Notes on How to do Well in this Class

but i'm just no good at english!

First, let me be honest. English 1 (now called English 101) was not my most-brilliant class. I was a physics major and mainly read comic books and science fiction novels. I was always OK in English classes (heaven knows we were drilled and drilled and drilled since first grade), but math/science (oh, and art) were my strong suits.

I switched to English in my sophomore year of college for three reasons:

1. I learned I was actually pretty good at it, especially when I stopped writing dull, formulaic papers and tried to add some writing tricks to my toolbox that I saw real (professional) writers doing.

2. I had a fantastic English teacher who showed us it was OK to love The Beatles and intensely-complex poetry at the same time.

3. I had back-to-back-to-back really lifeless science classes.

Looking over my list, I realize that reason 2 was the most important, but both 1 and 2 helped me realize that if I focused on English and stopped writing like a robot, I could do some really snazzy things with my writing. Yes, it also meant I was now reading a much wider variety of things, and whenver I saw some really neat turn or phrase or creative use of language or thought-provoking passage, I stole that technique and tried to work it into my own style. Some I kept; many I later tossed. The point is that I paid attention, tried new things, started to write like real writers. It required no genius. It required a lot of work. I'm still working on it, and that English 1 class was in 1970.

Reasons 2 and 3, well, I can't really teach you those. You either really enjoy a teacher and a class, or you don't.

Reason 1, however, is different. There are lots of ways to get better and more confident with your reading and writing both. The first method is one you do not want to hear (read): you must practice, practice, practice. If you are not reading, you are not finding writers you wish you could write like. If you don't figure out what you like about certain writing (yes, even comic books and science fiction), you can't try to work those things into your style. If you don't try to work them into your style (yes, even doing it badly many times), it won't happen.

A lot of the rules about essay writing you were taught are, well, frankly, probably wrong. No, the stuff about where to put the comma and when to use a semi-colon and how to check for fragments--that stuff is probably all right. That is mechanics. It is learning to turn a screw with a power screwdriver. It is not the car or the house or the robot (or the essay) you are bulding.

oh yeah, sez who?

Sez me. And, yes, I know that is a misspelling; I borrowed it from Popeye. Here is one thing most of my students have been taught (at least since the late 20th century) that is, well, wrong:

Essays should be five paragraphs long. Paragraph 1 contains the thesis statement that has been broken down into three sub-topics. Paragraph 2 talks about sub-topic 1. Paragraph 3 talks about sub-topic 2. Paragraph 4 talks about sub-topic 3. Paragraph 5 summarizes the paper and re-states the thesis in different words.

That is nonsense. No writer writes like that. That formula was designed to teach beginning writers organization and unity and thesis support. But it is a formula that you will not find in real writing. It is a remedial tool. Now it does have its place. If you are doing an essay exam for a final, and your brain fritzes out, you can always fall back on the formula and grind it out and probably get a passing grade. It will definitely not make you "good at English" and not earn you high marks in English 101.

I know, now some of you are kind of panicked. Don't Panic! I won't leave you all with no guidance.

And I will be honest (that's how I roll). I am not going to turn you into a genius writer. You may already be one, but I didn't do that; you did. I will give you some new patterns (yes, sort of like formulae but much more flexible). They are not really all that hard, and they leave you wide open for creativity. Most of my students pass; many pass with high marks. The ones who do not do well generally do not do the work. So of course thhey are "not good at English"; they are actually not DOING English.

here is what you need to know to do well in this class:

• You do have to do the work, so if there is a lecture and some reading listed on the Class Schedule, read those at the beginnig of the week and take notes (more on that in Lecture 1). Why do you need those at the beginning of the week? The things you do later in the week depend on you KNOWING them already.

• Read instructions very, very carefully. I give you a whole lot of information and instructions/directiosn. So if you are instructed to print something out and have it in front of you as a reference when you do a paper, well, print it out and refer to it. If you can't (maybe you do not have a printer), then at least save that file somewhere handy so that you can refer to it. And then refer to it.

• Meet the due dates. Sure, this is an asynchronous, online course, but the method I use in English 101 is called "scaffolding," which means Thing 2 builds on Thing 1, so if you did not get Thing 1 done on time, you can't really do Thing 2 properly. Due dates are not optional.

• Stay organized by bookmarking/favorite-ing the Class Schedule. Links to just about everything in the class are there; you need to refer to this multiple times every week (well, unless we are on vacation).

• Do not guess. Ask questions if you have questions. I am happy to answer them.

• Always look at the Student Samples I put in the Files section on Canvas. These are models for you, and none of them are beyond what you can do.

• Try new things within the requirements of the assignments. Practice.

Oh sure, there's more. Obviously you should not procrastinate or just ignore instructions because you don't "feel" them or just phone in a half-hearted paper assuming it's "good enough." But, really, if you actually follow that list, you should do quite well.

ok, so that gets you through corbally's class successfully, but what then?

Well, you will tell me a couple of years from now. Most of my students say they get into CSUDH or Berkeley or Penn State or (?) and find that they write better than most of the students there. Again, you will let me know, I'm sure :)

But there are lots of other kinds of writing; this is just Freshman Composition, after all. But you can apply that "here is what you need to know to do well in this class" list above to just about any class.