Welcome to Barbara Jordan's English 107 Web Site

Class Wiki (hosted by Wetpaint)

"Students can write meaningful prose only if they are allowed complete freedom to assert their selves, their world views.  Writing should not be the imposing of form upon content but rather the adapting of the form to the expression."

--D'Angelo, Frank, from A Conceptual Theory of Rhetoric

Rhetoric - The art or study of using language effectively and persuasively.

Writing and rewriting are a constant search for what it is one is saying.--John Updike

The beautiful part is that you don’t have to get it right the first time—unlike, say, brain surgery.--Robert Cormier

 Off-Campus Periodicals Easy Access |  http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/library/databases/
Current MCC students may use this electronic database of articles and resources for free.  It's an excellent place to locate source articles on current topics and social problems.  Use this resource to find support for your expository essays.

MLA Citation Patterns and Examples | http://support.ebsco.com/help/int=ehost&lang=en&feature_id=MLA
"Nothing teaches us better than literature to see, in ethnic and cultural differences, the richness of human patrimony, and to prize those differences as a manifestation of humanity's multi-faceted creativity.  Reading good literature is an experience of pleasure, of course; but it is also an experience of learning what and how we are, in our human integrity and our human imperfection, with our actions, our dreams, and our ghosts, alone and in relationships that link us to others, in our public image and in the secret recesses of our consciousness."  --from the essay "Why Literature?" by Mario Vargas Llosa

Featured Student Essay by Jenny Chen The Problem of Teenage Drivers

Another Analysis Essay:  Second Language: When To Start, How To Learn  by Yuko Soda

First-Year Composition Course Outcomes

Through a minimum of four writing projects comprising at least 3,000 words (final drafts), the student will demonstrate an understanding of writing as a process through the ability to do the following:

1.   Analyze specific rhetorical contexts, including circumstance, purpose, topic, audience, and writer, as well as the writing's ethical, political, and cultural implications. (I, III)

2.   Organize writing to support a central idea through unity, coherence, and logical development appropriate to a specific writing context. (II, IV)

3.   Use appropriate conventions in writing, including consistent voice, tone, diction, grammar, and mechanics. (I, IV)

4.   Summarize, paraphrase and quote from sources to maintain academic integrity and to develop and support one's own ideas. (III, IV)

5.   Use feedback obtained from peer review, instructor comments and/or other resources to revise writing. (II)

6.   Assess one's own writing strengths and identify strategies for improvement through instructor conference, portfolio review, written evaluation, and/or other methods. (II, III)

7.   Generate, format, and edit writing using appropriate technologies. (II, IV)