Wednesday, May 7.
PORTFOLIOS MUST BE POSTED AND READY ON YOUR BLOG BY FRIDAY, 5/9 BY 10 AM AT THE LATEST! PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU SEE ME TO CONFIRM THAT YOUR BLOG PIECES ARE COMPLETE AND READY TO GO, OR COMMUNICATE VIA EMAIL.
You will have until Thursday, 5/15 to turn in any other essays (including your photo essay) that you would like me to see and grade. I will be on campus next week (in between finals and meetings), and could be available via appointment to meet with anyone who wants last-minute feedback (or feel free to email me drafts–I’ll do that best I can to get back to you quickly.)
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Friday, May 2.
I will be commenting on rough drafts of research argument this weekend.
You should be working on revising three pieces for your portfolio (one of which must include a Works Cited page) and writing a portfolio cover letter. Note student samples are given at the bottom of assignment. In revising essays give priority to these issues:
- grammatical correctness (not because it’s the most important, but because it’s easiest to fix; look for check marks on final drafts of your essays)
- MLA citation format (make sure you have in-text citation where needed and that both in-text citation and Works cited entries are in proper format)
- paragraph unity = strong topic sentences (look for paras. that I’ve marked in final drafts “What’s the main idea here?”)
In class on Monday we will be setting up portfolios on your blog; you will be able to add/revise things between then and Friday morning. If you miss class, please contact me to set up a time to go over things. Portfolios will be read by the committee on Friday, May 9; if your portfolio is not ready by 6 am that morning, it will not be read until September and you will receive an incomplete in the course until then.
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Wednesday, April 16.
A proposal for your research project should be posted by this weekend (Sunday, April 20), to be posted on your blog. Your proposal should be an informal paragraph that includes the following information:
- What is your research question?
- Why are you interested in this question and what do yu already know about the issue?
- How are you planning to research this question (interview, film, databases, books, etc.)?
- What are your ideas for the other two components of research project (visual portion and fdirect research)?
If you can’t decide between several options, describe both of them and I’ll give some feedback. I’ll try to get on blogs asap to give feedback and approve (or not) topics. Once you get my approval, start doing your research and post sources as hyperlinks in a “working space” post on your blog.
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Monday, March 31.
(Added 4/2): Sorry I completely messed up in class! I mixed up your research assignment with the one in my other f2f sections. You will just be doing an argument and photo essay; see descriptions on right sidebar of blog.
Final draft of ethnography due this Wednesday, April 2 (in paper into my hands or via email by midnight).
Sometime this week contribute your ideas for research paper as comment to this post: Formulating a research question. Research proposals will be due next week (more info to come).
Final draft of text-wrestling due the following Wednesday, April 9.
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Tuesday, March 25.
I will get comments posted on ethnographies by later today (I hope!) Final draft, as posted below, will be due next Wednesday (April 2). Try to get peer review done in the next few days so that your partner will have some time to digest your words of wisdom. For peer review, please respond to the following questions:
- Does the essay fulfill the expectations of assignment: an attempt to define the features of a subculture through direct observation or through interview of a representative member of the subculture?
- Consider the writer’s use of detail. What are the most vivid details presented? Identify types of details that might be added to give a more complete description of observations (this if often best done by asking questions).
- What are the general features of the subculture that the writer has identified (the generalizations)? Does the writer include a reflective paragraph to sum this up, or are these general points woven through the essay?
- Do paragraphs seem to be focused and unified (with one main point per paragraph)? Identify any paragraphs (by paragraph number) that seem unfocused (either no clear main idea or more than one).
Peer review assignments:
- Richard and Mel
- Rafael and Anthony
- Danielle and Nicole
- Nick and Andy
- Jonathan and Luis
(If anyone else gets an ethnography posted in the next couple of days, let me know via email so that I can review your essay and so that I can assign you a peer reviewer, if possible.)
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Wednesday, March 12.
(I will get ethnography pairings up shortly.) Final draft of ethnography will be due Wed. April 2.
Rough draft of summary for text-wrestling essay due Wednesday, March 26 (let me know if this doesn’t match what I said in class!). Your choices for articles to summarize for each theme can be found here.
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Monday, March 3.
In class we talked about constructing Works Cited entries and students practiced using their reading journal entries. From now on, please do an MLA works cited entry for each reading journal post.
Same assignment as listed below: reading journal post #5 for Sunday, March 9; ethnography rough draft for Monday, March 10.
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Monday, Feb. 24.
We talked in class about paragraph structure and ethnography (trying to brainstorm some possibilities). I’ll be adding to the google doc as I run across ideas-feel free to post anything that comes to your mind as well!!
Reading journal #4 due Sunday, March 2 (or thereabouts).
Rough draft of ethnography will be due Monday, March 10, to be posted on your blog.
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Wednesday, Feb. 19.
In class we talked more about memoir and looked at a mangled passage without punctuation to talk about some proofreading issues (primarily sentence-boundary issues, i.e., run-ons and fragments).
Reading journal post no. 3 due by the end of this week (let’s call it Sunday, 2/23).
Because of my tardiness in getting comments on rough drafts of memoirs, I am extending deadline for final draft of memoir to next Monday, Feb. 24. If you decide to scrap your first draft and try a second one, as long as that second one’s in by Monday, you can renegotiate a final due date. (Or if you want me to take a quick look at a second version before you turn in a final draft on Monday, just let me know via email–you can either post it on your blog or send via email.) I will be grading final drafts on paper, so either bring a paper copy to class, print it out during class, or email me by midnight Monday with an attached file (in .doc, .docx, .rtf, or .pdf formats).
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Wednesday, Feb. 12.
In class we talked about peer review and revision. Please read the sections Thoughts on peer review , Revision , and Peer review questions for memoir. Read the memoir of your partner as listed below, and post a peer review as a comment on his/her blog (addressing the issues in the “Peer review questions for the memoir” post). Try to get this done by the beginning of the week. (Final drafts will be due on Thursday, Feb. 20—note that because of Presidents’ Day rescheduling, we will be meeting Wed. and Thursday next week, the 19th and 20th.)
Peer review partners
- Andy and Jonathan
- Bri and Taylor
- Danielle and Mel
- Marine and Nicole
- Nick and Richard
- Rafael, I’ll partner you up with the next person who gets a draft up (Greg??)
Also, remember that you have ongoing weekly work to do a reading journal post. This is Week 2 of reading journal–post due by Sunday, Feb. 16. I can be somewhat flexible about due dates, depending on other work for the class, as long as you’re roughly keeping up)
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Monday, Feb. 3 (and snow day Wed., Feb. 5). Due dates are not affected by snow day.
I have put comments on all of the theme proposals I saw (let me know if I missed yours), mostly approving them, sometimes with some suggestions for rethinking possibilities for an assignment or two. You are not obliged to write about the specific topics you brainstormed for proposal; I just wanted to make sure that everyone would be able to stick with their theme for the entire semester.
Assignment for Monday, Feb. 10. Read the pages on Finding articles to read and Keeping a reading journal (both include videos to explain what I’m talking about). Pick one article from the reading list for your theme; read it; and post a reading journal entry on your blog (following the bullet points in the page about Keeping a reading journal). You may find articles to read on your own, but please run them by me first for approval (and then I’ll add them to the reading list!) I’ll post some guidelines for acceptable articles shortly.
Assignment for Wednesday, Feb. 12. Write a rough draft of the memoir, and post on your blog.Be sure that your memoir connects to your theme for the course, and that you’ve narrowed the time frame sufficiently so that you can write about your experience(s) in vivid detail.
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Wednesday, Jan. 29. In class I reviewed blog navigation and talked about assignments for the course. (Tentative versions can be found in right sidebar.) Make sure I have a link for your blog on this blog, and if you’re having problems posting on your blog, please let me know.
Assignment for Monday, Feb. 3.
- Read Choosing a theme and More thoughts/info on theme proposals.
- On your own blog, post your theme proposal. Be sure to include at least several possible approaches/topics for each assignment.
- Read Why should anyone care about your life? and Finding memoirs online.
- Using the links in Finding memoirs online (or other sites you may be familiar with), find a memoir that fits with your theme. Post its link on your individual blog.
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Monday, Jan. 27.
During class this morning, in addition to the usual course introduction, I toured students around this course blog and showed students how to set up individual blogs. (Videos on the page Setting up a google account and a blog and the post Welcome to spring semester will help walk you through the process if you forget or missed class.) Browse around the course blog so you feel comfortable with navigation, and practice posting and commenting on your own blog.
Work due Wednesday, Jan. 29.
- Read the first four pages under the Intro tab at the top of the blog: Starting out, Syllabus, Paper vs screen, and Setting up a google account and blog.
- On the paper vs screen page, post a comment about when/how/why you prefer paper to screen or vice versa. (If you are logged into your own account when you do this, it is a much simpler process since you do not need to identify yourself.)
- On your own blog, write and post the Writer’s autobiography as described in Welcome to spring semester.
If you have any technical issues, don’t worry!! Just email me (or better yet, yourself) the comments and/or paragraph and we will get them posted in class on Wednesday.