The Design of the Multi-paragraph Essay

An essay of multiple paragraphs such as most of your assignments have been and will be should have a general design as follows. Excepting the final assignment, the research essay, you should limit your introduction to one paragraph; the same is true for your conclusion.

To see this graphic better, click on it once in your browser.

Please realize that your final essay for this course may also include only a single 'graph for your introduction and your conclusion. The point here is you should be sure to craft your writing so that your intro's and endings don't ramble on and on.

Also realize that this is hardly the only version of an essay that is out there. It is a very good place to begin for almost any essay you'll be asked to write in college--or after, for that matter.

Topic sentences, Theses, and Designs

If you're writing a single paragraph essay, be it for a class like ours or an answer to an essay question on a test, you have two basic designs.

This simple box represents our single 'graph. The black bar is the first sentence of the 'graph. If it is the main sentence in this collection of sentences, it is the topic sentence. The topic sentence is your thesis for the paragraph, the reason you're writing what you are.

For example, one of the one-paragraph assignments I used to give my Comp I students was the following:

Tell me the one thing you'd want to have with you if you were stranded on a desert island. Assume food and water are available in sufficient quantity though not necessarily easily obtained. This isn't Eden. You cannot take another person or a pet with you. You are going to be utterly alone for a very long time.

I used this assignment almost every term until that Tom Hanks' movie came out. After that, all anyone ever wanted to do was some variation on Wilson the volleyball. One early attempt I still remember went something like, "I would take a radio capable of letting me listen into the world I was no longer a part of because without such a connection I would go mad."

After all of these years, that's an approximation, but it was a very moving little essay this fella crafted when I was still working for Kirkwood. The point here is that when you begin your paragraph with your topic sentence then everything in that 'graph needs to be written in such a way that it supports your thesis.

If we reverse this design we get a box like the one that follows:

This paragraph is more or less the same as the first except everything you write must lead up to supporting the statement, your topic sentence, that is going to conclude the 'graph.

The first design, or method, of putting the topic sentence at the very front of the 'graph is the most often used, especially in essay tests. You don't want your instructor being uncertain of your intent or meaning. Even if you are trying to bluff your way through something, you need to start strong with a good, solid topic sentence--with a thesis that sounds as if you're on top of things.

If this second design is invoked, it is often used when your thesis is going to be controversial to your reader--or, at the least, unusual.

I don't have an especially good example to give you here, but let's say you're taking a health occupations class and have been studying the spine and its problems. The instructor gives you a test asking for some written answer intended to summarize why so many of us are afflicted with back pain. You have an idea of what the instructor's after, but you've been doing some research on your own and have come up with your own thesis about back complaints.

You want to say this: Though there are many reasons for back problems and spinal pain that are unique to individuals or groups of individuals, the primary reason so many humans suffer from back ailments is that our ancestors came from a planet with less gravity and a more oxygen-rich atmosphere.

Friend, you better have a boatload of reasons preceding that statement, and you better stick that thesis way-y-y-y-y at the end of your paragraph.

Keep these methods or designs in mind as you do the shorter assignments, our general assignments, for the rest of our class. Even if it's a journal entry, give it a little more thought and structure your words and sentences in one of these ways.

Unit 3 PLATO Reminders

This should have gone with the previous post about Unit 3, but I didn't want that one to grow any larger.

See PLATO Hints under the Doc Sharing tab for some additional information about how to begin with PLATO. Choose Technical Notes in the drop-down menu, and click the Go button. This is the shorter form.

1. Use the following web address to access PLATOWEB: www.platoweb.com.
2. If the system asks for an account number, it's 51310.
3. Enter your PLATO ID name (first initial last name as jdoe), the group name which is SCC, and your assigned password. To begin with you have no password; you'll need to create a password for yourself once you?re logged in.
4. Click the Send button.

I assume you'll be doing most of this work, if not all, at home. As you first move into PLATO, you'll encounter requests to install plug-ins and other related files. Please do so as asked and then move on. You will also need to allow pop-ups from the PLATO site.

If you use some version of Vista and are still using IE 7 as your browser, you'll need to update to Explorer 8.

Or move over to Firefox or Chrome.

There're five sets of lessons we'll be looking at in PLATO:

• duComp1A
• duComp1B
• duComp1C
• duComp1D
• duComp1W

Begin with duCOMP1A, and we'll see where you need to go from there individually. I can track where you've been in PLATO and how much time you've spent there. Most of all, I am very serious about your being able to manage your writing abilities both from the ideas you generate to the paragraphs you write to the mechanics you use.

You will need to spend at least two hours a week on these exercises, more if I detect repeated problems in your essays?and different if I see that you're successfully blowing through the first few sections on subjects and verbs.

Should you ever be on one of our campuses, you'll be able to work on PLATO in most any of the labs at any of SCC's four centers.

Unit 3 Update and Reminders

If you haven't read the Unit 3 Update under the Doc Sharing tab, download and so immediately. This is our syllabus for Unit 3 as are all the updates from here on out.



Click the Go button, of course, after you've highlighted "Unit updates."

The three key elements of this unit, and what makes it so critical to your success in this class and your long-term improvement as a writer, are the usage of SmarThinking (ST), the work you'll do with the PLATO exercises, and the fact this is the first assignment where I'll be issuing a real grade on your A1 assignment.

To get your essay into ST, all you have to do is

1. Go to the Online Tutoring link under the Course Home button in the side panel.
2. Click on the SMARTHINKING - Online Tutoring Access link in the middle of the page.
3. If you are ever asked for a name and a password, use the same combination that you use to get into out online system.
4. On the next screen that comes up, go to the submit your writing section. For the subject, select Essay Center.
5. 
6. Next you'll be asked to fill in a few blanks.
7. Most importantly, you need to check two of the following.
   
8. 
9. For this first go-round, please choose Grammar & Mechanics and Sentence Structure.
   
10. Finally, submit your work to the ST tutor for evaluation.

I would strongly suggest you get this first submission into ST no later than Monday, the 21st. Feel free to do a second submission to ST after you've worked on the issues the ST tutor will point out.

In fact, I strongly recommend a second submission. With the second effort, check Introduction/Conclusion and Main Idea/Thesis.

Turn into me all of you drafts along with your ST comments. Your final draft should be labeled so and be the first thing I see.

Unit 2 Reminders

Though I meant to pick up a suggestion from your answers to the ten questions so that I could customize what I wanted you to do with the personal narrative in Unit 2, I frankly ran out of time to do justice to such an activity for most of you.

As I mentioned in a more recent communication on our class blog,

If I don’t say something like “Please tell me more about this in your Unit 2 A1 assignment,” what you’ll want to do for U2A1 is tell me a story about yourself. Make it about some incident that helped you become who you are today.

Then there's all the other stuff I have in the syllabus and in and under the Personal Narrative tab in our course's shell.

Excepting Unit 5, which has no A1 assignment, your A1 is due the last day of the unit by midnight. Everything else is due two days before the end of the unit. For this second unit, that'd mean your addition to the discussion activity should be in by midnight the 11th with the A1 narrative essay in by midnight the 13th.

For Unit 2, I won't be too rigorous in this regard but will be more absolute in the future. Scheduling events this way allows me to grade/review your efforts for all of the secondary bits of the unit over the weekend so that I can turn my full attention to your unit A1 essay Monday evening.

All for now--and remember turning in something early if you've really worked on it is always a good thing.


David

More Updates and Reminders

I know, I know--you don't need another instructor dogging your steps, but I want this semester, and especially our course, to get off to a good start for one and all.

Attached is a copy of the grade and points distribution matrix I created for our class. Note there are five sections:

• A1, the main assignment for each unit, excepting Unit 5 when there is no A1;
  
• Assignment, the section for much of the secondary work such as the two paragraphs I asked for regarding the VW ad essay;
  
• Journal, a place to put ideas for future assignments, to put any other comments/ideas you'd like to where I can review them, and so on;
  
• PLATO, a place where you'll be able to practice and review the mechanics of writing; and
  
• the Unit Discussion Activity, where I'll want you to comment on various readings for the course.

Excepting for the first Unit and the ninth, the A1 assignment, the main event, is due the at midnight the last day the unit is open.

The secondary assignments, the journal entries, and all else are due by midnight two days before the units end, which will usually be a Friday. HOWEVER, if you get something in sooner, I'll be sure to read and return it sooner, usually the same day if it's in by nine of an evening.

Finally, I want the U5MoreQs assignment in as soon as possible. Send it to me via email, this one assignment, but submit it into the Unit 5 Assignment drop box.

Finally, finally, remember how the assignments need to be named: Ure-U1A1.rtf. I really need to see your name leading off each file name.

All for now,


David



August 28th update

I believe I’ve caught up with all of the assignments turned in thus far and with the discussion items placed online. My responses haven’t been as quick as I hope to make them day-by-day and week-by-week due to some illness on my part and the weather. When it rains, especially a hard rain as we’ve had a lot of lately, my satellite Internet is gone, lost in the ether. Ms. Harman, whose ISP is also Wild Blue, can, I’m sure, concur.

Usually, I’d do some catching up with the much faster and steadier Internet connection at the college, but I’ve only been there one full day this week.

Looking forward, I have some comments and further explanations to offer:

1. Keep checking our class blog, http://comp1talk.blogspot.com. I haven’t added much there this week other than some syllabus updates, but I intend to.
2. Today is the due date for U1A1, the first ten questions. This assignment is to be turned in by midnight.
3. I’m getting better with the drop boxes that are built into our course shell. So much so that I can say that, from here on, please put your assignments into the appropriate box and do not email them to me. However, I would appreciate a very brief email telling me you’ve done so.
4. Also, please read the following and commit it to memory as if it were holy writ. ADD YOUR LAST NAME TO EACH ASSIGNMENT BEFORE YOU PLOP IT INTO THE DROP BOX. The U1A1 should be turned in as “Your name U1A1.rtf,” not simply “U1A1.rtf.” I’ve let it slide this first time but will be ornerier in the future.
5. The U5MoreQs assignment is something I do want you to do a.s.a.p., but because it is a late add-on by me, you need to submit it into the Unit 5 drop box as one of two assignments that fill out our U5 Assignment. If you’ve submitted it already into the U1A1 drop box, simply resubmit it in Unit 5.
6. If I don’t say something like “Please tell me more about this in your Unit 2 A1 assignment,” what you’ll want to do for U2A1 is tell me a story about yourself. Make it about some incident that helped you become who you are today.
7. The discussion pieces I ask for in some of the units are a kind of substitute for the classroom discussions we’d be having in a traditional setting and seeing each other 3-5 hours per week. I haven’t yet made any responses to your efforts for Unit 1, but I do intend that each of us reads all of the responses made in the discussion area.
8. Feel free yourselves to respond to what another class member posts, always being polite. That doesn’t mean you can’t make suggestions or comments that are constructive, but do keep “Do unto others” uppermost in your minds.
9. Thinking of the discussion activity, I’ve been pleased with the comments already placed there. Please realize that, this being a writing class, I will be making notes on problems I see with the efforts made here. Make your responses as well developed as I know you’ll want the 100-point final essay to be. Use complete sentences, proper wording, correct punctuation, and all the rest that goes into good writing.
10. There is a link under the Home button in our shell called the “Critical Thinking Worksheet.” It’s one of the many items I inherited when I took over this course and its original syllabus. I placed it in the Home section because I wanted it available to you throughout the course. As I say somewhere, what it has you consider about thinking critically applies equally to reading and writing—and to all manner of life experiences.
11. You’ll see in the Dropbox area something called Unit 1: Critical Thinking Worksheet. It’s an artifact of the previous versions of this course, and so far, I can’t get rid of it. Be assured there is no specific assignment, discussion, or what-have-you that is required of you regarding this worksheet. I will refer to it repeatedly, but there’s no specific work I’m expecting you to turn in.
12. Finally, besides using the drop boxes from here on in for turning in the various assignments, and being sure the first word in the file’s name is your last name, make sure your creations are saved in the Rich Text Format, .rtf.