Transcript: Week 3 Overview Hi, class, and welcome to week 3!

Unlike some composition instructors -- who jump right in to essay development – others of us prefer to step back and begin with paragraph development. In fact, when you review the resources in this week’s module, you will learn that your first major assignment for this class will not be a standard written essay; rather, it will be a “Rhetorical Portfolio” composed of a very specific series of standalone paragraphs. You’ll learn more about this major assignment in this week’s module, but I wanted to give you a brief explanation as to why we choose to start the semester by having you focus on developing paragraphs as opposed to developing essays.

You see, essays are composed of multiple paragraphs, so the ability to write strong, coherent, well-supported paragraphs is – arguably – one of the most important skills a student must learn in order to craft a well-organized and fully-developed essay. We also like to have our students start with paragraphs because very few students have actually had opportunities to really study, analyze, and practice strategies for developing standard academic body paragraphs.

With this starting point in mind, the assigned resources for this week will introduce you, first, to the characteristics of effectively developed body paragraphs and, second, to the rhetorical patterns often used to develop body paragraphs in academic essays.

You’ll also notice that there’s a critical reading activity early this week, and it’s important because it will prepare you for our discussion later in the week. For the critical reading activity, you will analyze and evaluate a few body paragraphs in a very interesting, published article on "The Problems of Students Evaluating Faculty." Interesting topic, right? I l know. We are really looking forward to reading your thoughts about that article in this week's discussion!

All of the resources and activities assigned for this week and covering paragraph development are extremely valuable because you will begin the early stages of your writing process for the Rhetorical Portfolio this week. How exciting!

Finally, this week will end with an introduction to LaunchPad and your first foundational grammar assignment. Did you remember to register for LaunchPad (LP) last week? If not, you may have already earned a zero on that required, homework assignment. Even worse, you won’t be prepared to complete the graded, grammar assignment due this week.

Listen, if ever you have questions about the assigned work, but you don’t contact your instructor in advance of due dates, your instructor won’t be able to offer timely help. So, please, as we begin this new week, contact your instructor immediatelywith any questions or concerns you might have with LP.

That’s it for now. I wish you a productive and interesting week!