Fall 2011, Unit 1: Community, Style, and Syntax in Genre Studies

In Unit 1 of Fall 2011, students worked in groups to share "manufactured documents" on their blogs.  Through these blogs, they imagined stories of shark attacks and murder mysteries, September 11th and the Potato Famine, weddings and college admissions.  Their research focused on both the specific events surrounding these situations and the genre conventions used to report these situations.  From police reports to wedding vows, the students revealed a great deal of creativity in revealing just how we learn about the stories we "know."

Examples of Student Work - "How-To" Blog

ENG 101 Final Portfolio

The final portfolio represents all the work you've written over the course of the semester.  You should be sure to proofread for grammar and spelling, and then add in notes to let me know which of your pieces stand out as your favorites as well as which ones you felt didn't work as well as you wanted.  Think of this as an opportunity to show what you've learned over the course of the semester

Unit 4

Uploading PowerPoint Presentations to Facebook

For your Project 4 Proposals, you'll need to upload your slides to Facebook in order to share them with your classmates.

Project 4 Proposal Guidelines - Uploading PowerPoint to Facebook

Project Proposals: Slides and Text

Next week, you'll be presenting your project proposals to your classmates.  To give you a better idea of what these proposals should look like, I'm putting together a slideshow of what your proposals should include.  Please don't feel limited to PowerPoint - you can certainly create slides, videos, text, or Prezis to propose your project.  However, do make sure to provide information on all the Major Proposal Requirements.

Unit 4 / Project 4 Proposal Guidelines - Uploading PowerPoint to Facebook

Revised Schedule - Unit 4

Here's the revised schedule for the rest of the Fall 2011 Semester.  This schedule includes both our in-class activities and your homework assignments, so please refer back to it as needed.

Unit 4 / Project 4 Overview - Updated Schedule

Project 4: Selling to a Hostile and/or Indifferent Audience

Here it is, our last project of the semester.  For this project, you'll be integrating everything we've worked on so far to create individual projects, and then you'll use Facebook Fan Pages to share your progress and solicit suggestions from other members of your discussion groups.

Final Draft Essay with MLA Citation Due with Final Portfolio on Thursday, 12/8/2011

Unit 4 / Project 4 Overview - Updated Schedule

CHAT Maps: Who Am I? And Where Am I Writing From?

On Tuesday, we mapped out how some of the lines of causality and detail within our essays.  Today, we're going to look at how we as fit within the scope of our writing - not just as writers, but as people located at a particular time and place in our lives.

Unit 3 / Mapping Writing - Mapping Yourself

Mapping Your Writing: Causality and Details

In writing an article, you want to make sure that you convey your central points in ways which are logical and relatively straightforward.  You want each of your main assertions to prepare the reader for what comes next, and then you want your selected details to support those assertions.

Unit 3

Choosing Groups and Topics for Your Grassroots Articles

This week, we're going to use the perspectives gained in your portfolios to go ahead and write articles for the Grassroots Writing Research Journal (GWRJ).

Unit 2 / Midterm Assessment

Midterm Assessment: Negotiating Grades

Today we're going to go over midterm assessments (a continuation of Student-Centered Grading).

Unit 2 / Midterm Assessment - Student-Centered Grading

Upload Your Project 2 Link-Exchange Paragraphs

What is Plagiarism? (and how do we avoid it?)

Plagiarism is one of those "heavy" words in an English course - or in any humanities course.  We are constantly told that we must avoid it, and yet we are using a genre studies model which calls for collaboration and research.  This is why today we're going to talk a bit about what plagiarism is (and what it isn't).

Unit 2

Alternative Assessment: Student-Centered Grading

Today we'll look at how we assess our progress as individuals, as group members, and as students within the larger context of the classroom and university.  Much of the "changes" we'll be looking at involve how to enter this discussion with our colleagues about personal performance.

This lesson is based largely on Cathy N. Davidson's article Collaborative Learning for the Digital Age in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Unit 2

Examples of Visual Projects

Here are a few examples of visual projects that I've put together over the past year.  These are mostly just to give an idea of what a project might look like.  You'll naturally want to choose your own direction for your project, but I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have on how to use related techniques.

Bear in mind that the way you describe your project is more important than the final product.  I'm looking for your writing process, for how you think about presenting information.

Unit 2 / Genre Conventions - Visual Projects

How to Write About Conventions - Some Examples

Here are some examples to help show how to write about genre conventions.  Their taken from a science fiction course I taught in January 2011.

Unit 2 / Genre Conventions - Visual Projects

Narrative from Chaos: Learning to Tell (and Retell...) the Story

Writers create meaning from disparate sources, bringing together ideas from across vast swaths of human experience.  For this unit, we'll be looking at how this process occurs and how you can use it to deepen your writing.

Unit 2 / Music Videos - Parody Videos
Intro to Chaos and Narrative

Music Videos: Image, Lyrics, and Tone as Visual Literature

Whether you're crafting a documentary or sharing a funny moment from your childhood, photos and videos can significantly affect the audience's experience.  One of the best places to observe this effect is in music video covers, where a single song can be transformed using changes in visual imagery and themes.  In your writing, you can apply these same considerations as you compose the visual scenes within your stories and poems.  By drawing the reader's eye to certain images as opposed to others, you can adjust the way your writing is seen and understood.

Unit 2 / Music Videos - Parody Videos
Intro to Chaos and Narrative
Of Related Interest: Parody and Satire

Video Parody: Bending Visual Genres

The accepted conventions of a given genre are often best seen in parody.  By looking at trailers and "spoof" trailers for Mary Poppins and The Shining, we can see how choices in scene selection and music can drastically change the tone and message of a piece.

Please Note: A few of the video trailers featured here are a bit disturbing.

Unit 2 / Music Videos - Parody Videos
Intro to Chaos and Narrative
Of Related Interest: Parody and Satire

Workshop Group Rotations

Earlier, we discussed the role of peer review in helping us improve as writers, and then we used the methods of progressive feedback to give constructive help to our fellow writers.  Today we'll use these techniques as we prepare written feedback for our classmates in different groups.

**Note: Since you'll be responding to feedback and completing revisions, tonight's homework assignment is cancelled.  We'll  wait until next week to transition from Blackboard to Moodle.**

Workshop Peer Review - Four Rules of Progressive Feedback

Progressive Workshop Feedback: Four Rules

The success of any writing workshop depends upon the quality of the feedback.  The way we present this feedback is often just as important as the feedback itself.  Here are four "Rules to Live By" when providing feedback to your peers.

Workshop Peer Review - Four Rules of Progressive Feedback

Workshop Peer Review: Helping Writers Improve through Directed Feedback

Today we're going to look at how we provide feedback to help our peers improve their writing.  Receiving feedback can help you better understand how your audience perceives what you've written - giving feedback will help you attune your senses as to what's important in written work.

Workshop Peer Review - Four Rules of Progressive Feedback