Links and ideas for class session on Oct. 15

First Class Session - Slide 16

Online Writing Lab at Purdue (General Writing)
The section on procrastination is quite good, especially if you've been struggling to get the blog posts done. The other sections are also useful.

The Inquiry Page
The U of I is a research university.  Researchers take an inquiry approach in going about learning.  Inquiry is depicted as an ongoing cycle rather than as getting to an end point.  Students in many undergraduate courses don't see such an inquiry approach. It might help students to know that we're trying for such an approach in our class.

Writing to Learn (Donald Murray)
Murray was a journalist who had a good deal of insight about how writing as a process is part and parcel of thinking and learning.  The core idea is that thinking is sequential rather than one big Gestalt.  You don't have the whole picture at first.  You work through something.  Then after a while something related occurs to you. I like to imagine a piece of paper folded many times over.  Each juncture is an unfolding. You see more of it after that.  The goal is to see as much as you can. Those who found the reflection of value did so because they saw things about the post that they didn't see while they were composing it.

Suggestions for the Blogging in the Second Half of the Course

1.  Break your post into two parts.  Part a would be a reflection about the post in the previous week, like the reflection you just did.  Part b would be writing to the current prompt.  Part a can be any length.  Part b should still satisfy the 600 word minimum requirement.  So this is not for making it easier to satisfy the requirement.  It is for making reflection a more regular part of your thinking.

2.  Write a paragraph about the prompt.  Why was it selected?  What's the purpose of the prompt?  Do this before you try to address the prompt.  Then write your post.  Go back to the paragraph and see if you still agree with what you said there or not?

3.  Consider writing to your own prompt.  This is a way to direct your own inquiry.  Do note that you need to write a paragraph in this case which ties what you are writing about to course themes.