For Sept 17- Rough Draft Due

1. As always (and as stated in the syllabus) if you show up to rough draft day without a rough draft, you will get marked as absent! This is because we just can’t do the work without it!
2. Print out your rough drafts.

OKAY, HERE’S THE HOMEWORK (there are 3 parts, so keep reading!)

First, I would like you to write 2 pages (typed, 12 point font of a normal size) of what we are calling a “Sh&^tty First Draft.” According to Anne Lamott, in a “Shitty First Draft,” you, “let is all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later… You just get it all down on paper because there may be something great in those crazy pages that you would never have gotten to by more rational, grown up means.” When she describes her process, she says: “I’d start writing without reining myself in. I was almost just typing, just making my fingers move.” What I’m saying here, is: write. Don’t worry about it too much. Get started.

So what should you write about? You’ll be writing about “Shop Class as Soulcraft, of course.” Please choose ONE of the following four essay questions and write about it for at least two pages. Print it out and bring it to class.

1. Do you think that schools should reintroduce vocational skills classes to prepare students for opportunities outside of white collar professions? Why or why not?Be sure to get specific—use examples from your own life, the lives of those you know or the media. Also, make sure your own claims are in conversation with Crawford’s (that is, if you make a claim that blue collar labor is useless, then find a quote of Crawford’s on the subject of blue collar labor with which you can agree or disagree.)
2. Crawford says,” The hard-headed educator will say that it is irresponsible to educate the young for the trades, which are somehow identified as the jobs of the past.” How have your experiences with education affected your own feelings toward labor, and how is this similar to or different from Crawford’s opinion on labor?Be sure to GET SPECIFIC—both in quotes from the text, and in personal experiences and beliefs.
3. How does your community feel about the dichotomy between “white collar” and blue collar labor? Where do you think these biases toward one type of work come from—and how do they compare to Crawford’s biases? Note: it is up to you to define “your community,” but you will need to define what group of people you are talking about—your family? Eastern European immigrants? Etc..
4. What effect does Crawford’s writing style have on you as a reader? How does his use of vocabulary and sentence structure add to or diminish from his main argument? You can think here about whether you can “read between the lines” That is, are you learning one thing from what Crawford says, but something else from HOW he says it? AGAIN, as always, be specific, using quotes from the text

(part 2) PLEASE ALSO READ AND ANNOTATE “‘As He Himself Puts It’ The Art of Quoting,” which I handed out in class.

(part 3) PLEASE CHOOSE AT LEAST THREE QUOTES FROM “SHOP CLASS” THAT PERTAIN TO THE ROUGH DRAFT OF THE ESSAY YOU’VE WRITTEN IN PART ONE. This will be helpful to you in writing your final draft. In other words, if you’re writing about Crawford’s style, find three quotes in which his style seems worth discussing. If you’re writing about blue collar labor, find three quotes about that. You don’t need to do anything with them, but you WILL need to use them in class on Monday, so have ’em marked clearly!