The Writing Curriculum

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The Writing Curriculum

• At Paul VI Catholic
• High School

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• Writing is an exploration. You start from
  nothing and learn as you go. -- E. L. Doctorow

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• Writing and reading is to me synonymous with
  existing. -- Gertrude Stein

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• A poem is never finished, only abandoned. --
  Paul Valery

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• No stile of writing is so delightful as that
  which is all pith, which never omits a necessary
  word, nor uses an unnecessary one. -- Thomas
  Jefferson

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• Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should
  contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no
  unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a
  drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a
  machine no unnecessary parts. -- William
  Strunk, Jr.

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• Good reading is damned hard writing.
  Nathaniel Hawthorne

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• Lets face it, writing is hell. -- William
  Styron

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• Writing in English is the most ingenious torture
  ever devised for sins committed in previous
  lives. -- James Joyce

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• The profession of book writing makes horse
  racing seem like a solid, stable business. --
  John Steinbeck

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• No writing is a waste of time, -- no creative
  work where the feelings, the imagination, the
  intelligence must work. Brenda Ueland

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PVIs Grade-level English Classes

• Literature-based courses with a consistent
  emphasis on the development of strong writing
  skills that prepare students to be successful in
  academic as well as work environments

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The Writing Process and Product

• The process -- all the steps taken to create the
  final version of a paper.
• The product -- the resulting final paper.

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Process

• The MIT Writing Center defines the steps of the
  writing process as
• Prewriting
• Drafting
• Revising
• Editing
• http//web.mit.edu/writing/Writing_Process/writing
  process.html

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Process

• According to The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at
  Purdue University the process steps are
• Invent
• Compose
• Revise
• http//owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/701/01/
  

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Writing Guidelines and Criteria for Essays about
Literary Works

• Use literary present tense
• Use active voice
• Use action verbs
• Vary sentence structure
• Avoid too much plot summary
• Avoid slang, clichés and informal language
• Unless otherwise instructed, use third person
• Do not use contractions
• Use transitional words and phrases

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Guidelines and Criteria

• Mechanics count! For example, be careful of
  things such as subject-verb and
  pronoun-antecedent agreement and punctuation
• Include the title and author in the introductory
  paragraph
• All paragraphs begin with a topic sentence and
  end with a concluding statement
• All quotations, summaries or paraphrased
  statements have a parenthetical citation in MLA
  format at the end of the sentence
• The body paragraphs include supportive evidence
  from the text

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Guidelines and Criteria

• End the introductory paragraph with a bona fide
  thesis statement that clearly indicates what the
  writer will prove
• Restate (using different wording) the thesis in
  the concluding paragraph
• Draw an overall final conclusion
• Consistently use MLA style to format the paper
  and document sources in research writing
  assignments in English classes

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The Thesis Essay

• During the freshman year, students learn to
  properly construct a five paragraph
  analytical/expository thesis essay with a topic
  related to literary selections in the curriculum.
• Students continue to develop this type of essay
  during the sophomore, junior and senior years,
  concentrating on stylistic improvements, depth of
  analysis, and voice.

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The Research Paper

• Research skills are introduced in the sophomore
  year curriculum with the I-Search project.
• During the junior year, students complete a more
  advanced research paper concentrating on an
  American author or literary subject. This paper
  incorporates the use of literary criticism as a
  secondary source as well as the primary literary
  work.
• Seniors write a paper expressing and examining
  their own insights supported by documented
  research as they compare and contrast the film
  version of a narrative to that of the original
  written work.

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MLA (Modern Language Association) Style

• Uses in-text parenthetical citations and a list
  of works cited
• Official MLA website http//www.mla.org/style
  
• Owl at Purdue website http//owl.english.purdue.
  edu/owl/resource/557/01/
• Rules for Writers by Diana Hacker (required text
  for grades 10-12)

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Plagiarism Defined

• Dartmouth College
• REGARDLESS OF INTENT, the failure to provide
  proper acknowledgment of your use of another's
  work constitutes plagiarism. . . . Plagiarism is
  defined as the submission or presentation of
  work, in any form, that is not a student's own,
  without acknowledgment of the sources.

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• (continued)
• With specific regard to papers a simple rule
  dictates when it is necessary to acknowledge
  sources. If a student obtains information or
  ideas from an outside source, that source must be
  acknowledged. Another rule to follow is that any
  direct quotation must be placed in quotation
  marks, and the source immediately cited. 1
  Plagiarism can occur whenever you make use of
  the ideas or work product of someone else without
  including an appropriate citation (Dartmouth
  College, What is Plagiarism).
• http//www.dartmouth.edu/sources/about/what.html

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• Indiana University at Bloomington
• What is Plagiarism and Why is it Important?
• In college courses, we are continually engaged
  with other peoples ideas we read them in texts,
  hear them in lecture, discuss them in class, and
  incorporate them into our own writing. As a
  result, it is very important that we give credit
  where it is due. Plagiarism is using others
  ideas and words without clearly acknowledging the
  source of that information.

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• (continued)
• How Can Students Avoid Plagiarism?
• To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit
  whenever you use
• another persons idea, opinion, or theory
• any facts, statistics, graphs, drawingsany
  pieces of informationthat are not common
  knowledge
• quotations of another persons actual spoken or
  written words or
• paraphrase of another persons spoken or written
  words.
• Instructional Support Services Writing Tutorial
  Services, http//www.indiana.edu/wts/pamphlets/pl
  agiarism.shtml

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Consequences

• At PVI, an act of plagiarism constitutes a
  violation of the Academic Honor Code and carries
  serious disciplinary and academic consequences as
  stated in the student handbook. A second offense
  of the Academic Honor Code during a students
  time at PVI may result in a School Council
  meeting.

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• During September, all PVI English teachers taught
  a lesson on plagiarism prevention and all
  students were instructed to register for English
  classes on Turnitin.com.

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Turnitin.com

• Turnitin is a web-based technological tool that
  quickly shows instructors matches between a
  students written work and that of billions of
  pages of writings in its data base. Turnitin
  NEVER states that a paper is plagiarized. That
  determination is left solely to the professional
  judgment of the instructor.
• See www.turnitin.com

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Elective Writing Courses

• Journalism (news writing)
• Yearbook
• Creative Writing

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• Thank you for attending tonights presentation.
  I hope you learned something helpful.