Hello all,

Sorry but I am out sick today. 

In place of class, I would like to guide you through the work we would have done today which involves preparing for a draft thesis by Thursday.  Our overall goal is to have a rough draft by next Monday.

After reading this, any questions you have I can answer via email or during my office hour tomorrow, Tuesday, from 9:30-10:30 AM.  I'm adding some time tomorrow as well from 1:45 till around 2:15 -- longer if students are waiting.

This week is a planning week: you'll be narrowing down on a topic for your essay and working towards a thesis and outline for the weekend.

To help with this, we'll break planning into steps.

 I'll be referring to the Ideas and Communication packet (I&C) throughout so you should take it out now.

 1.      For an overview of the process, see the bottom of 23 in I&C "How do I get started . . ."

2.      Reread Writing Assignment: go to page 18-19 of I&C and reread the Writing Assignment.  This will get you focused on what you need to do to write the essay.

3.      Find Connections:  Last class we started with three theories of the purpose of college from Menand -- Theory 1 (separate students),  Theory 2 (intellectual and personal growth), Theory 3 (job preparation).  From Delbanco and "It Takes" we added two additional Theories -- democracy, and multiculturalism.

 We'll continue with this labeling and categorizing with the readings that were due today.  You should have already done this with the essays when you put your category word next to the quote.  For example, on your Writer's Notes for Dan Berrett's "Habits of Mind," you probably have something like

 THEORY 2 "focusing on the development of transferable skills, particularly critical thinking" (Berrett).

 or

 INTELLECTUAL GROWTH "focusing on the development of transferable skills, particularly critical thinking" (Berrett).

Now it's time to look through your notes from all of the readings to find patterns and connections that will help you narrow down to a particular theory/topic you'd like to focus on for your own essay.

You may need to recategorize your notes -- or add categories -- to help find the patterns.   This is also when some students say "Hey, I need to get more quotes from the sources."

4.      Work Towards a Thesis: First, you need to understand what a thesis and divisions are.  For this we'll go to two places in I&C: definitions  - Thesis (16) and Division (14); and examples -  page 24.  Review these for a while until you're comfortable with the ideas.

5.      Decision Time: Choose a theory of the purpose of college for your thesis, and then use the reasons the authors believe that theory is valid as your divisions.  Note that sometimes, the theories can blur into reasons/divisions.  Following the pattern/suggestions in I&C (24) or something similar (and you can go with a theory that's not listed in the examples), write out a draft thesis and divisions.  I should take you a few drafts until your satisfied.   Copy and paste this into an email to me with the course and section number in the subject line sometime before Thursday's class.

6.      Just Get It Done: You will have time to make changes to your thesis on Thursday and over the weekend.   The goal now is to begin to get your thinking on paper so you can work it into something you'll use for your essay.  This class focuses on the joy of revision: starting with lead and turning it into gold.  Lead is okay for Thursday.

These instructions should get you through the material we would have covered in today's class.  Questions? Send me an email or, as noted above, meet with me tomorrow during my office hours. 

For any early risers, you can also sit in on my English I 8:00 AM class tomorrow morning (R209) where we'll work through this as a class.

 Again, sorry I had to cancel class today.

 See you on Thursday,

 Dr. Bordelon