Writing II – An Introduction

Dr. Ron MartinezUniversidade Federal do Paraná

Today’s agenda

• Get to know each other• Get to know the course• Talk about features of quality writing• Examine real cases

Discuss: What makes good writing?

• Perfect grammar?• Sophisticated vocabulary?• “Style”?• Other?

What do you need for this course?

• Access to the internet• Vocabulary notebook• Perseverance!

How will you be evaluated?

• “Portfolio” assessment• e-Portfolio• Checklist of items comprising 50% of total

grade• Midterm essay (15%)• Final essay (30%)• Participation (including, for example,

vocabulary notebook) (5%)

Vocabulary notebook

• Will be collected from time to time, and will be checked regularly for updating

• If you do not have one of your own, I can supply one for you

Oral article summaries

• Main purpose: vocabulary development• Why “oral”?• Usually short (about 5 minutes)• Usually once a week• Often tied to a common theme

e-Portfolio

• Regular (usually) short writings, posted on your individual student blogs

• Generally speaking, assignments will be due weekly.

Over to you!

• Introduce yourselves• Take online quiz

Rate the paragraph (1-10)

Homework for Friday

• Download worksheet online: http://www.drronmartinez.com/writing-ii-20161.).

• Give a score to the four paragraphs.• Print and bring to class Friday.

Your turn

• Exchange emails with a classmate (preferably one you did not know already before today’s class)

• In an email to that person, write a paragraph on the following topic: “Something I am proud of”

• Copy me in the email: drronmartinez@gmail.com

Example

Something I am proud of

There are many things I am proud of in life (and probably just as many things I am not so proud of), but one I am especially proud of is how I got to become a professor of English. It all started when I was in my early twenties, when I was working for my father at his car repair business. At that time, I did not know what career path I wanted to follow, but certainly “teacher” was not among those in my short list. However, one day…