Welcome to Week 4! I hope everyone had a restful Labor Day Weekend and found time to read and listen to Frederick Douglass’ speech in time for the deadline on Wednesday night.

I also hope you weren’t too overwhelmed by my multiple emails regarding the labeling your Micro-Activities correctly, or my clarification of Week 3’s assignment, or my request to add your username and display name to the course rosters. If you haven’t seen those emails, please check your email account and follow my directions on all those projects.

Cover of A Vindication of The Rights of Woman
Cover of a Penguin Australia Edition of Wollstonecraft’s Work

So, this week we’re continuing to work with Douglass a bit more and introducing a new reading by Mary Wollstonecraft. If you’ve never heard of Wollstonecraft, check out her bio and work here for a little context.

You might be curious as to why we’re reading these works and wondering what all the activities that have been assigned (brainstorming about DCs) has to do with writing.

There are two reasons:

One, as you should know from reviewing our Unit 1 Writing Assignment, you are going to be writing a speech or a letter about one of your DCs (and an issue going on in that DC) that you’ve been brainstorming about lately. So, let’s say you’ve chosen to write about the world of knitting and an issue that faces that world. For example, perhaps you identify as a male knitter, but the knitting world is geared more for female knitters. What are the things that need to change in order to allow all knitters (cisgender males and females, transgender, androgynous, etc.) to take part in this world?

In this Wednesday, June 24, 2020, photograph, a woman walks past a mural in tribute to Frederick Douglass on the exterior wall of the Black-owned Slade’s Bar and Grill in the South End neighborhood of Boston. Many from outside Boston have recently ordered takeout, purchased gift cards and supported the restaurant amid nationwide protests against racism. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Two, not only are you going to write about your DC and the issue facing your DC, you’re going to write it to an outside audience. You need to write it so that a group of people that have little to no knowledge of the knitting world can understand (and perhaps join your cause). Think about when Douglass and Wollstonecraft lived as well as how they identified. How did they bring outsiders in to their causes?What worked? What didn’t? What can you learn from their example? What can you use in your own writing? (If you’re unsure of any of these questions, go back and read their work again!)

Okay, so be sure to do two things in preparation for Week 4:

Go to your email and see which Google Doc Group you’ve been placed and go to the Week 4 Agenda page, where all will be explained.

Have questions? I had to reschedule my Office Hour for Friday, so go to your email to find the rescheduled day and time!