My idea for this page involves posting PowerPoint presentations that I’ve created in PDF format. If anyone wants to use or adapt a presentation for their class, feel free to contact me for the original format. When I tested the links, I notice that it takes about 30 seconds or more (depending on your browser) for the media file to appear. I tested these in Firefox (version 19.0.2) and Chrome (version 25.0.1364.172), for what it’s worth.
Research and Documentation
In this series of presentations, the emphasis on accurate documentation is tied to the greater emphasis on academic integrity. Learning to work with sources is a challenge on several levels. First students need to understand what the sources are saying. When using these sources in their papers, students also need to determine to what extent they will utilize these sources. Research is not about stringing together a bunch of quotes; it’s about entering a “conversation.” My instruction on documentation invariably is qualified by my insistence that students not let their own “voice” be eclipsed by the voices of their sources. It’s a fine line I’m asking them to walk, I know.
Avoiding Accidental Plagiarism Using and Acknowledging Sources PDF
Comment: The information compiled here may not be necessary, but I included it anyway.
Comment: This was a course-specific presentation, having to do with creating a certain kind of citation that students were using on their research essays one semester.
Comment: The focus of “Leaving a Paper Trail” is on how to create a working bibliography, as well as an annotated bibliography.
Reading, Writing, and Analysis
The presentations collected here represent the emphasis on critical reading skills, which is probably an over-used term but will suffice for now.
Comment: The Information Diet presentation is tied with my first-week project (see details here).
Comment: There are actually two presentations contained in this presentation. Slides 1-12 focus on strategies for questioning a text; the rest of the presentation, beginning with slide 13, focuses on the three classical rhetorical appeals (ethos, logos, and pathos).
Comment: This presentation builds on the previous presentation, focusing specifically on the classical appeals of ethos and pathos.
Argument
This collection of presentations introduces students to argument as a genre, which is the focus of my English 100 curriculum. It’s interesting to get students to begin contemplating the distinction between argument and debate, and to encourage them to consider the possibility that an argument can be a positive exchange of ideas rather than an unpleasant, emotionally-charged encounter. In fact, as a way of setting the stage for the discussions to come, I like to introduce the concept of arguing from the standpoint of how not to argue, using as an illustration segments from All in the Family. For more on this, go to Media, where I’ve assembled some YouTube clips of the Bunker family in action.
Visual Argument
I prepared the following two slide shows as part of an introduction to an assignment in which students were required to analyze a visual argument. This can be an interesting assignment but it involves introducing students to some of the concepts involved in design (type, space, color) and analysis of graphics. Our text covers this material briefly, but I felt it might be helpful to supplement the text with these presentations.
Writing Instruction
Description: In this presentation, I discuss the features of a basic paragraph (unity, development, coherence), topic sentences, and primary support. A “basic” paragraph is analyzed, with discussion of structure and support. Students are introduced to the importance of secondary support using the acronym (FRIED). The original basic paragraph which has been “FRIED” is presented with the additional secondary support.
Moving From Paragraph to Essay
Description: In this presentation, students are introduced to the structure of a basic essay.
Description: In this presentation, I review the characteristics of a thesis statement, go over how to narrow a thesis statement (using the illustration of a whole pie vs. a slice of pie), provide a simple formula for creating a “content-rich” thesis statement, discuss common errors when crafting a thesis statement, and provide practice thesis statements for students to improve using the principles discussed in the presentation.
Grammar Instruction
I created or updated the following PowerPoint presentations during the Fall 2016 Semester. Most of the material is adapted from the text Inside Writing: A Writer’s Workbook (Form A), by William Salomone, Stephen McDonald, and Martin Japtok (8th edition).
Chapter 1 Intro Naming the Parts
Chapter 1 Section One All about Verbs
Chapter 1 Section Two About Modifiers
Chapter 2 Section 1 Clauses Understanding Sentence Patterns
Chapter 2 Section 2 Sentence Patterns
Chapter 2 Section 2 Clauses as Modifiers Continued
Chapter 3 Section 1 Participial and Infinitive Phrases
Chapter 3 Sections 2 and 3 Adjective Clauses, Appositives, Dangling Modifiers