First and most importantly, I will be holding office hours this week to go over your first major assignment (as opposed to the little weekly assignments).  The office hours will be held at 6PM Tuesday and 11AM Thursday. These sessions will be SHORT.  (Under 20 minutes).  If you cannot make it to either of those sessions, I will provide you with a copy of the assignment and you may write a 300 word summary of what it says to make sure that I know you know what you need to do.  If either of these times don’t work and you really want to come, please email me right away and we will work something out!

 

Zoom Link for Office Hour:

https://zoom.us/j/97500374050?pwd=NmVOdkJhVlF3TkRRbkpCeVFwNnRaQT09

 

Day One HW:

READ AND ANNOTATE: Read the first 7 pages of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao  (this is the prologue, all about the word “fuku.”) Don’t forget to read the footnotes!

WRITE: Write a post of at least 300 words about this text. What do you find difficult or confusing? Be specific! Point out particular passages that confused you and explain why you were confused.  What do you think the writer may have been trying to do?  Find a particular passage that was difficult and explain specifically where you got caught up and why. I get it. This seems like a really strange thing to do– but there’s a point to it!  The places you have difficulty are where you’re doing your best thinking.  The places you struggle are the places PhD students struggle too.  Difficulties aren’t walls to stop you but obstacles that you can (and will) overcome!

Also, if you haven’t already, you need to go find other students work and give them feedback.  I saw some really interesting responses this week and people get an extraordinary amount of participation credit for being active in getting to know other students!

Day Two HW:

READ AND ANNOTATE : “HERS” by Klass. In this article, the writer paints a portrait, not of a particular word, but of a whole new language she had to learn in order to fit in with her new profession. While you are reading, please mark places in the text that caught your eye, where you wanted to know more, where you were confused or where you related!

WRITE: At least 300 words. What are some communities that you are a part of? (hint: we’re all a part of multiple communities!) What “languages” have you had to learn to engage with these communities—and how did you learn these languages? Are there particular words or phrases that stick out to you as helping you feel like you were part of the in-crowd? Which of these words do you think might make a good