COURSE CALENDAR

Like all great ideas, this calendar is in process and subject to revision.  As of today (9/1), it is specific through week eight, then becomes less so.  Still, all assignments are listed, as are all holidays and the date of the final.

Week One:

Wednesday 9/6:
Introductions.  1) Make sure everyone has email.  Discuss e. access.  2) Discuss writing to learn and note-taking.  3) Discuss enthusiasm and participation

Friday 9/8:
“Know thyself.”  Bring my own self-inventory to class and share it, then assign self-inventory with cover page for Monday.

Week Two:

Monday 9/11:
Discuss self-inventory as a source for writing ideas.  Preview and assign William Corbett, “Of Smells and Spills...” and Sue Hubbel, “Poison Snakes.”

Wednesday 9/13:
Discuss Hubbel and Corbett.  What is an essay?  How do you make one?  What would Corbett’s and Hubbel’s self-inventories have said?  Where did their essays come from?  What are the differences between their two pieces of writing?  Transition: both writers understand themselves, but they also pay close attention to the world around them, observing important details and questioning them.  Introduce style. Assign Essay One: Shared Expertise.

Friday 9/15:
Making observations.  View commercials (and/or dramatic film?) in class.  Introduce purpose, audience, and analytical reception of messages.  Discuss style and appeal.  Generalize: this process of observing can be applied to anything.  Introduce observation journals and observation presentations, which can focus on many varieties of cultural messages, or which can focus on a personal item on the self-inventory.  Assign an observation entry for essay one and assign Quammen’s “The Face of a Spider.”

Week Three:

Monday 9/18:
Discuss Quammen.  What observations is the essay built on, and what kinds of research do you think Quammen had to do?  How does Quammen use his expertise, and how does he use his own uncertainty?  Explain formal reader responses and assign response to Quammen.  Discuss students’ observation entries: how did they come about? how could they be useful in essay one?  Assign Salon site tour: spend an hour or so at salon.com.  View several different kinds of pieces, from different categories (read at least one review, one wire story, and two feature length essays in different categories).  What different audiences do these pieces seem addressed to?  Are there differences between “From the Wire” and the articles in the various headings?  What differences do you notice between articles in “A&E” and those in “Business?”  Overall, what’s the difference between writing in this medium and the print essays we’ve read.

Wednesday 9/20:
 Library tour.

Friday 9/22:
Collect Quammen response.  Discuss students' first observation journal entries for essay 1.  Discuss Salon site tour.  Introduce audience profile (due 10/6).  Students should profile a magazine, column, website, or journal of their choice.  What is the age group that the publication targets?  What are the common interests or lifestyles of the readership?  What can be said about this group's preferred writing style?  Do they appreciate humor?  Is the language technical?  Who are the authors who publish here?  These and other questions should be addressed.  Could your “shared expertise” fit somewhere in this publication?  Preview Monday’s writing workshop.

Week Four:

Monday 9/25:
Workshop day for essay 1.

Wednesday 9/27:
In class: Read Tami De Coteau's "Sweat Lodge."  Discuss workshopping and her use of observation and focus.

Friday 9/29:
Essay 1 due to me.  In class: model observation presentation.  Remind students: one week before audience profile is due.  Sign up for conferences.  Sign up for observation presentations.

Preview unit two: a multi-format review including a by-line (a one sentence review), a short review,  (1 page), and a 3-6 page review essay considering the significance of the text or event being reviewed (see Assignment Sheet for Essay 2 for more details).Assign the following readings, to be completed by each student before his or her conference appointment with me:
1) Roger Ebert's short review of "The Watcher" (click and scroll down the alphabetical listings to "The Watcher")
2) Roger Ebert's long review of "The Watcher"
3) Amateur Review of "The Watcher"
4) Complex, highly observant, full review of "The Watcher"
5) On reserve in the library: "The Pursuit of Wholiness," by Shiva Naipaul.  This is a review essay, describing, evaluating, and considering the significance of a cultural event.

FORMAL RESPONSES: students must write formal responses to two of these 5 texts.  In each response, students should focus on one or more of the following elements of the review: a) SUMMARY: how much of this text is summary of the film or event?  b) OBSERVATIONS: why does the writer of the review choose the particular details he observes?  c) EVALUATION: what does the writer think about the movie or event?  how does he express his evaluation?  d) INQUIRY: does the writer use any?  e) SIGNIFICANCE: does the writer attribute any kind of significance to the movie or event?  if so, how would you describe that significance?  if not, why not?

Week Five:

Monday 10/2:
Conferences.  No class.

Wednesday 10/4:
 Conferences.  No class.

Friday 10/6:
First observation presentations.  Audience Profile due.

Week Six:

Monday 10/9:
Discuss all review readings--summary, observation, evaluation, significance.  Formal responses to review readings due.

Wednesday 10/11:
Observation presentations.

Friday 10/13:
Essay 2 draft workshop

Week Seven:

Monday 10/16:
Essay 2 due to me.
Discuss midterm portfolio, revision observations, re-reading, re-seeing, reading one’s own work, etc.

Wednesday 10/18:
observation presentations: Casey Harkins, Sara Heil and Jen Hebda

Friday 10/20:
Midterm portfolio workshop on revisions of essay 1.

Week Eight:

Monday 10/23:
Midterm portfolio workshop on revisions of essay 2.

Wednesday 10/25:
--    Midterm Portfolio Due.
--    Observation presentations: Stephanie Swanson and Katie Morse.
--    Preview Unit 3.
--    Assign: Harbrace College Handbook, chapter 31, "Reading and Thinking Critically."  As a response, please do exercises 1, 3 and 6 to turn in Monday, 10/30.  For exercise 3, write a paragraph evaluating the given argument, referring to at least 2 specific claims, assumptions, or other elements of that argument.

Friday 10/27:
No class: midterm break.

Week Nine:

Monday 10/30:
--    Go over Assignment Sheet for Essay 3.
--    Discuss and collect exercises from chapter 31 of Harbrace College Handbook.
--    Assign for Friday: "The Global Elite," by Robert Reich (on reserve in the library).  Write a one paragraph summary of Reich's argument and a one page analysis of one of his main claims--first identify the claim, then identify one or two examples or pieces of data that support the claim, then explain whether or not you believe the claim to be true.
 

Wednesday 11/1:
--    observation presentations: Becky Arndt, Stacy Jenkins and Carrie Hromadka.

Friday 11/3:
--    Discuss Robert Reich's "The Global Elite" and collect summaries and analyses.
--    Assign Martin Luther King, Jr. "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (on reserve in the library).  Again, write a one paragraph summary of King's argument and a one page analysis.  This time analyze King's use of concessions and attacks.  Name one point that King concedes to his opposition and answer the question: "why must he concede that point for his overall argument to succeed?"  Then name one accusation of wrongdoing that King makes against his opposition.  Answer the question: why is (or is not) this a powerful accusation?

Week Ten:

Monday 11/6:
--    Discuss "Letter from Birmingham Jail."  Collect responses.
--    Assign chapter 32 of Harbrace College Handbook, "Writing Arguments."  As a formal response, do exercise 3, answering each of the four questions in turn.
--    Assign for Friday: Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things. Everyone reads "Prologue," "Conclusion," "Appendix," and "Notes and Sources."  Divide up other chapters.  As a formal response, prepare a point by point summary of the information presented (in bulletted form) and write a one page journal entry on a habit of consumption that this book has caused you to consider more fully.
 

Wednesday11/8:
--    observation presentations: Bridget Donlon, Jessica Darling, and Katie Morse.  Assign Stuff
--    Discuss and collect exercises from chapter 32.

Friday 11/10:
--    Discuss Stuff in terms of subjects for inquiry essays.  What could you learn more about in order to guide yourself and others toward a more responsible or desirable kind of behavior?

Week Eleven:

Monday 11/13:
--    workshop essay 3 in class
--    Assign Friday's informal 2 minute presentations

Wednesday 11/15:
--    Assign for Monday: chapter 33 of Harbrace College Handbook, "Research: Finding and Evaluating Sources."  This is long.  Don't let it slide.  As a formal response, do exercises 1 and 4 (which requires you to spend time in the library or on the library web page).

Friday 11/17:
--    observation presentations: Jennifer Oestreich, Margaret Elvekrog, and Carrie Hromadka.
--    essay 3 due to me
--    Preview Inquiry Essay (due 12/15 in Final Portfolio) and audience profile and research proposal (due 12/1)

Week Twelve:

Monday 11/20:
--    collect exercises from chapter 33
--    observation presentations: Kate Fahnel, Abbey Kelly, and Katie Traynor.
--    assign Joey Shanks, "An Uncomfortable Position" (143 in Elements) on reserve in the library with a formal response.

Wednesday 11/22:
no classes.  Thanksgiving

Friday 11/24:
no classes.  Thanksgiving

Week Thirteen:

Monday 11/27:
--    discuss Shanks and the Inquiry Essay process.
--    discuss audience profile and research proposal
--    Assign Berger, K. T. "Save the Car" and Neil Postman and Steve Powers "What is News?" (both on reserve in the library), with a formal response to one or the other.

Wednesday 11/29:
--    library day
 

Friday 12/1:
--    Due to me: audience profile and research proposal for inquiry essay.
--    collect responses to Berger or Postman/Powers
--    discuss readings

Week Fourteen:

Monday 12/4:
workshop portfolio revisions

Wednesday 12/6:
observation presentations: Tim Davis, Jason Roberts and Dorsey Peterson

Friday 12/8:
workshop inquiry essays
Discuss Final Portfolio Assignment Sheet

Week Fifteen:

Monday 12/11:
observation presentations: Jennifer Noll, Jaime Adler and Josh Rose.

Wednesday 12/13:
 workshop?

Friday 12/15:
last class meeting before final.  Final portfolios and inquiry essays due.

Week Sixteen:

Thursday 12/21
 3:00-5:00 pm, final meeting, section 13.  Student readings.  Final reports on portfolios and inquiry essays.