2. Descartes

In Meditations on First Philosophy, René Descartes attempts to establish the existence of the mind, God, and reality. Setting our ambition a bit lower, we will write about his arguments as we study the phases of the writing process, elements of composition--such as thesis statements, promise sentences, structure, transitions, audience, tone, introductory paragraphs and concluding paragraphs--and techniques for prewriting, drafting, and rewriting.

Class Schedule

René Descartes

Date	Class Topic	Assignment
10/1	The Writing Process
10/3	Prewriting Techniques: Idea Formation	Longman Ch. 3
10/5	Prewriting Techniques: Organization
10/8	Structure & Transitions	Transitions
10/10	Draft Workshop	Draft of Feeder One
10/12	University Day
10/15	Thesis Statements and Promise Sentences	Feeder One Due
10/17	Audience	Longman Ch. 5
10/19	Fall Break
10/22	Tone
10/24	Drafting Techniques	Longman Ch. 6
10/26	Introductory Paragraphs	Introductions
10/29	Concluding Paragraphs	Conclusions
10/31	Draft Workshop	Draft of Unit Project
11/2	Conference Day
11/5	Global Revision Techniques	Longman Ch. 7
11/7	Sentence Revision Techniques	Unit Project Due

Assignments

Feeder One

Same as assignment for Philosophy 20.

Unit Project

In Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes contends that the human body and the human mind are two separate entities. In a one thousand word essay, explain your own position on the issue. Do you agree or disagree with Descartes?

A successful essay will present an argument, will demonstrate an understanding of the elements of composition, will have a clear, logical structure, and will have an effective introduction and an effective conclusion.

david_davis@unc.edu