TIps for Conclusions

Here's a great site over at Harvard on writing conclusions. It's a little over a page, but there's much to learn from reading through it. In case you don't get through it (or don't want to), you might want to bookmark it just the same. Regardless of what you do with it, I'm going to go over a few of these points in class tomorrow and give some examples on how to each tactic might be approached.

Junot Diaz

I went to see Junot Diaz yesterday and let me tell you guys something, he is no ordinary author who bores you with their advance vocabulary. He knew how to grab the audience attention which surprised me because I thought he was just going to talk nonstop about writing or himself. But he proved me wrong.
Junot came on stage and spoke a bit and then read one his short stories called, Alma. Then he went to questions and answer discussion. Finally, he read a part from The Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Who ever didn't go, you missed out. His words were inspiring.
 -Melissa R.
[he signed my book : ) ]

New Junot Diaz story up at the New Yorker

Diaz's new short story is called "Miss Lora." You can find it here (It's free. For now...).

Essay 4, Due 4/23

In a well-developed essay, choose a person you admire and compare them with Oscar Wao. This admired person can be real or fictitious. In other words, you may compare Wao to any superhero, villain, cartoon or movie character (this includes anime, graphic novels, role-playing and/or videos games, etc). Be sure to first identify and isolate specific points of comparison that you will use to illustrate how each is similar or different, and then use these points as the basis of your comparison.

Please use a minimum of 4 sources (less than four will receive a grade of No Credit) These sources must be integrated throughout your essay in MLA in-text citations and gathered in a correctly formatted MLA Works Cited page.

Due Date: Monday, April 23.

Should college be for everyone?

Some tough questions, here.

[Source: http://www.theysayiblog.com/]

The above link discusses a NYTimes article, here.

Indispensable Essay Tips for ENG1101

In case you've ever found yourself asking what might detract from that A paper, here's a quick reminder of some common formatting requirements that you might overlook:

1) An MLA Works Cited page

2) MLA in-text citations

3) 600-750 words

4) Double-spaced

5) Stapled

6) 5 paragraphs (Minimum. This is a guideline.)

7) Has a strong thesis (Remember, think of this as what you're saying in response to what "they say" (whoever "they" is))

8) Handed in on time

9) Fulfills the assignment
-answers the question fully
-doesn't flagrantly wander off topic/turn into a paper whose aim is completely foreign to the actual assignment