"Unlike medicine or the other sciences, writing has no new discoveries to spring on us. We're in no danger of reading in our morning newspaper that a breakthrough has been made in how to write a clear English sentence—that information has been around since the King James Bible."

__ William Zinsser
On Writing Well

Of these last assigned chapters in Zinsser's book, Chapters 10, 21, 22, 23, 24, please select the top three ideas or tips that mean the most to you, and that have HELPED YOU BECOME A BETTER WRITER.

Post your top three with the page number and how it helped you so that your classmates can learn from you.

Due date: Friday, October 7, 2005

On October 6, from 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. there will be an event to bring awareness to violence against women, men and children.
Women's Programs at UNC Charlotte hosts the 10th annual Take Back the Night.

Please attend this event if at all possible.
Read the Camille Paglia essay, "Rape and Modern Sex War"

Please post your response to the event. Or your response to the essay. Or both.
250 words

BECOMING A MASTER OF YOUR OWN LEARNING
Crash Course by Chris Whittle
Book Excerpt: Let's Have a Student Uprising

Please read the handout given to you in class from Time Magazine. Compare the ideas in this article with the learning environments in your life. Why do you think so many students have difficulty in writing from personal experience and connecting the dots in their own history, as we've been doing it in this class?

Consider these questions and write a response to the article. 250-500 words.

Post your comment by Friday, October 7.

DUE: Sunday 9/11/05 MIDNIGHT

CONVERGENCES, introduction p. 2-21,
Dorothy Allison essay, pages 70-78.
"I still worry about what people think. That s why I have so much trouble standing still for the camer'a's lens or choosing what to wear before wallking across a stage or even biting my lips before anwering the questions put to me by reporters." pg. 77 Convergences

ASSIGNMENT: Select one of the questions under Message, Method, or Medium on p. 78: Write your response. 150+words

DUE: Sunday 9/11/05 MIDNIGHT

ON WRITING WELL
Zinsser reading assignment: Chapter 5-9, pages 25-67,

"The most important sentence in any article is the first one. It it doesn't induce the reader to proceed to the second sentence, your article is dead." p. 55

ASSIGNMENT: Find 5 superb first sentences and post them. You may use the first sentence from a novel, a chapter, an essay, a poem, a song. You may use superb sentences from your own work instead of other more famous writers!