Writing@CSU

Teaching Guides

Teaching CO300 Writing Arguments

Introduction

Background on the Course

CO300 as a University Core Course

Short Description of the Course

Course Objectives

General Overview

Alternative Approaches and Assignments

(Possible) Differences between COCC150 and CO300

What CO300 Students Are Like

And You Thought...

Beginning with Critical Reading

Opportunities for Innovation

Portfolio Grading as an Option

Teaching in the computer classroom

Finally. . .

Classroom materials

Audience awareness and rhetorical contexts

Critical thinking and reading

Focusing and narrowing topics

Mid-course, group, and supplemental evaluations

More detailed explanation of Rogerian argument and Toulmin analysis

Policy statements and syllabi

Portfolio explanations, checklists, and postscripts

Presenting evidence and organizing arguments/counter-arguments

Research and documentation

Revision

Writing assignment sheets

Assignments for portfolio 1

Assignments for portfolio 2

Assignments for portfolio 3

Workshopping and workshop sheets

On workshopping generally

Workshop sheets for portfolio 1

Workshop sheets for portfolio 2

Workshop sheets for portfolio 3

Workshop sheets for general purposes

Sample materials grouped by instructor

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Writing@CSU Home Page | Teaching Guides | COCC300

Revising the Title, Lead-In, and Thesis (Gogela)

Back Back to Revision

  1. Donald Murray recommends that in order to find a good title, we have to write a lot of bad ones. Hence, jot down ten potential titles in the space provided below. Remember the title reveals your essay's focus, tone, direction, and limits.

  2. Much like the title, an effective lead-in has to capture and hold the reader's attention by providing information that is pertinent as well as interesting. In no more than five or six sentences, write two completely different leads with a new direction and different tone. (Do not yet state your thesis here.)

    A)

    B)

  3. Now state your tentative working thesis and essay map. Does it suffer from the infamous "so-what?" syndrome? How can you avoid this?

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