Using your book + writing summaries

We spent the first part of class going over feedback to your baseline essays - and using your book (and the Purdue OWL) to look up HOW to respond to various writing issues.

We talked in some depth about the kind of reading, thinking and writing you need to do before you begin to draft your essays.  This is generally called the "prewriting" phase (so that is what you would use as a key word to search an index).  It is about gathering ideas, thinking about which ideas you might use and in what order, thinking about what parts of the text you are writing about you are going to want to refer to - and so on.

Some of the strategies you might use during prewriting include:
Figuring out what you have to write:   reading + taking notes on the text, reading the assignment sheet, jotting down the main ideas from the text, underlining/marking the text, defining terms, listing points from the text you might want to use, re-checking the assignment sheet, reading on the web (or in your textbook) about the genre you need to write (summary, response, analysis, argument, narrative, comparison, etc)

Brainstorming ideas (gathering material): freewriting; blindwriting; underlining the ideas you like in your freewriting and freewriting to those ideas; talking to anyone who will listen (or yourself - so long as it is out loud); checking out your topic on the internet; asking questions (who, what, when, where, why); comparing your topic to similar topics; list points and write details associated with each one, writing anything you associate with your topic, paraphrasing points from the text

Organizing your ideas: lists, cluster diagrams, mind maps, outlines,

You might move back and forth among these strategies several times as you write.

We spent the second half of class talking about George Lakoff and Mark Johnson's essay: Conceptual Metaphor in Everyday Language"  and about how to write a summary.  The assignment sheet for the summary is listed under Assignments, to the right.  Guidelines for writing a summary are listed under Tips for summaries, under Guidelines and Sample Essays.

Your assignment for Thursday is to write a summary of this text.  I would suggest doing some more careful reading - some listing + defining of key terms & main points AND some freewriting before you start to write your essay.

For Thursday: 
Read: HTWA Chapter 40, "Summarizing sources"
Write: Summary of Lakoff & Johnson

To receive credit, your summary is do in the course email as an attachment BEFORE class begins (9:30).  It doesn't need to be perfect.  Go as far as you can - even if it is very brainstormy - and turn it in.  We will work from where you are.

Bring your book to class.

Good luck!   And see you on Thursday.