This is the page for: Essay Writing 1
(Course-related content will appear here in reverse chronological order: the newest things at the top of the page, and older posts toward the bottom.)
Format Guidelines
Hi everyone. I apologize for the lateness of this, but luckily, we discussed everything that is relevant in class. I discovered that my format handout prints weirdly, because it’s saved in PDF form and for 8.5×11 paper (a common North American page size) and not A4. So instead, here’s a formatting guideline. You can check the points one by one to make sure your formatting is good:
- Font: use a monospace font at 12 point size. (I strongly prefer Courier New.) I can recognize 12-point ata glance, and will know if you used 10 or 11 point, or 13 point. I will return these to you unread, and you will be a week late. So please submit something with a 12-point font. Treat my eyes nicely.
- Line spacing should be double-spaced, NOT 1.5 spaced or 3x spaced. See Format-Paragraph for the settings for line spacing. With anything less than double-spaced, you will receive exactly zero comments on your essay.
- All margins should be 2.5 cm, or 1 inch. Headers should be at 1.25 cm (or 0.5 inches) from the edge of the page.
- Place page numbers in the header of your document. Top right is the appropriate placement.
- Headers should be in the same font as the rest of the document, and should contain your name, my name (preceded by the word Prof. in case someone finds the essay lost), your student number, the title (or part of the title followed by ellipsis (…), and the course name.
- Paragraphs should be indented using TAB, not SPACE. This makes them much easier to read.
- Text alignment should be left justified, not LR justified or any other format. I showed you how to do this in class, as well as how to access the left-justify button if it’s hidden on your installation of Word. (It often is in Korean PCs, for some reason.)
- Your Bibliography page (where you list your sources) should be on a separate page at the end of your essay.
- Please staple your essay. If you give it to me unstapled, I will use it to start a barbecue and will not read it. (Paperclipped is okay too, but a staple is better.)
- I’m not joking.
- Remember, I said you should have two sources for this essay. It’ll be at least five by the end of semester, but for now, two is enough.
- Good luck, and I am looking forward to seeing your essays!
The Promised Handout
(UPDATE: The broken file link is now fixed! Sorry for anyone who couldn’t get the file! It’s there now!)
Hi there! I received a big pile of wonderful outlines for Lockhart’s essay. I’ll be looking at those this week, but as a class, it’s time for us to move on… that is, to Introductions and Conclusions.
On Monday night, we’re going to discuss crafting good introductions and conclusions. Here is the handout I will be distributing in class. We’ll be discussing Lockhart’s essay as well, so if you happen to have your copy, it will be a big help. Also, the handout involves some homework. Please don’t start the homework assignment until after our class discussion on Monday evening. (Though if you want to read ahead, that’s fine!) If there’s time, we’ll move on to a second exercise, about establishing flow in the body of an essay.
Then, also on Monday night, we’ll make groups and you’ll get email addresses for your group members, so that you can email your current draft of your essay to your partners. You will email your essay draft on Monday night, and begin reading your group members’ work.
Wednesday night will be an opportunity to work as a group on giving feedback and discussing how your group members’ essays could be improved. It will essentially be a small-group intensive workshop. Same rules as usual, except you will each have three minutes to speak, and I’ll be wandering from group to group.
Essays for April 2nd
Here are the essays for critique for April 2nd:
Make sure you’ve read both, make some markings and suggestions on the paper, and prepared your thoughts. As usual, you will have 90 seconds to speak. I’m not sure whether we’ll get to both essays on April 2nd, but we might, so be prepared to discuss both.
(And the numbers don’t mean anything — we might discuss Essay #2 first! It’s just the order in which I upload the essays, which is alphabetical order of the filenames!)
See you Monday!
Outlines and An Essay for You To Read
Next Monday, March 31st, we’ll be discussing essay structure, and the planning/outlining process. Your homework before then involves the following:
- Submit a draft of your thesis statement by closing time in my mailbox at the English Language & Culture Department Office, which is in room 205 , 다솔관.
- Download, print, and review this handout about Outline formatting, and also this one about how to use outlines as an essay-template. We will be discussing the planning process and outlines, as well as what they are and are not good for. Feel free to work on planning and tentatively outlining your midterm essay if you like, but bear in mind that I will have some unusual things to say about the planning and outlining process.
- Print a copy of this PDF — an essay titled A Mathematician’s Lament by Paul Lockhart — and read it before Monday’s class. Although the essay is very clear and mostly straightforward, it’s also somewhat long — 25 pages — so make sure you start reading it before Monday afternoon!
Remember to check back on Sunday for the two essays that you will be critiquing on Wednesday, April 2nd!
UPDATE: Also, I was reminded that I forgot to collect your “rewrites” of the various theses from the exercise last week. I will be collecting those next week (Monday or Wednesday is fine), for checkmarks towards your final homework grade. (Thanks for the reminder, Dae Young!)
Classblog Installed!
The class blog for this class has finally been installed. See the sidebar (under “Student Writing Sites”) for the links to register, login, and view the blog.
Make sure you join the blog for the right class!
I haven’t styled the pages, though I may get around to that later this week. But try register and login and see what happens. And please talk to me after class (or email me) if you have any problems with the system!
You are expected to start using this blog in the coming week. Good luck!
A Reminder — For March 26th and Beyond
Next week, March 24th is a holiday (Easter Monday) so we will not be meeting for class. On March 26th, we will spend our classtime doing the following:
- Critiquing Sul Hee’s essay, which we didn’t get to last time. Make sure you have read it more than once, marked up the page with editorial marks, and thought about what you’re going to say during your 90 seconds.
- Discussing the classblog, which will be set up in time for you to start using next week. I’ll put a link here in the next day or two, and you can try register early, too. Maybe we can save time in class if everyone figures out how to use it individually?
What we won’t be doing in class next week is discussing the progress on your essays. However, you should consider the fact that next week is Week 4. This means that we’re halfway to midterm exams. I’m probably going to want your essays at the beginning or end of Midterm Exam Week, meaning that you haven’t got much time left.
The most important things to be doing outside of class are:
- researching
- thinking about your thesis and main points you want to make
- considering how you can use research to support your position
In the coming weeks (ie. until midterm exams), we’ll be discussing the following:
- outlining,
- paraphrasing and summarizing another writer’s words or ideas,
- how to write a good introduction and conclusion, and
- citing your sources using MLA format or footnotes
As for the long-range plan, I think you’ll be working on a single essay all semester — meaning that my feedback will be important, and that you will be rewriting the essay you’re working on now several times. This means research won’t stop for a long time. So keep considering what you should read or look at next! Keep using the Mind Map exercise to pick out interesting connections between the issues or topics surrounding your thesis, and keep thinking about your topic, freewriting about it, and taking notes whenever you get a good idea.
UPDATED: Essay(s) to Read for Critique, Week 3
Hi there. I’ve only received one of the two essays for our Wednesday evening critique session, but that’s okay: we’ll probably only have time for one essay anyway, after I explain how we will conduct workshop critiques. But next time, Ji Hyun, you must submit your essay for discussion.
It turns out I received both essays, and misplaced one email. Apologies to Ji Hyun, who indeed did submit her essay in time. I must be losing my memory or something!
Anyway, here’s this week’s essays:
Essay #1 for Workshop Critique, Week 3 (PDF format)
Essay #2 for Workshop Critique, Week 3 (PDF format)
Make sure that you have printed and read both essays a few times, and marked things you would like to comment about. Look out for both positive and negative things, and feel free to write down questions or areas where you think the writers could improve. We’ll be discussing this essay this coming Wednesday, March 19th.
Also, here’s an old handout I used to give students regarding the Mind Map/Idea Bubbles exercise we discussed on Wednesday. If you’re interested, feel free to download it. I expect you will include one completed mind map with your other homework on Monday!
Homework for March 17th
Here’s the homework I assigned for March 17th:
- Complete another Free Writing exercise using free word-association, like we did with “bikini-beach-sun-energy-diet-vacation”, cross out the boring parts of your free writing, and fill out the back of the Free writing exercise sheet. If you need to download a new sheet, you can find it here.
- If you now have a topic you like, then you can work on a topic sentence. (Don’t worry, we’ll talk more about how to write a good one soon, but go ahead and try one out for now.)
- If you have a topic and a topic sentence, write a word list of ideas or words you think you’ll need to use in English to discuss this topic. If you don’t know the English word for a concept or thing, then write the word in your first language, and you can pay attention in your research to see which word is used by the experts. (ie. a dictionary won’t tell you which translation is the right one, so pay attention in your English-language research.)
- If you have all of these, make a trip to the library and pick up some sources related to your topic. I recommend at least 60% journal articles, and the rest should be good sources. (ie. Newer books by experts, as opposed to old books or books by non-experts.) You don’t need to bring those books to class, just make sure you have them and start reading them for your essay research!
I’ll be assigning some new homework tomorrow (on March 12th) so make sure you’re getting this stuff done! The worst thing to do is to fall behind!
Handouts from March 10th
Here are the handouts I will be distributing in class today, in PDF format:
On Plagiarism (English version)
On Plagiarism (Korean translation)
This is a very important and serious subject, so if you have any related questions or uncertainties, either now or at any point later on, make sure to ask and we can talk about it.
And finally, here is a PDF of the Free Writing Worksheet. Feel free to copy it and use it whenever you are starting a new writing project:
Homework and Textbook News
This is the first update for this class:
First of all, I’ve found a new textbook I want to use, but I need to find out whether the University bookstore can order it. If not, I’ll be asking you to order it yourselves online. The delivery time is approximately 10 business days, but it might be less. I’ll let you know in our next class.
Your homework includes two things:
- Fill out the Student Information Sheet and submit it to me by the beginning of class on Monday, and
- Rewrite the essay you wrote for me in class on Wednesday evening, but try to (a) keep the things you did well, and (b) try to improve on the aspects of the essay you think could have been better.
The essay you wrote on Wednesday was only a sample, for me to get a better idea of your basic ability as writers. You will not have to write about this topic again unless you want to, but please make sure you do rewrite the same topic, and the same basic essay, that you wrote in class. The point is not to make a perfect essay, but to rewrite something you’ve written once already. So DON’T change topics!
See you next week!