HAVE A GREAT BREAK

I hope you have enjoyed the class.
Upload your paper to turnitin.

Take care,
dr. s

WEEK TEN BLOG ENTRY

If you could change one thing about humans, what would it be?

--OR WRITE ABOUT THIS--

Agree with one: People are inherently good and seek the best for each other/People are inherently bad and seek their own interests at the expense of others.

WEEK TEN READING

NO EXTRA READING THIS WEEK--JUST WORK ON YOUR FINAL ESSAY...

WEEK TEN WRITING ABOUT WHAT YOU READ

NO WRITING ABOUT WHAT YOU READ THIS WEEK!

WEEK NINE BLOG ENTRY

The best restaurant in Bakersfield is...

--or-- (because maybe you don't know Bakersfield:))

The best restaurant I have ever been to is...

WEEK NINE READING

http://lifeandthyme.com/reflections/rise-of-food-culture-peru/
This is a week where you need to click on the above link and read the article from the other site.

WEEK NINE WRITING ABOUT WHAT YOU READ

I know that we already wrote about food this quarter, but now think about food as a phenomenon. Some of you may not know this, but there was once a time when no Food Network existed: when people did not even obsess so much about the latest cool restaurant or food truck or new place near them that happened to be on Diners, Drive Ins, and Drives.
So what do you think of this food culture? Or what do you think about anything from this article about the rise of a food culture in Peru?

FINAL ESSAY OF THE QUARTER ASSIGNMENT

Can you believe that the quarter is coming to an end? Our final assignment (we have no final exam, by the way) deals with our final reading of the quarter, Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point.

TIPPING POINT ESSAY ASSIGNMENT:

The essay should uploaded to turnitin.com. It will be 2-3 pages in length, double spaced.

There are two essay topics to choose from.

Obviously, as you read through the book look for examples that will help you build a fabulous final paper!

Write a 2-3 page double spaced essay on one of the following topics:

1. How might one or more of the ideas in the book The Tipping Point apply to your chosen major or profession?

2. Locate a trend [social, political, cultural, other] that seems to exhibit a "tipping point" phenomenon. Provide a brief explanation of why you think this phenomenon meets Gladwell's criteria for tipping point phenomenon; does it exhibit contagiousness. or little causes having big effects, or dramatic change?

THIS IS DUE NOVEMBER 23rd TO TURNITIN.COM (the syllabus says the 20^th, but it is indeed the 23rd)

LATE PAPERS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED, AND YOU CANNOT PASS THE CLASS WITHOUT THIS ASSIGNMENT, SO BE SURE IT IS IN ON TIME.

WEEK EIGHT BLOG ENTRY

Answer one of the following questions this week:

Is it true that hurt people hurt people?

Would you rather be invincible from physical or emotional harm?

Life is unfair. It is unfair to everyone. So isn't that fair?

Some physicists claim that time travel is impossible. Isn't living already travelling through time?

 Would you rather have your ideal job or your ideal mate?

WEEK EIGHT READING

Start reading The Tipping Point this week. As you read, think about how the ideas of the book might apply to your major.

WEEK EIGHT WRITING ABOUT WHAT YOU READ

What do you think of The Tipping Point thus far?

WEEK SEVEN BLOG ENTRY

THE SIX WORD POEM...This week's blog entry is easy. You have to create a 6 word poem with any theme related to the environment. The rules of the six word poem? It has 6 words. In this case, you also should focus on some theme of nature. Here is an example:

Birds, water, the ocean calls me.

Here is another: The fire destroys, green grass brown.

See the pattern? 6 words...environmental theme.
Create a 6 word poem and then comment on others that you see on here. Easy, right?

WEEK SEVEN READING

1. The Arctic sea ice melts

The melting of the Arctic's summer ice is considered to be the single greatest threat, and some scientists think we've already passed the tipping point. As sea ice melts and the Arctic warms , dark ocean water is exposed that absorbs more sunlight, thus reinforcing the warming. The transition to an ice-free Arctic summer can occur rapidly — within decades — and this has geopolitical implications as nations compete for the newly opened space and petroleum resources. Added to all that will be the damage that would result from the disruption of an entire ecosystem.

2. Greenland becomes ice free

The warming of the Arctic may also render Greenland largely ice free. While Greenland's ice loss will likely reach the point of no return within this century, the full transition will take at least a few hundred years. The impacts of the Greenland ice melt is expected to raise sea levels by up to 20 feet. Half of the 10 largest cities in the world, including New York City, and one-third of the world's 30 largest cities are already threatened by this sea-level rise. Today, those cities are home to nearly 1.8 billion people. Other vulnerable American cities include Miami, Norfolk and Boston.

 

3. The West Antarctic ice sheet disintegrates.

On the other side of Earth, the West Antarctic ice sheet is also disintegrating . Because the bottom of this glacier is grounded below sea level, it's vulnerable to rapid breakup, thinning and retreat as warm ocean water eats away at the ice. Scientists expect the West Antarctic ice sheet to "tip" this century, and there is evidence that it already began happening in 2014. However, the entire collapse of the glacier, which would raise sea level by 16 feet, could take a few hundred years.

4. El Niño becomes a more permanent climate fixture.

The oceans absorb about 90 percent of the extra heat that is being trapped in the Earth system by greenhouse gases. This could affect the ocean dynamics that control El Niño events. While there are several theories about what could happen in the future, the most likely consequence of ocean heat uptake is that El Niño, a natural climate phenomenon , could become a more permanent part of our climate system. That would cause extensive drought conditions in Southeast Asia and elsewhere, while some drought-prone areas such as California would get relief. While the transition to a world with more El Niños is expected to be gradual and take around one hundred years, the event could be triggered during this century.

5. The Amazon rainforest dies back

Deforestation, a longer dry season and rising summer temperatures are threatening the amount of rainfall in the Amazon. At least half of the Amazon rainforest could turn into savannah and grassland. Once that event is triggered, the changes could happen over just a few decades. This would make it very difficult for the rainforest to reestablish itself and would lead to a considerable loss in biodiversity. However, the reduction of the Amazon ultimately depends on what happens with El Niño, along with future land-use changes from human activities.

6. Boreal forests are cut in half

Increased water and heat stress are taking a toll on the large forests in Canada, Russia and other parts of the uppermost Northern Hemisphere. So are their vulnerability to disease and fires. This could lead to a 50 percent reduction of the boreal forests — an event from which they may never be able to recover. Instead, the forest would gradually transition into open woodlands or grasslands over several decades. This would have a huge impact on the world's carbon balance because forests can absorb much more carbon than grasslands can. As the forest diminishes, the climate will be affected — as will the Earth's energy balance. However, the complex interaction between tree physiology, permafrost and fires makes the situation tricky to understand.

 

 

Other concerns ...

As if that's not enough, there are a few other tipping events that scientists are also concerned about, but they are even more complex and harder to predict. Examples of such events include the greening of the Sahara and Sahel deserts, the development of an Arctic ozone hole and a chaotic Indian summer monsoon.

How do we keep from tipping over?

We know from measurements that the Earth has had many climate-related tipping events throughout its history. Today's situation is different, because humans are now driving these changes and the warming is occurring at a faster rate.

But as humans we also have the power to change the trajectory we're on — and possibly turn the situation around in only a few years.

http://www.livescience.com/51018-these-six-triggers-will-transform-earth-climate.html

 

WEEK SEVEN WRITING ABOUT WHAT YOU READ

I understand that there is now a political divide over issues of global warming--but forget all that. What does this article make you think?

WEEK SIX BLOG ENTRY

This could be the most difficult blog entry yet--you are totally free to write on any topic. Be original. Describe your breakfast. Explain how to fix a carburetor. Tell the class how deeply you love writing. Anything--it is up to you!

WEEK SIX READING

I am not sure what to make of this short reading...but enjoy it nonetheless!
------------------

Is Free Thinking A Mental Illness?

Is nonconformity and freethinking a mental illness?  According to the newest edition of the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), it certainly is.  The manual identifies a new mental illness called “oppositional defiant disorder” or ODD.  Defined as an “ongoing pattern of disobedient, hostile and defiant behavior,” symptoms include questioning authority, negativity, defiance, argumentativeness, and being easily annoyed.

The DSM-IV is the manual used by psychiatrists to diagnose mental illnesses and, with each new edition, there are scores of new mental illnesses.  Are we becoming sicker?  Is it getting harder to be mentally healthy?  Authors of the DSM-IV say that it’s because they’re better able to identify these illnesses today.  Critics charge that it’s because they have too much time on their hands.

New mental illnesses identified by the DSM-IV include arrogance, narcissism, above-average creativity, cynicism, and antisocial behavior.  In the past, these were called “personality traits,” but now they’re diseases.

 

And there are treatments available.

All of this is a symptom of our over-diagnosing and overmedicating culture.  In the last 50 years, the DSM-IV has gone from 130 to 357 mental illnesses.  A majority of these illnesses afflict children.  Although the manual is an important diagnostic tool for the psychiatric industry, it has also been responsible for social changes.  The rise in ADD, bipolar disorder, and depression in children has been largely because of the manual’s identifying certain behaviors as symptoms.  A Washington Post article observed that, if Mozart were born today, he would be diagnosed with ADD and “medicated into barren normality.”

According to the DSM-IV, the diagnosis guidelines for identifying oppositional defiant disorder are for children, but adults can just as easily suffer from the disease.  This should give any freethinking American reason for worry.

The Soviet Union used new “mental illnesses” for political repression.  People who didn’t accept the beliefs of the Communist Party developed a new type of schizophrenia.  They suffered from the delusion of believing communism was wrong.  They were isolated, forcefully medicated, and put through repressive “therapy” to bring them back to sanity.

 

When the last edition of the DSM-IV was published, identifying the symptoms of various mental illnesses in children, there was a jump in the diagnosis and medication of children.  Some states have laws that allow protective agencies to forcibly medicate, and even make it a punishable crime to withhold medication.  This paints a chilling picture for those of us who are nonconformists.

 

Although the authors of the manual claim no ulterior motives but simply better diagnostic practices, the labeling of freethinking and nonconformity as mental illnesses has a lot of potential for abuse.  It can easily become a weapon in the arsenal of a repressive state.

 http://www.offthegridnews.com/how-to-2/is-free-thinking-a-mental-illness/

WEEK SIX WRITING ABOUT WHAT YOU READ

Is original thinking a mental disorder? What does it mean to be unique?

FACE TO FACE MEETING

As you know, we will meet on Saturday the 17th to write our mandatory and fabulous in class essay. You do not need to prepare anything for this essay, aside from starting to read Tortilla Curtain. 

We will meet at CSUB in the Classroom Building Room 101. On campus, that is the building to the South of the Dore Theatre. It says CLASSROOM BUILDING on the outside.

We will meet at 9 and are usually done by 11, even though we are scheduled to be there until noon.

I look forward to seeing you on Saturday!

Dr. S

WEEK FIVE BLOG ENTRY

Is it important to know your roots and remember your background? Why or why not?

WEEK FIVE READING

Does Immigration Without A Strong Minimum Wage Increase Inequality?


There has been strong debate over whether immigration helps increase income inequality by increasing labor supply so that those hiring workers, especially when job creation is still wavering, can afford to pay less.

To know whether this actually happens or not is difficult because there are so many moving pieces to the question. For example, earlier this year an analysis of H1-B hiring records suggested that median salaries of foreign high tech workers at some of the biggest tech companies — Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft — had topped $100,000 and were still on the rise. That sounds great, but to really know what that meant you’d need the median salaries by job category of native workers in the same companies to compare. If higher, then the continued influx of engineers could drive down, or at least slow the growth of, overall salaries.

In this Sept. 18, 2015 image made from video released by the Frio County Sheriff’s Department, immigrants exit a truck after law enforcement officers unlocked the rear doors in Moore, Texas. On Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2015, a federal grand jury indicted Drew Christopher Potter, 33, on charges of smuggling the 39 Central Americans. (Frio County Sherrif’s Department via AP)

On the other end of the spectrum are people with a high school or lesser education who are making far lower sums. Some broader studies have suggested that immigration accounted for only 5 percent of the increase in U.S. wage inequality between 1980 and 2000. That said this is old data from a time when outsourcing, or job emigration, was still quickly growing. In addition, the analysis was by David Card, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley who generally argues that immigration has no impact on wealth inequality.

A new study from Harvard’s George Borjas, an economist on the other side of the debate, suggests that evidence from around the Mariel boat lift (1980s) shows how immigration can put the most at-risk people into greater economic danger.

According to Borjas, 60 percent of the Marielitos were high school dropouts and low in skills:

A reappraisal of the Mariel evidence, specifically examining the evolution of wages in the low-skill group most likely to be affected, quickly overturns the finding that Mariel did not affect Miami’s wage structure. The absolute wage of high school dropouts in Miami dropped dramatically, as did the wage of high school dropouts relative to that of either high school graduates or college graduates. The drop in the relative wage of the least educated Miamians was substantial (10 to 30 percent), implying an elasticity of wages with respect to the number of workers between -0.5 and -1.5.

It’s not to say that if you allow immigrants into the country that wages will necessarily drop. One might say that immigrants often take jobs that citizens reject. But do natives turn down opportunities for being beneath them or because the wages have been depressed that they know making a good living becomes next to impossible?

There are no absolute answers in sight, of course, but it seems reasonable that in lower-paying, lower-skilled jobs, increased availability of workers could help employers continue to keep wages low. That would become an argument for a higher minimum wage. If large enough, people might not need as much government aid and social safety programs would not become a way to underwrite businesses by effectively enabling low pay.

WEEK FIVE WRITING ABOUT WHAT YOU READ

No need to post anything here this week, unless you want to say something about the article.

GRADED RESTAURANT REVIEWS

Hi all,
The restaurant reviews have been scored and emailed to you. If you did not receive that from your CSUB account, let me know.
Happy writing!
Dr. S

WEEK FOUR BLOG ENTRY

How does it change a country to have so many immigrants? Is the U.S. different for having been born of immigrants and then peopled by Irish in the 1840s, Germans in the 1880s, Chinese and Japanese in the 1890s, Italians in the early 1900s, and so on? How is a nation different after so much immigration?

WEEK FOUR READING

THIS WEEK, WE WILL BEGIN TO READ TORTILLA CURTAIN, BY TC BOYLE.
We will write about this book for our in class essay on October 17th.
Enjoy!

WEEK FOUR WRITING ABOUT WHAT YOU READ

Choose one or two lines from Tortilla Curtain. Write the lines here and discuss why you think they stood out to you.

REMEMBER...THE RESTAURANT REVIEW IS DUE BY TOMORROW, MONDAY, THE 28TH, AT MIDNIGHT...

Be sure it is turned in to turnitin by that time!!!

WEEK THREE BLOG ENTRY

1. What is the greatest single song of all time and why?

2. Do you have a memory that is directly linked to a song?
For example, you are on your first date and the Katy Perry song Dark Horse plays on the radio three separate times during the evening. So now whenever you think of the date, you are reminded of the song, and vice versa.

WEEK THREE READING

Is Music the Key to Success?
By JOANNE LIPMAN

CONDOLEEZZA RICE trained to be a concert pianist. Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, was a professional clarinet and saxophone player. The hedge fund billionaire Bruce Kovner is a pianist who took classes at Juilliard.
Multiple studies link music study to academic achievement. But what is it about serious music training that seems to correlate with outsize success in other fields?
The connection isn’t a coincidence. I know because I asked. I put the question to top-flight professionals in industries from tech to finance to media, all of whom had serious (if often little-known) past lives as musicians. Almost all made a connection between their music training and their professional achievements.
The phenomenon extends beyond the math-music association. Strikingly, many high achievers told me music opened up the pathways to creative thinking. And their experiences suggest that music training sharpens other qualities: Collaboration. The ability to listen. A way of thinking that weaves together disparate ideas. The power to focus on the present and the future simultaneously.
Will your school music program turn your kid into a Paul Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft (guitar)? Or a Woody Allen (clarinet)? Probably not. These are singular achievers. But the way these and other visionaries I spoke to process music is intriguing. As is the way many of them apply music’s lessons of focus and discipline into new ways of thinking and communicating — even problem solving.
Look carefully and you’ll find musicians at the top of almost any industry. Woody Allen performs weekly with a jazz band. The television broadcaster Paula Zahn (cello) and the NBC chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd (French horn) attended college on music scholarships; NBC’s Andrea Mitchell trained to become a professional violinist. Both Microsoft’s Mr. Allen and the venture capitalist Roger McNamee have rock bands. Larry Page, a co-founder of Google, played saxophone in high school. Steven Spielberg is a clarinetist and son of a pianist. The former World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn has played cello at Carnegie Hall.
“It’s not a coincidence,” says Mr. Greenspan, who gave up jazz clarinet but still dabbles at the baby grand in his living room. “I can tell you as a statistician, the probability that that is mere chance is extremely small.” The cautious former Fed chief adds, “That’s all that you can judge about the facts. The crucial question is: why does that connection exist?”
Paul Allen offers an answer. He says music “reinforces your confidence in the ability to create.” Mr. Allen began playing the violin at age 7 and switched to the guitar as a teenager. Even in the early days of Microsoft, he would pick up his guitar at the end of marathon days of programming. The music was the emotional analog to his day job, with each channeling a different type of creative impulse. In both, he says, “something is pushing you to look beyond what currently exists and express yourself in a new way.”
Mr. Todd says there is a connection between years of practice and competition and what he calls the “drive for perfection.” The veteran advertising executive Steve Hayden credits his background as a cellist for his most famous work, the Apple “1984” commercial depicting rebellion against a dictator. “I was thinking of Stravinsky when I came up with that idea,” he says. He adds that his cello performance background helps him work collaboratively: “Ensemble playing trains you, quite literally, to play well with others, to know when to solo and when to follow.”
For many of the high achievers I spoke with, music functions as a “hidden language,” as Mr. Wolfensohn calls it, one that enhances the ability to connect disparate or even contradictory ideas. When he ran the World Bank, Mr. Wolfensohn traveled to more than 100 countries, often taking in local performances (and occasionally joining in on a borrowed cello), which helped him understand “the culture of people, as distinct from their balance sheet.”
It’s in that context that the much-discussed connection between math and music resonates most. Both are at heart modes of expression. Bruce Kovner, the founder of the hedge fund Caxton Associates and chairman of the board of Juilliard, says he sees similarities between his piano playing and investing strategy; as he says, both “relate to pattern recognition, and some people extend these paradigms across different senses.”
Mr. Kovner and the concert pianist Robert Taub both describe a sort of synesthesia — they perceive patterns in a three-dimensional way. Mr. Taub, who gained fame for his Beethoven recordings and has since founded a music software company, MuseAmi, says that when he performs, he can “visualize all of the notes and their interrelationships,” a skill that translates intellectually into making “multiple connections in multiple spheres.”
For others I spoke to, their passion for music is more notable than their talent. Woody Allen told me bluntly, “I’m not an accomplished musician. I get total traction from the fact that I’m in movies.”
Mr. Allen sees music as a diversion, unconnected to his day job. He likens himself to “a weekend tennis player who comes in once a week to play. I don’t have a particularly good ear at all or a particularly good sense of timing. In comedy, I’ve got a good instinct for rhythm. In music, I don’t, really.”
Still, he practices the clarinet at least half an hour every day, because wind players will lose their embouchure (mouth position) if they don’t: “If you want to play at all you have to practice. I have to practice every single day to be as bad as I am.” He performs regularly, even touring internationally with his New Orleans jazz band. “I never thought I would be playing in concert halls of the world to 5,000, 6,000 people,” he says. “I will say, quite unexpectedly, it enriched my life tremendously.”
Music provides balance, explains Mr. Wolfensohn, who began cello lessons as an adult. “You aren’t trying to win any races or be the leader of this or the leader of that. You’re enjoying it because of the satisfaction and joy you get out of music, which is totally unrelated to your professional status.”
For Roger McNamee, whose Elevation Partners is perhaps best known for its early investment in Facebook, “music and technology have converged,” he says. He became expert on Facebook by using it to promote his band, Moonalice, and now is focusing on video by live-streaming its concerts. He says musicians and top professionals share “the almost desperate need to dive deep.” This capacity to obsess seems to unite top performers in music and other fields.
Ms. Zahn remembers spending up to four hours a day “holed up in cramped practice rooms trying to master a phrase” on her cello. Mr. Todd, now 41, recounted in detail the solo audition at age 17 when he got the second-highest mark rather than the highest mark — though he still was principal horn in Florida’s All-State Orchestra.
“I’ve always believed the reason I’ve gotten ahead is by outworking other people,” he says. It’s a skill learned by “playing that solo one more time, working on that one little section one more time,” and it translates into “working on something over and over again, or double-checking or triple-checking.” He adds, “There’s nothing like music to teach you that eventually if you work hard enough, it does get better. You see the results.”
That’s an observation worth remembering at a time when music as a serious pursuit — and music education — is in decline in this country.
Consider the qualities these high achievers say music has sharpened: collaboration, creativity, discipline and the capacity to reconcile conflicting ideas. All are qualities notably absent from public life. Music may not make you a genius, or rich, or even a better person. But it helps train you to think differently, to process different points of view — and most important, to take pleasure in listening.
Joanne Lipman is a co-author, with Melanie Kupchynsky, of the book “Strings Attached: One Tough Teacher and the Gift of Great Expectations.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/opinion/sunday/is-music-the-key-to-success.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

WEEK THREE WRITING ABOUT WHAT YOU READ

Is music the key to success?

--or--

How has music impacted your experience of or thinking about life?

COURSE SYLLABUS

Hi there,
Hopefully you are now fully acquainted with the blog and getting into the rhythm of the course.
I now post our blog. It has some due dates and assignment descriptions...enjoy!
As always, if you have any questions about it, email me at bschmoll@csub.edu.

COURSE SYLLABUS

REQUIRED READING:

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

The Tortilla Curtain by TC Boyle

MAJOR ASSIGNMENTS/GRADING SCALE/DUE DATES:

BLOG: (10%) DUE WEEKLY

WRITING ABOUT WHAT YOU READ: (10%) DUE WEEKLY

RESTAURANT REVIEW: 25% DUE SEPTEMBER 28^TH

IN CLASS ESSAY: 25% OCTOBER 17^TH FROM 9-NOON AT CSUB 

TIPPING POINT FINAL DRAFT: 30% DUE NOVEMBER 20^TH

GRADED COURSEWORK EXPLAINED A BIT MORE:

BLOG: Each week there will be a question on the blog. You will write at least 250 words(a long and brilliant paragraph) in response to that question. You must also respond to your classmates’ writing at least twice(with at least a one sentence response) each week. The best thing to do is to write your response to the blog prompt, respond to someone else’s blog entry, and then wait a few hours or a day before coming back to see what others have said about your blog entry. Then, respond to that. The more you write, the better. Each week, I will chime in at least once(and usually more) with my own response. Bu remember, this is NON GRADED WRITING. Studies have made it very clear that the more you write in non-judged ways, the better your writing becomes. So simply write!

 WRITING ABOUT WHAT YOU READ:  After you read each week’s selection, you will respond to a question about the reading. These should also be about 250 words. You do not need to respond to other’s work in this area. However, you may find someone else’s work so interesting that you want to respond.

RESTAURANT REVIEW: THIS IS OUR FIRST ASSIGNMENT. Go to any restaurant in town. As you eat, take notes on the ambiance, the food, and the service. You may choose any restaurant (from Taco Bell to Café Med), but you should use this writing assignment to explore your descriptive capabilities. Use sound, touch, taste, smell, and the look of the food and surroundings. The review should be approximately three pages(typed, double-spaced) in length. You may use the first-person in this review. Again, I will email you this assignment separately, but you might start thinking now about which restaurant you want to try.

TIPPING POINT FINAL DRAFT: (30%) For this assignment, you will email me the final draft copy of your essay. THIS IS FINAL ESSAY OF THE COURSE, SO DO NOT RUSH OUT AND START IT NOW!

The essay should be attached as a Microsoft Word document and should be 4 pages in length, double spaced.

There are two essay topics to choose from.

Write a 4 page double spaced essay on one of the following topics:

1. How might one or more of the ideas in the book The Tipping Point apply to your chosen profession?

2. Locate a trend [social, political, cultural, other] that seems to exhibit a "tipping point" phenomenon. Provide a brief explanation of why you think this phenomenon meets Gladwell's three criteria for tipping point phenomenon: a) contagiousness b) little causes having big effects c) not gradual but dramatic change.

IN CLASS ESSAY: (15%)

We will take this in class essay during our face to face meeting at CSUB. This is our one mandatory meeting. Since this course satisfies the GWAR, you must pass one in class essay to be eligible to pass the course. That essay will be given during our face to face meeting. If you do not pass this assignment, you can come to my office to take a “demand” essay.  This essay will be written about the book TORTILLA CURTAIN . We will discuss this in detail as we approach that date.

OTHER COURSE POLICIES:

Passing Grade Requirement: Students must earn a grade of C or higher in this course to satisfy the Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR). In addition, this course can fulfill the GWAR only if a student has completed 90 or more quarter units of college work before taking it.

To be eligible for a C in English 305, students must earn a C or higher on at least one in-class writing assignment and a C average on all other course assignments. Since this is an online class, in-class writing assignments may be given at the first meeting or the last.

English 305 Waiting List/Drop Policy Statement

Students enrolled in English 305 must attend the first Saturday orientation session. Students who miss this session will be dropped so that other students may add the course. There is no make-up orientation session.

Students who wish to add the course once the class is full can contact the instructor before the quarter begins and ask to be put on a waiting list. These students must attend the first Saturday session to remain eligible for a seat, and these students can only be added if a spot in the class becomes available.

Course Description:

An online/hybrid course in effective expository writing. Emphasis on writing as a process. This course counts toward the Teacher Preparation programs in English, Liberal Studies, and Child Development but does not count toward the major or minor. Fulfills the GWAR.

Course Learning Outcomes

Students in GWAR courses should advance their mastery of the following learning outcomes:

Goal 1:  Reading Skills

Objective 1:   Analyze a rhetorical situation (purpose, audience, tone) and how a writer’s rhetorical choices (e.g. bias, rhetorical modes, syntax, diction) inform a text.

Objective 2:   Analyze a text’s structure and conventional parts (introduction, thesis, main ideas, body paragraphs, conclusion), and how the parts work together.

Objective 3:   Analyze a text’s logic and reasoning.

Objective 4:   Effectively critique the effectiveness of a writer’s rhetorical choices, organization, and logic.

Goal 2:  Writing Skills

   Objective 1:   Effectively adapt the writing process to various rhetorical situations, anticipating the needs of purpose and audience.

   Objective 2:   Analyze more complex and/or abstract writing prompts, and stay on task.

   Objective 3:   Create effective thesis statements, and use a variety of appropriate and compelling rhetorical strategies to support the thesis.

   Objective 4:   Effectively structure essays, evaluating how the parts work together to create meaning.

   Objective 5:   Avoid logical fallacies, and use precise logical reasoning to develop essays.

   Objective 6:   Use correct and college-level, discourse-appropriate syntax, diction, grammar, and mechanics.

Goal 3:  Research Skills

   Objective 1:   Effectively use summary, paraphrase, and direct quotes to smoothly synthesize sources into own writing.

   Objective 2:   Master a documentation style, and avoid plagiarism.   

   Objective 3:   Use research methods to find reputable sources.

Writing Requirements

Assignments will gradually increase in difficulty, and each assignment will include both a rough draft and a final essay. Writing assignments may be distributed as follows:

● at least one in-class assignment, during the first or last meeting

● writing to inform

● writing to amuse or move the reader emotionally

● writing to persuade

● writing to analyze literature and/or art

Participation

Students will be required to participate in peer revision and discussion on a blog set up exclusively for this class.

WEEKLY GOALS

WEEK ONE

This week I hope you will be able to effectively adapt the writing process to various rhetorical situations, anticipating the needs of purpose and audience. (Goal 2, Objective 1)

WEEK TWO

This week I hope you will be able to analyze a rhetorical situation (purpose, audience, tone) and how a writer’s rhetorical choices (e.g. bias, rhetorical modes, syntax, diction) inform a text. (Goal 1, Objective 1)

WEEK THREE

This week I hope you will be able to effectively structure essays, evaluating how the parts work together to create meaning. (Goal 2, Objective 4)

WEEK FOUR

This week I hope you will be able to avoid logical fallacies, and use precise logical reasoning to develop essays. (Goal 2, Objective 5)

WEEK FIVE

This week I hope you will be able to use correct and college-level, discourse-appropriate syntax, diction, grammar, and mechanics. (Goal 2, Objective 6)

WEEK SIX

This week I hope you will be able to analyze a text’s structure and conventional parts (introduction, thesis, main ideas, body paragraphs, conclusion), and how the parts work together. (Goal 1, Objective 2)

WEEK SEVEN

This week I hope you will be able to analyze a text’s logic and reasoning. (Goal 1, Objective 3)

WEEK EIGHT

This week I hope you will be able to effectively use summary, paraphrase, and direct quotes to smoothly synthesize sources into own writing. (Goal 3, Objective 1)

WEEK NINE

This week I hope you will be able to master a documentation style, and avoid plagiarism. (Goal 3, Objective 2) and Use research methods to find reputable sources. (Goal 3, Objective 3)

WEEK TEN

This week I hope you will be able to create effective thesis statements, and use a variety of appropriate and compelling rhetorical strategies to support the thesis. (Goal 2, Objective 3)

RESTAURANT REVIEW DESCRIPTIVE ESSAY ASSIGNMENT

RESTAURANT REVIEW: DUE September 28th

Go to any restaurant. As you eat, take notes on the ambiance, the food, and the service. You may choose any restaurant (from Taco Bell to Café Med), but you should use this writing assignment to explore your descriptive capabilities. Use sound, touch, taste, smell, and the look of the food and surroundings.

The review should be approximately two to three pages in length(double-spaced). You may use the first-person in this review. And in fact, you should include something about the social experience of eating. What part did your company play in making this an essay worthy food experience?

Basically, you should go to a restaurant and capture the experience on paper. You may write this one in a fairly informal tone. This is due on September 28th, by midnight.

HERE'S HOW YOU TURN THIS PAPER IN:
Once your essay is finished, you will upload the final draft to turnitin.com at any time on or before the 28th.

If you have not used this site before, you will go to turnitin.com and sign in using your own information. To enroll in the class, you will need the CLASS ID and password. They are below:
CLASS ID: 10751457

PASSWORD: english

Once you are signed in, you will click on Restaurant Review, which is the only available assignment right now. You will submit your paper there. That is it. If you have trouble with this, let me know.
Again, that assignment is due on the 28th and will be turned in only at turnitin.com.

Best,
dr. s

WEEK TWO BLOG ENTRY

(just a reminder, write your entry and then come back and respond to others)

What is the strangest thing you have ever eaten? Ants from Columbia? Pancreas from Spain? Cow heart from Peru? Deep fried grilled cheese from the Kern County Fair?

Alternatively, if you are not that kind of eater or have not tried such culinary oddities, what is one food you would never eat?

WEEK TWO READING

This is a restaurant review from the LA Times. Look at the way the author inserts herself and the social experience of the visit into the review. It has some great descriptive detail as well.---------------------------------------

The Review: Patina

Fine dining is alive but a bit fragile at Joachim Splichal's downtown spot, where the economy and changing tastes have put a dent in business. But not on the Patina experience.

By S. Irene Virbila, Los Angeles Times Restaurant Critic
June 10, 2010

As friends and I step into Patina, the figures of the hostess, manager, bartender, server and sommelier awake from their enchantment. They move forward, murmur a greeting and lead us to a table in the elegant, modernist dining room. Sometimes it feels as if the entire restaurant has been put into a state of suspended animation by an evil witch called the economy.

At a restaurant where you once had to reserve three weeks in advance, it's now possible to get a prime weekend dinner reservation on a few days' notice. Who knows, maybe even less than that. Not that the restaurant is empty. It's just rarely very full, and I don't get the sense that diners are waiting in the wings for tables. It's not all the economy. The other factor is the dwindling number of people interested in so-called fine dining.

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It's a shame.

Because right now Patina has an extraordinary chef in Frenchman Tony Esnault, who has been heading up the kitchen since September. And he is, hands down, the best chef that founder Joachim Splichal has had in years. A Ducasse disciple, Esnault worked with the multi-starred French chef at Louis IV in Monaco and in New York was executive chef both at Ducasse's Essex House and Adour. Esnault's impressive résumé wouldn't matter if his rigorous training and talent didn't show in his cooking.

This latest iteration of Patina sneaks up and reminds the unwary and the jaded just why fine dining matters. The restaurant is a place where everything — the ambience, the service, the food and the wine work seamlessly to create a sense of occasion. It's the time to slow down, to savor the food and the company. A moment outside of the everyday, and a rare indulgence.

Close your eyes. Pay attention to the first bite of the amuse. It might be a tiny bowl of nettle velouté crowned with a buckwheat chip that leaves you wanting more — and more — of the mysteriously earthy and velvety soup. Or it could be an intense lobster bisque with a dab of ivory crème fraiche.

Now just look at his glazed vegetable mosaic. What a breathtaking dish. With an unfaltering sense of color and proportion — and taste — the chef has composed a cityscape of vegetables in a coral-red pool of their cooking juices. There's celeryroot, carrot, a spear of asparagus, turnip, a bull's eye of crimson and white Chioggia beet drizzled with lemon-scented oil. Every bite delivers the essence of this or that vegetable in this whimsical dish.

Round, plump ravioli are filled with finely minced zucchini and cheese and are as beguiling as any I've encountered. Each wears a nubbin of emerald baby zucchini and at the center is a gossamer veil of goat cheese "foam" crowned with the bright gold zucchini blossoms.

The chef certainly has a talent for creating beautiful compositions, marshalling ingredients into geometric precision. Every note he hits rings true. A starter of hamachi (yellowtail) presents a rectangle of the marinated raw fish garnished with razor-thin slices of geoduck clam on one side of the plate with pieces of avocado, crunchy crostini and a green-apple mustard forming vertical lines on the other side. It's decorative, but not decoration. Each element plays against the other, so that depending on how you orchestrate it, each bite ofhamachi is different.

A dreamy foie gras terrine arrives as a skinny rectangle. A vein of tart strawberry-rhubarb compote runs down the middle, and for color, the top is glazed in a brilliant scarlet, which echoes the chunks of strawberry and rhubarb forming another long rectangle on the plate. The combination of the fruit with the fat richness of the foie gras makes the dish thoroughly modern.

Bite by bite, I explore artichoke variations ordered à la carte from the vegetarian tasting menu too. Underneath a soft pillow of gray-green artichoke purée and scattered around the plate, are roasted quartered baby artichokes and slices of artichoke so fine they look as if they have been prepared for the microscope in a barigoule jus dotted with emerald parsley purée.

The first time I had Esnault's cooking, I ordered the milk-fed veal rack. And on the last night, I ordered the rack for two just to see if it was as good as I remembered. It definitely is. It's succulent and tender, with delicious gelatinous and caramelized bits, cooked on the bone and carved tableside. The bone is served up on its own little plate. And the veal comes with rounds of carrot and turnip stacked and laid on their side like gambling chips. The slightly thickened jus is perfect.

I'd also recommend the Kurobuta pork with both raw and minced cooked radish and the beautiful rosy squab with a scattering of wild mushrooms and English peas.

Butter-poached lobster is a luscious preparation presented with spring vegetables — haricots verts, crisp snap peas, English peas and tender fava beans in a lobster-intense reduction that never overplays its strength. Barramundi comes just this side of rare with a fresh presentation of pastel beets and hearts of palm. Sole meunière is superb, the fish flown in from Brittany, fresh and firm. The accompaniments are almost austere, simply a line of diced mushrooms and some sautéed mizuna greens.

Patina has always had a well-curated cheese cart. Maybe now the selection is a little smaller, but you can't fault the presentation on a tall, gleaming gueridon, each cheese perfectly ripe. I particularly enjoyed the Époisses from Burgundy and a raw milk tommefrom the Alps. There's a similarly beautiful cart for caviar and another for the tea service, with loose-leaf teas in silver and glass canisters.


 Sylvestre Fernandes, who has been at Patina since 2000, is the sommelier and he couldn't be a better choice. He's knowledgeable and enthusiastic about wines, but without pretentiousness. And while the wine list still holds some fabulous old and young Bordeaux and Burgundies and California Cabernets, it also features the quirky and exotic wines prized by the new generation of sommeliers. I could be wrong, but wine prices here don't seem so scary-high anymore and if you buy a bottle from the list, the corkage fee is waived for anything you bring from your own cellar.

The service is less brittle than it once was, which makes for a more relaxing evening. But waiters may be a little too attentive with the water. I got a $22 water bill one night without anyone ever asking if we'd like them to open a second and then a third bottle.

Waylynn Lucas, the new dessert chef, has been here only over a month, but she's very good. She'd have to be since she was previously pastry chef at the Bazaar by José Andrés in Beverly Hills. I'm fascinated by the way a tarragon and arugula granité heightens the flavor of strawberries. Or the way toffee and chocolate are welded together in a soft milk chocolate dessert that's subtle and under-sweetened. Tres leches is served up in a dainty portion wearing a soft meringue cap, a lovely tribute to the Caribbean.

Splichal has mentored a good many of L.A.'s top chefs — Octavio Becerra, Walter Manzke, Eric Greenspan, Josiah Citrin and Rafael Lunetta, among others. But Esnault arrives as a fully formed talent with his own ideas about how to meld French techniques with a California sensibility. What I love about his food is its balance and grace. This is quietly confident cooking, delicious by any measure.

And to find it in a restaurant downtown at the Walt Disney Concert Hall makes it even more of a pleasure. Not to forget: Joachim Splichal was one of the first well-known chefs to take a chance on downtown. And now, once again, Patina retakes its position as downtown's flagship restaurant.

Dinner starters, $18 to $26; main courses, $38 to $46; desserts, $12. Seven-course tasting menu, $120; six-course vegetarian tasting menu, $95. Corkage, $30, waived if you buy a bottle from the list.

DETAILS

Open Tuesday to Saturday from 5 to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 4 to 9 p.m. Supper is served at Patina after all Walt Disney Concert Hall events. Full bar. Valet parking, $8.

Rating is based on food, service and ambience, with price taken into account in relation to quality. Four stars: Outstanding on every level. Three stars: Excellent. Two stars: Very good. One star: Good. No star: Poor to satisfactory.

WEEK TWO WRITING ABOUT WHAT YOU READ

(just a reminder, write your entry--but you do NOT need to respond to others here)

What was the single best line of the restaurant review of Patina? Why was that line so appealing?

OUR SCHEDULED MEETING (not this saturday!)

JUST TO CLARIFY, WE ARE NOT ABLE TO MEET THIS SATURDAY. INSTEAD, AS YOU SAW IN THAT EMAIL, WE HAVE OUR IN CLASS ESSAY TOGETHER ON THE FOLLOW DAY:

We are meeting at CSUB on SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17TH, FROM 9 TO NOON, IN CSUB 101

BOOKS FOR THIS COURSE...

1. Tortilla Curtain by TC Boyle
2. Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

Any version of these will be fine.

WEEK ONE BLOG ENTRY

WEEK ONE BLOG ENTRY (a reminder, in this section, you need to write your 250 word blog entry AND respond to two classmates)

Introduce yourself to the class. 

You might consider some of the following questions: where are you from? What is your major? 
Why are you taking an online course? 
What is your favorite book? 
What is your favorite food? 
What is the farthest you have traveled from home? 
What did you do over Winter Break? 


Respond to any of these questions or anything else to tell us about yourself.

THEN, AFTER OTHERS HAVE RESPONDED, COME BACK TO THE BLOG AND RESPOND TO THEIR POSTS.

Remember, you may not wait until Saturday to do these posts. If you do that, you will not receive credit. The reason for that is that the blog is supposed to get you to write, read, write, in a community with others in our class. If you wait until Saturday, you are basically just writing to yourself. No one will really read what you write or respond to it--so write during the week.

WEEK ONE READING

READING 1

THE FOLLOWING IS FROM Orwell's essay, “Politics and the English Language” 

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus:

1. What am I trying to say?
2. What words will express it?
3. What image or idiom will make it clearer?
4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?

And he will probably ask himself two more:

1. Could I put it more shortly?
2. Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?

One can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase, and one needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails. I think the following rules will cover most cases:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

READING 2

Twain's Rules of Writing

(FROM MARK TWAIN'S SCATHING ESSAY ON THE LITERARY OFFENSES OF JAMES FENIMORE COOPER)

    1. A tale shall accomplish something and arrive somewhere.
2. The episodes of a tale shall be necessary parts of the tale, and shall help develop it.
3. The personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others.
4. The personages in a tale, both dead and alive, shall exhibit a sufficient excuse for being there.
5. When the personages of a tale deal in conversation, the talk shall sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a discoverable meaning, also a discoverable purpose, and a show of relevancy, and remain in the neighborhood of the subject in hand, and be interesting to the reader, and help out the tale, and stop when the people cannot think of anything more to say.
6. When the author describes the character of a personage in his tale, the conduct and conversation of that personage shall justify said description.
7. When a personage talks like an illustrated, gilt-edged, tree-calf, hand-tooled, seven-dollar Friendship's Offering in the beginning of a paragraph, he shall not talk like a Negro minstrel at the end of it.
8. Crass stupidities shall not be played upon the reader by either the author or the people in the tale.
9. The personages of a tale shall confine themselves to possibilities and let miracles alone; or, if they venture a miracle, the author must so plausably set it forth as to make it look possible and reasonable.
10. The author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and their fate; and that he shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones.
11. The characters in tale be so clearly defined that the reader can tell beforehand what each will do in a given emergency.
An author should
12. _Say_ what he is proposing to say, not merely come near it.
13. Use the right word, not its second cousin.
14. Eschew surplusage.
15. Not omit necessary details.
16. Avoid slovenliness of form.
17. Use good grammar.
18. Employ a simple, straightforward style.

Reading 3:

 ELMORE LEONARD'S RULES FOR WRITING:

Never open a book with weather.

 Avoid prologues.

Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.

 Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”…he admonished gravely.

 Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. 

Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."

Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.

 Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.

Don't go into great detail describing places and things.

Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.