Hi Class. I hope you are all well. It’s going to be important in the coming weeks that we all be able to communicate easily, and it’s also possible that we may need to communicate long distance. So: I have a new assignment for you. Write a Blog Post. Here. To This Site. Here is the prompt:

How are you feeling during this conronavirus situation? What is helping you cope? What behaviors are you noticing in yourself or in others? Do you have any insight or news or advice for your fellow students? And finally, can you list at least one or two positive things that are coming out of this experience for you?

Feel free to upload photos to your post. Please comment or refer to other posts as you read them in you post(s). We want 100% participation. We want to flood the course site with posts and words. Yes, this will count as credit in UNIT 2: Genre. 

I will change the privacy settings on our website so that only those of us who are Members of the site will be able to read it.

thank you.

stay well!!

The movie-review analysis is due Mar 9. At least one review, analyzed rhetorically. That means that I will need the actual review, and you can choose to complete this in any format you wish, as long as it is clearly legible.

You will start your genre switch assignment by the end of class. You must have me approve your choice of a)skill and b)form of writing. Download the genre worksheet if you have not already done so. This will be due next week.

please let me go home !!!! :((

Hi Class. Okay. Just because Last Christmas is not available for free doesn’t mean we can’t read those two reviews we discussed — in TheNYTIMES and The Guardian — and take out our pens and annotate and analyze them. I’ve also chosen another movie I’ve seen many times: The Third Man.

The reviews for Last Christmas are linked, above. And below here are three reviews for The Third Man:

The Guardian Third Man review

Roger Ebert’s review

The Boston Globe review

Pick at least three reviews and analyze them as a whole. What do well-written movie reviews have in common? And why or how do the ones you read differ? Go into detail with at least one review and really break it down rhetorically. You should look to the template in the readings from the Bedford Book of Genres to get an idea for how to do this.  Also, feel free to watch either movie — though I won’t require it.

Mar 4 is Journal Check Day. Bring in your Journals – this includes all the readings/handouts you have printed or received so far. Make sure your Journal is clearly labeled on the front with your name and section #.

By now you should have read the overviews of the UNITS and the assignments for UNIT 2 on our ASSIGNMENTS page. This will give you a good outline of the upcoming work! During class time on Wednesday, you can continue to work in your groups on your new “recipes” as well as on your movie review analyses and writings. Ask questions during class.

Pick one of your favorite movies. Tell us some brief info: when you first saw it; where; what made you like it.
Look it up on Wikipedia. Note important data on it including: who directed it? When it was released? The studio that released it; a few of its main stars.
In the “reference” section of the Wikipedia entry you will hopefully find at least one link to an important Review. Follow it and read it.
Bring In, Printed, To Class on Monday: three reviews of your movie. Try to include at least one that is negative. These three reviews should come from different authors and sources and should represent really different points of view.

You received the handout: Donald Murray, “Internal Revision.” (It is also available for download on our READINGS page.)

Read it, annotate it, and respond in your notebooks specifically to the points we outlined in class, as well as offer your own opinion on what he says.

You have some reading and reflecting assignments to complete before we meet on Monday. They will keep you thinking about the process of writing, the process of critiquing (and of learning from criticism), and of how we are mapping out our semester. When I ask you to write, I mean in your Notebook/Journal unless otherwise specified.

Go to our READINGS page and you will find a free pdf of Anne Lamott’s book Bird by Bird. The chapters on which we will be focusing are “Perfectionism” and “Shitty First Drafts.” Read both of them for next class and write short reflections on them in your notebook. What did you think of what she had to say? Do you agree? What has been your own experience in these areas? No length limit or minimum. Title this page in your notebook “Anne Lamott” and “Reflections” and the date. (You are certainly welcome to read the whole book, should you desire, but these are the chapters I am assigning.)

On Wednesday we discussed a few different ways of assessing grades on written papers. Please reflect in your notebook and tell me in at least 2 paragraphs minimum what your impressions were of the grading guidelines we discussed — ranging from the Departmental Guidelines to complete Student Self Assessment. Feel free to bring in your own ideas. Feel free to tell me how you were assessed in the past, and what you wish you could change. (You have a printout of the English Dept. Grading Guidelines which we read aloud in class; and my Standard Rubric is on the dropdown Gradings menu, above, directly under ASSIGNMENTS.)

Also for Wednesday, go to our ASSIGNMENTS page and familiarize yourself with what our learning plan is this semester. In particular, you should look at this document that gives you an Overview of this semester. Take a few moments to tell me in your notebook that you did read it.