Welcome to spring semester!

(NOTE: to read this entire post, click on the title above “Welcome to spring semester!)

Assignments for Week 1, all due Sunday, Jan. 31

Checklist:

• Read syllabus and other intro material about course
• Post a comment on the Paper vs screen page
• Set up blog and email me its URL
• Read Ten Ways to Think about Writing, and post your “writer’s autobiography” on your blog
• Post theme proposal on your blog

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For an introduction to the course, please read over the material in the drop-down menu labelled “Intro” at the left of the menu bar. If you click on the word “Intro,” you’ll get a short intro about me. Below the word “Intro” are five subsections’; click on each to read more about the way this course will operate. In particular, a short video in the section “Starting out” will give you a short tour of this course space. Also, note that the page Paper vs screen asks you to post a comment.

I will be demonstrating how to set up blogs on the first day of class (via Zoom). If you don’t get a chance to set up your blog during class, set it up as part of your homework.  Send me the URL of your blog via your Bristol email address; please indicate also the section you are in (either section no. or meeting time) and the name you’d like me to use to identify you on the course blog.

If you have any problems setting up your blog or figuring out how to use it, please send me an email asap. I can make a personalized video to explain things, or if you’d rather Zoom one-on-one we can set up a time to get together.

Next, read Ten Ways to Think about Writing: Metaphoric Musings for College Writing Students. As you read, note how this information matches or doesn’t match your previous writing experiences both inside and outside the classroom.

If you get your blog set up successfully, try out a first post (here’s a short video that explains how to do it):

As a first post on your blog and an introduction, write a chunky paragraph or several (about 250 words, or more, if you want) that tells us something about who you are as a writer and/or a reader. Respond to at least three points made in the articles you read on “Ten Ways to Think about Writing.” You might also want to think over questions such as the following: what were some memorable pieces of writing (or reading) you did as you were growing up? what writing do you do these days (think about writing to connect to friends and family, work-related writing, writing for self-expression and/or to relieve stress)? how do you write? where? do you have favorite utensils? favorite kinds of paper? who were some influential writing teachers you had and why? what were the stages in your development as a writer and reader? what do you see as your strengths and weaknesses as a writer or reader now? what would you like to work on during this semester with respect to your writing? You may also want to include where you stand on the paper vs. screen issue. Of course, you do not need to answer all of these questions!  Any questions of that sort (or other similar ones you might think of) are fair game for this “assignment.”

Feel free to approach this as “creatively” as you’d like. Some of my students in the past have responded to this prompt with a poem. If you’d like to include something visual, a photograph or several, to illustrate your words, go right ahead!

(And don’t tell me, as one of my students did, that you are not a writer! You’ve been a writer from the first time you started putting words on paper, maybe at age three or four.) Here’s a sample from my daughter. Bonus points to first person who can identify this in comments!

 

Finally, using the info and model presented on the page Choosing a theme, decide on what theme you’d like to write about for the semester, explain what your connection and interest are for the topic,and give some possible topics you might write about for the assignments for the course. Post this proposal on your own blog.