Apr
23
A couple of announcements:
April 23, 2008 | | Leave a Comment
1) I have to change my online office hour this week from Friday at 10-11 to Thursday from 10-11.
2) This week (4/25) will be the last Friday for posting blog entries. This includes any make-up entries you might need to do. So, Friday at midnight, you can say goodbye to blogging…for now!
Apr
21
Reminder
April 21, 2008 | | Leave a Comment
For Wednesday 4/23: Bring a copy of either essay #2 (Crash) or essay #3 (blog topic) to class with you. Also, be sure to have your journals, as I’ll be collecting them.
Apr
21
Final Portfolio
April 21, 2008 | | Leave a Comment
Due: Monday, 4/28
Please compile your end-of-the-year portfolio in the following order. Each individual draft should be stapled separately. The entirety of all the drafts and reflections and writing prompts (aka your portfolio) should be bound with a large binder clip (please no folders, binders, envelopes, rubber bands, etc. — one simple binder clip will suffice).
1. Essay #3 — final draft Portfolio Piece
2. Essay #3, draft #1 with comments
3. Any material from the revision circuit that is not written on your draft
4. Dialogue with source
5. Writing prompts/exercises in response to your blog entries
6. Essay #2 — final draft Portfolio Piece
7. Essay #2, optional draft #2
8. Essay #2, draft #1 with comments
9. Response to your writing — use of sources — from (They Say/I Say)
10. Self evaluation — 1-2 double-spaced pages telling me how you think you’ve done in course and grading yourself. Explain why you feel that is the grade you should get.
You will be graded, in part, on substantial and thoughtful revisions, so be sure your final portfolio pieces have really evolved from the first draft you wrote. In addition, I will be looking at the inclusion of each of the required texts and how they’ve met the assignment guidelines, which generally include a central point or thesis; the evolution of that thesis; adequate support through example/evidence; and strong use of language, making for a readable essay.
Apr
21
Presentation
April 21, 2008 | | Leave a Comment
due: Monday 4/28 and Wednesday 4/30
5 – 7 minutes
Next week you will be presenting one of your three papers to the class in the form of an oral presentation. You can choose any of the three papers. You won’t be reading word-for-word, but rather presenting the class with a summary of your main point(s) and supporting evidence. What do you most want your audience to know about what you’ve written? Plan to speak from notes or note cards that are marked and highlighted to help you make eye contact with your audience, while also keeping your place in the presentation.
Presentations will be in the five-paragraph type format that you’ve been asked to avoid all semester.
I. Introduction: Get your audience’s attention with something interesting, insightful, and vivid. Make the purpose and main point of your presentation clear.
II. Main ideas: Here you can explain an example or a couple pieces of evidence you looked at in your paper. Explain what affect this evidence had on your argument or main idea(supported it, illustrated it, added to it, complicated it, etc.).
III. Conclusion: Summarize the topic and main idea(s). Close in a memorable way (give the audience “food for thought,” a vivid image, an anecdote, etc.).
For example
Essay 1 — Open with the scene or start in the middle of the action. Fill in the details of the story. Summarize its importance to you.
Essay 2 — Present your interpretation of Crash. Give one or two representative examples from the film that you explain in connection with your argument. End with your most refined version of your thesis.
Essay 3 — Introduce your topic. Open with an example or anecdote that illustrates this topic and what you want to say about it. Give evidence from your paper that contributes to making your point. Reiterate your point and leave your audience with something to think about.
Remember to:
Present yourself with confidence.
Use eye contact and gestures where appropriate.
Use voice inflection.
Avoid distracting mannerisms — playing with hair, tapping feet, clicking pen, etc.
Be prepared to answer any questions.
Apr
12
Reminder
April 12, 2008 | | Leave a Comment
Don’t forget to bring to class on Monday one of the sources you are working with for essay #3 (as well as any writing you’ve done toward this essay). Bring your They Say/I Say books too.
Also, if you are doing a draft #2 of your “Crash”essay, be sure to attach draft 1 before turning it in on Monday.
See you then!
Apr
7
essay assignment #3
April 7, 2008 | | Leave a Comment
Essay #3: Cultural Criticism/Commentary/Academic Essay
3-5pp.
due: Wednesday 4/16
(E.g. Nickel and Dimed, “Virtual Gangstas Coming to a Suburban House Near You”, “The Empire of Images in Our World of Bodies”, “Essential Play”)
Your topic (taken from the blogging you’ve done this semester) must be a “thorny” one–one that is complex and for which there is no easy answer or solution. You should be able to see the value of arguments on various “sides” of the issue. Writing this essay should help you clarify your ideas on the issue and help you to recognize the difficulties involved in finding any stable answer(s). Do not select a thesis for which you believe you know the “truth” and have a “ready answer”; instead, allow your paper to be driven by inquiry. Ideas must be developed, explored, examined, analyzed, researched, and complex. You must try to construct fresh insight about the material studied.
In crafting the essay, pay careful attention to your narrative strategies (thinking about the texts we’ve read in class and the “moves” these authors have made):
* choices in narration–utilizing first or third person or mixed narration
* setting(s) as establishing a context for your essay
* incorporating research–finding material that both supports and tests your thinking
Required Sources (these are minimums)
–1 web-based source (another blog, online magazine, web page, etc.)
–2 scholarly journal articles
–1 book
* providing a clear sense of the intention and overall meaning of your piece while avoiding didacticism
Mar
26
Optional draft
March 26, 2008 | | Leave a Comment
of Crash essay due: Monday 4/14
Mar
19
Conference week activity
March 19, 2008 | | Leave a Comment
due: Wednesday 3/26 in class
Your final paper (essay #3) is going to be a researched essay which develops its thesis out of the thinking you’ve been doing on the theme of your blog throughout this semester. This paper should represent the culmination of that writing and thinking and represent an argument that has begun to emerge from your blogging.
In light of that, I want to you begin reviewing your blog posts and the comments you’ve received.
- 1. Find one comment in your blog that disagrees with something you wrote in your post. Write down a summary of the commenter’s argument alongside a summary of your own perspective/take/stance.
- 2. Find one blog post that you’ve written in which you find yourself either agreeing with or disagreeing with a source you’ve found on the web (or in the newspaper, a magazine, textbook, any outside source…). Describe either the similarities or differences in perspective.
- 3. Find one blog post that either doesn’t have any reponses to it or has no conflicting responses to it, and formulate an objection. Play the role of the “naysayer” and write down (and develop) that opposing argument.
Can you see an argument beginning to emerge? What would you most like to say about your topic? What do you most want readers to know? Begin for formulate a working thesis (this is a tentative thesis). Include this on the bottom or back of the page describing the various discussions taking place on your blog and bring to class on Wednesday. E-mail me with any questions.
Feb
20
essay assignment #2
February 20, 2008 | | Leave a Comment
This film is (*really*) about…
That is your prompt for this essay.
Find (at least) one source (a “they say”) that has something to say about this film (or something to say about film in general that you can apply to a reading of this film). Introduce what your source says into your essay. Now you have an “I say” and a “they say.” (Use Part I of your text for suggestions and templates).
Argue your reading of the film with as much evidence as you can find, but also allow whatever “they say” to complicate and evolve your own thesis. (I find the template on pg. 8 to be a good one for this).
Refine your thesis based on your source(s), and provide evidence accounting for your refined thesis.
Conclude with the most evolved and precise version of your argument, as well as an overview of how you got from point A (reading A) to point B (reading B).
Feb
18
Components of mid-term portfolio
February 18, 2008 | | Leave a Comment
Please compile your mid-term portfolio in the following order. Each individual draft should be stapled separately. The entirety of all the drafts, writing prompts, and any brainstorming (aka your portfolio) should be bound with a large binder clip (please no folders, binders, envelopes, rubber bands, etc. — one simple binder clip will suffice).
1. Essay #1 — final draft Portfolio Piece
2. Essay #1, draft #2 — all new language
3. Three writing prompts
4. Essay #1, draft #1 with comments
You will be graded, in part, on substantial and thoughtful revisions, so be sure your final portfolio pieces have really evolved from the first draft you wrote. In addition, I will be looking at the inclusion of each of the required texts and how they’ve met the assignment guidelines.
