Essay Options

Essay Options, English 102 Winter 09. Nickel and Dimed

Rough: January 21^st (Bring 4 copies)

Final: January 27^th (Bring 2 copies)

• 3-5 pages. Typed drafts. Double spaced, 12 point font.
  
• Use N&D and Class Matters as sources.
  
• Use three additional sources from the web or elsewhere. Start with "One Search."
  
• Thesis and support for your main point.
  
• Explain criticism of your main point.
  
  • Refine/Defend/Concede/Expand your main point.
    
• We are looking for good solid ideas—original and well supported.
  

We are looking for real questions and real answers because these are issues that affect our lives every day. You are in school because of the issues raised in this book. Keys to your future, whatever kind of future it may be, are in this book. That's what we're looking for.

Essay Options:

1. Perception Versus Reality
   

According to Class Matters:

• on the surface, class is less of an issue,
  
• while in reality the divisions between classes run deeper than ever.
  
• And, this is unlikely to change.
  

Provide examples for first two points from Nickel and Dimed and "15 Years on the Bottom Rung."

Then, explain why there is a difference between our perception of class and the reality. Finally, explain why you think the gap between classes will grow, shrink or stay the same. Evidence from "Shadowy Lines" as well as the Evalutation chapter in N&D'd will help here.

1. Living/Minimum Wage Debate (A traditional argument)
   

Should we have a national "Living Wage"? Should there even be a minimum wage? What is fair? What is best for the country?

Pick a dog in the fight and back it up with well researched evidence.

Check the online living wage calculator.

Consider the economic crisis.

Consider kids working.

Consider working with kids.

There is recent legislation on this at the federal and state level. There will be information about this from the president, too.

1. YakTown (For the investigative journalists in the class)
   

   Figure 30% of Minimum wage in Washington State. Get the math right first.
   

   What does that rent in Yakima? Investigate and report. COMPARE THIS TO N&D.
   

• What do your findings mean to the premise in N&D that housing held back many people? This will be your thesis.
  

Photos help. Actually going there and taking pictures.

Where are you going to get the information? The Big Picture? The best evidence?

How about "first, last, and deposit" issue in Yakima? What is the norm?

What do the motels rent for by the week? Where are they?

Safety concerns?

1. What is to be done? (This one gets more philosophical. )
   

The book is great at pointing out the problem. But when it comes to solutions, it glosses over objections. If you agree with the book's ideas, help Ehrenreich by addressing these objections to her solutions, and maybe add to the suggestions. If you disagree with the ideas, expand on the objections and offer your own solutions.

Background:

This question will deal with the "Evaluation" chapter a great deal.

People who work 40 hours a week should be able to survive. Right now, they live on or over the edge. How do we fix this problem?

Here's a quote from Salon Magazine:

But [the book] also half-raises questions without truly answering them….[She] shoos them off again without letting us get a really good look at them and generally shies away from admitting that however intolerable the conditions …may be, any viable alternative to tolerating them is far from obvious.

They're right. Ehrenreich's evaluation has some flaws. What she observed is pretty convincing, but when she attempts solutions or when she confronts criticism, she is vague.

That may mean there's a problem with her premise. It might simply mean that she fumbles the final push but that the issues are still real.

Here's what I'll be looking for in a good paper:

• What are the problems she identifies?
  
• What are her solutions?
  
• What counter arguments does she deal with?
  
• How does she address these objections?
  

• Now, you take over the argument.
  
  • What should be done?
    

Maybe she should have said, You're right.

If you tend to be more conservative, this might be a good option for you to write about. What would the conservative write for an "Evaluation" of the events in N&D'd?

Or, maybe she should have explained why the criticisms were wrong. Defend her points where she has left them open.

Maybe the criticisms, being partly right, don't change the fact that there's a problem, they just point out adjustments needed to your argument, to the solution.

Once you think you've got it all figured out, ask: What are the objections to your ideas?

Minimum wage poll

Day 2

English 102 Lesson Plan Day 2

• Names/Faces
  
• Bonus Points
  
  • at the Library (on going),
    
  • and at the Larson Gallery (January 11^th 2-5pm), and
    
  • Diversity Series: Jan. 15^th, Skin Stories and Jan. 22^nd, Word Medicine Deccio, Parker Room 7pm
    
  • MLK Jr. January Film Series: 8^th, 15^th, 22, 29^th 1pm? Hopf Student Union MLK room.
    
• Question about the Class/Teacher.
  
• Interview in groups of 3
  
  • Worst jobs/Worst Bosses
    
    • What made it bad
      
  • Something we don't expect when we see you. Something we couldn't tell by looking at you.
    
• In Groups of 4 Prereading questions and Annotating YHR article.
  

Reading the next two weeks:

For Wednesday: N&D Intro

For Thursday Serving in Florida to 29

For Friday: Serving in Florida to end. Quiz on Intro and Serving. Worksheets due. Quiz on Names/Faces

For Monday: Shadowy Lines and 15 Years. In Class Writing Assignment.

For Tuesday: Scrubbing in Maine to 86

For Wednesday: Scrubbing in Maine to End

For Thursday: Selling in Minnesota to 150

For Friday: Selling in Minnesota to end. Scrubbing and Selling worksheet due.

For Monday: Evaluation Chapter.

Post for Discussion (and BP)

What should the minimum wage be for the USA?
Use YHR article as a reference for your conversation.
Should there be a minimum wage?

How to Read in College

Here's a great site from Penn State.

Sometimes it's called "annotating"

Here's my short take on it:

Why do it?
Save time.
Better evidence.
Better comprehension.
More interesting.

1. Don't read in bed.
and don't read with TV/Music
2. Don't use a highlighter in the book.
3. Look for things going in.
4. Make assumptions.
5. Ask questions.
6. In N&D, the footnotes are full of gold.

Here's what my book looks like.

6. At outline stage, go back through and make a list of pages and quotes.

Intro and Serving Study Guides

Introduction: Getting Ready

1)    Why had Barbara Ehrenreich avoided "run of the mill low paid job[s]" in the past?

2)    Why does Ehrenreich deny herself the skills her education has afforded her in seeking employment?

What rules does she set up?

1. Ehrenreich believes "there's no way [she] was going to "experience poverty'"(6). How can she say this, given that she fully plans to force herself to eat, sleep, and get by on the money she earns from minimum wage jobs?
   

What do you think of the "reassuring limits" she puts on any impending hardship she'll encounter?

4)     What advantages does Ehrenreich have that she believe mean that she has "everything going for her" (7) in terms of her chances for meeting with success in living on the minimum wage?

Do these advantages matter as much as she thinks they do, in your opinion?

1. The general response of Ehrenreich's coworkers in the course of the three individual tests she makes of living on the minimum wage is to find what she is doing unremarkable and "anticlimactic": "My favorite response [was], "Does this mean you're not going to be back next week?'"(9). What does such a response show us about these co-workers? Why do they not find her adventure compelling, given that their very lives are what she is studying?
   
2. How relevant to their lives do you think Nickel and Dimed might be?
   

Serving in Florida

1)    In what ways is the process of interviewing that Ehrenreich encounters demeaning or unappreciative of workers' individuality?

Would you be willing to go through what she does to get a job?

2)    How do managers and assistant managers, as Ehrenreich depicts them, function as adversaries to those beneath them?

3) What might explain the managers' behavior and mentality given that most of those in such positions came from the same jobs their employees fill and that they themselves for the most part make very little money?

4) Have you formed an opinion of those in managerial positions from your own experiences? Does it correspond to what Ehrenreich observes?

5)    How do the brief vignettes (25-6) about her coworkers' living quarters add to Ehrenreich's tale of her own experiences?

6) One point that Ehrenreich makes throughout the book is that "starting conditions are everything" (27).

1. What does she mean by this, and why does she make this point more than once?
   

Think about your own situation of starting college, as you are right now. Is there a similar experience in relation to the effort you are undertaking?

Bonus Point Opportunity Number 1

Go here for an account.
Each comment more than 15 words is worth a point.
Hand them in monthly. Cut and paste?
I'm not keeping track or reading them, so please police yourself and let me know if it's abusive.

Day 1

English 102 Lesson Plan Day 1

1. Question to your right. Question about the class. Question about the teacher.
   


2. Ask question to the right.
   


3. Pictures
   


4. To the left: shirts and shoes on side? board
   


5. Careers, current/anticipated on board
   


6. Syllabus read. Revise question based on syllabus.
   


7. A couple of additions: yvccenglish102.blogspot.com
   


8. Office Hour 830-930
   


9. Frequent BP offered, but only up to 100% of prewriting grade
   

Homework: Read Handout: "Two Sides of Minimum Wage Coin" and complete "Nickel and Dimed before you read"

Syllabus

Yakima Valley Community College-- English Composition 102:

The Valley and The World

Dan Peters, Instructor (dpeters@yvcc.edu 574.6800.3194)

Winter 2009

Course Description:

The second of two college-level courses, English 102, will continue to require clear, unified, coherent, and well-developed essays of increasing complexity. While consideration of audience is an inherent part of the writing required in English 101, students in English 102 will learn to consider more explicitly the role that audience plays when they write. In seeking to gain credibility with their audience and to persuade others to their point of view, students will write extended arguments. Through reading, writing, and discussion, students will continue to examine their own assumptions and opinions and to consider the facts and reasoning of others. In their writing they will bring to bear a variety of texts to support their arguments as they learn basic research techniques and the documentation conventions of the Modern Language Association or comparable style sheets from other disciplines. Extended research, the province of English 203, will not be required.

Prerequisites:

English 101

Course Outcomes:

Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to

• Write clear, unified, coherent, and well-developed extended essays that employ primary and secondary sources in writing
  
• Demonstrate an understanding of those sources and their relevance to the arguments being advanced
  
• Employ documentation conventions, as specified by the Modern Language Association or other style sheets, in support of extended arguments
  
• Conduct research using a variety of sources, such as library collections, electronic databases, and/or other sources in support of extended arguments
  
  

Abilities:

1. Students will have the opportunity to practice the following Abilities as they meet course objectives: Analytical Reasoning (AR) and Communication (C).
   

Required Texts

• Class Matters, Bill Keller, ed.
  
• Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich
  
• The World is Flat, version 3.0 Friedman
  
• A copy of a reputable college dictionary
  
• A Writers Reference, Sixth Edition, Hacker
  
• Suggested: 3 ring binder, highlighter pens, blue & black ink pens, email address, thumb drive, computer at home with internet connection, Microsoft word.
  

Required Work

• Three complete assignment sequences. Sequences will center on Globalization and the Yakima Valley. These sequences will include various prewriting activities, a rough draft and a second draft of all three essays.
  
• Preparation for class activities, often by reading outside of class.
  
• Participation in class discussions and activities.
  
• Attendance.
  
• Quizzes over readings.
  
• Various homework assignments, as needed.
  
• Publish/Present your work.
  

End of Quarter Grade:

40% Work before Final Draft

60% Final Drafts

93= A 90= A- 87= B+ 83= B 80= B- 77= C+ 73=C 70=C- 67=D+ 60=D 59 and below= F

General Requirements for essays

1. All essays/exercises are due on the date assigned.
   
1. No late work accepted. Email, friends= fine.
   
2. Essays will vary in length. They should be double-spaced, in a normal sized (10-12 point) font or type comparable to Times New Roman. Essays not meeting the minimum length requirement, and/or the use of a larger than normal font, or large margins, will have a reduced grade, depending on the amount of text missing. Works Cited pages, graphics, charts, etc. do not count toward the minimum page requirement.
   
3. All essays must be typed or printed on a computer printer.
   
4. Essays must be typed in MLA format.
   
5. Keep a HARD COPY of your essay, so that you will have a back-up in case of loss, disk crash, etc.. Anyone working on computer should have a back-up copy of his/her essay on disk.
   
6. Do not expect to receive the same grades on these papers that you have received in the past. My criteria for grading are very different and possibly more demanding than those with which you have worked previously. Moreover, while effort tends to improve the quality of the paper,
   

your grade will be based on the quality of your paper alone,

not the amount of effort you put into it.

There is no final exam.

Be Here, Now

If you miss 5 classes for any reason, you will lose one letter grade.

If you miss 8 classes you will lose two letter grades.

If you miss 10 classes, you will be withdrawn from the course.

An absence will be recorded if you arrive 15 minutes late or leave 15 minutes early.

Please, turn off the electronics, come on time and lean in.

Course Adaptation: If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, if you have emergency medical information to share, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please talk with me as soon as possible.

Before you read questions

Nickel and Dimed, before you read.

1. What is the current minimum wage in Washington? What is the federal minimum wage?
   
2. What kinds of jobs have you held? What were the conditions like? Did you take the job under circumstances of true need or just to pick up some extra spending money?
   
3. If you have had a job, what were the impacts of this experience on you as a person? Did the job increase your confidence? Make you feel demeaned in any way? Did the job improve your sense of yourself, worsen it, or have little to no influence?
   
4. How much time, if any, have you spent thinking about the minimum wage and those who must live on it? Does this seem like an important matter, here at a point when you are starting college—presumably with the goal of earning considerably more than the minimum wage when you graduate?
   
5. What is your first priority when you shop?
   
6. Do you consider how the workers are treated when deciding where to shop?

Last Day

1. H/I Cover Letter
   
2. H/I "Second Chance" Draft?
   
3. Essays must include my comments
   
4. Paper clips/staples
   
5. Due Monday by Noon at my office.
   
6. Complete Feedback.
   
7. Return of Essays, etc
   
   1. First week of Summer Quarter—ask Kelley in English Department.
      
   2. Grades mostly.
      
   3. For more feedback from me, bring your essay in and we'll go over it.
      
8. Grades due Next Friday, posted online under schedule that day
   
9. My schedule
   
   1. Fall: English 101x3 and Creative Writing.
      
   2. Winter 102x3
      
   3. Spring 70 x2 and Creative Writing
       
      
10. Also, you can ask about anything anytime.
    
11. You can say hi to me on campus. Say your name and I'll say mine.
    
12. You can say hi to each other.
    
13. Andy Blevins' story.
    
    1. One in there Americans in their mid-twenties attended but did not finish college.
        
       
    2. Only 41 percent of low-income students entering a four year college managed to graduate within five years. (66% of high income did).
       
    3. 75 percent of students enrolling in community colleges said they hoped to transfer to a four year institution. But only 17 percent of those made the switch within five year. The rest were out working or still studying toward the two year degree.
       
    4. This is not the path you are on.
       

 This is the path you are on.

Learn from Leon and Lindsay

1) http://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/col/bruinsuccess/03/quiz.cfm

4) http://anywhere.tennessee.edu/iei/laap/eng1010/mla/practice.htm

2) http://www.lib.usm.edu/legacy/tutorials/mlatutorial/quiz.php?type=pre

3) http://library.albany.edu/usered/plagiarism/page8.html http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072873469/student_view0/avoiding_plagiarism_tutorial/citing_sources/works_cited_quiz.html

Business Letter Format

Here's one.
Here's another.

Steak Knives

Round One

Monday: Final, Final Draft of One Essay Due. You MUST INCLUDE with it the draft with my comments (Draft 2) and the rubric with your score for this essay to be considered.

1. H/I Portfolio Revision Worksheet.
2. MLA DeathMatch 2008.
   1. Four Teams enter, one team leaves
   2. First Prize: 5 BP
   3. Second Prize: Steak Knives
   4. Third Prize: You're fired
   5. It's on…
3. The Final Week—Special Guest Leon Lett will be here Wednesday
1. Wednesday: Peer Editing, Bring two copies of Final, Final Rough Draft or Cover letter
2. Thursday: MLA DeathMatch 2008, Round Two

Round One

Monday: Final, Final Draft of One Essay Due. You MUST INCLUDE with it the draft with my comments (Draft 2) and the rubric with your score for this essay to be considered.

1. H/I Portfolio Revision Worksheet.
2. MLA DeathMatch 2008.
   1. Four Teams enter, one team leaves
   2. First Prize: 5 BP
   3. Second Prize: Steak Knives
   4. Third Prize: You're fired
   5. It's on…
3. The Final Week—Special Guest Leon Lett will be here Wednesday
1. Wednesday: Peer Editing, Bring two copies of Final, Final Rough Draft or Cover letter
2. Thursday: MLA DeathMatch 2008, Round Two

Cost of War part 2

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/17/business/17leonhardt.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=what+trillion+could+buy&st=nyt&oref=slogin

Cost of War

http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home

Day 42

English 102 Lesson Plan Day 42 Spring 2008

Race/Addiction/Delayed Gratification

College Money

Monday:

Revision Notes

Work on Portfolio Revision Worksheet

"How Can We Duplicate" revision is due
ONLY IF you are interested in using this essay as your final, final essay. This gives me time to respond and you time to revise it.

If you KNOW you are revising a different essay, (N &D or TWIF) Revised "How Can We Duplicate" Essay is not due until THURSDAY.

Either way, it's 40 points.

Tuesday: MLADM2K8R1, Revision Worksheet due.

Wednesday: Peer Editing—either cover letter or final, final draft.

Thursday: MLADM2K8R2: The Reckoning. Plus: Revised "How Can We Duplicate" Essay due.

Friday: Last Day of class, Cover Letter Due

Monday (June 9^th): Second Chance essays due by noon.

What we can do to increase mobility?

Pick and choose from all three books

1. What can the government do? Why do we like this answer?
   
2. What can the culture do?
   
3. What is up to the individual?
   
4. What can't we duplicate?
   
5. What's wrong with saying: Marriage
   
   1. Why are we afraid of saying, Get married?
      
6. What's wrong with saying: Public Housing/Childcare/Transportation
   
   1. Why are we cheap on these issues?
      
   2. Where would the money come from?
      

      
      

These will be form your thesis and should be your topic sentences.

Then, as secondary support, use examples from the texts to show how these ideas would have/do help actual people on the bottom rung. (Angela Whitiker, Juan Peralta, Holly, Gail, Barbara Ehrenreich etc)

MLA In text and Works Cited expected in revised draft.