University
Composition and Communication I
Discussion
Questions
(Answers must be at
least 100 words)
Week 1 DQ 1: Review the information provided in Ch.6 of Writing for Success. Do you think that paying attention to your
audience, purpose, and content improves the influence of your writing? Why or why not?
Week 1 DQ 2: Consider the audience in the following
scenarios:
·
A
news story that discusses the advantages and disadvantages of homes schooling
in a local newspaper.
·
A
letter from a school administrator to the parents of school-aged children that
discusses the advantages and disadvantages of home schooling.
How
do these messages differ? Why would it
be important to consider your audience in each situation? How does this apply to your academic writing?
Week 1 DQ 3: A good method of gathering information is to
ask questions to determine the purpose of any communication. What questions might you need answered before
writing an academic essay? Why?
Week 1 DQ 4: A good paragraph has three key parts, one of
which is a topic sentence. What do you
think world be the reaction of a reader if the topic sentences in an essay did
not align with the supporting points?
Why?
Week 1 DQ 5: Identify a serious error you find challenging
to overcome I your own writing. What
method will you use to avoid this error?
Would you recommend the method to others? Why or why not?
Week 2 DQ 1:
Is your past writing different from what you anticipate you will be
doing in this course? In what ways? Do you think your writing will improve as a
result of this course? Why or why not?
Week 2 DQ 2:
Review the steps in the prewriting phase of essay writing. How important do you think prewriting is to
the success of an essay? Can you skip
the prewriting phase? Why or why not?
Week 2 DQ 3:
Which step in the writing process do you think will be easiest for you
to complete? Which step may be the most
difficult? Why?
Week 2 DQ 4:
What are the key components to writing a five-paragraph academic essay?
Week 2 DQ 5:
What lessons on subject-verb agreement and verb tenses have you learned
that will change the way you write? How
will these lessons improve your writing?
Week 3 DQ 1:
In what situations are compare-and-contrast essays effective? When would that style be ineffective? What is the difference? Explain.
Week 3 DQ 2:
There are two basic organizational methods for a compare-and-contrast
essay. Do you think one is stronger
method, or are they situational? Why?
Week 3 DQ 3:
Review Ch. 10., Section 9.3, of Writing
for Success. Everyone has
biases. Biases are not always negative;
they can help you construct a strong argument.
How can a bias negatively affect your essay? What can you do to prevent this?
Week 3 DQ 4:
The use of the first-person I
in academic writing has been a source of debate. How do you feel about using I in an academic essay? What issue
arises with the use of I in an
academic essay, and how can you prevent it?
Week 3 DQ 5:
Many spelling errors may be eliminated by using spell check, but spell
check will not catch a correctly spelled wrong word, such as to, too,
and two, or their, there, and they’re. Do you have any strategies to
ensure you will not make these kinds of mistakes? If you do, what are they, and
how well do you think they will work? If you do not have a strategy, why not?
Week 4 DQ 1: What are some of the prewriting techniques
you have used? How and why did they
work? If they did not work, what do you
think you will do differently this time?
Why?
Week 4 DQ 2: Narrowing a topic can be challenging. You may make a topic so narrow or so broad
that it loses relevance or appeal. What
are the qualities for a good topic? How
will you make sure the topic you choose is relevant and interesting?
Week 4 DQ 3: What questions might you ask yourself about
your chosen topic during your brainstorming process to make it better? How do these questions help?
Week 4 DQ 4: Commas and apostrophes are particularly
challenging for a new writers to use correctly.
What strategies do you apply to minimize errors when using commas and
apostrophes in your writing?
Week 4 DQ 5: Comma placement may completely change the
meaning of a sentence. What can you do
to ensure your comma use helps you communicate clearly?
Week 5 DQ 1: What components are needed to develop a clear
and concise thesis statement?
Week 5 DQ 2: Why do you think it is important for a thesis
statement to be only one declarative sentence with 25 words or fewer? Do you agree or disagree with this writing
technique?
Week 5 DQ 3: Chapter 9, Section 1, of Writing for Success explains how to write an effective thesis
statement. What two key ideas have you
learned in the reading this week that will help you write an effective thesis
statement?
Week 5 DQ 4: How can you ensure you are using pronouns
correctly? Elaborate on how correct
pronoun use will help your writing in the future.
Week 5 DQ 5: How would you teach an English as a Second
Language student how to use who
versus whom?
Week 6 DQ 1:
Are there any instances in your personal or professional life when you
create or use an outline? How is this
useful?
Week 6 DQ 2:
Writing an effective essay involves developing an outline, planning
topic sentences, and identifying supporting points. How will you use these three concepts in
planning and writing your final essay?
Week 6 DQ 3:
Writers need to organize their ideas in a way that makes sense. Chapter 9, Section 3 of Writing for Success discusses way to organize ideas. What are three ways to organize ideas in
writing? How will you organize your
ideas in your essay? Why?
Week 6 DQ 4:
Inexperienced writers often try to skip the earlier stages of writing
where you generate ideas and plan your paper.
But when they do, they usually struggle composing their first
draft. What advice would you give to a
developing writer about brainstorming ideas and planning the overall quality of
any essay? What would you use to justify
your position?
Week 6 DQ 5:
Is there one single most effective way to organize the supporting points
in your essay? If so, what is it, and
why? If not, how will you decide how to
organize your essay, and why?
Week 7 DQ 1:
Identify an introductory technique that could be used to grab the
reader’s attention and showcase the main idea.
Why did you select this technique?
Where would it be useful? Where
might it not work?
Week 7 DQ 2:
The Electronic Reserve Reading for this week, “Bare Bones Guide to Good
Introductions,” state that an effective introduction must “make use of
psychology” (p20). What do you think the
author meant?
Week 7 DQ 3:
What do good manners look like in an introduction? How important are they? Why?
Week 7 DQ 4:
Given the basic guidelines for creating an effective conclusion, what
method do you think will fit your topic the most effectively? Why did you select this method?
Week 7 DQ 5:
Review the essay checklist on Guidelines for Writing Academic
Papers. What elements in the check list
will you focus on the most while completing your draft? Why?
Week 8 DQ 1: As you revise your essay, what important
components should you look for?
Week 8 DQ 2: What is the difference between revising and
editing? Which do you struggle with the
most? Why is it difficult to do both at
once? Which should be done first and
why?
Week 8 DQ 3: Is it important to be objective when
receiving feedback? Can you
objectivity-or lack of it-affect your use of feedback when revising your rough
draft? How, and why?
Week 8 DQ 4: There is no science to how long paragraphs
should be. What techniques do you use,
or will you use to ensure that your paragraphs are an appropriate length?
Week 8 DQ 5: What are some common transitions? How do transitions help with the flow of an
academic essay? Do certain transitions
affect the main point of your essay? Why
or why not?
Week 9 DQ 1: What types or sources of feedback do you find
most effective as you work toward completing your final paper? Why?
Week 9 DQ 2: Which university resources have you been
using to help you be a more effective student?
How might those resources help you be more effective in your next
course?
Week 9 DQ 3: What steps will you take to ensure that your
writing continues to improve throughout your college experience?
Week 9 DQ 4: Which part of the writing process was easiest
for you? Why? Which part was the most difficult? Why?
Week 9 DQ 5: Imagine you have a friend that will be
starting this course in the next week or so.
What advice would you give to her or him? What things might you do differently if you
were just starting the course, knowing what you know now?
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