March 26, In Class:
Find out and discuss what kind of writing people in your field of study do, and write 150+ words about it.
You may discuss the kind of academic writing required for advanced classes in your major, but ideally you should find out what kind of writing professionals in your field do after college. This may turn out to be somewhat similar to college writing (scholarly papers, legal briefs, etc.) or it may be less so (interoffice memos, technical directions, professional emails, event programs, etc). Find out what it is. If you don't have a profession in mind, just use one that you might consider. If possible, describe or link examples of the kind of documents professionals in your field compose.
Here are some other things you may want to explore once you've shown a kind of writing professionals in your field use:
-- the challenges of this type of writing
-- what kind of preparation or training you need for it
-- how it relates to kinds of writing you have done before
-- what makes pieces of this kind of writing good or bad
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Logical Syllogisms
Compose the following and give brief explanations:
1. A Valid Syllogism
2. An Invalid Syllogism
3. A Syllogism Embedded in an Argument
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Rules for Writing
Assignment: Write your own list of rules for good writing on the model of George Orwell's in "Politics and the English Language." Back up your rules with examples and/or explanations (as Orwell does).
If you want to interact with Orwell's text (for example, argue against any of his rules and propose your own alternatives), you may. If you think writing can't have rules, write an eloquent critique of writing by rules as your blog post, using examples/explanations to support your point.
-- Post by Thursday, February 9.
-- Write 150 to 350 words.
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Monday, January 23, in class
Today you'll write a blog post to experiment with and analyze style.
1. Choose a short paragraph from TS/IS. Either dress it up or dress it down -- that is, make the style either more formal or less formal.
2a. Choose a piece of writing from the NR Album of Styles. Give a short description of the writing style. What makes this sound different from other texts? What do you notice about sentence structure, word choice, and tone?
2b. Now take the same piece of writing you've just analyzed and imitate its style. Write a paragraph or two of your own on a different topic (e.g., your sport, your job, dorm life -- it's up to you), but try to make your writing style sound like the writing style of the NR selection.
Enjoy!
