ThoughtMeat

Hi, everyone who might wander to this page. This blog is on hiatus right now because I'm not teaching this semester. If you're a former student of mine, then send me a note and let me know how you're doing! If you're interested in my random musings on technology, then stop by my nettework blog.

Hey everyone!

Tues, April 11, we'll meet in the Writing Center's computer lab (6th floor of HC White--follow the signs to the Writing Center). Email your powerpoint to yourself so you can work on it there.

Thurs, April 13, we'll play some pedagogically sound writing games (TBA) in our regular classroom.

Thurs, April 20 your projects are due to me, either in my mailbox (6th floor of HC White) or in the dropbox of learn@uw.

Tues, April 18, Presentations begin!

Tues (tomorrow): peer review of ideas for the final project. Come to class tomorrow with your rough ideas and bounce them off your peers in order to make them interesting, feasible and smart. I'll come around to groups to help out. If you have time left over, you can draft your proposal (due Thurs) and run that by your peers, too.

Thurs: resume/cover letter/personal statement workshop. Bring a rough draft resume or cover letter or personal statement (my personal order of preference) in order to get the most out of the workshop. I'll talk for a bit about basic expectations in these genres and I'll give you handouts of examples and things to think about when you're writing these things. With time left over, you can get together in your groups and apply your newfound knowledge of these genres on each other's work. (also, your proposal is due to me via email by classtime this day)

Tues, April 4: LIBRARY DAY. Do the CLUE library tutorial online in preparation for the meeting: http://clue.library.wisc.edu/ . PRINT OUT YOUR QUIZZES!! Bring them to me at the library. We'll meet in Memorial Library, room 436. The librarian will give a short presentation and introduce you to some resources the library can offer to help you work on your final project. You'll have some time to research on your own while he and I go around to your computer to help you out. The library day is part of the requirement of English 201, but it's also a really useful way to acquaint yourself with the library's vast resources and how to access them.

Thurs, April 6: peer review of projects. At this point, you should have at least a rough version of your project--an outline, research, a few pages of writing, something like that.

Please add the customary cover letter to the front of your essay and turn it in to the dropbox by Friday at 5pm at the latest. If you're citing references in your paper, then please include both parenthetical (or footnote) citations and a References/Works Cited section. You may use any formatting style you're most comfortable with, as long as it's a documented style (APA, MLA or Chicago). If you need tips on citations, visit the Writing Center's Writer's Handbook.

According to our rotation, you're scheduled for a free post and response this weekend. I'm treating spring break as a giant weekend, so you can post either by this Friday (3/10) or next (3/17) and you can respond either this Sun (3/12) or next (3/19). If you'd like to get it out of the way before you leave on spring break, then do it for this weekend. A few people have already posted, so you should have something to respond to by this weekend. Just make sure that by the time you're back from spring break you've posted one free post and responded to one peer's free post.

Be sure to get the first 34 pages read of JSF's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Seriously, I've been warning you about getting the book since the beginning of class, so do what you can to get it. We'll talk about this short section in class on Thursday.

Also, since MBD's visit on Tuesday superceded our plans to talk about representation of tragic/big events (see post below), then we'll talk about it on Thurs. Be sure to come prepared to talk about your event.

On Tuesday (2/14), we'll have a discussion about what responsibilities a writer has in the representation of a particularly difficult or tragic event. How must she represent the primary witness's account? How can she add her own ideas without disrespecting the event or the people affected by the event? Should she even worry about these concerns, or are tragic events like 9/11 unrestricted fodder for public discussion?

In preparation for this discussion, I would like you to come prepared to talk about one particular representation of a tragic event. It could be a song, a movie, a book, an article, whatever, as long as it represents something that's difficult to represent. It doesn't have to be a global event like 9/11; it could be a private event like alcoholism, child abuse, or something else that demands to be handled delicately. You can bring notes about this representation of the event in order to talk about it. I'll come prepared to talk about the novel we'll be starting next week, which deals with these difficult issues of representation, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Buy it now if you haven't already!

As I mentioned in class, there are a few things that I'd like to accompany your interview write-up when you turn it in to the dropbox on the learn@uw site.

Please be sure to add a cover letter to the front of your paper. What worked well in this paper? What did you find challenging? Would you have preferred a different format for your interview? Did it make you reflect on anything about 9/11, politics, memory, etc.? You don't have to answer all of these questions; I simply want you to use the space of the cover letter to reflect on the writing experience in this context.

Also, please turn in your notes for the interview. If they're typed, then just add them to the same document at the end. If they're handwritten, then make sure your name is on them and bring them to me in class on Thurs.

Please let me know if you have any questions in the meantime. Good luck!