Journal Blog #4: What happens next?

By now, you would have an Introduction. This Introduction bring the reader into your world. It does this by presenting a kind of an anecdote about the point of your essay. It may do this by citing statistics, quotations, and research that show a surprising fact or trend or problem. Which ever way you do this, make sure your reader is hooked; the writing should make the reader wonder... be curious... and ask him or herself: So...   WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

What happens next? What are the ideas you will use to organize your Body Paragraphs? Don't just think of ideas. Think of GOOD ideas. Think of SURPRISING ideas. Think of ideas that we wouldn't normally think about. In the Introduction, you have to hook the reader's attention. In the Body, you have to keep the reader's attention.

For this final journal blog, please write your thesis statement and tell me what 3 or 4 body ideas you plan to use to support the thesis statement. Remember to include your ID# in your post. Aj. M

Journal Blog #3: What is your Area of Interest?

At this mid-point of our very fast Summer term, we have read 6 different essays and considered a variety of themes and ideas. Now, it is your job to jump from these ideas with your own interests.

In Journal Blog #1, you wrote about your Major and why you were interested in that subject. The best topics for a Final Essay can combine your own interests in your Major with the themes we have been looking at so far in ERS: Technology, Leadership, Health, Art, Inspiration, and Culture. Work to link your own interests with one of these themes to create a narrow topic for an essay of 2-3 pages.

In this Journal Blog, I would like to know about your Area of Interest, and then hopefully we can work to narrow further from there to develop the topic of your final assignment of the term.

Don't forget to include your ID# in your post. Aj. M

Journal Blog #2: What is your Writing Weakness?

Writing is hard. Writing takes time. Writing takes effort and care, and it is a riddle of rules and wrongs. You have to worry about capitalization, punctutation: commas and comma splices. Run on sentences...  Fragments...  Adjective phrases... Participials...  partici- WHAT!!??

Why would anyone like writing? Well...  I guess it is because it is the way we make words last. It is the way we record the things we think. When we say something out loud, we usually forget what we said later. Written words stick. Written words matter. Writing is important. Writing is hard.

In this journal blog, apart from the craziness of grammar, what is your weakness in writing?

Include your ID# in your post.