Hi everyone, and happy Monday! I hope you all have lovely, restorative weekends.
Thanks to all of you for your work last week: annotations in Perusall on “Annoying Ways People Use Sources” & your blogs in response as well as your Unit 3 Writing Workshop comments & proposals.
This week we’re working to clarify (with as much specificity as possible) the particular audience & genre of your Unit 3 piece, better under publication venues, and then make some real progress on planning & drafting that piece.
The first half of this week is focused on peer reviewing one another’s posts from last week, and using this discussion to further revise & focus your Unit 3 projects. There is also new content (and comments required) in the Unit 3 Writing Workshop.
I’ve enjoyed reading your Week 12 work, and I’m looking forward to continuing the conversations around integrating sources effectively and clarifying your Unit 3 audience & genre. The Week 13 Schedule offers detailed guidance on the Unit 3 Proposals Peer Review, but here I want to offer some additional thoughts on integrating sources to help guide you through your peer review of the Stedman response blogs (which included a paragraph integrating your quotable from Unit 2). I’ll also be pinging the Perusall discussion of the Stedman piece over the next few days, to further discuss it there.
In “Annoying Ways People Use Sources,” Stedman discusses readers’ “pickiness” (243) and, as a writer, your need to anticipate and accommodate that. He reminds us that “the conventions of writing have a fundamentally rhetorical nature. [. . .]. One of the fundamental ideas of rhetoric is that speakers/writers/composers shape what they say/write/create based on what they want it to do, where they’re publishing it, and what they know about their audience/readers” (244). In essence, he’s highlighting awareness of the rhetorical situation: your audience and the appropriateness of your delivery and message.
He offers a variety of common pitfalls and then “fixes” for how to address them. For example, he share useful strategies such as signaling the quote, identifying the author, and showing your reader how to interpret the quote (255). Throughout the piece, Stedman argues that we should be intentional about when/why/what/how we quote, and make those intentions clear in our writing.
Of course, this isn’t our first time thinking about quotations. We spent a lot of time already, especially in Unit 2, thinking about how to identify and then integrate quotations effectively into our research (remember the “quote sandwich” and the Perusall reading, “The Art of Quoting”?). We’ve discussed the importance of not doing a drive-by with your quote, throwing it in and then moving on. Again, the quote needs to have a reason for being in your writing, and it’s your responsibility as a writer to make clear what that reason is (throughout introducing, analyzing, explaining, and citing it).
It’s been wonderful to see you all level-up your quoting game these past few months, and to more seamlessly and skillfully weave together your ideas with those presented in other sources. Use this Peer Review to continue to hone your quoting skills!
Later in the week, there is another Writing Workshop on exploring publication venues for various genres, individual work on drafting you new genre piece, and a post due that shares your progress & plan for successfully completing the Unit 3 assignment over the next few weeks.
We’re in the home stretch of the semester (when things can start to feel really overwhelming!), so it’s going to be equally important to prioritize both time management and self-care going forward. We’ll be addressing the first of these (time management) in a Class Discussion later this week, and then next week more explicitly exploring self-care (though I’d argue that effectively managing your time is a form of self-care!). I’m looking forward to sharing and receiving advice in these spaces over the next few weeks, and to finding additional ways to support one another.
As always, all details about all the work are posted on the Schedule page.
If you have questions, drop a comment below, send me an email, &/or come to see me in my Office Hours.
I welcome all of you to come discuss your Unit 3 projects (& anything else!) with me individually. My next regular Office Hour is this Thursday, 11/17 11:30am-12:30pm, but you can always email me to set up an alternate time to meet if you have a conflict.
Last but not least … this week’s low-stakes class discussion!
In the spirit of stepping out of our comfort zones & composing in new genres, I’m mixing it up: this week we’ll all going to experiment with writing haikus (me too!).
A haiku is a (very short) Japanese poetry form that has strict formal requirements: three lines composed of 17 total syllabus (the syllable pattern is 5/7/5). [You can learn more about haikus & find examples at Poets.org]
Don’t be fooled! Haikus are deceptively simple but often intricate & profound. Just because they are short doesn’t mean they are easy to write … but they can be really fun & really beautiful.
Allow yourself to play around with words & immerse yourself in the loveliness of language! Poetry is not just about what is said (the content), but how it sounds, so as you compose / revise, read your haiku aloud to yourself.
Post a comment here by Tuesday (11/15) to share your haiku with the class. In the comment, make sure to include:
- the haiku (as written text)
- an audio file of yourself reading the haiku (no fancy A/V skills needed — you can use your phone to record the few-second clip)
I’m excited to see / hear your creations! Thanks all, and have a wonderful week 🙂
A fast car
Goes fast
Wins the race
A friendly reminder that a haiku needs to have 17 syllabus in the following pattern (5/7/5) …
Growing flowers is
easy as lemon squeezy
Grow flowers today
The long nights begin,
Crunchy autumn color leaves,
Fall season is here.
Love seeing these haikus! Keep them coming everyone 🙂
A friendly reminder that, in addition to providing the written poem, you should also attach an audio clip of yourself reading the haiku. Going forward, anyone sharing their haiku should do both (written poem + audio clip) in a single comment. If you already posted, you can just “reply” to your original comment with the audio file. Thanks all 🙂
The vacuum cleaner
roars, the cat cowers in fear.
A daily routine.
In mute surrender,
like a wobbly drop of rain,
in a cycle of life.
I left my heart sad
In my wonderful Panama
I left my heart there
Life in a circle,
flowers are dying,
in a cycle of life
my power surging
feel my invincible force
I’m unstoppable
an ocotillo
standing, waving in the wind
whimsical delight
These haikus are so awesome! I’ve just shared my own, about one of my favorite plants (the ocotillo!).
If you haven’t shared your haiku yet, please do so this morning. And those of you who have already haiku-ed (Brian, Jayleen, Lizbeth, Jasper, Doriani, Indira, Brianna S., Brandon), you still need to add your audio file. Hearing unique voices read their unique creations is quite powerful (and lovely!).
It’s really easy to add your audio clip (just “reply” to your original comment and upload the file). You can use mine as an example of what it should look like.
lengthening days
clouds of grey,
strecthing over my camera lens ,
only to see another day, quite as beautiful
live the life
love the life today
Be happy everyday
Happy Friday everyone!
Again, these haikus are fantastic. If you submitted one, you have successfully composed in a new genre … congrats 🙂 [still strongly encourage you to go back and add your audio clip, as required — that will be using a new technology too for composing! Also, my voice is getting lonely being the only one audible this comment thread so far!]
Thanks also to everyone for all the great work you’re doing in the Unit 3 Writing Workshop, Know Your Publication Writing Workshop, Time Management Class Discussion, and your Progress + Plan posts … keep it up!
A friendly reminder that for your post due today, you need to include specific evidence of your progress (a draft of your genre piece, an outline, etc.) as well as a specific plan + timeline for finishing it over the next few weeks. You need to include actual dates (deadlines) with deliverables (what you will produce by then), to create both a realistic plan of action & to keep yourself accountable. Use the skills we learned in the Time Management Class Discussion to help you plan. Remember, work backwards from the deadline, don’t forget to: 1) include wiggle room (things always take longer, and distractions and inconveniences arise); 2) plan for (and budget time) for things like researching and learning the new technologies / skills you will need for your project; 3) account for all stages of drafting / revising / editing / proofreading.
If you already submitted your post and need to revise, no worries — just go in and “edit” it to revise, and add this more detailed information. I’ll offer a grace period (extension … yay!) on these posts until 5pm today to give you a little more time to formulate a solid plan.
Hi all! Popping in again with a few additional reminders / thoughts, to round out the week:
-Don’t forget to revisit the Stedman reading in Perusall as you continue your work on Unit 3. There are still a lot of things left to discuss there (I’ve jumped into the discussion in a number of places as well, to get the ball rolling again). Also, you may want to check out this handout from the UNC at Chapel Hill Writing Center on quotations: https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/quotations/
-As promised, I’d added additional content to the Unit 3 Writing Workshop — check out the GoogleDoc with a number of Helpful Resources, and add your own there (especially for the genres you’re working on!). Look at the bottom of the Week 13 section of the post for the link.
-Revisit the “Time Management” Class Discussion & “Know Your Publication” Writing Workshop to prepare for next week’s work.
-Check out the post I made earlier today about an extra credit opportunity / TEDx Talk for CUNY students!
-Most importantly, get those “Progress + Posts” in & continue drafting your Unit 3 new genre pieces.
Thanks all, and have wonderful weekends 🙂