I just finished reading and grading the papers to one of my freshmen composition class’s papers. I enjoyed some of the essays, but I was also greatly disappointed in quite a few things about them.
I obviously didn’t teach works cited entries well, and I realize that. Last quarter we practiced them in class, and I think that helped immensely, whereas this quarter I kind of shrugged it off. I think in class this afternoon we’ll practice them. I remember as an undergrad doing my girlfriend’s works cited page, and she’s always get her sociology papers back with “great job!” written on the works cited page. I thought it was a ridiculous comment to make; it wasn’t a great works cited page–it was just done correctly. However, now I find myself writing “great job!” on works cited pages that are just done correctly. Since when is correctness “great!” Ugh.
I went over formatting papers, but I guess I didn’t stress some things enough, like the importance of pagination and of one inch margins. Also, some mechanics things are beginning to frustrate me, and we’ll probably go over that today as well, in particular:
1. Titles of essays are in quotation marks. Titles of books, movies, and television shows are italicized or underlined. Rule of thumb: long works=italicize. Short works=quotation marks.
2. Speaking of essays, just because something is in narrative form does not make it a short story. If it is factual and making a point, it is an essay. The author should be treated as an author (i.e., referred to as “Rose”), not as a character (i.e., referred to as “Mike”), and people discussed in the essay are not “characters,” but rather real people.
3. Your = possessive. You’re= you are. Don’t use contractions in academic papers (not my rule; other teachers will be annoyed).
4. Their = possessive. There = place. They’re = they are. There’re = there are. Again, no contractions.
5. Possessives (unless a pronoun) use apostrophes. I had a hard time getting this across to my 8th graders the last two years, so I can understand why college students don’t know it.
But those are just grammar, spelling, and other mechanical issues. Here’s the real problem:
They’re not analyzing the texts! They’re doing a little comparing, bringing in a few sentences, but for the most part, analysis is nil. Almost nonexistant! So, I’ll have to stress that today.
So, writing this has helped me a bit for today’s class:
1. Start by turning in rough drafts for the argumentative essay. On the back, please write three things you’d like help with or to focus on improving. Circulate the sign-up sheet for conferences. Note that everyone should bring their essay #1 portfolio as well.
2. Go over visual rhetoric briefly (continuation of last week). Luke will visit in drag (this I’m excited about, but I feel might be distracting for today’s agenda); discuss his/her appearance as an argument. Before he gets there, analyze others’ outfits as arguments.
3. Go over those grammar/mechanical points above.
4. Hand back essays. Discuss general strengths (for the most part, narration) and problems (analysis of texts; works cited; look at the rubric on overhead)
5. Practice works cited entries (Chapter 20 of St. Martin’s). Check your neighbors. I’ll check everyone’s as well.
6. Show some sample analyses to go over. I’ll have to write those up quickly this morning.
Off to get some work done!
We know that a contraction is a style of speaking that represents two words combined and made shorter, such as “aren’t” for “are not”, or easier to pronounce, such as “isn’t” for “is not”. I disagree that “there’re” is a contraction since it is not shorter or easier to speak than “there are”. A written contraction is a representation of a spoken contraction. In my view, “there’re”, “where’re”, “that’re”, “they’re”, “which’re”, and “what’re” are not suitable words at all since they are more dialect representations of slurring than actual shortening of speech. When we hear a poorly enunciated “there are” it sounds like “there-ur” which leads us to try to spell it dialectically, a la Huck Finn. If dialect depiction is permited without bounds, we soon find “dem”, “cuz” and “gangsta” all over the place.
I think it is easer to say “there’re” than “there are” — while it’s the same number of syllables, unlike other contractions that knock out a syllables, it takes a stronger vowel sound, “ah,” and replaces it with a schwa. I’m not sure how I feel about this contraction. I feel fine using it my own writing, though probably not in my academic writing. I know I use it all the time in more personal writing, though in that writing, there is the effect of evoking the author’s presence — giving the illusion of presence and voice more.