We worked on the tentative working thesis and supporting points. The instructor took the topics of three separate students and wrote examples of working thesis statements on the overhead. The working thesis statements were derived from the students' original research question.
Next the instructor asked students to review their working thesis statement and the sources they had turned up and which were on the AWC. She asked them to list three points they could prove to support the working thesis. Later, this work was translated into a plan for writing the first two pages and the definition section of the assignment for the next week.
We worked on poetry. The instructor talked about how poetry is concise and intensified. We analyzed Ezra Pound's poem about The Metro. She talked about how one has to get the "cruxes" out in order to understand the poem.
We went to the lab and students typed up their work plan for the week and the instructor reviewed and edited it. In addition, students listed terms for which they had to prepare definitions.
The instructor asked students to put their source for everything they wrote next to where they took it by noting the author's last name. Next week she will show students how to do MLA internal text citation.
Next Week:
Have first half of "How to Read a Poem" read (see link at left, toward bottom)
Write two pages of Point 1 of research paper
Write definitions section
Read Lester, Ch. 3
Work in Langan. Next week the instructor will record completed chapters
