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Copyright (C) 2008-2009 David B. Axelrod |
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HELPFUL LINKS |
INTRODUCTION TO ADVANCED EXPOSITORY
WRITING It’s delightful to be teaching you this term. We both are lucky! For me, this doesn’t feel like work and I get paid pretty well. For you, I hope, you get to do some good writing and get not just credit, but what should be some helpful edits/suggestions, and hey, I’m rooting for you to get a high grade! Poetry, as you can see from my being the reigning Suffolk Poet Laureate, is my art form. I have an essay on our course website about how writing poetry is a great training ground for prose writers. However, I’m not trying to convert you. This is an essay course—non-fiction prose writing—and I’m sure I’ve written far more “essay” than poetry over a long career. In fact, this term alone, I’m teaching composition and technical writing in addition to creative writing. All forms of writing is what I do, and if I write poetry for the love of it, I’ll write just about anything else for money! You will have a fair amount of freedom to pick your topics this term, even as I plan to teach you a particular strategy for writing. That is, I’m happy to let you explore whatever content pleases you. You should do your writing willingly and with pleasure. However, just as there are standards for accuracy and grammar, there are certain expectations that go with specific essay tasks. Your grade will never be the result of my imposing a set of values on you. You won’t be graded off for undertaking a certain topic or for taking any particular side of an argument. You will be expected to meet the standards of good writing, both by following the form being taught and properly proofing your work. To give you more latitude, the only textbook I am assigning is the Essential Handbook of Style (available in SCC Selden bookstore). I could have picked from a vast selection of essay anthologies, most of which are over-priced because they are sold as textbooks. Instead, I suggest that you read the New York Times, which, daily, has wonderful feature essays, and on weekends has an exemplary magazine. Read The New Yorker and other more “literary” magazines. Read and assimilate the essay styles of authors who have established reputations, not just in contemporary media but in our past. The literature is vast—so vast that, I am truly and humbly offering you a selection of my own essays even as I beg you to read much more. Good readers make good writers. Don’t think of it as homework, but rather, devote yourself to learning the craft by making this the semester you read a lot of essays! As for the mechanics of the course itself, I have assigned you three essays but to one—after it is written—I’m asking you to go back and add some research materials to complete what becomes a separate assignment. Thus, you will have three grades, plus your workshop contributions, the average of which determine your final grade. The links explain all this in detail. What I want you to do here is consider your own motivation in taking the course. If you just want three easy credits, I can’t imagine this could be any easier. You write, email me, get comments back. Tada! Three credits. But there is the constant, background precaution: You have to make an honest effort. It’s an advanced course. Please don’t send me anything appears sloppy—unproofed, heedless of form, just not what was assigned. Finally, in this introduction and as you read the links and lessons, you should begin to sense what, alas, is not paranoia on my part regarding research and use of sources, but a genuine skepticism in that one area which I have regarding my students. It isn’t negativity—I don’t think badly of you. Rather, years of teaching have convinced me that most students have either never learned, or worse, have been misdirected when it comes to the proper use of sources. Thus, I don’t even allow you to do research for most of what you write. The first essay is an argument entirely of your own creation—with examples you, yourself, provide. The second essay is a true story about yourself—only from your own experience. Even your final, required essay, should not be a source paper! Please, let's just experience our personal writings without concern for misuse of sources. In that regard, any misuse of sources will likely result in your withdrawal from the course. In fact, if I find any intentional misuse of source material—plagiarism—that is genuinely malicious, it you will flunk the paper, flunk the course, and further, I will recommend you for expulsion from the college! Remember, anything you can find on the internet, I am likely to find. The college even provides professors with search engines to find papers that are sold to college students. Please, for all our sakes, don’t even think of going there! Let me end on a positive note. I began by saying I was delighted to be teaching you this course. I, myself, plan to do a lot of expository writing this term. I’ll be sharing work with you—from the publication, soon, of some of my writing, to events where I speak &/or perform. I hope to share my work with you personally. You can see a list of many of my activities where we could meet and talk: www.writersunlimited.org/laureate/eventschedule.htm.
You also have other links to my other websites where I’ve written essays and
lessons. The writer’s life is a happy one—full of possibilities. Should you
wish to sell your writing, there is a burgeoning freelance opportunity. Should
you wish to give your own work a public airing, there are many open microphones
and groups that would enjoy meeting and hearing you. Let’s have a great term.
Good luck in all your creative endeavors! |