Writing 101
Essay #1: Critique (10%)
“The greatest
part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write: a man will turn
over half a library to make one book.”
-Samuel Johnson
“Writing is not like painting where you add. It is not what you put on the canvas that the writer sees. Writing is more like a sculpture where you remove, you eliminate in order to make the work visible.”
-Elie Wiesel
“The secret of all good writing is sound judgment.”
-Horace
All three of these quotations
speak to some of the skills that you will be working on in this first essay:
summarizing a work, critiquing it, and then presenting your critique in a way
that makes your judgment clear and visible.
From p. 65 of WRAC:
“Write a critique of one of the following articles:
Before writing your critique, consider the earlier discussions of evaluating writing in this chapter. Examine the author’s use of information and persuasive strategies. Review the logical fallacies and identity any of these in the selection you’ve chosen to critique.”
You will be writing this first essay in class on Tuesday, September 19. You will be allowed to bring in the following:
-your textbook
-your Prentice Hall book
-this assignment sheet
-an introduction
-a detailed outline
-a dictionary
To help you prepare for this essay, we will be completing the following tasks:
-WRAC: Chapter 1, “Summary” and Chapter 2 “Critical Reading and Critique”
-PH: Chapter 56, “Using Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism”
“The Correct Use of Borrowed Information”
-PH, Chapters 40-42, “Style and Word Choice”
Notebook Entry 3: Summary of Asch
article
Notebook Entry #4: Sample Critique due of Worley or Sartwell
We will also allow some time in class on Thursday, September 14 to talk about the two essays.
In terms of evaluation for the final paper, please see “The Rubric for Freshman Composition.”