Monday, May 1.
Rough draft of Essay 4 is due on your blog by Saturday, May 6. You may do Essay 5 instead first if you prefer, though remember that you will need an essay demonstrating research skills for your portfolio.
Looking ahead, portfolios must be posted on your blog by Thursday, May 11 at 8 pm. Info about how to do this to come on this Thursday.
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Friday, April 14.
Read over Essay 4 and Essay 5 assignments.
By Friday, April 21, Post a research proposal on your blog that includes the following info:
- what research(s) you’re interested in pursuing? (you may list more than one if yo’re debating between several)
- what you already know about this topic, and why you’re interested
- how you might incorporate images with this topic (for Essay 5)
- at least three possible sources (as hyperlinks)
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Tuesday, April 11.
Peer review questions for Essay 3 summary, due Thursday, April 13:
- Is the summary complete and accurate? If not, please make suggestions.
- Does the writer handle source ethically? (check to make sure that paraphrases are not unacceptably close to original wording; is Works Cited included?)
- Are paragraphs focused, well-developed, and coherent? (Is there one clear main idea per paragraph? Identify any paragraphs that need revision for focus or coherence.)
Peer review partners:
- Erin and Anthony
- Evan and Kirsten
- Colby and Kellan
- Aadia and Susan
- Shannon and Tiffany
- Alisha, please do Delia’s; Delia, do Kayla’s; and Kayla, do Alisha’s
Final draft of Essay 3 due Tuesday, April 18, to be emailed to me as attached file.
Research proposal info due Tuesday, April 18 as well (info to come).
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Thursday, April 6.
For next Tuesday, finish up group google doc research exercise. Your doc should include the following info:
- at least 12 sources, hyperlinked, with 2 academic journal articles/database sources
- an evaluation for each source, including comments on source reelvance, authority, bias, and currency
- the MLA 8 Works cited entry for that source
Also bring to class at least three ideas for argumentative research paper topic for your theme
Peer review assignments for Essay 3 rough drafts will be up shortly, but not due until Thursday, April 13.
Final draft of Essay 3 will be due Tuesday, April 18.
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Tuesday, April 4.
For next class, please read these two pages: Finding and evaluating sources and Citation: how and why. Also, look for an additional source to use for Essay 3.
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Sunday, March 26.
Final draft of Essay 2 is due Thursday, March 30, to be handed in on paper during class or emailed by midnight that night. As always, I suggest also posting essay on your blog to archive it (as a separate, new post marked final draft).
Rough draft of summary part of Essay 3 only is due Tuesday, April 4, to be posted on your blog.
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Tuesday, March 21.
For Thursday, do the blog post described in assignment for March 9 below.
Also, by this Friday please do ethnography peer review, answering the questions below:
- Is the level of detail sufficient to let you see what’s going on in the subculture? Does the author describe the fieldsite and seem to report on specific observations made at the site? What details work best? Where might details be added?
- What seems to be the author’s focus? What is the main point the author makes about this subculture?
- Comment on the structure. Is the essay arranged chronologically, by subtopic, or by some other organizing principle? Is the structure consistent? Does it work well? What are other ways to organize the material that the author might want to consider?
Peer review partners:
- Aadia and Shannon
- Alisha and Delia
- Erin and Tiffany
- Kayla and Kirsten
- Anthony, please do Colby; Colby, do Eldon’s (Cruz); and Eldon, do Anthony’s (Ant)
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Thursday, March 9.
For Tuesday, March 21, read How to Mark a Book. Then print out, read, and annotate one of the groups of short articles below (matching your theme, ideally). On each article, indicate or write its main claim and the reasons/evidence used to support that claim–bring these printouts to class on Tuesday. Then, for Thursday, March 23, write a blog post that reflects on how the articles agree and disagree, using hyperlinks to give credit to each author.
- sports: Taking sports out of school
- crime: Going after the abusers
- family/relationships: Digital friendships
- medicine: How to curb prescription drug abuse
- art: The cost of being an artist
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Tuesday, March 7.
In-class writing exercise here.
Essay 2: Ethnography rough draft due by midnight, Sunday, March 12.
No reading journal post will be due this week. You should have two reading journal posts, plus a sample memoir and sample ethnography post. I will be sending out grades by this weekend, so you can see what you’re missing (or compare your blog to the list of assignments below).
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Sunday, February 26.
Sorry, I forgot to get this posted earlier! (coming soon).
- Read the assignment for Essay 2: ethnography and the post More on ethnography assignment.
- Read the sample ethnography below that matches your theme:
- family: The American male at age 10
- sports: The immortal horizon
- crime: Your friendly neighborhood drug dealer
- health and medicine: A tender hand in the presence of death
- arts:
- Write a short post that reflects on how the sample ethnography you read matches the ethnography genre. In particular, answer the following questions:
- What is the subculture examined, and how does the writer approach studying that subculture?
- Give three examples of specific observations the writer uses.
- What patterns does the writer identify that define the subculture (objects, signs of identity, rituals, language, values)?
You’ll have until Thursday, Mar. 2 to get this done (because i was late getting this up).
Weekly reading journal post is also due at the end of this week (March 3).
Tentative due date for rough draft of ethnography is Friday, Match 10.
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Thursday, Feb. 16.
For next Thursday, read the page Keeping a reading journal, and consult Finding articles to read to find an article on your chosen theme. If you find an article that would be perfect for this assignment, please send me URL for approval, and I’ll add to this list. Post a first reading journal entry on your blog following the guidelines.
Read over this page on Revision. Final draft of memoir is also due by midnight on Thursday, Feb. 23. Either bring on paper to class, or email me.
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Tuesday, Feb. 14.
In class we will be talking about and practicing the strategy of “exploding a moment.” By next class (Thursday, Feb. 16), post a sample related to your own memoir (the one you worked on in class, or another one).
Also for Thursday, Feb. 16 read the info on the post on Peer review and the page Thoughts on peer review. Next find your peer review partner below, read his or her memoir, and answer the following questions, both as a comment to his/her memoir and as a separate post on your own blog:
- Consider the writer’s use of specific detail. Identify any particularly sharp, effective use of detail (by para. number or context, as in “I really get a clear picture of Uncle Eddie”). Indicate places where you think the writer might add more detail (either because something is unclear or could be made more vivid or engaging or understandable). Suggest places where the writer might use the “explode a moment” strategy. If possible, include questions for the writer: “Could you give an example of a time when your gramma was cruel?”, “This seems to be the crucial scene of the essay. Maybe add some dialogue here?”)
- What seems to be the main “message” of the essay? What does the author seem to be saying about this experience/person/etc. that you (or another reader) can connect to on a more universal level? Point out any resonant lines that seem to have particular significance or emotional power (which may or may not be developed in the rest of the essay). Does the author include any commentary on the experience and what its significance was to him/her?
- How does the structure of the piece work? What is its time frame? Is the order of events clear? How well does the lead work to engage your attention? any suggestions for possible changes in order?
- What is/are the most successful aspects of the draft? What/s working well? You might indicate a particular part of the essay (lead, fight scene, reflection at the end) or point to the author’s voice or tone, choice of subject matter, vivid descriptions, wonderful style, etc.
If you have not yet posted your rough draft, you will not be assigned a peer review partner. Let me know once your draft is up and I will try to find someone for you who needs a peer review (so you can have experience of both making a receiving a peer review, and get credit for the assignment).
Peer review partners:
- Delia and Tiffany
- Erin and Ant
- Aadia and Alisha
- Colby and Cris
- Izzy and Susan
- Shannon and Kayla
- Kirsten and Kellan
Note that final draft of essay will be due Thursday, Feb. 23. The first reading journal post will also be due that day (more info to come about that shortly).
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Tuesday, Jan. 31.
For Thursday, Feb. 2, read Why should anyone care about your life and the Memoir assignment.
Also look over Memoir: samples to read, and use its resources (plus surfing and googling around the Internet) to find a memoir online that fits your theme. Read the memoir, and write a short post that includes the following:
- the author, title, and URL of the memoir
- a few sentence summary of the memoir
- quote at least three specific details that that catch your attention by the quality of their writing, the sharpness of the image they provide, or the emotion they convey
- what does the essay seem to be about on a more universal level?
Start thinking of some possible topics for your own memoir. We’ll be doing some brainstorming and discussing in class Thursday. rough draft will be due Thursday, Feb. 9, to be posted on your blog.
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Thursday, Jan. 26.
During class today you will be setting up your own blog and emailing me its URL. I know it was a quick introduction. I’ll do a video soon and post to show you around a bit more and explain a few things. Don’t panic if you have problems!! Feel free to send me an email if you have a specific question, or we can work things out in class next week. There may be a little bit of a learning here, so try to be patient. If you have problems accessing or posting on your blog, just do the two assignments and email to yourself so we can get them posted on Tuesday during class.
Due next class, Tuesday, Jan. 26, to be posted on your blog if possible:
Play around with your blog to get comfortable (but don’t worry if you have problems–we’ll go over things again next week).
Read the info under the Intro tab at the top of the page (Intro, Starting out, Syllabus, Paper vs. screen, Setting up your blog, and Choosing a theme) as well as the first post Welcome to spring semester.
Note that the Welcome to spring semester post asks you to read two articles on college writing as well as to write your first post explaining something about your experiences with and attitudes towards writing. If you have trouble posting that “writer’s autobiography” just type it up as Word file and email to yourself so we can get it posted during class on Tuesday.
Also for Tuesday, (re)read the info on Choosing a theme and More thoughts/info on theme proposals. You may also want to glance at the five assignments for the semester, listed to the right margin (called sidebar) on this blog. Then write and post on your blog a proposal for the theme you’d like to read, think, and write about for the semester. Include the following info:
- identify the theme
- why are you interested in this theme (what is your previous experience/background and/or why does this theme arouse your curiosity?)
- give two or three possible subjects from that thematic area that you could write about for each of the essays (except text-wrestling–I’ll assign articles for that one)
Note sample student proposal here. You only need to give info for the one theme you choose, but if you’re split between two themes, you might want to brainstorm ideas for each of them, and I can give you some feedback about which seems more promising to me.