For Mon 10/31 and Wed. 11/2

In a detailed paragraph, tell us the story of the evolution of your essay, of your thinking about the assignment, and of your thinking about "cool."

For Monday: do a Google search and find out as much as you can about the recent history of Yucca Mountain, or about writer John D'Agata. Be ready to share your findings with the class Mon.

For Wednesday: Read through p. 48 of ABOUT A MOUNTAIN. You'll have a response paper due. Topic TBA Monday.

Theorizing Cool peer-review, HW for Fri 10/28

HW: Final draft due Friday

1. Answer the following on a separate piece of paper:

What are you attempting to do in your photo-essay? What themes are you focused on? What are your goals?
How far along are you in making that attempt (i.e. almost finished, halfway there, just started)?

Are you happy with the photos you have? Are you planning to take more?
How's the writing going?
How are you thinking about the interrelation of your photos and your writing?

What questions do you have about the assignment or your work so far? What are you wondering about?

2. In Pairs: (pairs will trade their drafts and their reflective writing with another pair)

Read the drafts of your classmates, then discuss the drafts with each other, and attempt to answer any questions your classmates has written down.

Then, also consider, and write for your classmate ideas you have for how he/she might take his analysis further, what else she might consider, what ideas or connections you have when reading.

Comment on how your classmates has interpreted the assignment differently, or similarly to you.
Comment on how your classmate is using the photos. Especially consider if he/she is explaining them too much.

3. In groups of four: Spend several minutes presenting your ideas and feedback to each group member.

Class 10/24

HW: Initial draft"Theorizing Cool" due Wed. See assignment sheet

In class:
What is the outward identity of the people in your photos? 

What do they hope to suggest about themselves? 

What are the values and assumptions implicit in their attitudes, dress, body language, etc? 

Likewise, what is valued by the culture they are a part of? 

What troubling / provocative questions are brought up by your analysis of your photos?
 
How do these things relate to our classroom discussion of music videos and cigarette advertisements? What are the various ways you can consider “the cool”? And, how do these considerations link up?

Unit 4: Theorizing "cool"

Unit 4: Theorizing “The Cool” 
Eng. 102, Jack Christian
Genre: Photo-essay  Length: at least 4 original photos and 700-800 words
Audience: An informed public interested in contemporary culture
Essay Assignment: Your job in this essay is to use your photographs and your own writing to present an original “theory of cool” that is focused around, and delimited by, the photos you have taken.
Just as David Foster Wallace considers underlying meanings, associations and attributes of the Maine Lobster Festival in his essay “Consider the Lobster,” your job is to unpack the various meanings, associations, and attributes of coolness. (Again, not coolness in general, but coolness in whatever specific way it is suggested by your photos)
Consider this sentence from Foster Wallace’s essay: “I’m trying, rather, to work out and articulate some of the troubling questions that arise amid all the laughter and saltation and community pride of the Maine Lobster Festival” (313).
Your assignment is to do similarly with “the cool,” in whatever way you have defined it for yourself and have documented in your photos. In so doing, you may choose to consider yourself in nearly any relationship to “the cool” : i.e. are you an insider or an outsider, are you a participant or an observer, or both, is your tone serious or sarcastic, or seriously sarcastic?
In so doing, you might ask: What is the outward identity of the people in your photos? What do they hope to suggest about themselves? What are the values and assumptions implicit in their attitudes, dress, body language, etc? Likewise, what is valued by the culture they are a part of? What troubling / provocative questions are brought up by your analysis of your photos?
Also consider: How do these things relate to our classroom discussion of music videos and cigarette advertisements? What are the various ways you can consider “the cool”? And, how do these considerations link up?
Structure: Part of your job in this essay is to arrive at the best possible structure for your essay. How can you use your photos and your writing together to present the most interesting, most meaningful essay possible? What should the order to the photos be? How should they be arranged in the text? How do you want a reader to interact with your essay?
Schedule:
Mon 10/24: In-class writing activities
Wed 10/26: Initial Draft Due, peer-editing
Fri 10/28: Final draft due

HW for Mon 10/24

PHOTOS
Bring in 5-7 photos that you take of "the cool" happening around you. You can either use a digital camera (or, cellphone) and print the images, or you can purchase a disposable camera and have the photos developed at someplace like CVS, Walgreens, or Wal-Mart. At any rate, it's your responsibility to have the photos in class Monday.

READING
1. Read "Consider the Lobster" p. 301 in OTHER WORDS.

2. Keep a list in your notes of all the ways David Foster Wallace considers the lobster in this piece. (in your upcoming essay, you could tell yourself "the cool" is your lobster)

3. Also, jot down your ideas about the following: What writing assignments have we done so far this semester that are somewhat similar, at least in process, to what Foster Wallace does in his essay? Does what he does remind you of anything you've been asked to do?

Writer's Reflection

Detail how your essay has changed over the course of its three drafts. Be specific.

Thinking about the whole semester, what skills do you think you are learning? What stumbling blocks do you face often? How do you see your writing developing so far this semester?

Compare and Contrast the writing of this essay with the reviews you wrote. How did you find the process of each assignment to be similar and different. Be specific.

For Friday: What is "Cool"?

What is "Cool"? What makes something cool? Why does what's "cool" change? What statement is made by "cool"? (And, is "cool" synonomous with "fashionable"? are the two terms interchangeable?)

How is "cool" figured in each of these videos / images? What do they have in common? Where do they diverge?

HW: 1-page informal response in which you "theorize the cool." Pick either the two videos, or the cigarette ads and explain how they relate to "being cool." What is cool according to these texts?

Also, bring in a list of 10 things that are currently cool, and 10 things that used to be cool and are no longer.

Heads Up: For Monday you will need to bring in 5-7 photos that you take of "the cool" happening around you. You can either use a digital camera (or, cellphone) and print the images, or you can purchase a disposable camera and have the photos developed at someplace like CVS, Walgreens, or Wal-Mart. At any rate, it's your responsibility to have the photos in class Monday.

Ke$ha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXvmSaE0JXA

LL Cool J
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVDfyc2lh4Q

"What's Cool Changes"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0YcIw09qBc

Interacting with Texts Peer Review

HW: FINAL DRAFT UNIT 3 DUE WEDNESDAY

PEER REVIEW
1. In groups of three, trade papers. For the first paper you read, simply think about how your classmate is going about this assignment, and what you might learn from her/his paper.

2. For the second paper, use a separate sheet to complete the following peer review:

A. How many direct quotations does the paper include? Is this enough? Suggest 2 more examples from GOOGLE or BLOG that they might include -- include p. #.

B. Looking at the quotations, do they follow the "quote sandwich" model? (Intro, lead-in, quote w/ correct citation, analysis/explanation). What could be improved?

C. How does this essay ILLUSTRATE, EXPAND, REVISE, COMPLICATE, and/or REFUTE arguments made by Carr / Sullivan?

D. What are the outside examples the student uses? How do they relate?

E. Does the essay start with an interesting claim made by the student-writer? Is there a more interesting / provacative way for the essay to start? What is it?

If so, how does the student-writer work to include Carr / Sullivan in the essay? Does the student-writer use enough from Carr / Sullivan?

If not, does the student writer eventually present her/his own ideas? Would the essay be made stronger by reorganizing to start with the student's own ideas?

E. Edit for clarity and small mistakes -- commas, run-ons, spelling, etc.

G. List questions you have about the assignment. Discuss as a group.

Class 10/12, HW for next week

The Quote Sandwich

And, another helpful site for using quotations well: UNC Writing Center


Conferences Cont. Thursday and Friday

Revised draft due Mon. 10/17 (BRING 2 COPIES)

FINAL DRAFT DUE WED. 10/19

Reacting to Poetry sample, "The Man on the Dump"

The Man on the Dump

September 15, 2011

Invisible Priest

I walk in the daytime to escape. To escape my racing mind, to escape the expectations, the desires, the judgments, the uncontrollable circumstances, which replay in my head like a rollercoaster ride that has no end. On this particular day it is raining, each drop a bit more torturous than the last. I begin to wonder if other people feel this way. Am I alone in my suffering? Am I alone in the way I feel trapped in my thoughts, unable to catch my balance from this rollercoaster seat?

Class 10/5, HW for 10/12

No Class Friday 10/7
No Class Mon. 10/10 (Columbus Day)
Class and Conferences beginning Wed. 10/12, and continuing through 10/14
Regular class on Fri. 10/14


What would Carr/Sullivan say about Facebook? (use at least 2 direct quotations to back up your argument)

HW: Have initial draft of Unit 3 essay (at least 2 full pages) in class 10/12. For this draft, you may focus on explaining, analyzing, revising, expanding etc. whatever quotation you have chosen to respond to. During our conference, we'll discuss examples you might add and analyze.

Also, Read "The Numbing of the American Mind." You may focus your essay around this article if you choose.

The Numbing of the American Mind

http://www.csub.edu/~mault/Numbing%20of%20american%20mind.htm

The Near Perfect Sunday

My buddies and I limp our way out of the car across the parking lot and stumble our way through the doors. There are few things in this world that will cheer up a tired, beat up, and hung over football player on Sunday morning and, “WELCOME TO HOOTERS” is one of those things. A triple overtime loss on family weekend, in which each player lost an average of ten pounds, is not exactly my idea of a good start to a weekend, but going to hooters was my idea of a great ending to a weekend.

For Wed 10/5

1. Read "Why I Blog" p. 277 OTHER WORDS
2. Write 1-page informal response. Pick 2 most important sentences in Sullivan's essay and respond to them. Offer examples to complicate, or expand his argument, and/or compare contrast to Carr. Use direct quotations. Be specific.
3.Using the "Comment" field on this blog, define New Media. What is it? What are its different aspects? Tell what your source is, and offer a link to an example of New Media.

*Make sure your definition adds to / revises what comes before it. i.e. read your classmates' comments first before you post.

Unit 3: Interacting with Texts Assignment

Unit 3: Interacting with Texts / Eng. 102, Jack Christian
Genre: Documented Argument  Length: 3-4 pages

NEW MEDIA: In this unit we will consider New Media and its effects on society.