Week 10 - October 30

"In Which We Get Down to the Actual Writing"

Write: Why are you here?

Literacy Narratives - class time to work and ask questions.

Looking Forward:
Read the last essay in Chris Butcher's portfolio, "Hybrids: Parts of the Problem, Not the Solution"  Write a reverse outline.  In addition, write a paragraph that explains why the three essays you read ("Hybrids...", "The Faster Treadmill" and "Sexual Discrimination...") add up to an A portfolio.  What can you apply to your own revisions?

Week 10 - October 28

Peer Review - Literacy Narratives
Literacy?
This I Believe?
-ground these narratives in something.


Work on Literacy Narratives

Literacy Narrative Revision Plan


Looking Forward:
Wednesday, October 30 -
Make sure you bring your Literacy Narrative rough drafts so you can work on them in class
Read "In Which We Get Down to the Actual Writing"

As you read what different writers have to say in the article "In Which We Get Down to the Actual Writing" pay close attention to those we say something that interests you.  Pick the one author that has a style that resonated most with yours, or that discusses an idea that you relate to. Write a continuation of that idea.  

1.  First, do a bit of research about this author - who are they?  What did they write?  Why should we care at all?  

2.  Then connect their thoughts to your own: How is this like your own way of writing?  Why does it resonate with you?  What can you learn from this author and apply to your own way of writing?  

This would be a great writing to include pictures or other creative elements.  You can either print this to class or email me, but be prepared to discuss this in class. 

"This I Believe" Literacy Narrative

Our 4th essay is the "This I Believe" Literacy Narrative. The essay should focus on what you believe about your chosen topic, which will somehow relate to writing, literacy, reading, or communication. It should be, in the words of NPR’s “This I Believe” web site, “a statement of your personal beliefs, of the values which rule your thought and action.” As the original invitation to this series puts it: We want to know what you live by, what made you believe that and how it has affected your growth.  This is a first person genre and should read like a narrative.
       
Much of your success with this assignment depends on choosing a good story to tell–one that has special meaning for you, one that is likely to entertain and educate a reader.  For models, review the pieces we’ve read by David Sedaris, Matt Groening and the other sample essay.  Listen/read some more of the "This I Believe" essays. Also, please remember that the experiences you select do not have to be a positive one.  Oftentimes, we come to understand just as much, if not more about ourselves, from negative experiences as well as positive.

This should be at least 4 pages long. Tell the story.  Take us there, the readers, much like we were viewing a film. 

Suggestions from "This I Believe" essay guidelines:

• Tell a story: Be specific. Take your belief out of the ether and ground it in the events of your life. Consider moments when belief was formed or tested or changed. Think of your own experience, work, and family, and tell of the things you know that no one else does. Your story need not be heart-warming or gut-wrenching—it can even be funny—but it should be real. Make sure your story ties to the essence of your daily life philosophy and the shaping of your beliefs.
• Name your belief: If you can’t name it in a sentence or two, your essay might not be about belief. Also, rather than writing a list, consider focusing on one core belief.
• Be positive, which is not the same as happy. Please avoid preaching or editorializing. Tell us what you do believe, not what you don’t believe. Avoid speaking in the editorial “we.” Make your essay about you; speak in the first person.
• Be personal: Write in words and phrases that are comfortable for you to speak. Read your essay aloud to yourself several times, and each time edit it and simplify it until you find the words, tone, and story that truly echo your belief and the way you speak.

Week 9 - October 23

Write: reflect on the revision process for the Discourse Community Ethnography.

* What are you proudest about in this draft?  Why?
* What aspects do you think are working well? Why?
* What parts do you think you can enhance or improve upon? Why? (Especially important if you think you will use in your portfolio)
* What is the most important concept/idea (insert own word) that you have learned in either their writing experience or in the interview/discovery experience?  What can you take forward personally?

Literacy Narrative

Brainstorm:
*Has there been a time when communicating - either through written or spoken words - was challenging for you?
*Do you remember learning to read or write?
*Has there been a time when you discovered a value in reading or writing?  Either because of a specific book, or moment that helped you clarify something?
*David Sedaris talks of the his childhood writing as evidence of the "seeds of the person I would hopefully grow up to become" - do you have moments of writing or communication that bring that same awareness to you?

Living Through Poetry - How Do You Believe in A Mystery?
The Making of Poems
Books and Libraries - Books at All Costs
Writing Letters - The Act of Giving Thanks
The Power of Words
The Magic of Letters

Looking Forward:
Friday, October 25 - This I Believe Literacy Narrative First Draft uploaded to BB drafts by Midnight
Monday, October 28 - LN Peer Review and Workshop.  Bring peers' marked up drafts and peer letters.

Literacy Narrative Peer Letters

Please create a reverse outline for your peers' papers. 

Write a letter that addresses these ideas:

* Does the writer relate a meaningful event about literacy/communication?  Does it reveal

something important about the writer and about literacy/communication?

*Is it clear why the incident matters?  This does not need to be one triumphant sentence that wraps it all up – it can be subtly included in the narrative.

* Is the event told clearly through specific details and careful choice of language?  Does the story make sense?  Is it well-told?

* Is the story focused and narrowed to a specific event?  Is the story well paced?

*Are vivid details included (how things look, smell, taste, sound, hear)?

*Are people and situations brought to life – as they should be in a narrative?

* Referencing the reverse outline - do the paragraphs all seem organized and focused?

Rule 8

* Have captivating title and hook.  Use emotion to grab your readers into your paper.

* Don't keep your writing a secret.  Let other people see it and give feedback.

* Sometimes the hardest part of the paper is just starting.  In the introduction you establish all the main points you will address throughout the paper.  You can almost use this as an outline for the rest of the paper.

* Write with emotion and feeling.  Take personal feelings from experiences and express them in your writing.

* Keep it short and sweet.  Short enough to keep everyone interested, but long enough to cover the criteria and topic.

* Take your time. 

* You have to pace yourself in the writing process.

* Writing doesn't always have to be explosive, meaning it's okay to organize your thoughts as you write to make less work on yourself later.

* Granted, you want to get everything down on the paper that you're thinking, but you don't want to lose focus on your topic and your direction because of mixed up thoughts.

* Sleep and dream about what you want to say.  Let your mind wander.

Week 9 - October 21

Work on Essay 3 - Discourse Community Ethnography.

Here are some other ideas to keep you writing if you are stuck:

* Tell a story, not just a list of characteristics

* Pick a time of conflict or disagreement and use that to ground your observations

* How do you interact and fit in this community?  What pieces of your "identity kit" do you use?

* Don't just say "it impacted my life".  Give us examples of what that looks like.  That can stretch beyond the discourse community.

* Has anything happened in the community and your interaction within the community that has caused a conflict within your own belief/value system or that has challenged/changed/strengthened/brought to question your own beliefs or values?  What did you do?  How did you navigate that tension?  That is always an interesting idea to draw from that often results in excellent writing.

Looking Forward:

Monday, October 21 - Essay 3 (DCE) Instructor Draft needs to be uploaded to D2L Assignments by Midnight

Wednesday, October 23

*Read and create reverse outline for another paper in Christ Butcher's Portfolio.  "The Faster Treadmill" (p. 53)

*Read:

Matt Groening Literacy Narrative

Who Ate the Plums

The Power of Books This I Believe Literacy Narrative
 

Week 8 - October 16

Reverse Outlines of "Sexual Discrimination in Michigan Child Support and Custody Legislation" (GB, p. 47)

Write: What ideas can you take from this paper and apply to your own papers?

"How to Write"

Rule 8.

"What Writing Is"

"Shitty First Drafts"

Write: Describe your writing space - desk, bench, table.  Now describe where you truly do write best.  what does that look like?  Do you have any habits or odd ticks.  Describe what you notice about yourself as you write.

Write: What is the difference between a shitty rough draft and a lazy rough draft (channel both Lamott and King).

Any questions about the DCE?

Looking Forward:

Monday, October 21 - Discourse Community Ethnography due to BB by midnight

Week 8 - October 14

DCE peer groups
*write, for each peer, what you get from their draft about the larger idea, why this is important/why does this discourse community matter?
*paper trade 
*as a group discuss the idea of why this community matters.  as outsiders, your peer members should have some interesting ideas.

DCE Workshop and In-Class Work
- Intro and Conclusion
- edit out what isn't actually important
- try loosening up the language - tell it like a story
- make sure we know what the community is
- try playing around with organization
- connection to the larger world - doesn't need to be huge life changing information.  skills, insights, perspectives, make you a better person somehow?  



Looking Forward:
Wednesday, October 16
Read and Write a Reverse Outline: "Sexual Discrimination in Michigan Child Support and Custody Legislation" GB, p. 47
Read: "How to Write", "What Writing Is", "Shitty First Drafts"

Reverse Outline

This little video does a nice job of explaining what a reverse outline is.  We have done various versions of this with our own drafts.

This is an example of a reverse outline for the Vigansky article in the Green Book:

Paragraph	Says	Does
1	Main character playing softball	Introduces softball; catches attention
2	Main character playing volleyball; injury occurs	This is where the conflict begins.
3	Main character goes to doctor; surgery required	This heightens the conflict: injury won’t just heal on its own.
4	Main character reveals her injury to team; they react badly	This heightens the conflict: will main character lose friends, support?
5	Main character is feeling low about her condition; hits the garage and cries. Her father comforts her.	This shows how the injury has affected the main character’s well being. It also shows a potential turning point.
6	Cheers for team; attends physical therapy.	Main character seems to be improving both mentally and physically.
7	Another surgery.	?? Context.
8	Starts improving; starts practicing.	Main character seems to have a different outlook after second surgery. We see renewed effort and optimism.
9	Plays in first game after surgeries. Reinjured.	Contrasts with first paragraph, and also raises more “bait.” What’s going to happen now?
10	Finds out she can still play with an injury if she can tolerate the pain. Plays through.	Shows main character’s personal drive and strength of will.
11	Plays in every game through the end of the season; helps team win championship; gets another diagnosis.	Main character reflects and tells us what this experience meant to her: “Bittersweet.” Proud, but sad.
12	Author learned a lot and wants to work in orthopedics as a result of her experience.	Main character reflects. “This is how this experience shaped me.”

Week 7 - October 9

Advocacy Campaigns

In-Class Reading: "Wrestlers Cutting Weight Irresponsibly: Is it Worth the Cost?" p 144-151 in Green Book 

Create a reverse outline/rhetorical analysis for the in-class reading.

Discourse Community Ethnography Work - Keep in mind that you are describing the community to an outsider, a stranger.  What do they need to know to stay sane in the community?  Think of the big picture - why should we even know about it?  Why should we care?  What does insider knowledge of the way this community works tell us about a larger issue or connect to a bigger piece of the world than just you?

This paper might work best as a narrative.  Actually show us what happens.

Looking Forward:
Thursday, October 10 - Discourse Community Ethnography 1st Draft to BB groups.
Monday, October 14 - 1 copy of each peer letter and peers' marked up copy of their draft.

Week 7 - October 7

Final Questions on Advocacy Feasibility Essays?

Work on the Advocacy Campaign aspect that will be presented to class on Wednesday.  This does not have to be a big deal, but it needs to quickly attract the student population to your cause and provide enough incentive for them to want to learn more about the issue and stand behind you in support.  Think along the lines of memes, t-shirts, pins...

"In addition to the written paper you will need to produce an Advocacy Campaign.  Change and knowledge cannot occur unless the information can be shared in a meaningful way, and often a group of you need to be behind this idea.  So, how can you spread knowledge about your specific topic?  Potential ideas could be: photo essays, t-shirts, short films, song, pamphlets, flyers.  Use your imagination.  You will need to create a tangible product that can be presented to our class and that I can collect (digitally is fine).  If you are creating something that would require an actual product purchase, such as a t-shirt, you can create a digital mockup and present that image.  Going back to my ice cream machine idea, I would probably make a poster of some sort to hang around campus, or create a witty t-shirt that I would force my friends to wear."

"The Concept of a Discourse Community" and the 6 main characteristics.

1. Broadly agreed set of common goals.  They may be formally written in documents or be more tacit in understanding.

2. Mechanisms of intercommunication among members.

3. Participatory mechanisms to provide information and feedback. 

4. Genres are used to communicate the aims and goals.

5. Specific lexis.

6. Threshold level of members with expertise and also newbies. 

*This is an example of genre and use of specific features and characteristics.

*This is an example of a complete discourse community.

This is one of my favorite discourse communities.

Brainstorm your own Discourse Communities. 

Pay attention to who you could easily interview. 

Make sure you can make a bigger claim of why this community matters and your role in the whole thing.

Looking Forward:

Monday, October 7

*Instructor's Copy of Advocacy Campaign uploaded to BB by midnight

Wednesday, October 9

*In-class presentation of Advocacy Campaign

*Come with materials to work on your DCE

*Read:"Good English and Bad"

Thursday, October 10

*DCE 1st Draft uploaded to BB groups.  (Note that this round of peer letters is slightly different and we will go over it in class on Wednesday).

Discourse Community Ethnography

Discourse Community Ethnography Project

Due Dates:

Thursday, October 10 - 1st draft uploaded to BB groups

Monday, October 14 - DCE workshop.  Bring marked up peers' papers as well as one copy of their peer letter

Monday, October 21 - DCE due by Midnight.  Uploaded to BB assignments

 

Choose a discourse community that has made an impact on you.

You will be finding a preliminary answer to this research questions: What are the goals and characteristics of this discourse community and how do I fit into it.  In addition, you will need to make a larger connection to the world around you – why does this community matter?

Write a 5-6 page report that tries to answer this question, based on careful observation of the community.

1.  To write this effectively you will need to collect data.

-       Observe members of the discourse community while they are engaged in a shared activity.  Take detailed notes – what are they doing, what kinds of things do they say, what do they write, how do you know who is ‘in’ and ‘out’?

-       Collect anything people in the community read or write (the genres) – even short things like forms, sketches, lists, notes.

-       Interview at least three members of the discourse community.  Take detailed notes and get direct quotes.  You might ask things like “How long have you been involved in this?  Why are you involved?  What do these specific words mean?  How did you learn to write this specific way?  How do you communicate with other people that are in this same network? Why is this community important to you? 

2.  Once you have collected the data, you will need to analyze it.  Use the six characteristics of a Discourse Community as set forth by Swales to get started.  You do not need to address each aspect if it is not important to the larger goals of the paper (the research questions in bold).

1. What are the shared goals of the community?  Why does this group exist and what does it do?
2. What mechanisms do members use to communicate with each other (meetings, phone calls, e-mails, text, newsletters, reports, evaluation forms, etc)
3. What are the purposes of each of these mechanisms of communication (to improve performance, make money, produce a better product, share research, etc…)?
4. Which of the above mechanisms can be considered genres – textual responses to recurring situations that all group members recognize and understand?
5. What kinds of specialized language (lexis) do group members use in their conversations and in their genres?  What communicative function does this lexis serve?
6. Who are the ‘experts’?  Who are the newcomers with less expertise?  How do the newcomers learn the appropriate language, genres, knowledges of the group.

3.  Once you have done the basic data analysis, you will need to further analyze.  For example:

-       Are there conflicts within the community?  If so, why?

-       Do some participants in the community have a difficult time interacting and engaging?  Why?

-       What are the ‘modes of belonging’ that newcomers are attempting to use? 

-       Are members of this community stereotyped in any way in regard to their literacy knowledge?  If so, how?

Keep in mind:

*You will want to clearly explain your discourse community and describe your research methods early on in the report. 

  

*You will also want to discuss your findings in detail – quote from your notes, interviews, texts you have collected, etc.

*Include a work cited page.

 *This should be an engaging paper.  It is about a community that you belong in that is important.  Dig into a bit deeper.

Week 6 - October 2

Advocacy Feasibility Essays
*Integrating Sources using They Say I Say
*Strong Introduction and Conclusion.
 - Get in new groups of 3/4.  Read each introduction and conclusion.  Choose the best of each one.  Why is that the best?  Create a list that can be shared with the class that explains why this is the best introduction and conclusion.
- I will read the best introduction and conclusion out loud to the class and we will vote as a whole and pick the strongest introduction and conclusion for the whole class.

Discourse Communities
*This is an example of genre and use of specific features and characteristics.
*This is an example of a complete discourse community.

Looking Forward:
Monday, October 7
*Read "The Concept of a Discourse Community" - Focus on the 6 characteristics of a discourse community as explained in section 2.3.  Make sure you are able to explain what these mean.  Come with questions prepared to class is you are unclear on any of these characteristics. 
*Instructor's Copy of Advocacy Campaign uploaded to BB by midnight