Workshops! Round 2

Because people seemed to like the workshop format last time, I thought we would try it again. But this time you can handle the scheduling.

The workshops schedule is now posted as a Google Doc that you can edit. Please type in your name and preferred email address in a time slot that would work for you. Remember, no more than five participants per workshop. Those times that attract fewer than three participants will be canceled and the participants asked to find another time.

A review response sheet for the workshop will be posted soon.

Click here to go to the Google Doc.

Schedule Update 2/13, 2/15

Students,

Upon further reflection, I am swapping our Monday and Wednesday schedules for next week. I will be out of town this weekend, which coincides with Winter Carnival. Plus, I have plenty to read with your essays and can do better justice to your blog posts later in the week.

So, posts 2.4 and 2.5 are not due posted until Tuesday for discussion in Wednesday’s class. You have no homework this weekend other than following a blog and the New York Times. Of course, you may also post to your blog early and get ahead on the Harris readings. I have updated the schedule on Blackboard to reflect these changes.

For those of you who missed class Wednesday or didn’t finish in class, you need to pick a blog that you’re interested in following, provide a link on your blog to that blog, and describe what the blog is about and why it interests you. For a listing of popular blogs, you can visit http://technorati.com. This blog post doesn't need to be 250 words. Blogs that interact with other blogs, new sources, and current events are some of the best to pick. We will talk more about this next week.

Thanks, and have a good weekend.

-Eric

If you want to keep reading, additional sources

As promised, here are some additional resources that could be helpful with your essays.

Read acclaimed author Jonathan Franzen's controversial take on ebooks and social values here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/hay-festival/9047981/Jonathan-Franzen-e-books-are-damaging-society.html

Here is a recent debate about academic blogging in relation to traditional term papers:
http://hastac.org/blogs/cathy-davidson/2012/01/21/should-we-really-abolish-term-paper-response-ny-times

A summary of a research article connecting facebook and narcissism can be found here:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=status-update-im-so-glamorous

And this is a NY Times essay in which the author argues for an understanding of "screen literacy":
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/magazine/23wwln-future-t.html

As you can see, these are all pretty hot topics. 

Updates from the Aspen office / apartment

Hello, everybody.

The writing workshop meetings have been going well, so thanks for investing and participating in those. I hope you have found them productive and interesting, too.

I’ve posted on Blackboard the schedule and blog prompts for the next unit. Be aware that you do have a blog post (just one) due Sunday before Monday’s regularly scheduled class session. Your revised essay is due by 11:59 p.m. Monday to me as an email attachment and posted on your blog.

In the meantime, keep reading the New York Times, looking for stories that interest you, and also be looking for a blog to start following. That may be a blog about politics, sports, music, film, whatever you prefer. We’ll talk more about this in class.

I’ve also created a short survey I’d like you to check out. It’s anonymous, so it’s not required and you don’t need to answer all six questions. I wanted to give you a chance to let me know what you think of the course so far. I will use what you say to help me plan the rest of the term.

Please visit the survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GX9VYQK.

Finally, I am posting here, on my own course blog, some article links relevant to what you have been writing about in your essays. There’s one about ebooks and the death of democracy, another about facebook and narcissism, a third advocating “screen literacy.” If you’re looking for more sources, those could be worth browsing.

Have a good weekend. Stay clear of avalanches. I’ll see you all Monday.

Eric

Reminders on Review and First Essay

Hello, students.

I’m sending this as a reminder about our schedule next week, the workshop peer review process, and what I expect for your first essay.

-Your complete rough draft is due by noon Monday, 1/30. You need to then post your draft on your blog and email copies of it as an attachment to everybody in your review group. Group members, email addresses, and workshop meeting times are posted on Blackboard in the “Peer Review Workshop Schedule” file under “Syllabus, Sched, Prompts.”

-You then need to read the drafts of your workshop group members. Download the “Peer Review Prompt” file in “Syllabus, Sched, Prompts” from Blackboard. Complete the review prompt for each group member’s draft. Print out at least two copies of each review you have written and bring those to our group workshop meeting. You will give one copy to the author of the essay you reviewed and one copy to me. I will look at your drafts on your blogs, but you will be relying upon one another as reviewers for the bulk of your feedback. You are best to focus in your review on possibilities in one another’s essays and on larger concerns rather than small details.

-Meet at the scheduled time with your workshop members and me in my office, 736A Aspen Hall South. My office is on the third floor of the former Aspen Apartments just east of the Hilltop Apartments. Be sure to use the southern entrance, as there is no passage between the northern and southern ends of the building.

-Then, continue working on revising your essay for the following week. Your revised draft is due by midnight Monday, 2/6, posted on your blog and emailed to me as an attachment. The most successful essays generally will synthesize sources (put sources in connection with more than one per paragraph) and be tailored to a specific audience. You may incorporate personal experiences and anecdotes, use in-class and outside sources, and, if in doubt, somewhat model your essay on those we read in class.

-Remember, we are not meeting for our regular class hours next week. We will meet again as a class 2/6. Next week I will also be posting to Blackboard the schedule and blog prompts for the next unit.

As a final note, I have posted in the “Readings” on Blackboard a short Andrea Lunsford opinion piece that could be helpful for those of you wishing to do more from Thompson’s angle. That op-ed and additional information about the Stanford study are also available at http://ssw.stanford.edu.

Let me know if you have any questions. See you in workshop next week, and have a good weekend.

Best,

Eric

A Belated Welcome

If you're reading this, you're probably in one of the Writing sections I am teaching.

I've been meaning to do some posts myself. But I get so involved reading student posts and planning for class that my own little writing patch on the Web is much neglected.

I will use this space to post class announcements, to provide supplemental materials, and to share some of my thoughts and reflections upon course topics and progress.


It feels good to be getting some words on here and to be joining you all in a corner of the blogosphere.