Author: Prof. Edelson (Page 7 of 9)

Next weeks write in and office hour is on Wednesday at 6PM.  Please come ready to write on OpenLab. We may even share what we wrote together.  

HW Day One:

Watch: Intro and Conclusion Overview slideshow  

POST: Unit One Rough Draft: At Least 1000 words

HW DAY Two:

Today, you will be read your classmates’ rough drafts, and write responses to them.  Look for one other thing especially: PURPOSE.  In other words, Latifah tells us about the use of the word “queen” in her community to talk about self-respect .  She’s not just randomly telling us things about the word.  Diaz tells us about the fuku for a number of reasons as well: to tell us how Dominican culture has affected the US, to give us some history… and even to warn us.  They both have a PURPOSE.

Without a purpose, a piece of writing is, to put it kindly, hard to read.  Your reader wonders: why in the world am I reading this?  Now, in a rough draft, the purpose may be a little bit hidden, and that’s okay.  But when you are reading these rough drafts, I want you to write down WHY you think the author is telling us about this word (even if the purpose is hidden). And for writers, if your readers are totally off and they missed your purpose– well, you may have to clarify when you revise!

Read your classmates’ drafts and respond. Also, let them know what you think the purpose of their piece is: why are they writing about this word?  Here are some of the types of comments you might want to make as well: 

• I liked (       ) because …
• I got this from reading your work:                                         
• I found this part interesting (                             ) because…
• I got confused here (                            ) because…
• I wanted to know more about                           because…

First order of business: I will be hosting a “write in” on Wednesday at 6PM.  We will all work together.  I will write, you will write, I will play a library video, and all will be magical.  I’ll also be available to answer questions at this time.   This is a great way to have accountability and get some work done so please join me.  If you can’t come this week, you will need to come next week when I will host them at Thursday at 11AM.  If you have a problem doing that, let’s email with each other and set up a time when you are available.

Special Focus of the week:  Let’s think about “concrete, significant detail”— the importance of being specific when talking about a particular incident.  Think about the readings thus far (including student writing). What are some good examples of clear, vivid detail? What did those details add to our understanding?  

What details are concrete? What are significant? How does significance change depending on the point we are trying to make? 

HW Day One:

READ AND ANNOTATE: “Tel l ‘Em All to come and get me: A Year of Being ‘Alright’” Hanif Abdurraqib.

A side note: we read another piece by Abdurraquib in our first week of class, when he wrote about his name. In that piece, he wrote about being Muslim, and never mentioned being black.  In this piece, he writes about being black, and never mentions being Muslim.  That is to say, in each of these fairly short pieces, he focuses distinctly on one community (and its language), though he is a member of multiple communities, as we all are.

WRITE: Finish up the scene you wrote. Make sure it is at least two (clearly defined) paragraphs.

HW Day Two:

READ: “Shitty First Drafts”, Anne Lamott.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnx3YXJyZW5zY2xhc3Nyb29tb25saW5lfGd4OjYzZmM1ZTBjNjhiNmE4NjU

WRITE: A Less Sh*&ty First Draft of UNIT ONE—the scene you wrote in class today can be a good starting place. The draft should be at least 800 words. Make sure you look at the assignment sheet before you start writing so you know what I’m looking for and what you’ll be graded on!

Bonus:

Help making a great grade on Your Unit 1 Draft:

Think of a particular scene when you (or someone else) used your word.   Now let’s get some great specific details about the scene.  

●       Where are you in this scene?

●       Who are you with? Can you describe them?

●       What time of day is it? How do you know?

●       What season is it? How do you know?

●       What does your body feel like in this scene?

●       What can you hear?

●       What can you smell?

●       Where is the light coming from and what is it like?

●       Look to the left of you (in the scene.) What do you see?

●       Look to the right of you. What do you see?

●       Look at your feet– what’s there?

●       Look above you. What do you see there?

●       Look behind you. Describe what you see.

●       Is there anything else about this scene you should mention?

Let’s think about paragraphs and their form during this exercise.  Take a peak at this slideshow. 

https://www.canva.com/design/DAEIkHc2Se4/I6IlbC-mLi16rmBOJ9WxbA/view?utm_content=DAEIkHc2Se4&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=publishsharelink

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