Introduction

Introduction to English 100

As you can see from the title of your textbook, the focus of English 100 (Expository Writing I) is threefold: writing, communities, and identities. As this is a writing class, you will be asked, of course, to do quite a bit of writing. We will use writing to express thought, to work through ideas, to communicate with others, and to respond to peers’ work. Writing, then, is our primary subject. Throughout the semester, however, you will also be asked to explore how identities are created, interpreted, addressed, and represented. You will also work to better understand how your own many social identities position you within a number of communities—communities marked by gender, race, and socioeconomic class, as well as more geographically situated communities, such as the larger K-State community. As you enter ENGL 100, you also join a community of writers made up of you and your peers within this particular class, as well as the other thousand-plus students taking ENGL 100 this semester at K-State.

As part of this process, you will be asked to re-think and re-consider some commonly held assumptions about topics concerning human identity and diversity, hence the “re” in the textbook title. At the heart of education is the act of contemplating new information, often information that might not immediately support those ideas we’ve already formed. But it’s important to be able to consider new perspectives and recognize that not everyone sees the world as you do. This is not to say that to be successful in this class you need to change your views; instead, you need only be open to considering alternative viewpoints as potentially valid. We ask, then, simply that you enter into conversations with your peers, with your instructor, and with the various texts you’ll encounter with an open mind and a willingness to listen. We’ll work hard this semester to truly listen to others, especially to those with whom we disagree.

What do we mean by human identity and difference? This semester, you will be reading and writing about issues such as gender, socioeconomic class, race, and ethnicity. While you might have discussed such issues in your high school classes, and while you are likely discussing them in some of your other college courses, complex topics such as identity and human difference are never “done” or “solved.” It’s important that we continue to think about and discuss such issues throughout our lives, deepening and complicating our earlier understandings with new information and experience.

You might be wondering why we’re discussing such topics in a writing class. On the one hand, addressing these relevant issues reflects K-State’s commitment to diversity and meets the university’s diversity undergraduate learning outcome. Additionally, understanding human difference is crucial to the act of writing itself, as no one writes within a vacuum. Instead, writers need to imagine audiences and readers who are different from themselves. Writing, as an act of communication, is, itself, an attempt to reach out across differences—differences in viewpoint, attitude, knowledge, experience, and values—and these differences are often influenced by gender, race, class, sexual orientation, ethnicity, age, size, religion, ability, degree of able- bodiedness, and even geographical location. All of these factors impact how we make meaning, as well as how we are, ourselves, interpreted by others. Better understanding of various perspectives, then, helps us all to communicate with those who might differ or disagree with us. More productive communication across difference is one of the over-arching goals of any writing class.

Throughout the rest of this introductory chapter, you’ll learn more about the kinds of writing you’ll be asked to do in this class, the overall objectives and expectations, and about what we mean when we talk about revision. But first, a note about this textbook itself. As you might have already noticed, (Re)Writing Communities and Identities has been developed specifically for the ENGL 100 class here at Kansas State University. All of the readings, questions, activities, and assignments are crafted to help you meet this course’s major objectives, and many of the examples you find throughout this text are K-State specific. The examples of student writing, too, are from current and former K-State students who wrote these pieces for their ENGL 100 classes. This K-State focus is one thing that makes this book somewhat different than many of your other texts.

Strategies for Expository Writing Students

At the start of every semester, when I am teaching writing classes, I begin with these types of questions to get a sense of my students’ attitudes, rituals, and experiences with writing:

• What one word or phrase would you use to describe your attitude towards writing?
• Where do you usually write?
• How do you usually write? (and, How do you usually get started to write?)
• What writing rituals do you have?
• What was your last major writing task?
• What type of writing do you like to do most?
• What was a positive (and/or negative) experience with writing?

Though my students’ responses may differ from one class to the next, some generalizations I can make about the attitudes and practices related to writing are the following: not surprisingly, students report feeling more engaged with their work when they are writing about something that they are interested in; another generalization is that students may have put little thought into their writing process before; they show a tendency to wait a long time before getting started and then use the pressure and stress of the looming deadline to motivate them. A final generalization is that many students may consider revision as an opportunity to edit and “clean up” or “fix” their writing.

There are justifications for supporting these three generalizations about writing, the most important of which being that these writing processes and attitudes have proven successful in the past; in other words, students who have waited before the deadline to begin writing and who have not, therefore, considered revision, have successfully completed their written assignments.

Yet, here is the bad news: There may come a time, especially in your college career, when this writing-at-the-last-second strategy may not be successful and may not allow you to complete something that you are proud of.

The good news is this: As you’ll discover in your expository writing classes, strategies exist that you can use to give yourself more time to write effectively and to reduce the stress surrounding writing. You’ll be practicing several of these strategies throughout this semester.

Pre-Writing & Drafting

I come across students every semester who describe their writing process as “thinking” and then “writing up” their thoughts. Again, though this two-part process may have been successful for them in the past, there may be a time—in particular with more complicated writing tasks—when this process will no longer be effective.

A great deal of research exists from practicing writers and researchers who demonstrate the importance of producing short and focused pre-writing bursts to enable them to get a better grasp over what they are writing about. In other words, these writers find that they cannot “think”—they cannot figure out where they are going in a draft—without first having written a lot. This type of pre-writing or early drafting is rarely shared with others, and it may take the shape of listing, clustering, brainstorming, and freewriting; additionally, many readers find that they need to research and read before they can start writing.

What these pre-writing and drafting opportunities allow is for you to begin writing earlier, before the stress of the deadline. They also allow you to distribute your writing across many short bursts. You may find it more productive to write in several twenty-minute chunks throughout the week rather than allocating a four-hour time window in which to get your entire draft completed.

These pre-writing experiences, finally, may help you redefine research and revision. You may discover that research, for example, occurs throughout the writing process, as you may need to find other people’s voices on the Internet or through the library databases to learn more about your issue or conversation. Similarly, you may find that revision occurs constantly: you’ll be starting, and then re-starting, changing, adapting, moving, rewriting, and editing and proofreading throughout your writing process.

Internal Deadlines

Your instructor will provide you with a deadline for the assignment. Given that deadline, you’ll want to work backwards, giving yourself time for a final session devoted to editing and proofreading, during which you’ll want to make sure to reread your work carefully and slowly. Before then, you’ll want to establish dates for finalizing a rough draft (a draft different from the one you give to your instructor), sharing your work with other readers, conducting research and taking notes (which should occur over several sessions), and completing other prewriting or drafting activities.

Your expository writing class may give you some of this structure, which a student of mine recently labeled as “building in accountability.” Again, the overall goal with creating internal deadlines for yourself is to begin writing earlier, enabling yourself more time to submit something that you will be proud of.

Consistent Rituals

Here is how I write: I crash through quick, almost scribbled drafts by hand (on scratch paper, usually with pencil) after an extensive period of note-taking. Directly before this first, “crash through” draft, I’ve taken a second round of notes on notes that I have already taken earlier. I work in short bursts—rarely longer than an hour and oftentimes in twenty minutes. I then wait for a day or more, go back to my crash-through drafts and, on my laptop—usually in the same space in my living room or basement—I then extensively revise and create a rough draft. Again, as I’m usually working on longer pieces, I write in short bursts and can only manage a couple of pages at a time. I’ll revise the whole draft after I have completed all of the smaller chunks.

Talk to your friends and instructors about other writing rituals that they have and, if you don’t have any yourself, begin to cultivate a few. What you’re looking to do is finding ways to write more consistently over a longer period of time.

Instructor’s Comments

One of the most important responsibilities that your instructor has is to fairly, consistently, and constructively read and evaluate your work, which means a great deal more than just assigning a grade. Of course, you’ll be interested in your grade, but do consider your instructor’s marginal comments and final comments. These can be some of the most important moments of interaction going on between you and your instructor; in your academic and professional life, it will also be one of the few times in which you receive so much thoughtful feedback from a reader.

After you have received your assignment back, spend some time re-reading it and, at the same time, making sense of your instructor’s comments. As the paper you are working on is yours— and not your instructor’s—you don’t necessarily need to act and respond to every bit of feedback, yet you should get a strong idea as to how another reader is interpreting your work. Where was your instructor confused, and what can you do to guide your readers more on the revised draft? Where was your instructor pointing out that more research, explanation, or development could occur?

In short, an important aspect of your experience in expository writing is your ability to develop the ability to reflect and read your writing from another reader’s perspective.

Peer-Review Workshops

In your expository writing classes, you’ll experience peer-review workshops, when you are asked to bring a draft that you share with your classmates. There are several benefits for participating in a peer-review workshop, the first being that you are meeting one of your internal deadlines and getting more writing done before it is due. Obviously, as a writer, you’ll get the opportunity to hear different perspectives on your draft and gain, hopefully, some important revision advice. At the same time, as a reader, you’ll look at examples of how other students are attempting to interpret the assignment; consequently, you’ll be able to internalize the assignment goals and criteria more.

Concluding Thoughts

There are other, productive strategies that you can explore, such as seeking out additional readers of your work, visiting your instructor when you have questions or concerns, or signing up for an appointment with the Writing Center. Keep on experimenting with new processes and rituals this semester in your expository writing classes.

Undergraduate Student Learning Outcomes^[1]

Kansas State University strives to create an atmosphere of intellectual curiosity and growth, one in which academic freedom, breadth of thought and action, and individual empowerment are valued and flourish. We endeavor to prepare citizens who will continue to learn and will contribute to the societies in which they live and work.

Students share in the responsibility for a successful university educational experience. Upon completion of their degree and regardless of disciplinary major, undergraduates are expected to demonstrate ability in at least five essential areas.

Knowledge

Students will demonstrate a depth of knowledge and apply the methods of inquiry in a discipline of their choosing, and they will demonstrate a breadth of knowledge across their choice of varied disciplines.

Critical thinking

Students will demonstrate the ability to access and interpret information, respond and adapt to changing situations, make complex decisions, solve problems, and evaluate actions.

Communication

Students will demonstrate the ability to communicate clearly and effectively.

Diversity

Students will demonstrate awareness and understanding of the skills necessary to live and work in a diverse world

Academic and professional integrity

Students will demonstrate awareness and understanding of the ethical standards of their academic discipline and/or profession.

Principles of Community^[2]

Kansas State University is a land-grant, public research university, committed to teaching and learning, research, and service to the people of Kansas, the nation, and the world. Our collective mission is best accomplished when every member of the university community acknowledges and practices the following principles:

We affirm the inherent dignity and value of every person and strive to maintain an atmosphere of justice based on respect for each other.

We affirm the right of each person to freely express thoughts and opinions in a spirit of civility and decency. We believe that diversity of views enriches our learning environment and we promote open expression within a climate of courtesy, sensitivity, and mutual respect.

We affirm the value of human diversity for community. We confront and reject all forms of prejudice and discrimination, including those based on race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs, economic status, or any other differences that have led to misunderstandings, hostility, and injustice.

We acknowledge that we are a part of the larger Kansas community and that we have an obligation to be engaged in a positive way with our civic partners.

We recognize our individual obligations to the university community and to the principles that sustain it. We will each strive to contribute to a positive spirit that affirms learning and growth for all members of the community.

Your Roles as a Student in an Academic Community

Now that you have joined Kansas State University as a student, you are part of a larger intellectual community: students, instructors, and professors are researching, creating, and sharing knowledge and ideas. For instructors and professors, ideas are their livelihood. In a university environment—also known as academia—ideas are considered intellectual property. Therefore, as members of this academic community you need to be respectful and responsible with another’s ideas and give credit where credit is due. To help you respectfully work with outside ideas in your papers, we will be learning how to cite sources in this course. In addition, in an intellectual community, you need to make sure that all of the work you do for all of your classes is your own. You can review the Kansas State University Honor Code in the Student Life Handbook.

A Word on Plagiarism…

The Council of Writing Program Administrators defines plagiarism as something that “occurs when a writer deliberately uses someone else’s language, ideas, or other original (not common- knowledge) material without acknowledging its source.”

Your Student Life Handbook also includes definitions of plagiarism and gives you advice for when you need to “acknowledge indebtedness”:

• Whenever you quote another person’s actual words
• Whenever you use another person’s idea, opinion, or theory, even it if is completely paraphrased in your own words
• Whenever you borrow facts, statistics, or other illustrative material—unless the information is common knowledge (William W. Watt, An American Rhetoric 8)

Talk to your instructor if you have any questions on how to cite properly. Please also check K- State’s Honor & Integrity System website for more information: www.k-state.edu/honor.

If it is proven that you have deliberately plagiarized a paper in an Expository Writing class, the Honor Council will be notified. Consequences could be severe, including failure of the class, required enrollment in a Development and Integrity course, or, in particularly severe offenses, expulsion from the university.

The Writing Process

Many people seem to think of writing as an individual activity. We imagine the solitary writer sitting in the back of the coffee shop, drinking espresso and furiously scribbling in his notebook. Or the novelist sitting in a dimly lit room, typing away at her keyboard. We imagine that famous writers such as Hemingway and Morrison and Faulkner simply sat down, waited for inspiration to strike, and wrote beautiful prose in one fell-swoop. In fact, Jack Kerouac (famous Beat poet and novelist) is said to have written in this way, producing what was called “spontaneous prose” that he never edited; yet, new evidence has shown that this was a myth. Kerouac, in fact, wrote multiple drafts, revised consistently and rigorously, and spent the large majority of his short adult life writing and rewriting his work. Certainly, there might be writers who write only one draft and never have readers help them revise, but the writer Anne Lamott tells her readers that every writer writes terrible first drafts. Doing so, she says “is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts.” She continues, “I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much.”^[3] Lamott’s point is clear: writing is a team sport.

Yes, of course the act of putting words on a blank page or screen is, ultimately, an individual act, unless you’re writing collaboratively (with someone else), and even then, at some point one of you is putting words on the page/screen at a time. And yet, our writing itself is influenced by the variety of voices and texts we’ve encountered throughout our lives. We bring forward those influences every time we come to the blank screen. It’s one of the reasons that author Stephen King says that “if you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all else: read a lot and write a lot.”^[4] In this class, you’ll be asked to do both: read a lot and write a lot. To read is to see what’s possible and to begin to hear the music of language; consistently writing and revising will allow you to experiment with language, to develop and hone your skills, and to push beyond your first attempts to craft words on a page.

We’ve already seen the specific kinds of writing you will be asked to do, but that’s only dealing with the form and goals of the end product. Writing, though, is a process that involves a number of recurring and recursive stages. Typically, we think of the writing process as having three stages—pre-writing, writing, and re-writing—but writing is actually more complicated than this three-part structure implies. It’s likely more helpful to think of the “pre-writing” stage as the invention or discovery stage, and it might include the thinking you do while walking or driving to campus; the conversations you have with friends or writing center consultants that help you find a topic; the research you do in order to help you learn more about your topic; the notes you scribble (and here we see how “pre-writing” often includes writing itself); the discussions you have with your classmates, teachers, and friends about your idea and/or your plans for your essay; and other discovery techniques such as outlining, drawing, charting, clustering, etc. All of these activities help you work through ideas and learn more about your topic.

Still, that shouldn’t imply that drafting itself is not also a form of thinking. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Donald Murray says that “the act of writing is a voyage into the unknown; it’s an adventure in discovering what you know, but didn’t know you knew.”^[5] As we’ll see in Nancy Sommers’ findings below, many students think of writing as transcription of thought, implying that the thinking comes first and all one has to do is put that thought onto the page. In fact, research on writing processes shows that writing actually functions as a form of thinking itself. Instead of imagining that you need to know exactly what you’re going to say and then trying to write that down, we encourage you to use writing as a mode of thinking. You’ll therefore be asked to write, at least at first, without worrying about sentence structure, word choice, or punctuation and grammar. Such writing allows you to focus, instead, on the content, and it provides you more space to simply see where the writing takes you. Within the writing process, this is generally called drafting. Some people call these early drafts first drafts, zero drafts, or discovery drafts. Don Murray calls these the “down drafts” because they are a place to just get everything down. Anne Lamott calls them “shitty first drafts” and says that you need to allow yourself to write badly at first so that you can figure out what it is you need to say. Then, when revising and rewriting, you can hone that message and determine the best way to say it.

Drafting, too, can take a number of forms, including even the physical way that writers compose: some prefer to write on a computer or laptop while others still write out early drafts in longhand. One of the things that you will be asked to do in this course is to try out different forms of invention/discovery, drafting, and revision. Often students enter college (or even leave college) believing that there’s simply one way of writing that works for them. They’ve always, for example, outlined their essays before writing them, sticking closely to that outline as they write. Some students always start with a cluster map. Other students will say that waiting until the night before an essay is due actually provides them with the motivation they need to write well. However, in this class, we will ask you to try a number of different approaches, even if they do not feel immediately natural or useful for you. The only way to learn whether or not new processes work is to try them, so we encourage you not to dismiss an activity or workshop practice simply because it’s not the way you’ve tended to write. Your current process might be working, but another approach might actually work better, or might lead you to a different kind of writing. Learning new practices and information is, of course, what education is all about.

You will also be expected to workshop your writing with your peers and to revise regularly and often. As we note above, very few writers (nearly none) write and rewrite in solitude. Instead, they write rough drafts, revise them, rewrite them, throw them out, start over again, revise again, revise again, edit, and then send their work to a member of their writing team: usually a friendly and trusted reader to start. They revise again, rewrite, revise, and edit. They then send their work to an editor (or first to a less-friendly but still trusted reader), who helps them revise again, refining their ideas and their prose until their work is as clear, tight, and engaging as they can make it. The act of writing is, really, the act of rewriting.

It’s important, then, that you understand what your writing teacher means by revision. Composition scholar Nancy Sommers is particularly helpful in this regard.^[6] To better understand how writers at different levels of experience imagine the act of revision, she interviewed first- year students at Boston University and at the University of Oklahoma, asking them to write and revise three essays, then asking them to talk about how they revised these drafts and how they understand the act of revision. Sommers also interviewed twenty experienced and professional adult writers from the same areas, having them, too, write and revise the same kinds of essays. In the table below is what the student and professional writers reported in terms of their revision processes.

As Sommers notes, there’s a stark difference in the ways that student writers and more experienced writers approach revision, and even the act of writing itself. Student writers tend to be focused on words, believing that they simply need to replace words with “better” words, or cut a few words, or add a few words or sentences. In fact, during revision workshops we often hear students tell each other that they simply need to add another sentence to a particular paragraph. While that might be true, that’s not actually revision, but is better dubbed editing.

Editing is the correcting, honing, and tightening of word choice, sentence structure, spelling, punctuation, and grammar. When we in the Expository Writing Program at K-State talk about revision, we mean something larger. We’re asking for students to re-see their work, often re- writing large chunks of text, or cutting full paragraphs or pages. We’re asking that students work toward what the experienced writers in Sommers’ study mean when they talk about revision: restructuring, finding the main thread of the idea that runs throughout the piece, shaping information more clearly for a reader, and clarifying larger concepts and ideas. Most experienced writers find that revision takes much longer than the original drafting stage.

In English 100, you will have the opportunity to revise the first three of the four major essays after you’ve received initial feedback from your instructor. While no student is required to revise their essays, all students are strongly encouraged to do so. Your instructor will provide written feedback on your essays, typically in the form of marginal and terminal (end) comments. Within our program, we ask that instructors refrain from overwhelming the page with too many comments, and we ask that they focus on what we call higher-order concerns of purpose, focus, development, and organization. You will not, therefore, tend to see instructors circling every grammar or punctuation error. Nor will your instructors tell you everything that might be improved in your essay. Instead, we ask that instructors draw your attention toward some of those higher-order concerns within your draft, helping you work toward substantial revision.

Ultimately, though, the responsibility for revising your writing is on you, the writer. You should see your instructor’s comments as a starting point for that re-envisioning and re-writing work, but you want to avoid approaching revision as a checklist in which you simply “fix” the things your instructor commented upon. Remember, when your instructors ask you to revise, they’re asking you to re-see and re-write your essay with those higher order concerns in mind, using their comments as a useful starting point, but not as an exhaustive list of the things that you need to change.

As we noted earlier, in order to help you revise your work, you’ll be participating in regular peer workshops where your classmates will read your drafts and provide verbal and/or written feedback. Students often wonder why they’re asked to workshop with their peers when the instructor is ultimately the one grading the essay. Certainly, there’s a logic to that way of thinking, but, as we’ve seen, writers need a variety of readers at different stages of their writing process. Having your peers read and respond to your work gives you an audience of real people with real informational needs. Your peers will help you identify moments in your text that are clear or confusing, interesting or a bit dull, under-developed or overly complicated. As members of your writing community, your classmates can give you real feedback geared toward the specific assignment. In this way, they can help you revise and improve your writing before your instructor grades it. Additionally, reading your peers’ writing will help you clarify the assignment guidelines as well as see the strengths and weaknesses in your own writing.

Revision Plans

Revision Plans
After you’ve completed a draft, your instructor might ask you to write a revision plan. Even if she doesn’t, revision plans are a good way to remember what you need to do in order to revise successfully. There are a number of ways to write a revision plan: a bulleted list, a narrative or letter to yourself, and a weekly or monthly schedule. Below, you’ll find examples of these three methods.

Bulleted List

• Find the focus of my essay: is it primarily about masculinity or being a guy in a fraternity?
• Cut anything that doesn’t specifically support my focus
• Add more details that illustrate my point
• Develop the connections between the details and my main
• Outline my Check for organization problems.
• Smooth out the language

Narrative/Letter

Two of my readers were confused about whether my essay is about masculinity or about being a guy in a fraternity so I need to figure out where my focus is. I think they’re probably related, but I need to focus on one of those. I’m leaning toward talking about how this particular ad shows that guys in a fraternity don’t have to act like stereotypical “guys.” I want to talk to my teacher about that, though, to make sure I’m on the right track. If that’s my focus, then I’ll need to explain what I mean by stereotypical guys and how that’s related to what most people think fraternities are like. Then I can add more examples from the ad about how it challenges that idea. One of the things I’ve been struggling with is explaining exactly how examples are showing my point, so I need to make sure I’m doing enough of that. I think I’m going to try that highlighting trick to make sure I have enough of those connecting moments.^[7]

Revision Calendar

• Monday
  • 2:00pm Finish Drafting
  • 3:30pm Class Practice citing sources
• Tuesday
  • Prepare for Workshop
  • 4:30pm Read over draft and make changes
  • 5:30pm *PRINT 3 COPIES, PLUS SOURCES!!!!
• Wednesday
  • 3:30pm Class Peer Workshop Day
  • 4:30pm Schedule appointment
    • with teacher to work on
    • Focus with the Writing Center
• Thursday
  • 9:30am Appointment with teacher
  • 11:00am Writing Center
  • 3:00pm Work on focusing my introduction and adding examples
• Friday
  • 11:30am Check my sources
  • 2:00pm Work on explaining how my examples illustrate my claim
  • 3:30pm Class 2nd Peer Workshop
• Saturday
  • AM Work more on explaining how my sources relate to my main ideas.
  • Outline my draft to check my organization