sentence. Then give me three or four focused PIE paragraphs. You’ve practiced the PIE, you know the terminology, and it reflects perfectly the levels of critical thinking:
- Evaluation or argument or claim is your point (theses, topic sentences, syntheses within the body of the paragraph)
- Observation or evidence or data is your illustration/information; and
- Analysis or inference or warrant is your explanation.
Neat, no? Further, leave the concluding sentence. No need for it. Limit your work to two pages (no more, no less). This’ll give you enough room to develop three, maybe four ideas, but limit you so you’ll have to sharpen your analyses.
Use the title of the piece you’re writng about for the title of your own paper. Remember that short fiction and non-fiction text titles are surrounded by quotation marks and long works’ (novella length and beyond) titles are italicized (not underlined).
If you’re writing about multiple pieces, as you do with the Connections essays, merely title your with the authors surnames and the subject about which they wrote, eg., Angelou and Tan on Cultural Pride, Ericsson and Lutz on Lies and Doublespeak, and Ascher and Quindlen on Homelessness. Note these titles are not enclosed in quotation marks.
We’ll continue to work on systematizing this approach. It may all seem uniform, rigid, or formulaic, but I don’t mind.
The writing conference sign-up sheet will be posted Thursday during fifth with appointments beginning Monday. Note that if you do not have your essay highlighted, or you’re lacking any or all of the rubric, “How to Prepare” protocol (with your own notes for steps 4 or 5), or essay prompt, I’ll not confer with you.
See you in Thursday and Friday.