Breakthrough Writer: August 30th English 1A Introduction: Syllabus, Motivations, Critical Thinking, Success Strategies

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Course Outline for McMahon’s Fall 2016 English 1A with Essay Assignments

Office H121P; Phone Extension: 5673

Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday: 12:30-1 and 3:30-4:15 and Tuesday and Thursday: 2:30-3:45

Course Catalog Description:

This course is designed to strengthen the students’ ability to read with understanding and discernment, to discuss assigned readings intelligently, and to write clearly. Emphasis will be on writing essays in which each paragraph relates to a controlling idea, has an introduction and a conclusion, and contains primary and secondary support. College-level reading material will be assigned to provide the stimulus for class discussion and writing assignments, including a required research paper.

Course Objectives:

One. Recognize and revise sentence-level grammar and usage errors.

Two. Read and apply critical-thinking skills to numerous published articles and to college-level, book-length works for the purpose of writing and discussion.

Three. Apply appropriate strategies in the writing process including prewriting, composing, revising, and editing techniques.

Four. Compose multi-paragraph, thesis-driven essays with logical and appropriate supporting ideas, and with unity and coherence.

Five. Demonstrate ability to locate and utilize a variety of academic databases, peer-reviewed journals, and scholarly websites.

Six. Utilize MLA guidelines to format essays, cite sources in the texts of essays, and compile Works Cited lists.

Student Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of this course, students will:

Complete a research-based essay that has been written out of class and undergone revision. It should demonstrate the student’s ability to thoughtfully support a single thesis using analysis and synthesis.
Integrate multiple sources, including a book-length work and a variety of academic databases, peer-reviewed journals, and scholarly websites. Citations must be in MLA format and include a Works Cited page.
Demonstrate logical paragraph composition and sentence structure. The essay should have correct grammar, spelling, and word use.

Students with Disabilities:

It is the policy of the El Camino Community College District to encourage full inclusion of people with disabilities in all programs and services. Students with disabilities who believe they may need accommodations in this class should contact the campus Special Resource Center (310) 660-3295, as soon as possible. This will ensure that students are able to fully participate.

Academic Honesty and Plagiarism:

El Camino College places a high value on the integrity of its student scholars. When an instructor determines that there is evidence of dishonesty in any academic work (including, but not limited to cheating, plagiarism, or theft of exam materials), disciplinary action appropriate to the misconduct as defined in BP 5500 may be taken. A failing grade on an assignment in which academic dishonesty has occurred and suspension from class are among the disciplinary actions for academic dishonesty (AP 5520). Students with any questions about the Academic Honesty or discipline policies are encouraged to speak with their instructor in advance.

Attendance Policy: Students are expected to attend their classes regularly. Students who miss the first class meeting or who are not in regular attendance during the add period for the class may be dropped by the instructor. Students whose absences from a class exceed 10% of the scheduled class meeting times may be dropped by the instructor. However, students are responsible for dropping a class within the deadlines published in the class schedule. Students who stop attending but do not drop may receive a failing grade.

Student Resources:

Reading Success Center (East Library Basement E-36)
Software and tutors are available for vocabulary development & reading comprehension.
Library Media Technology Center - LMTC (East Library Basement)
Computers are available for free use. Bring your student ID # & flash drive. There’s a charge for printing.
Writing Center (H122)
Computers are available for free use. Free tutoring is available for writing assignments, grammar, and vocabulary. Bring your student ID & flash drive to save work. Printing is NOT available.
Learning Resource Center - LRC (West Wing of the Library, 2^nd floor)
The LRC Tutorial Program offers free drop-in tutoring. For the tutoring schedule, go to www.elcamino.edu/library/lrc/tutoring .The LRC also offers individualized computer adaptive programs to help build your reading comprehension skills.
Student Health Center (Next to the Pool)
The Health Center offers free medical and psychological services as well as free workshops on topics like “test anxiety.” Low cost medical testing is also available.
Special Resource Center – SRC (Southwest Wing of Student Services Building)

The SRC provides free disability services, including interpreters, testing accommodations, counseling, and adaptive computer technology.

Books You Need to Buy for This Class

Book One: Acting Out Culture, 3rd edition, edited by James S. Miller

Book Two: It’s Beginning to Hurt by James Lasdun

Book Three: Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

Book Four: Rules for Writers, 8^th edition by Diana Hacker

Other Materials You Need: 2 large size blue books for in-class exams

Total Words Written in Semester: 8,000; Total Points: 820

One. First four 1,400-word essays are 100 points each.

Two. Final 1,400-word essay is 200 points.

Three. The final essay, Number 5, is 200 points and needs a completed typed draft for peer edit due the class before the final draft is due. This completed draft is worth 20 points.

Four. In-Class Reading Exams are 500 words for 100 points each.

Total Points: 820

Essay Options

Essay 1: 1,400 words typed and 3 sources: Hard copy and turnitin upload due September 8

Curtis Silver’s “The Quagmire of Social Media Friendships” (444) alleges certain pathologies result from social media. These pathologies include an empathy deficit, narcissism, shortened attention span, online shaming, and even altered brain development. In an argumentative essay, support, refute, or complicate the assertion from Sherry Turkle’s “The Flight from Conversation” (online essay) that social media is harmful for our social, cultural and intellectual development.

Essay 2 Options: 1,400 words typed and 3 sources: Hard copy and turnitin upload due September 29

Refute, support, or complicate Asma’s assertion that green guilt is not only a relative to religious guilt but speaks to our drive to sacrifice self-indulgence for the drive of altruistic self-preservation and social reciprocity. See Elizabeth Anderson’s online essay “If God Is Dead, Is Everything Permitted?”

Develop a thesis that supports, refutes, or complicates the assertion Debra J. Dickerson, who wrote the “The Great White Way,” would find Michael Eric Dyson's essay "Understanding Black Patriotism" a complement to Dickerson's ideas about race, power, and hierarchy.

Support, refute, or complicate Debra J. Dickerson's argument that race in America is more of a social fantasy than a reflection of objective reality.

Develop a thesis that analyzes the human inclination for staying within the tribe of sameness as explained in David Brooks’ “People Like Us.”

Support, refute, or complicate Nicholas Kristof’s assertion that slashing food stamps is morally indefensible.

Addressing at least two essays we've covered in class, support, refute, or complicate the argument that overeating, anorexia, and other eating disorders are not the result of a disease but are habits of individual circumstance and economics.

Essay 3 for 1,400 words typed options and 3 sources: Due October 20

Support, refute, or complicate the argument that “Against School” and “Preparing Minds for Markets” persuasively evidence that American education is more about protecting private business interests, maintaining class bias, and asserting mass control than it is about promoting real empowerment such as critical thinking, independence, and freedom.

Develop an analytical thesis that compares the themes of learned helplessness and the vicious downward spiral of poverty as they are evident in “The Consequences: Undoing Sanity” and “How the Poor Are Made to Pay for Their Poverty.” Is this downward spiral convincing or an “excuse for the poverty that poor people choose”? Explain.

Support, refute, or complicate Alfie Kohn’s assertion from “Degrading to De-grading” that grading is an inferior education tool that all conscientious teachers should abandon.

Support, refute, or complicate the inferred lesson from bell hooks’ essay, “Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class” that upward mobility requires a betrayal of one’s economic class and even family.

In the context of “Unspeakable Conversations,” defend, refute, or complicate Peter Singer’s position that there are moral grounds for infanticide or “mercy killings.”

In the context of “Our Baby, Her Womb,” support, defend, or complicate the argument that surrogate motherhood is a moral abomination.

In the context of Kristina Rizga’s “Everything You’ve Heard About Failing Schools Is Wrong,” support, refute, or complicate the assertion that standardized testing is a money-making canard sodden with incompetence, moral bankruptcy, and the very accountability it claims to exact upon teachers and students.

In the context of John Taylor Gatto’s “Against School,” support, refute, or complicate the argument that that American education is more about protecting private business interests, maintaining class bias, and asserting mass control than it is about promoting real empowerment such as critical thinking, independence, and freedom.

Essay 4 for 1,400 words typed based on James Lasdun’s It’s Beginning to Hurt is due November 10:

Comparing at least 3 stories from Lasdun’s collection, develop an analytical thesis that shows how Joseph Epstein’s online essay “The Perpetual Adolescent” supports the assertion that Lasdun’s characters self-destruct under the weight of their adolescent fixation.

Essay 5: Final Argumentative, 1,400-Word Research Paper Is 200 points and 5 sources and is Due December 14:

Option One

In a 1,400-word essay, defend, support, or refute the argument that Man’s Search for Meaning gives us a cogent, appropriate and insightful analysis for evaluating Nikolai’s moral dissolution in the Chekhov short story “Gooseberries.”

Second Alternative Option:

In a 1,400-word essay, defend, support, or complicate the argument that the determinism evident in the 1999 Alexander Payne film Election is a compelling refutation of Frankl's notion that we are free to find meaning as a cure for our despair and self-destruction. Recommended Research Link for Alternative Option: http://sensesofcinema.com/2012/feature-articles/chance-and-choice-biology-and-theology-in-alexander-paynes-election/

Third Alternative Option

In a 1,400-word essay, defend, support, or complicate the argument that even though Frankl’s philosophy is informed by his religious faith, one need not be religious to embrace Frankl’s precepts and principles. You can concede that Frankl’s book is “religious” but not in the narrow sense of the word. Rather, it is universally religious. On the other hand, some will argue that the theistic religion that informs Frankl’s philosophy is too narrow to accommodate secular and atheist thinkers. Take a position and explain. You may want to consult Elizabeth Anderson’s “If God Is Dead, Is Everything Permitted?”

Fourth Alternative Option

In a 1,400-word essay, defend, support, or complicate the argument that Groundhog Day character Phil Connors’ spiritual malaise and eventual spiritual transformation can be analyzed through the lens of the principles in Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning.

Fifth Option:

Defend, refute, or complicate the argument that Man’s Search for Meaning is the greatest anti-self-help self-help book ever written.

Consider these distinguishing qualities of traditional self-help books:

They deny suffering as the central feature of human existence
They play into reader’s narcissistic fantasy of being special and at the center of the universe.
They promise easy solutions based on gimmicks intended to look like “insights.”
They promise easy solutions using common sense dressed up in jargon and pretentious language.
They tend to condescend to the reader, treating him like a child. There is an infantile, dumbed-down quality to them.
They make false promises about happiness and self-fulfillment.
They make being a selfish self-centered lout acceptable and “noble.”
They place selfish self-interest and self-indulgence over responsibility to oneself and others.

Your guidelines for your Final Research Paper are as follows:

This research paper should present a thesis that is specific, manageable, provable, and contestable—in other words, the thesis should offer a clear position, stand, or opinion that will be proven with research.

You should analyze and prove your thesis using examples and quotes from a variety of sources.

You need to research and cite from at least five sources. You must use at least 3 different types of sources.

At least one source must be from an ECC library database.

At least one source must be a book, anthology or textbook.

At least one source must be from a credible website, appropriate for academic use.

The paper should not over-rely on one main source for most of the information. Rather, it should use multiple sources and synthesize the information found in them.

This paper will be approximately 5-7 pages in length, not including the Works Cited page, which is also required. This means at least 5 full pages of text. The Works Cited page does NOT count towards length requirement.

You must use MLA format for the document, in-text citations, and Works Cited page.

You must integrate quotations and paraphrases using signal phrases and analysis or commentary.

You must sustain your argument, use transitions effectively, and use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

Your paper must be logically organized and focused.

Late papers reduced a full grade. No late papers accepted a week past due date. If you turn in paper more than a week late, you not earn more than a D plus.

Peer Edit

You must do a peer edit. You must show up to class on peer edit day with a completed typed draft for 20 points.

You Can’t “Ride” the Class

If you’re “riding” the class, that is missing more than 10% of classes and not keeping up with assignments, you can’t fulfill the Student Learning Outcomes, and you will be dropped.

You Must Use turnitin to submit essay and bring hard copy on due date

Each essay must be submitted to www.turnitin.com where it will be checked for illegal copying/plagiarism. I cannot give credit for an essay that is not submitted to this site by the deadline.

The process is very simple; if you need help, detailed instructions are available at http://turnitin.com/en_us/training/student-training/student-quickstart-guide

You will need two pieces of information to use the site:

Class ID and Enrollment Password, which I will give you first week of class

Classroom Decorum: No smart phones can be used in class. If you’re on your smart phone and I see you, you get a warning the first time. Second time, you must leave the class and lose 25 points. Third time, you must leave the class and lose 50 points. The above also applies to talking and doing homework from other classes.

Tardies:

It’s reasonable to be late a couple of times a semester, but some students consistently show up late to class, and this distraction compromises the learning environment significantly. Therefore, starting on the fourth tardy, 50 points must be deducted from total grade and another 25 points must be deducted for every tardy after that.

Reading and Writing Schedule

8-30 Introduction of class policies and first essay

9-1 “Quagmire of Social Media Friendships” 444-448 and online “The Flight from Conversation”; MLA format and signal phrases

9-6 “Empathy Deficit” 464-469; 13-year-olds and social media video

9-8 Essay 1 Due; “Green Guilt” 25-30; paragraphs and PEEL method, MLA in-text citations, comma splices

9-13 “The Great White Way” 68-70; “Understanding Black Patriotism” 52-55; types of thesis; pronoun errors

9-15 “People Like Us” 62-67; Top 20 Writing Errors

9-20 “Prudence or Cruelty?” 172-175; Methods of Introductions and Conclusions

9-22 “Wages of Sin” and “Add Cake, Subtract Self-Esteem” 181-202

9-27 In-Class Reading Exam 1

9-29 Essay 2 Due; “From Degrading to De-Grading” 238-249

10-4 “Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class” 287-295

10-6 “Unspeakable Conversations” 96-112

10-11 “Our Baby, Her Womb” 418-430

10-13 “Everything You’ve Heard About Failing Schools Is Wrong” 252-270; “Against School” 271-279

10-18 “Against School” 271-279

10-20 Essay 3 Due; read “The Perpetual Adolescent” in class

10-25 “An Anxious Man” 3-23 and “The Incalculable Life Gesture” 24-63

10-27 “The Natural Order”

11-1 “The Half Sister” and “Lime Pickle”

11-3 “Peter Kahn’s Third Wife”

11-8 In-Class Reading Exam 2

11-10 Essay 4 Due; Introduce Chekhov’s “Gooseberries” theme and assignment

11-15 Man’s Search for Meaning Lesson 1

11-17 Man’s Search for Meaning Lesson 2

11-22 Man’s Search for Meaning Lesson 3

11-24 Holiday

12-1 Man’s Search for Meaning Lesson 4

12-6 Man’s Search for Meaning Lesson 5

12-8 Man’s Search for Meaning Lesson 6

12-13 Peer Edit

12-15 Final Essay is due

Peer Edit for Typed Essay (First Draft)

First Page

Do you have a salient, distinctive title that is relevant to your topic and thesis?
Do you have your name, instructor’s name, the course, and date (in that order) at the top left?

Format

Are you using 12-point font with Times New Roman?
Are your lines double-spaced?
Is your font color black?
Do you make sure there are no extra spaces between paragraphs (some students erroneously use 4 spaces between paragraphs)
Do you use 1-inch margins?
Do you use block format for quotes of 4 or more lines in which you indent another inch from the left margin?

Introduction

Does your introduction have a compelling hook using an anecdote, a troubling current event, a startling statistic, etc.?
Do you avoid pat phrases or clichés? For example, “In today’s society . . .” or “In today’s modern world . . .” or “Since the Dawn of Man . . .”

Thesis

Do you have a thesis that articulates your main purpose in clear, specific language?
Is your thesis sophisticated in that it makes an assertion that goes beyond the obvious and self-evident?
Is your thesis debatable?
Do you address your opponents with a concession clause? (While opponents of my proposal to raise the minimum wage to $22 an hour make some compelling points, their argument collapses when we consider _____________, _______________, __________________, and ________________. )
Does your thesis have explicit or implicit mapping components that outline the body paragraphs of your essay?

Questions from Your Reader (write on a separate page so you’ll have more room to write)

One. What’s most compelling about the essay so far?

Two. What is most needed for improvement so far?

Three. Something I would like the writer to explain more is . . .

Four. One last comment would be . . .

Five. What is the writer’s thesis?

Six. On a scale of 1-10, how compelling is the thesis and what could make it more compelling?

Seven. On a scale of 1-10, how effective is the title? Could it be improved? How?

Eight. Does the writer have well developed paragraphs with clear topic sentences?

Nine. Does the writer use a diversity of paragraph transitions?

Ten. Does the writer use diverse and appropriate signal phrases?

Half of English 1A Students Drop. Why?

Students come to class with severe grammar deficits as I did when I was a college freshman.
Students don't keep up with the work and in effect "ride" the class.
Students get distracted by personal drama.
Students are in the habit of procrastination, which compromises their work quality.
Students are in the trap of learned helplessness, which convinces them they can't perform to their true abilities.
Students work too many hours and get burned out.
Students get sick and fall behind.
Students panic, and their anxiety sabotages their ability to think clearly.
Students don't learn the research writing process, piece by piece, or brick by brick. Rather, they try to build a house in one day, go into a panic, and their house never gets built.
Students are in the habit of making excuses for not getting their work done. They also have a complicated narrative to excuse their failure to make due dates and do the kind of work they need to do.
The students are asleep and don't realize, in their slumber, how competitive and brutal the workforce is, and their school work reflects that lack of awareness.

Five Things I Look for in a College Student

I don't care where you're from or what schools you attended or what level of grammar you have or what your major is or if you have a "life plan."

Here's what I do care about:

One. Do you have grit or do you retreat into learned helplessness? I was a combination of both, so it's not an either/or answer.

Two. Are you boring or are you interesting?

Three. Do you pay attention to details?

Four. Do you make my life easy by showing up on time and turning in assignments by the due date, or do you always have a long, convoluted "story" for not showing up and getting the assignments turned in and thereby become a source of intractable tribulation?

Five. Are you being authentic in your dealings with me, or are you putting up a facade?

Motivations for Going to College

You go to college for one or all of the following 3 reasons:

1. micro level: You have a very specific goal: You go to college because you want to make money with your major.

From this micro-level point of view, college, whether you like it or not, is a "necessary evil" to be undertaken because of fear of poverty, family pressure, or self-inflicted shame that compels one to go to college in order to acquire what one perceives as a desired job and social status.

2. mid-level macro: Your attitude toward college is not as hostile as the purely micro-level student. You realize that required classes out of your major, such as English 1A, help you improve your writing and research skills, which help you succeed in many of your college classes. In other words, writing, and math for that matter, are part of the foundation of your education.

As someone who believes in building a foundation for your education to help you with your major, you are a mid-level macro student.

You may be a business or economics major, for example, and realize that writing and communication skills make you more competitive in the fields of business and finance.

3. max-level macro: You don't merely want an education to increase your wealth, status and career prospects.

You go to college to help yourself undergo a radical transformation from a child, an obedient, mindless consumer, to a critically thinking adult.

You see English 1A as part of your quest to acquire literacy, which results in the transformation into a critical thinker.

In other words, English 1A develops critical thinking skills and becoming a critical thinker is an essential part of leaving the mindless child stage, that of the obedient consumer, to becoming an adult.

I would argue that it's in your interest to be a critical thinker, but many people, including very intelligent people, refuse to be critical thinkers because they prefer to live mindlessly, having judged, incorrectly in my view, that a mindless life is easier than a critically-minded one.

12 Things You Can Do to Increase Your Success in English 1A

We read that in the latest study by the Institute for Higher Education, Leadership & Policy at Cal State Sacramento that only 30% of California community college students are transferring or getting their degrees. We have a real challenge in the community college if 70% are falling by the wayside.

There are several reasons for so many students being at risk for failing. Here's one:

At a recent meeting our Dean told us that 85% of the student body come to our college with severe grammar deficits.

Imagine the intimidation a new college student feels with severe grammar deficits and knowing that 70% of students will not transfer or get a degree.

It's like showing up to a jiu-jitsu tournament against blue belts and you know you only have a white belt.

From what I’ve observed in the classroom, here are 12 things you can do to improve your chances of succeeding in freshman composition.

One. Shut off your cell phone.

Being distracted on your smartphone sends a horrible impression to the instructor and the other students. It's hostile, passive-aggressive behavior.

Nothing signals disrespect to the instructor and other students who show an unhealthy dependence on their phones.

I promise you college instructors notice students who are on their cell phones and appreciate students who are not.

The cell phone prevents you from being in the habit of focusing on one thing. Scattered attention and multitasking kill composition success.

Two. You need to not be ashamed for showing up to class without grammar skills. We all have to begin somewhere.

Your white belt isn’t just your skill level. It’s your maturity level. I went to college at 17. I was in remedial math and English. It doesn't mean I was dumb. It means I was under-prepared and immature.

Three. You Need to Reinforce Classroom Instruction

When I studied jiu-jitsu with Jener Gracie 13 years ago, I noticed something. The once a week lesson was worthless unless I showed up several days a week to spar with other students. You have to reinforce the lesson with repetition.

Having a lesson from your instructor is not an end; it’s a beginning.

You can reinforce your instructors’ writing lessons by looking up the same exercises in other books, the Internet, and YouTube videos.

I’ve had students tell me I didn’t understand the math instructor’s calculus lesson, so I studied it on YouTube and now I get it.

Four. You Need to Feed Off Your Strength

When you go to the gym and lose fat and gain muscle, you feel more motivated to return to the gym. It becomes self-feeding.

When you study martial arts and climb the ladder and experience more confidence, you are more motivated to continue.

You have to experience the same sense of self-improvement in college to stay motivated.

Because my students struggle with grammar at an excessive level, they get very discouraged. Often, their grammar gets worse, not better, further into the semester.

I have to remind them that they are improving in certain areas: Writing signal phrases, finding credible research, organizing their essays, following a sound argument structure.

Grammar remains the Achilles heel, but I have to show their strengths with their weaknesses.

Five. You Learn Not to Let Your Weaknesses Overwhelm You

There are grammar books with 5,000 rules. If you try to play catch-up, you’ll be overwhelmed and quit. Find out 3-5 grammar and punctuation mistakes you’re consistently making and attack those 5 mistakes.

Your goal for the semester should be to eradicate those mistakes.

90 percent of my composition students make 3 mistakes over and over: sentence fragments, comma splices, and noun-pronoun agreement errors.

If you’re a white belt in jiu-jitsu, you can’t expect to learn all the moves in 16 weeks. You learn the basics: Passing the guard, escaping a headlock, making an arm lock, performing a rear choke hold.

Likewise, in grammar learn the 5 things you’re consistently having trouble with.

Six. You Need to Re-Condition Your Response to Failures and Setbacks

In Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl teaches us that setbacks, conflict, loss, and suffering are inevitable.

Our overreactions or inappropriate actions to conflict become our enemy. In other words, we are own worst enemy.

As you struggle in a martial arts class, the sensei is not your enemy. You are at war with yourself.

In college, you become your number one impediment to progress.

When my daughters have tantrums, if I overreact with rage, their tantrums last longer. I simply compound the craziness. If I stay calm and composed, I can minimize their tantrums.

I’ve learned over the years to control my response to their tantrums, not because I’m mature, but because I’m selfish. It’s in my self-interest for them to get over their tantrum as soon as possible.

Seven. Get Rid of Energy Vampires from Your Life

The sensei wants his students to focus, which means excluding distractions or what I like to call Energy Vampires.

The one thing that impresses me when my girls are in the dojo is the silence. A lot of their exercises are done with mindful silence. That’s why there are no cell phones allowed, even in the lobby.

Go home and make a list o Energy Vampires:

Reading consumer reviews all day on the Internet. You could spend a whole day reading Amazon and other reviews of digital cameras. You could burn a day on the Internet easily.

Answering texts.

Answering social media messages.

You could burn a whole day texting and gossiping with friends.

Hanging out with associates from high school who are content with being 16 years

old for the rest of their lives.

Speaking of friends, some people you associate with from high school may not be on your college track. They may not be as mature as you. They may be in the Life Is a Big Party phase of their lives.

Most likely they’re Energy Vampires. You need to cut your ties from them. It may be cruel, but it’s the only way for you to survive.

The more Energy Vampires you identity and get rid from your life, the more you’ll be able to focus on the getting more knowledge, getting more independent, and getting more advanced in your climb up the educational ladder.

Eight. Learn That You Can’t Improve Your Skills Without Changing the Whole Person

In martial arts, the skills improve along with the person’s maturity. One doesn’t happen without the other. This is one reason martial arts are so popular with parents.

Often, your maturity will result in your losing some of your friends who didn’t mature. You may feel guilty for abandoning them, but you shouldn’t. They’ve made their choice.

One of my students wrote about this: A friend dropped out of college to work 3 jobs so he could make his BMW payments. He drove the BMW to the front of El Camino on Crenshaw and was screaming at his friends to look at his new car. My student said he and his friends had to rush to their English class and the BMW owner was all alone in the parking lot with no one to admire his new set of wheels.

Nine. You’re Not Alone in the Dark Woods. We start at the bottom.

We’re in this together. We work as a community. We’re interdependent on one another. We ask question. We’re fighting for the same end. We want you to have a higher belt so you can go to the next level. Your teacher is not your enemy or antagonist. Your teacher is your sensei who wants you to have the required skills to get a higher belt.

Being alone is tough as a student. I had a student from Korea. He was once popular, but when he came to America with his limited English language skills, he found himself isolated and fed his emotional neediness by eating at Jack in the Box every day. Within a year, he gained 100 pounds.

Try not to be a Lone Ranger in your educational quest.

Ten. You Have to Show Up On Time Every Time: This speaks to accountability, respect, and dedication.

If you don’t show up or if you show up late, the sensei doesn’t want you there. There’s a long line of students who want to show up on time every time. The sensei doesn’t have time to waste.

I can tell you after 30 years of teaching there’s a huge difference in student performance between those who show up on time every day and those who don’t. Just the show of respect alone is huge. But this respect translates into higher performance, listening skills, and turning in assignments on time as well.

It would be nice if the community college were this Giant Martial Arts Studio. That’s not going to happen, but you can approach it like one and you’ll be all the stronger for it.

Eleven. If You’re Afraid of Taking a Writing Class, Embrace the Fear.

Fear can be a motivator. When I was 24 and working as a part-time English instructor, my high school buddies praised me, but I told them to quiet down. I was scared. I didn’t show great discipline. Fear compelled me to do what I had to do. I didn’t see any options other than finishing college.

I have a lot of fearful, anxious students who come up to me and say, “McMahon, I’m terrified. I don’t think I can do this.”

Usually these students do rather well.

It’s the calm students who sleep walk through class who fail.

Who would you rather be, the fearful student who does well, or the calm, zenned-out student who fails?

I dropped some classes. I received a letter warning me that if I didn’t improve my scholastic performance, I would be put on academic probation.

The letter did two things: Scared the hell out of me. The fear was an invaluable motivator.

The letter did a second thing to me: It injured my pride. My failings as a student had resulted in a day of reckoning. I was accountable for improving my performance or I’d suffer the humiliation of being suspended from college.

White belts like myself are going to suffer fear and humiliation. It’s part of the growing up process.

Twelve. Finish Your Essays Early and Read Them Aloud in Front of a Mirror Or Proofread Them.

I’ve taken surveys of my students. I will ask them who proofread their essay, and about 10 percent will raise their hand. The other 90 percent procrastinate, wait till the last minute, to rush an essay, and they wonder why they’re not improving.

Einstein said insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

What Is a Critical Thinker and How Does English 1A Contribute to Becoming One?

9 Components of Critical Thinking

(First 7 components are modified from B.K. Scheffer and M.G. Rubenfeld, authors of Critical Thinking Tactics for Nurses)

One. Analyzing:

You break something into its parts.

Often the parts are the reasons behind something.

The reasons for ongoing inflating real estate prices in Southern California are the following:

shortage of real estate meets ever growing population

historically cheap interest rates

infusion of Chinese wealth as many Chinese look to prime American real estate as the best place they can invest their money

Not only do we use analysis for examining causes, we use analysis to break down something into its distinguishing characteristics.

In college writing classes, you use analysis--breaking things into their parts--for cause and effect and extended definition essays.

Critical Thinking Means Knowing Your Terms Through Extended Definition

Example of Extended Definition:

Mindless consumerism can be broken down into the following distinguishing characteristics:

The mindless consumer embraces “cool” fads and trends because lacking an identity of his own he wishes to glom onto a prefabricated identity provided by consumer culture.

His Apple computer makes him the hipster far superior to his neighbor who owns a PC and is therefore a lowly "peasant."

The mindless consumer believes acquiring material goods will result in popularity and belonging with the desirable clique or “tribe.”

The mindless consumer confuses brand-identity with self-identity.

The mindless consumer uses consumerism as a substitute for real emotional needs such as love, creativity, self-validation, belonging, and wisdom, to name a few.

Because consumer acquisitions are always a failed attempt to meet real emotional needs, the mindless consumer constantly suffers from being in a state of wanting more and more.

In the above example, we broke down the distinguishing characteristics of a mindless consumer.

Two. Applying Standards

You judge according to rules or criteria. You use this type of critical thinking in an argumentative and classification essay.

Examples of Applying Standards

You are a jiu-jitsu master and you must know when a student has elevated to a black belt. If you award a black belt to a student who has failed to meet the criteria and send that student to a black belt tournament, the student will be crushed in the competition. You could be responsible for that student's death.

In a similar example, you are a community college English instructor and you award an A to a freshman student who has failed to meet the criteria for passing the class. That student goes to USC and gets crushed in all his writing classes. The above examples show that we must apply a criteria to our judgments.

In a consumer example, you may be able to afford a Hummer, a vehicle that appeals to you, but it fails to meet the criteria for your needs: Good gas mileage, small enough to park in urban spaces, low service and maintenance costs, etc. A mindless consumer "just buys it" because "it's fun" whereas a critical consumer applies a criteria to his or her purchases.

Three. Discriminating

You recognize differences and similarities resulting in a ranking system.

Examples

You are writing a research paper about the American health care system and through your research you discover that the United States spends twice its GDP on health care as other developed nations; however, the United States is ranked LAST in health care quality. You further discover that in other developed countries no one dies from treatable disease; however, in the United States every year over 25,000 Americans die from treatable disease.

By examining the United States’ health care system in the context of other developed countries, you are in a better position to judge America’s health care system as an abysmal failure.

In your history class, you study Christopher Columbus “discovering” America and you learn that there are different levels of historical narratives.

There is the mythical, propagandistic narrative that paints Columbus as a hero who “discovered” America.

There is the real narrative that paints Columbus for what he really was, a barbaric sociopath who slaughtered, enslaved and tortured indigenous people as he pillaged their country.

In other words, in college you learn there are different ways of interpreting history according to one’s political and philosophical worldview and objective.

Four. Information Seeking

You learn to ask the right questions when presented with a problem.

Example

Why is the United States prison system growing in a time of decreasing crime?

Why has the incarceration rate quadrupled in the last 3 decades during a crime lull?

Then in response to these questions we see that the prison industry makes billions of dollars in annual revenue, has stock options, and employs over 2 million people. There is a business interest, that is to say money interest, in making prisons flourish.

Why do poor people of color get sentenced to prison 10 times greater than whites for the same crimes?

Because it is argued that the prison business system preys on the poor and people historically denied privilege and justice.

We don't start making these inferences until we begin with learning to ask important questions.

Five. Logical Reasoning

You draw inferences or conclusions from evidence.

You call someone that you are romantically attracted to and after 3 calls they still haven’t called you back. You infer that you are OUT and should stop calling unless you want to be perceived as a stalker. Why? Because no reciprocity means no relationship. You are making an intelligent inference.

Every time you go to a family event, you overeat and hate yourself afterward, not because the food was great but because you were bored. You make the following logical inference: You’re an emotional eater.

Every time you have a girlfriend, your college GPA goes down. After five girlfriends and observing a correlation with a sinking GPA and being in a relationship, you conclude that you might be better served waiting until after graduating college to pursue romance. That would be a wise inference.

In a similar example as above, every time you hang out with your non-college-attending buddies, you score low on a college test; every time you don’t hang out with them, you get As on your tests: You infer that it’s time to break those ties. That would be a wise inference.

If you're the same guy who can't be in a relationship AND you can't hang out with your high school buddies, you may infer that your college years may require a certain level of solitude. That, too, my friend, would be a wise inference.

In a college argumentative essay, you have to write about the United States health care system. Through your research you discover that the United States spends twice its GDP on health care as other developed nations; however, the United States is ranked LAST in health care quality.

You infer or conclude that the American health care insurance companies are getting all the money while denying Americans necessary service. Your conclusion would be correct.

Six. Predicting

You take current information and project how this information will shape the future.

Example

It’s been claimed by some sociologists that America is ten years behind Japan in social trends. Today in Japan a large percentage of young people, addicted to virtual realities on the Internet, have lost interest in romance and relationships and are called “herbivores.” Ten years from now we may see a similar phenomenon in America. We already see evidence of this with fewer and fewer young Americans getting married and having children, largely for economic reasons.

Seven. Transferring Knowledge

You apply knowledge from one field to another.

Example

Cesar Milan, known as “The Dog Whisperer,” shows dog owners how to be “calm and assertive” in order to bring calm and discipline to their dogs. You can apply Milan’s methods to childrearing and become a “Child Whisperer.”

Eight. Metacognition (The Third Eye)

You develop the habit of distancing yourself from your heated emotional states and learn to observe and manage your irrational, compulsive, and self-destructive behavior.

Example

A husband and wife are in an escalating argument, and the husband’s Third Eye, his metacognition, rises to the ceiling and looks down at him and his wife, and the husband anticipates that angry words are about to be exchanged, words that can never be erased, words that will leave permanent damage to the relationship, words that actually might kill the relationship. In that moment, the husband clutches his stomach and screams, “Oh my God! My stomach!” He rushes to the bathroom, locks the door, and cools off for 2 hours. He just saved the relationship.

Nine. Putting Things into Historical Context

You have a deeper understanding of current events because you can see those events in the context of history.

Examples

Are Civil War reenactments (which tend to glorify Confederacy soldiers) innocent fun giving honor to American history or are they a disgraceful mythologizing of white supremacy?

If you study history, you will learn that the Confederacy was an ideology based on an evil religion called White Supremacy, which aggrandized one race in order to justify cruelty and exploitation of another race.

Seen in this historical context, Confederacy Army glorification achieved through war re-enactments is an abomination.

Critical Thinking Vs. Mindless Consumerism

I had a student who took a scholarship to UNLV and left her boyfriend because by staying local and marrying him she saw a life of mindless consumerism.

Mindless consumers have no critical thinking skills. They don't use analysis, logic, or metacognition. They are portrayed in the following John Verdant essay "The Ables Vs. The Binges."

Becoming a Critical Thinker Is Painful Because It Often Entails a Break from the People in Your Past (those who don't go on the critical thinking journey)

To become a critical thinker often alienates us from people that we grew up with during our "pre-critical thinking days."

When you go to college, there are people in your life who may accuse you of "becoming uppity."

Some students talk about "dying to their old life" the way a guy with kids quits playing poker with his buddies.

The pain of this growing apart from friends and family is expressed in bell hooks' essay "Learning in the Shadow of Class and Race."

There are several reasons for so many students being at risk for failing. Here's one:

At a recent meeting our Dean told us that 85% of the student body come to our college with severe grammar deficits.

Imagine the intimidation a new college student feels with severe grammar deficits and knowing that 70% of students will not transfer or get a degree.

It's like showing up to a jiu-jitsu tournament against blue belts and you know you only have a white belt.

From what I’ve observed in the classroom, here are 12 things you can do to improve your chances of succeeding in freshman composition.

One. Shut off your cell phone.

Nothing signals disrespect to the instructor and other students who show an unhealthy dependence on their phones.

I promise you college instructors notice students who are on their cell phones and appreciate students who are not.

The cell phone prevents you from being in the habit of focusing on one thing. Scattered attention and multitasking kill composition success.

Two. You need to not be ashamed for showing up to class without grammar skills. We all have to begin somewhere.

Your white belt isn’t just your skill level. It’s your maturity level. I went to college at 17. I was in remedial math and English. I dropped some classes. I received a letter warning me that if I didn’t improve my scholastic performance, I would be put on academic probation.