Finding the main idea and paying attention to text features as you read helps youfigure out what you should know. Just as important, however, is being able tofigure out what you do not know and developing a strategy to deal with it
I am lead to believe that this paragraph states the main idea of the section, which will be on comprehension.
How did my instructor frame the assignment?
This is an important question to keep in mind for students, as sometimes dense text can be overwhelming, so knowing what the teacher expects us to get out of the reading lets us know what to focus on.
CNM offers resources that can help younot only with your studies but also withmanaging your responsibilities as well
This shows the reader that the school is there to help us succeed in our studies.
Position PaperStates and defends your position on an issue (often acontroversial issue)
The author defines another kind of paper commonly written in college classes, this one, I'm assuming relates to rhetoric.
SummaryRestates the main points of a longer passageobjectively and in your own words
Definition of a summary essay.
Personal Response PaperExpresses and explains your response to a readingassignment, a provocative quote, or a specific issue;may be very brief (sometimes a page or less) or morein-depth
The author defines a type of paper commonly written in college.
College courses emphasize expository writing, writing that explainsor informs
Creative writing is less common in college than in high school, which may create a problem for some of us who were taught to be very descriptive, as now we will need to be more concise in order to inform in a meaningful way. We will need to learn new writing techniques, possibly with help from this textbook, as that's why I think they brought it up.
CChapter 3: Common Writing AssignmentsPart 1: Chapter 3ollege writing assignments serve a different purpose than the typical writingassignments you completed in high school.
Serves as the "hook" in this introduction paragraph and lets us know that the chapter will likely talk about the difference between college and high school essays.
Time management, not talent, has been the secret to a lot of great writing throughthe ages. Not even a “great” writer can produce a masterpiece the night before it’sdue.
To summarize, time management is key to succeeding in a writing class.
Tips for Emailing Your InstructorAdapted from “Chapter One ” of Successful Writing, 2012, used according tocreative commons 3.0 cc-by-nc-saBe polite: Address your professor formally, using the title “Professor” with theirlast name. Depending on how formal your professor seems, use the salutation“Dear,” or a more informal “Hello” or “Hi.” Don’t drop the salutationaltogether, though.Be concise. Instructors are busy people, and although they are typically morethan happy to help you, do them the favor of getting to your point quickly. Signoff with your first and last name, the course number, and the class time. Thiswill make it easy for your professor to identify you, and although they aretypically more than happy to help you, do them the favor of getting to yourpoint quickly.Do not ever ask, “When will you return our papers?” If you MUST ask, make itspecific and realistic (e.g., “Will we get our papers back by the end of nextweek?”).
This information is useful for communication, which leads me to believe that the author encourages us to communicate with our teachers.
Summarize. At the end of each section, pause to summarize the main pointsin a few sentences. If you have trouble doing so, revisit that section.2. Ask and answer questions. When you begin reading a section, try toidentify two to three questions you should be able to answer after you finish it.Write down your questions and use them to test yourself on the reading. If youcannot answer a question, try to determine why. Is the answer buried in thatsection of reading but just not coming across to you? Or do you expect to findthe answer in another part of the reading?3. Do not read in a vacuum. Look for opportunities to discuss the reading withyour classmates. Many instructors set up online discussion forums or blogsspecifically for that purpose. Participating in these discussions can help youdetermine whether your understanding of the main points is the same asyourpeers’.
The purpose of these strategies are to help with reading comprehension and understanding the text moving forward,
Your method for breaking up the assignment will depend on the type of reading. Ifthe text is dense and packed with unfamiliar terms and concepts, you may need toread no more than five or ten pages in one sitting so that you can truly understandand process the information.
I understand that the reading time depends on the difficulty of the text, but what if we are not sure how dense the text is until we actually read it?
This section discusses strategies you can use to get the most out of your collegereading assignments. These strategies fall into three broad categories:1. Planning strategies. To help you manage your reading assignments2. Comprehension strategies. To help you understand the material.3. Active reading strategies. To take your understanding to a higher anddeeper level.
This serves as a thesis statement for the section and helps to show what we are meant to get out of reading it.
In college, academic expectations change from what you may have experienced inhigh school. The quantity of work you are expected to do is increased. Wheninstructors expect you to read pages upon pages or study hours and hours for oneparticular course, managing your workload can be challenging. This chapterincludes strategies for studying efficiently and managing your time.
This paragraph tells us that the chapter will focus on (strategies for success in college courses) Possible thesis?
This textbook will cover ways to communicate effectively as you develop insightinto your own style, writing process, grammatical choices, and rhetoricalsituations. With these skills, you should be able to improve your writing talentregardless of the discipline you enter after completing this course.
This could serve as a way of showing the reader that it is okay to have a different writing style than others by stating that it is versatile and can grow with you as you develop writing skills, whereas in high school, I've noticed that everyone is expected to write in a very similar way to get the grade.
In this textbook, we’ll cover theconventions of writing, and we’ll alsocover some of the resources available toyou as a CNM student
The purpose of the textbook is inform college students attending CNM, the resources available to them and to educate the conventions of writing.
In Part One of this textbook, we covered collegewriting at CNM, and reading strategies that will helpyou succeed in different disciplines. As reading andwriting go hand-in-hand, we will now turn to the stepsyou can take toward effective writing, also known asdeveloping a writing process.
This is the conclusion to Part one of the textbook, and it includes the purpose for all the Chapters. This also brings us to what we will see next in Part 2 of the textbook.
Common Types of College Writing Assignments
In this section of Chapter 3, you can see a difference in the way the text is delivered. The design changed and has different graphics and layout.
ollege composition courses will focus on writing for its own sake, helpingyou make the transition to college-level writing assignments.
Composition courses will help transition from that high school foundation to college writing assignments.
in high school, teachers generally focus on teaching you to write in avariety of modes and formats, including personal writing, expository writing,research papers, creative writing, and writing short answers and essays for exams.Over time, these assignments help you build a foundation of writing skills. Incollege, many instructors will expect you to already have that foundation
The purpose of this chapter is to inform the reader that the way you used to write in high school is going to just be the foundation and assignments are going to be different going forward.
your primarycomprehension goal is to identify the or main point: the most important idea thatthe writer wants to communicate and often states early on. Finding the main pointgives you a framework to organize the details presented in the reading and relatethe reading to concepts you learned in class or through other reading assignments.After identifying the main point, you will find the supporting points, the details,facts, and explanations that develop and clarify the main point
This step helps you deeply understand what you've read, do you see the main purpose for the text and it's support? Can you summarize what the author's purpose for writing is?
The other key component of planning is setting a purpose. Knowing what you wantto achieve from a reading assignment not only helps you determine how toapproach that task, but it also helps you stay focused
An important step to better reading strategies. What are you looking for specifically when reading? Keep a goal in mind to keep focused on finding that in the text.
Now comes the challenge: making sure you actually understand all theinformation you are expected to process.
Author changed the topic, this is the next step to better reading strategies. Comprehension, do I understand the information?
When you are eager to begin the coursework in your major that will prepare youfor your career, getting excited about an introductory college writing course can bedifficult.
This could be a stance, the attitude that the writer has towards the subject is that it's a hard subject to be excited about. It's also an expectation the author has towards what the reader may be thinking about an introductory writing course.
Some students might haveearned a GED, some might be returning to school after a decades-long break, andstill other students might either be graduating high school, or be freshly graduated.If the latter is the case, you might enter college with a wealth of experience writingfive-paragraph essays, book reports, and lab reports.
This is the beginning of a new idea, that all students are coming from different backgrounds, and have different experiences when it comes to writing essays and reports.
College instructors are familiar with the ups and downs ofwriting, and most universities have support systems in place to help students learnhow to write for an academic audience. The following sections discuss common on-campus writing services, what to expect from them, and how they can help you.
One of the goals for this chapter was to inform students that if they needed help there are resources available for them at CNM
Mostof your writing assignments—from brief response papers to in-depth researchprojects—will depend on your understanding of course reading assignments orrelated readings you do on your own. And it is difficult, if not impossible, to writeeffectively about a text that you do not understand
The attitude that the author has towards developing better reading skills, is that it is difficult to write about a topic you can't understand fully. This is also the goal that the author has for the students.
we will discuss another important strategy:college reading. Two important steps of reading at the college level includeconsidering your writing situation and developing strong reading strategies.
The purpose of this chapter is to educate students on how to develop strong reading strategies that will help with other classes and writing.