Portfolio assignment

Final Exam: The Portfolio

In this, our last assignment for the semester, you will document your development as a writer during this semester in a portfolio of your work. Please note that this essay assignment should produce neither triumph narratives (“I didn’t get it and now I do!!!!!”) nor paeans to your instructor’s many virtues (“And it’s all because of Jen Buckley!!!!”).  This assignment is intended to help you figure out where you are as a writer, how you got there, and where you want to go.

You will:

·         Collect the essays you wrote for the course -- the memoir and the three argumentative essays.

·         Write a one-paragraph introduction to each of these essays, in which you:

o   Identify at least two aspects of essay writing that you worked on this piece. Provide specific examples of your writing that display this work; quoting your paper is appropriate here. The elements you discuss may be structural, grammatical, or stylistic.

o   Make sure you discuss any elements of essay writing that you struggled with in each essay. If you completed revisions, include multiple drafts and point out where and how you revised.

·         Choose two pieces of informal writing for the course.

o   These can be in-class writing assignments and exercises, brainstorming sessions, blog posts, etc.

o   Write a brief introduction in which you explain what you learned, or perhaps did not learn, by writing the piece.

·         Write a one-page conclusion to the portfolio in which you explain more generally which aspects of essay writing you feel you have improved or mastered, and which you still need to work on in future courses.

Due date: Friday, December 17, in hard copy, in my faculty mailbox (ask at the Information desk).

Another article on for-profit colleges

Those of you writing on for-profit colleges may find this recent article in The New York times interesting.

Readings for week of 11/29 and blog post prompt

Hello, all --

Here is the link to the first of the readings for this week -- an editorial from Inside Higher Ed by Jonathan Kaplan and Terry O'Banion arguing for the importance and effectiveness of for-profit colleges.

And here is the link to the second reading -- a fiery editorial by Gail Mellow, the president of LaGuardia Community College in New York -- arguing that for-profit colleges are basically a scam.

And, finally, here is the blog post prompt for this week: Which of these editorials is more persuasive? Do you think that community colleges are capable of handling the increasing pressure put upon them to re-train the middle class for the new economy? If so, what resources do they need to accomplish this objective? Or do you think that for-profit colleges have an important role to play? And, most importantly -- why do you think as you do about this issue?

Essay 3 Assignment

In third and final formal essay for this course, you will make an argument about one aspect of community college education in the United States. This assignment will require you to:

-- choose one current issue, problem or controversy faced by community colleges generally, or by Kirkwood in particular

-- research that issue, using at least one database (not Google Search)

--You must incorporate at least three secondary sources into your essay.

-- At least two of these sources must be “argument” sources.

-- form an opinion of your own on the issue

-- outline an argument in which you:

-- describe the issue, giving enough background information so that a reasonably intelligent but not very well-informed reader will understand it

-- explain your position on the issue

-- support your argument using verifiable facts

-- You must explain how your position is similar to or different from that of your “argument” sources.

-- You must correctly cite all facts, figures, and other sources using MLA documentation style.

-- write a full-length first draft

-- participate in an in-class writing workshop in which you share portions of your draft with your fellow classmates

-- substantially revise that draft, taking into account the constructive criticism of your peers and your teacher

-- polish the revised draft, editing for sentence clarity

While evaluating your essay, I will pay special attention to your incorporation of quotations and paraphrases into your own sentences and paragraphs.

Due dates:

First draft: Tuesday, 12/7

Final draft: Tuesday, 12/14

Reading for Thursday, 11/18

An article on one community college that is increasing its retention rate despite the fact that it faces all of the institutional challenges we discussed today in class.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/11/AR2010111107782.html

And the link to the Inside Higher Ed op-ed piece on the "completion agenda" and its implications for community colleges: here.

Readings for Tuesday, 11/9 and Thursday, 11/11

I'm sorry to have posted these links so late. Please read these essays and come prepared to discuss the structure of each argument in class. Pay special attention to the way each writer deploys and analyzes evidence in order to support his argument. Come to class ready to discuss. Please do print out these essays and bring them with you.

Tuesday, 11/9: Mauro E. Mujica, "English: Not America's Language?"

http://www.theglobalist.com/printStoryId.aspx?StoryId=3229

Thursday, 11/11: Geoffrey Nunberg, "Lingo Jingo: English-Only and the New Nativism"

http://www.prospect.org//cs/articles;jsessionid=a6DUm8nyjZ7-uP1opV?article=lingo_jingo

Essay 2 Assignment

Essay 2 Assignment

In your second formal essay for this course, you will examine the uses and/or abuses of language, as the writers whose essays we have read for this unit have done. This assignment will require you to:
-- Choose one current issue, problem or controversy concerning spoken or written language, either in the United States or abroad
--research that issue, using at least one database (not Google Search)
-- at least one of these sources must be an “argument” source
-- at least one of these sources must be printed
-- Form an opinion of your own on the issue
-- Outline an argument in which you:
-- describe the issue, giving enough background information so that a reasonably intelligent but not very well-informed reader will understand it
--explain your opinion on the issue.
-- Support your argument using verifiable facts.
--You must explain how your position is similar to or different from that of your “argument” source
--You must correctly cite all facts, figures, and other sources using MLA documentation style.
-- Write an essay proposal, in which you explain what you want to write about, what your argument might be, and what sources you might use.
-- Write a full-length first draft.
-- Participate in an in-class writing workshop in which you share portions of your draft with your fellow classmates.
-- Substantially revise that draft, taking into account the constructive criticism of your peers and your teacher.
-- Polish the revised draft, editing for diction (word choice) and sentence clarity.

While evaluating your essay, I will pay special attention to transitions and to your conclusion, as well as to the clarity of your sentences.

Due dates:
Essay proposal: Thursday, 10/28
First draft: Tuesday, 11/9
Final draft: Thursday, 11/18

Blog post, week of 10/18

I had asked you to bring in an example of published prose that meets George Orwell's criteria for bad writing. Very few of you did so. I'd like you to complete that assignment now, and to post at least one sentence of bad writing, along with a brief explanation of how the piece violates Orwell's rules.

Because Orwell's essay is ultimately about politics, I'd especially like to see examples of bad political writing. That said, please don't insert your own political opinions into your comments. Remember, Orwell spreads the blame equally, among all the political figures of his day, and I'm sure we could do the same.

(Those of you who did complete the assignment on time can simply post a selection from what you brought to class.)

Readings for Tuesday, 10/26

Here are two brief informational articles on recent events in the "English-Only" debate -- one describing a ballot initiative in a large city, Nashville, and the other reporting on a very small town, Jackson, NY.

Please read them for Tuesday. We will read two argumentative essays -- one by a writer on each side of the debate -- later next week, but for now, these articles will give you the basic outlines of the issue. If you detect a bias towards one side or the other in these articles, do let me know in class!

Here is the article on Nashville,

and

here is the article on Jackson, NY.

Assignments, week of 10/18

10/19: Orwell, "Politics and the English Langauge" (in Fields); also, bring in a piece of published writing that Orwell would consider bad (at least one paragraph)

10/21: Amy Tan, "Mother Tongue" (in Fields)
Essay #2 assigned

By midnight on Sunday: Blog post on Orwell or Tan

Blog post, week of 10/11

In class, we read and discussed a recent news article about a school district in Virginia that is teaching African American English as a separate language, with its own grammatical structures, in order to help its mostly Black students better use standard English on tests and in other formal situations. (I also linked to this article in my last blog post.)

What is your opinion on the argument taking place in the district? Write your response to the article here, and include a paraphrase of some aspect of Baldwin's argument at some point in your post.

Assignments, week of 10/11

Tuesday, 10/12: James Baldwin, "If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?" (in Fields)

Thursday, 10/14: George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language" (in Fields)

By Sunday at midnight: Blog post on Baldwin

"Black English" in contemporary classrooms

A very recent article in The Virginian-Pilot that takes up the issue of "Black English" raised in Baldwin's essay.

On Anzaldúa (your comments, please)

As we discussed in class, Gloria Anzaldúa's essay makes a forceful argument that one's language and accent are strongly linked to one's self. "I am my language," she writes in one passage.

What languages do you speak and write? How do you speak/write them? What do they tell us about you, your family, the social groups of which you are a member, etc.? Provide an example of terms or expressions from one of your languages if you can.

Assignments, week of 10/4

10/5: Essay #1 due in class (hard copy)

10/7: Gloria Anzaldua, "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" (in Fields, p. 131-141) (read before class)
Preface from Dr. Johnson's Dictionary (to be read in class)

10/10: blog post due by midnight

For those of you interested in Twitter

In today's New York Times, a fascinating series of short responses to an essay by Malcolm Gladwell in the current issue of The New Yorker.

How to use the semicolon -- a comic treatment

This is a brilliant explanation of how to use a semicolon properly.

Enjoy!

The Purdue Online Writing Lab

One of the best and most comprehensive online resources for student writers is the Purdue Online Writing Lab. Here is the link. You can find help with almost every aspect of essay writing there, from generating thesis statements to quotation and citation.

No blog comments due this week

Just work steadily on your essays! Email me directly if you have questions or need help!

Assignments, weeks 5-6

Essay #1 due dates:


Proposal (one paragraph): Thursday, 9/16

First draft (full draft): Thursday, 9/23

Final draft (must be typed and double-spaced): Tuesday, 10/5

For those of you who found Carr to be an alarmist

There's a new book out by Nick Bilton that appears to argue against Carr's "Google is making us stupid" position pretty forcefully.

I'm looking forward to reading it myself ... in print. ;-)

On Grafton (your comments, please)

In his essay, "Future Reading," Anthony Grafton argues that the utopian project to digitize all of the documents of human history, including books, will fail. It will fail, he says, in part because of corporate financial decisions. Google, Amazon and the rest are limited in what they can scan by copyright. Furthermore, they don't plan to offer images of early printed books. They won't be scanning documents from poor societies. "Poverty," he writes, "is embodied in lack of print as well as in lack of food."

Finally, this would-be universal library is "closed to those without access or money" -- those who can't afford computers, or subscriptions to the online databases. Unlike the New York Public Library, which serves all of the people, the Internet only serves those who can afford it.

What do you make of this economic argument? Do you think that Grafton is wrong -- that we can achieve an "infotopia"?

On Carr and Sullivan (your comments, please)

Nicholas Carr is worried. Very, very worried. In his essay, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Carr observes that his and others' ability to concentrate -- to read and think deeply and at length -- has been damaged by his heavy use of the Internet. He argues that the very medium of the Internet -- the way it works, and the way it demands that we use it -- is responsible for this damage. According to Carr, the digital era has decreased our mental capacity, and this is a bad thing, socially speaking.

Andrew Sullivan, on the other hand, thinks the Internet has been a hugely liberating force for writers. While he makes a point of discussing blogging's disadvantages (especially when compared with the professional standards of print journalism), he celebrates blogging's immediacy -- the ways in which the new medium allows all sorts of people to "write out loud."

Which writer do you agree with, Carr or Sullivan? Or both? Or neither? And why? Do you think there's anything that their arguments overlook or just plain get wrong?

I'm eager to hear what you think.

Short response #1 (memoir) assignment

While discussing the Frederick Douglass essay, we noted that his narrative participates in the reflective mode, in which the writer offers a detailed account of a past experience, as well as observations about that experience’s greater significance.

I would like you to respond to Douglass’s reflective essay by writing one of your own. This is a relatively short and ungraded piece (you will simply receive “credit” or “no credit”), so feel free to stretch yourself a bit as a writer. Take this as your one and only opportunity to write creative non-fiction in this course.

To write this short essay of about 3 pages (double-spaced), you must:
-- choose an experience you feel is worth recounting
-- consider the larger significance of the experience—ideally, beyond your own, individual life
-- decide which details are worth relating to the reader, and which can be passed over quickly or omitted
-- write a first draft of the essay, concentrating your energies on getting it down on paper/onscreen
-- revise that draft, making sure you have firmly linked the particular experience you describe to the larger significance
-- edit for diction and sentence clarity

Due date: Thursday, 9/16, hard copy, in class

On Hampl's "The Dark Art of Description" (on which you shall comment)

Hampl suggests that contemporary autobiographical writing rarely describes extreme circumstances; rather, recent memoirs tend to be "the story of perception" -- that is, they are more concerned with how their narrators experienced more or less ordinary events, than with the events themselves. So the matter of which details the writer chooses to present becomes very important. Description becomes key--maybe even more important than plot.

While making this argument about the importance of description, Hampl quotes the writer Vladimir Nabokov: "Caress the detail, the divine detail." (If you don't know who Nabokov is, read one of his books. You can thank me later.) 

So: What does it mean to "caress" a detail? To make it "divine"? If you have ever noticed a writer (or a filmmaker, or a visual artist, for that matter) doing this, tell us about it briefly.

Activites and due dates, weeks 3-4

Tuesday, 9/7: Carr, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" (in Fields); work on short response #1 (narrative/reflection)
Thursday, 9/9: Sullivan, "Why I Blog" (Fields); work on short response #1; Essay #1 assigned
Due by Sunday, 9/12 at midnight: blog post #3 -- respond to my post on Carr and Sullivan
Tuesday, 9/14: Grafton, "Future Reading: Digitization and Its Discontents" (Fields)
Thursday, 9/16: Essay work; Short response paper (memoir) due in class
Due by Sunday, 9/19 at midnight: blog post #4 on Grafton

Welcome to our class blog. Here's how it works.

This blog is where we'll do some of our reading and writing for this course. Each of you will be posting at least once per week, but I will be posting more often than that. Some of my posts will consist of reading and assignment schedules, and so you should check this blog regularly, several times per week, to make sure you know what's due when.

But many of my posts will begin a discussion about the texts we're reading and writing--a discussion we may begin or complete in person, but which can be developed in a particularly thoughtful way through the collaborative writing that occurs when we contribute to a multi-authored blog like this one.

A few ground rules, then:
-- Blog posts are due by midnight on Sunday. You post by adding a "comment" to my original post. Look for the link that allows you to comment at the bottom of each of my posts. **To see your fellow students' comments, you'll have to click on the "comments" link at the bottom of the post. Do skim their comments before you leave yours!**

-- All posts must be written in reasonably correct English. No acronyms like the ones used in email or texting. Real sentences only, please--preferably sentences that express whole thoughts.
-- Posts should be a minimum of three complete sentences long.
-- Posts should comment directly on the text or issue under discussion. No tangents or out-of-nowhere comments.
-- Anyone who uses language that denigrates another person, for any reason, will be barred from the blog, and thus his/her grade will suffer. Be nice. Be thoughtful and interested and lively, but be nice.
-- No ad hominem attacks. (If you don't know what that means, look it up. Everyone should learn something new every day. That can be your new bit of knowledge for today, and because it's Latin, you can feel smug about it.)

Alright, then. Off we go.

Activites and due dates, weeks 1-2

Tu, 8/24: Introduction
Th, 8/26: Morrison, "The Dancing Mind" (handed out in class; also sent over email as a .PDF); annotation exercise (in class)
By Su, 8/29 at midnight: blog post #1 (This time, all you have to do is leave a comment with your name somewhere in it, so I can see you that are able to access and leave messages on the blog.)

Tu, 8/31: Douglass, "Learning to Read and Write" (in Fields of Reading); sentence clarity exercises (in class)
-- Reading assignment: As you read the Douglass essay, I'd like you to note (in writing, on the page, if possible) which experiences Douglass describes in detail, and which he passes over quickly. Think: how is the essay structured, and why does he choose to structure it that way? What response or effect is he trying to achieve through the use of more or less detail? 
Th, 9/2: Hampl, "The Dark Art of Description" (Fields)
By Su, 9/5 at midnight: blog post #2 (Short, informal response to my post.)