For Wed

We will finish discussing cover songs, so if you haven't posted any, do so.

Please bring all the sources you have found so far for your research, notes you have taken, and new questions you have to class Wed. we will be actively working with these things, so you must have them.

Thursday you should have found five sources, and we will continue working on research maps and explaining them to each other to prepare for drafting the paper.

Your first rough draft of the paper (at least 2 full pages) is due Monday for workshop. Please make 20 copies to bring in.

Using Texts in Writing

Joseph Harris defines several different ways that authors use other texts in their writing: coming to terms, forwarding (to illustrate, authorize, borrow or extend), countering, and taking an approach. I'd like us to engage in an exercise to try to understand the ways in which we are always interacting with texts and using them.

1. In class Monday we will work on an exercise in Rewriting p. 49. using a source you have found for your research so far.

2. On the blog, please do exercise "Interpretting Cover Songs" p. 75. Try to find videos of the music you are using and post them to the blog. Whether you are able to find and include videos or not, please post your response to the exercise on the blog (by Tuesday).

3. Read Ch. 3 in Rewriting for Tuesday AND take notes on your sources so far, using a dialectical notebook. By the end of the week, you need to have found a total of five sources. We will be working with them throughout this week to create a map, so next week you will have drafts of your research papers.

Here are my cover songs. I'll discuss them in class.

This is his 1991 version. Below is his 1967 performance:

Here's Christina Aguielera doing it for a tribute:

What do you notice about these performances?

Friday May 4

For this weekend, please post reactions to your oral history assignment.  What most surprised you? What did you learn from the process? What did you learn about writing and about research?

If you like the ethno-poem you wrote in class Wed, you could revise that and post that as your post this week.

Additionally, please find the blogs of the people you have been meeting with in group reviews in class and comment on their posts so far in the class.

For Monday, please read the second chapter of Joseph Harris's book, Rewriting. Write down key terms and your reactions to them to talk about in class.

Some ethnopoetics to check out. Alcheringa and Denise Duhamel's Woman with Two Vaginas (she's coming to lit fest this year)

For Tuesday 4/24

Take your notes from the meal-story "interview" and write it up. Frame the "story" of the meal with the "story" of the telling. Turn this into your blog post. Include pictures you can find online that seem resonant with the story. You can frame the story-telling with your own meal story too. Make sure you are including as much detail as possible about the telling and the stories.

Reading: In WRA, read Tateshi's oral history (comes right after Terkel's). Write a dialogue journal.

For Wed 4/18

Re-read hooks "Killing Rage" and journal:

When have you felt "rage"? Was it justified? What did you do with the rage? What could you have done?

If your group did not finish a dialogue, email each other to work on this for sharing in class tomorrow.

TGIF

No formal class meeting on Friday. Please do the following:

Re-read Villanueva and write a blog response in which you rewrite the first three paragraphs of his essay in a more academic voice. Then try this:

Find something written in "academic" tone and rewrite it in a casual tone (1 paragraph).

Finally post your reactions to the exercise and to Villanueva in general.

For Monday read hooks, "Killing Rage" and write a dialogue journal.

Email me your blog address!!!

Schedule this week and next, as we prepare the first essay assignment

So, now you all have the first essay assignment, please feel free to post anonymous questions here, if you don't feel like bringing them up in class.

Here is the schedule for the coming two weeks:
W 4/4: We discuss Tompkins, "Me and My Shadow." You should have done a dialogue journal for this reading, which you will exchange in class. In class we will also spend some more time discussing private versus public writing and the forms we are all required to write in.

• HW: Reread Tompkins and look at how she is using other writers in her writing. Considering Harris's Introduction chapter, how would you characterize her use of others' writing? Is she "coming to terms," "forwarding," "countering" or "taking an approach"? Or is she doing something different? Now, spend 1 page writing in which you "come to terms" with Tompkins' essay: (see p. 24 in Harris) 1. Begin by restating Tompkins' project in your own words. Work from memory; don't look at the essay; 2. List her "key terms": which words in her essay carry particular and important meanings for her project?; 3. Now incorporate one direct quote into your summary.

TH 4/5: We will share our writing about Tompkins and discuss Harris so far. We will also do some in-class writing to get started on your essay.

• HW: Draft your essay. Perhaps you need to begin with notes or a cluster map of ideas. Do whatever you need to get started.

F 4/6: We will not meet as a class: Please use this time to write your draft. In addition,  

• BLOG:  Write a blog entry in which you post an image of "writing" (any image is okay; this is open to interpretation) and then write about that image in two different voices (also open  to interpretation).
• You may want to start reading Villanueva's essay (p. 191). We will be working with it Tuesday and Wed next week, and it is potentially difficult, so might take some time to read through.

M 4/9: Drafts of Essay One are due today. We will work in pairs on a revision exercise. Please bring scissors and tape, and heavy paper if you have it.

• HW: Revise your essay and bring a new copy tomorrow.  Finish Villanueva if you haven't.

T 4/10: New Draft today: We will do more work as a class on your drafts incorporating Villanueva into the discussion.

• HW: Revise again. Re-read Viallnueva.

W 4/11: Another new draft today. In class exercises and Villanueva.

•  HW: Revise one last time. Place typed (double-spaced, 1 in. margins) essay in pocket folder, with essay on one side and informal writing you think relate to it on the other. Please include a cover letter to me about what you hope your essay does and says.

TH 4/12: ESSAY ONE DUE. Work in class.