Author: Monroe Street

For Tuesday, please read the final text in the Unit 2 packet: Gloria Naylor’s “A Word’s Meaning Can Often Depend on Who Says It.”

On the blog, please post a reflection on this semester.  Thinking back over the past several months of this course, what moments stand out to you and why?  Were there particular assignments were you most engaged by?  Were there particular moments in the course where you found yourself frustrated?  Have you noticed any changes in the way you write, read, or think?  This is open-ended, but do please explain your responses!

To begin with, a note on blog posts and grades: this marks the 20th blog post assignment of the semester.  For those looking to receive a high grade in the course, aim for at least 17 posts by the end of the semester.  For those looking simply to pass the course, 10 posts (but no fewer) will suffice.

For next Tuesday: study for the Grammar Test (on fragments, subordinating conjunctions, and conjunctive adverbs).  Also please post the following thoughts on one of the student presentations from this week:
–one moment that “stood out” to you (and why);
–one thing you learned;
–one question or suggestion for the presenter.

For Tuesday, write about a scene from Herzog’s Lo and Behold that connects to your Essay 2 topic.  Describe the scene in detail and explain thoroughly how it relates to what you’ve been researching.

Over break, please expand your summary of your research article.  I’d like you to post the 3 paragraphs described below by our next class (Tue. 11/28):

—1 paragraph summarizing at least 3 points/key terms from the article and including at least one quotation with accompanying explanation

—1 paragraph narrating a specific experience you’ve had that connects to your research article

—1 paragraph explaining how 1+ idea(s) from your research article connect to 1+ idea(s) from one of our assigned readings (from one of the packets)

Please read: “The Space Between Mourning and Grief,” by Claire Wilmot.

For Thursday: please read the following two texts in the packet: “Planting A Naysayer in Your text” by Gerald Graff and “The Destructiveness of Call-Out Culture” by Conor Friedersdorf.

On the blog: using your notes on your research article (blog post 12.1), write a 1-2 paragraph summary of this text.  Be sure to include the author name, the title, and a thorough explanation of three points and/or key concepts.  Also, please link 1 point in the article to a story of an event you’ve witnessed or heard about.

For your summary, please use the Summary template in our Collective Notes document.

For Tuesday: please print, read, and take notes on ONE article YOU’VE found while researching your Essay 2 topic.  Below, please post notes on three points in the article.  Also, please write out one quotation and include the page # where it appears.

Also, please finish reading Carrie Rentschler’s “Rape Culture and the Feminist Politics of Social Media.”  For those of you interested in reading more about the case of sexual assault in Steubenville, OH mentioned by Rentschler, you can access an article on this case here.  Just a note: this article contains somewhat graphic descriptions of sexual assault and may be disturbing to read about.  (It is optional reading.)  For those of you interested in recent feminist responses to the high-profile cases of sexual assault currently in the media (e.g., Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Knight Landesman, etc.), you can access a manifesto by a group of feminist artists called “Not Surprised” here.

For Tues: finish reading Crawford’s “The Anxieties of Big Data” and complete the blog assignment below.  Also read Nijhuis’ “The Pocket Guide to Bullshit Prevention.”  Bring both the Unit 2 Packet and the Grammar packet to class.

On the blog: below, make a list of 3 important points  you noticed in Crawford’s article “The Anxieties of Big Data.”  Also include 1 brief quotation from the article.  (Your points and quotation can be given in note form; i.e., you don’t have to write a full paragraph—we’ll work on that in class).

For Thursday, read half of Kate Crawford’s “The Anxieties of Big Data” in the Unit 2 Reader.  Also complete “Sentence Fragments” on p. 3 of the Grammar Book.

For the blog: Post below your notes on your initial research process and what you’ve found.  Include database names, publication titles, article titles, and author names for at least 3 texts.  Tell me what interested you (if anything), and why.  Tell me what bored you (if anything), and why.

At the bottom of the library handout, there is a statement about “plagiarism.”  To develop our collective understanding of what this term means, I want you to write a brief (2-4 paragraph) essay exploring several different examples of plagiarism involving the internet.  In other words, teach me some of the ways in which you or others you know have used the internet to plagiarize.

For those of you looking for additional help and practice on grammar stuff, below are some links you might like.  😉

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/1/5/
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/1/6/
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/1/4/
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/exercises/grammar/grammar_tutorial/index.htmhttp://grammar-monster.com/

For Thursday, I want you to post your two different versions of a scene for Essay 1 that you worked on during class on Tuesday.  For instance, you might choose to represent your scene from the 3rd-person perspective of an onlooker’s phone and then write another version of the scene representing it from your own first-person perspective.

Along with your two versions of the scene, please include a brief description of the two different narrators/perspectives you used.

EXAMPLE

Wendy’s original, first-person perspective:
The only time I’ve witnessed internet addiction was when recently I’m doing my own thing on my computer and my wifi has been shitty lately so whenever I load a tab, it would blank out for a sec. for that black second I saw my own reflection and I thought “what the hell am I doing with my life? I’m literally sitting here, staring at a screen for hours”, but as soon as my page loaded I continued doing what I was doing. Sometimes or most of the times, I believe that we knowingly do or make mistakes even though we have an idea of what the consequences will be.

First-person plural narration, written from the perspective of “a mystery inside the box”:
Isn’t it funny to watch how this user explodes when we cut the power to Firefox? Such a buggy browser in the first place, so maybe she doesn’t even know it’s us processor chip guys pulling the old “glitchy tab” trick. She probably doesn’t even have a clue that we have access to the USB camera and can watch her grimace as she waits for the content to load. Oh, watch, there she goes… off to check the router situation again. Will these poor humans ever learn that it’s not bad WiFi that’s plaguing them—it’s us?

By Wednesday night: post a narrative scene that you’ve witnessed which shows people behaving/interacting in ways that make you think of internet addiction.  I want a vivid scene, filled with details on setting, character(s), action, conflict, and your own reflections.

By Monday night, post your completed response to a passage from Lane’s “Addicted to Addiction.”  Remember to use a template for agreeing or disagreeing from last class.  (Templates are available here, on p. 24 of the Notes doc.)

By Wednesday night, please post your definition of internet addiction (IA).  Explain why you’ve defined IA as you have.  If you don’t believe internet overuse should be considered an addiction, you can write a paragraph explaining your reasons instead of a definition.

During the film screening today, I want you to *make* a lot of notes.  In specific, I want you to:

A. write down words you don’t recognize (to be worked on in your Word Play Glossary)

B. write down the key narrative elements of the film: who are the main characters?  Where and when does the film take place—that is, what clues indicate the film’s setting? what’s the central action/conflict/transformation that takes place?

C. describe in detail one scene that you like, and explain why you like it.  Some questions to consider:
—-when in the film does the scene take place (beginning, middle, or end) and what is going on immediately before this scene happens (context)?
—-how is the scene shot (from what points of view)?  what is the lighting like?  what does the set/background look like?  what do the characters look like?
—-what action goes down in this scene?  what, if anything, gets said?

By Thursday, post your responses to B and/or C in a reply to this post.

For next week, I want you to re-read your blog posts from the past 3 weeks and choose 2 of them that you’d like to use in your Essay 1 (due next week at tutoring).  I then want you to work on connecting the ideas in these two posts, using the steps we worked on in class, copied below:

1. Write a few sentences explaining the connections and similarities between the two blog posts below.
2. Referring to some of your ideas from #1, write a transition between these two posts so they would “flow” together well in an essay.  You will probably have to change how the posts end/begin, make a new paragraph, and add 1-2 transitional sentences.

Referring to the “Quotation” exercise we worked on in class, quote a passage from Turkle’s chapter titled “Romance.”  In your response, include an explanation of the context the quote appears in.  What is going on in this part of her essay?  What is Turkle discussing in the nearby sentences and paragraphs?  Do you notice her using any “elements of narrative”?  Who are the “characters” in this essay?  Is there “action” or “conflict” that these characters are involved in?

In light of this context, what do you think the significance of the passage you’ve quoted is?  What does the quoted passage do to you as a reader?  How do you think it contributes to the essay as a whole?  Does it develop the “action(s)” Turkle is narrating?  Does the passage analyze the “action” or the “characters”?  Is Turkle making a “point” in this passage?  What exactly is she saying? Explain!

For this post, I want you to find a conversation you’ve had with someone on your phone that you feel comfortable sharing. Then I want you to introduce the “setting” and “context” of this conversation (where/when did it happen? what was it about?). Next, write out at least 10 lines of back-and-forth from the conversation.

Lastly, I want you to comment on particular words you and/or the person you were texting used that stood out to you (and why).

Briefly summarize your different online “identities.”  Be sure to include all the different social media platforms you’ve ever used—Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, etc.—as well as any other games and/or forums you’ve participated in online.

Then describe in detail one particular “identity”/account you’ve used the most.  Don’t worry–you don’t have to include the name/handle of your online identity if you don’t want to.  Just describe how you use the account, what you use it for, the kinds of characters you interact with using this identity, and also how it compares to your identity/”self” in real life.

For this assignment, you’re invited to think of writing as a form of recording—sort of like a substitute video camera for capturing the real world as you see it, hear it, smell it, etc.

Over the weekend, I want you to go sit in a public place—the cafeteria, the Atrium, a park, a busy street—and I want you to watch people.  Specifically, I want you to watch how people interact with each other and the space they’re in.  What’s the space look like?  How crowded is it? How fast do people move?  Do they sit, stand, crouch, walk, talk, stare?  How much do they interact with each other?  How do they interact with the built environment (sidewalks, curbs, doors, benches, etc.)?  What’s the weirdest thing you notice people doing?  What’s the most common thing you notice?

Take close notes and post them here by next Monday night.

For our first blog post, I’d like you to write a bit in response to the prompt below and post your response as a “comment” on this thread.  To do so, you’ll have to setup your City Tech e-mail and set up an OpenLab account here. You’ll then have to join the course here by clicking “Request Membership” on the left hand side.

The Writing Prompt (responses due by 10pm Wednesday): How is your phone a kind of self-portrait? In what ways does your phone represent your sense of self—that is, who you are and what you like to do? Explain.