Tips for a Great Final Project

Annotated Bibliography

• Make sure each of your sources are correctly formatted.
• Make sure each of your annotations contain a quote or paraphrased thought and that you correctly cite those quotes or thoughts.  Review how to do in-text citations.  (Please look at the Sample Annotated Bibliography if you haven't)
• I don't want one bibliography from each of your group members.  I want one bibliography per group.  You need to coordinate with your group to get all of your sources into one document, if you haven't already.

Narrative

• Make sure you reach the required page length- 5 to 7 pages- And the required sources- 10 sources.
• Remember to tell a story.  You want to include your research but make sure that you tell a good story.  Create good characters, set the scene well, and make it interesting.
• Make sure you include a Works Cited Page with the sources that you use in your narrative.
• Don't forget your footnotes or your Notes Page. (See Class Documents- Project 4: Footnotes)

Visual

• Make sure it's connected to your narrative somehow.  
• Try and provide us with info that you didn't include in your narrative.
• Be creative. 
• If you're doing a PowerPoint, the less text you use the better.

Course Recap for Thursday, November 29, 2012

Finding Good Source for Your Annotated Bibliography
We talked about the types of sources that I will be accepting this project and the types of sources I will not be accepting.  I want you to have at least 1 print source per person in your annotated bibliography.  I don't want any online sources that don't have authors and aren't backed by some major trusted organization.   Try to avoid major overview websites that aren't hosted by an organization. The sort of sites that list a bunch of facts about your historical event or era but doesn't list where any of their information came from.  Even if the information is true, you would be better off citing that information from a much more valid source.

Here are some tips for finding and citing print sources for your Annotated Bibliography.

1. Use Western's Library Website: www.wmich.edu/library  You can find books, newspaper articles, and journal articles and most of them you can access online.
2. If you find a newspaper article online on the Western website, cite it the same way you would a print source.  Those articles are basically the same text that was printed in the actual newspaper that someone has typed online so you have easy access to it.  So check the MLA guide on the Purdue website and use the instructions for citing a newspaper article. (This is only for newspaper articles you find on the library website. I can't vouch for any you find in any other way.)
3. When using a journal article always check the right hand corner to see if there is a PDF version of the article.  You have to be able to list the page numbers when using a journal article and you will only know the page numbers if you can see the journal article as a PDF. Just like with the newspaper articles, cite it as a print source. 
4.  For print sources you must have the page numbers where the information came from when doing in-text citations- when you quote or paraphrase the information in your own writing.

For your annotations (the descriptions of the sources) I want you to summarize the source and it's relevance to your paper. In that summary you must include at least one direct quote or paraphrased thought for each source. This will give you a chance to practice in-text citations again since you will be using footnotes to note your research in your actual narrative.

Course Recap for Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Tips for a Great Unfamiliar Genre Project

• Take very specific and detailed notes in your journals.  It will make the other parts of the assignment a lot easier.
• Attach your examples or give me detailed information about each example so they will be easy for me to refer to.
• Make sure that you establish the essential elements for your genre before you start creating it.
• I'm not expecting perfection but I want you to create as close to a replica of your genre as you can get.  If your genre requires photos, make sure it has photos.  If it's set up a certain way on the page you need to try and find some way to make that happen. 
• Create your how-to guide as if you're writing it for an alien.  Someone who knows nothing about your genre and its inner workings.  Don't take things for granted.  Don't just say things like come up with an interesting topic.  That could mean anything.  Give examples or provide tips that can help the reader get to an interesting topic.
• Include specific examples for your journals in your how-to guide.  It'll help back up your steps and give your readers more guidance.  You studied several examples of your genre.  Your reader did not.
• If you don't know how to begin the how-to guide simply start by describing your own process.  What did you do first?  What choices did you make and why?

Remember the elements you want to look for in each example

• The audience-How does the piece appeal to that audience?
• The purpose-How does the piece achieve its purpose?
• The tone-what is the mood the piece gives off.  Look for words that describe emotion here.
• The attitude-what is the author's stance.  Is the author simply providing information? Are they being critical? Are they praising the topic?  Offering an opinion.  Is the author or speaker fond of what they're speaking about?
• The design-what does it look like on the page.  This is also a good place to take note of any things you notice about the language of the pieces or how it flows from one subject to the other, how is the plot structured, etc.
• The medium-this is only important for those of you who are allowed to use both print and online sources.  How does the medium change the rules of the genre?
• Make sure you keep track of similarities and note any major differences you see from example to example.

Extra Credit Opportunities
You can gain extra credit by taking your fairytales and transforming them into teen vampire dramas.  Your new piece should contain most of the elements that we came up with in class.  This is due Friday.
If everyone in the class fills out a course evaluation for this course by the last day of class, everyone will receive extra credit.  Please fill these out.  They are very important to me.  I want to know what you liked about the course, what you didn't like, things you think I could've done better, topics you're happy I covered, and things you might've wished I had gone over.  Make sure you fill out the comment sections and not just the multiple choice options.  These help me make the necessary changes to the course to make this class better for future students and helps me improve as an instructor.  I spend a lot of time critiquing your work, here's a chance for you to critique mine.

Introduction to Project 4
You picked your groups for Project 4 and starting brainstorming topics for the piece.  You will be writing a historical narrative.  You will be splitting the research amongst yourselves and then will take everyone's research to create your narrative. We will be revisiting the annotated bibliography and will be learning how to do footnotes. (See Class Documents for Project 4 Assignment Sheet.)

Homework

•  Project 3 Assignment (Due Thurs Nov. 29)
• Extra Credit Assignment-Genre Transformation (Due Fri Nov. 30)

Course Recap for Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Homework

• Final Draft of Project 2 Analysis Paper via email -micealaya.moses@gmail.com (Due Thurs. Nov. 13 by 9 am)
• Bring 2 to 3 examples of your genre to class (Due Thurs. Nov 13)

Course Recap for Thursday, November 8, 2012

Fairy tales
We looked at your fairytales and decided that a few of the rules we had previously created for the genre could be broken.  We believed that the evildoer doesn't have to die, they just have to lose.  And the good character doesn't always have to triumph as long as a lesson is still taught.  The one thing we couldn't part with though was magic or some sort of fantastical element in the piece.  Without that it's a just a regular old children's story. Remember knowing how to follow the rules makes you a good writer,but  knowing when you can break them makes you a better one.

Project 3
You guys were introduced to Project 3 (See Project 3 Assignment Sheet).  You will be researching, analyzing, and observing a genre of writing that is unfamiliar to you and then creating your own example of the genre.  You observations will be recorded in reading/viewing journals.  We will discuss these in more detail in a later class.

The Teen Vampire Romance Genre
We watched two examples of the teen vampire romance genre, Twilight and The Vampire Diaries.  You took notes on the audience and the purpose of the two pieces and the pieces similarities and differences.  We will discuss these more in class Tuesday.

Homework

• Decide which genre you would like to write in for Project 3. (Due before class Tues. Nov 13)
• For the two clips we watched in class, Twilight and The Vampire Diaries, tell me the audience of each clip and the purpose of it. How does the piece aim to appeal to that audience and what does it use to achieve it's purpose? Then create a checklist of five things you feel are essential to the teen vampire romance drama based on what you saw.  Then give 3 significant differences you saw between the pieces and think about why those differences occur.  Why did the writers and/or directors choose to go that way. (Due Tues. Nov 13)
• Final Draft of Project 2, via email- micealaya.moses@gmail.com  (Due Thurs Nov. 15 by 9am)

Fairytale Assignment

Homework

Write a 1 to 2 page fairytale using the criteria we came up with in class. Of You can't see the text, download it to your computer and then zoom in using whichever picture viewer software your computer has.

Course Recap for Tuesday, October 6, 2012

MEMES!

FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS!

FEMINIST RYAN GOSLING

SHAKESPEAREAN RYAN GOSLING

LIKES THE LIBRARY RYAN GOSLING

Course Recap for Thursday, November 1, 2012

Welcome Back!
After almost a week of conferences, we finally met again as a class to review each others rough drafts of Project 2: Analysis Paper.  You separated into groups and discussed each others papers using a response guide to help your discussion.  For homework you will be doing your own review of your rough draft.  Using your classmates feedback and your own knowledge of your writing, you are going to answer the following questions:

1. What did you accomplish with this first draft?  What do you feel you did well?
2. Where are some places that need improvement?  What things will you focus on when you start your next draft?

Your response should be in paragraph form and should be 1 to 2 pages long.  Here is your chance to defend what you've already written and to start planning the changes you are going to make later.  Everyone has done something well and everyone has something they need to improve upon.  It is important to me that you are conscious of your own writing process and that you are capable (with the help of your peers) of recognizing the strengths and faults in your own paper before receiving my comments.  This response forces you to think about what you've already written and helps you set goals for making your paper better.

Homework

• Response Paper for Project 2 Rough Draft, see above description (Due Tuesday, Nov. 6)
• Read Hansel and Gretel, Little Snow-White, and The Elves for The Grimm Brother's Fairy Tales, see Class Links (Due Tuesday, Nov. 6)

I Hope You Had a Happy Halloween!

(A Little Taste of Monday's Lesson.)

Course Recap for Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Conferences
The next two classes (Thur, Oct. 25 and Tues, Oct. 30th) we will not be meeting as a class. Instead I will meet with each of you individually in order to prepare you for the rough draft of your analysis paper and to talk about your grade so far in the class. See Conference Schedule for your conference time.  We will meet in my office Sprau 810.

You will bring two things to your conference: an outline of your paper and an annotated bibliography.

Annotated Bibliography
An annotated bibliography is basically a paper where you summarize your research.  The first page of the paper is an introduction where you will basically tell us everything you learned from your research.  Look at it as an overview of all your sources.  After the introduction you will list each of your sources in MLA format and then you will follow it with a paragraph where you give a summary of that source and explain that source's relevance to your topic/thesis.  Please look carefully at the Sample Annotated Bibliography if you are confused (See Class Documents).  For your Annotated Bibliography I want you to have 8 sources.  You only have to quote from 4 sources in your paper, but I want to know that you've looked up as much information on your topic as you possibly could.  Also because most of you are using online sources and are not always good at figuring out good sources from bad sources, it is always good to have back up in case you have to throw some of those sources away.

Outline
See Class Documents for a template of how I want your outline's to be formatted.  Your outline will list the main ideas of your paper and will serve as roadmap for the rest of your project.

My hope is that after doing these assignments and meeting with me one-on-one you will have a better understanding of what's expected of you for this paper and will not have any issues writing a great first draft.   Your first draft will be due the next time we meet as a class which will be next Thursday Nov. 1st.  The structure is exactly like last time. You have to bring in 2 copies of at least the first 2 pages of your paper for peer review.

Resources for Research

• Purdue MLA Formatting Style Guide (see Class Links)
• WMU Library website: www.wmich.edu/library
• Google Scholar: scholar.google.com

Homework

• Annotated Bibliography (Due the date of your conference)
• Outline of Paper (Due the date of your conference)
• Rough Draft of Analysis Paper, first 2 pages, 2 copies please (Due, Thurs. Nov. 1)
• If you have not turned in your Peer Response Guides, (These are the sheets where your classmates gave you comments about your literacy narrative), turn them in either at your conference or on Thurs. Nov 1st.

Course Recap for Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Quick Tips on Grammar, Formatting, etc.

I returned your rough drafts of your literacy narratives with my comments.  Remember I only carefully checked the first two pages of your draft for grammatical errors so be sure to go through your entire draft carefully and you complete your final revision.

Here were a couple of common errors I saw in most of the papers that we talked about in class and ways you can avoid them.

1. Italicize the titles of books and make sure that you include the author's name.  I need to know whether or not you're talking about Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or Dean Koontz's Frankenstein.
2. A lot of you have a double space between each paragraph.  What you need to do is open your document in Word, highlight the entire document, go to Paragraph on the toolbar and click the option that says "Do not leave a space between each paragraph."  I will take points off if you do not do this.
3. Watch your tenses. If you start your piece in past tense you should stay in past tense.  Do not randomly shift to present tense.  Many of you will write one sentence in present tense and then the next one would be in past and vice versa.  I've even seen two different tenses within one sentence.  Here's an example:  She cried all day long and then she is fine.
4. Run-on sentences! A run-on sentence is a sentence where you string two or more ideas together without proper punctuation you just keep going and going, it doesn't matter that you've already stated 2 very complete thoughts you decide to go ahead and add a few more just for dramatic effect and you end up with a sentence that is over four lines long.  The previous sentence is a run-on.  Here is that sentence corrected: A run-on sentence is a sentence where you string two or more ideas together without proper punctuation.  You just keep going and going.  It doesn't matter that you've already stated two very complete thoughts.  You decide to go ahead and add a few more for dramatic effect, and you end up with a sentence that is over four lines long.
5. Avoid the phrase "would have been."
6. Do not start sentences with conjunctions. Because, but, and, or etc are conjunctions
7. Do not start sentences with verbs that start in -ing.  "Walking to the store, they saw a stray dog."  Just say "They saw a stray dog while walking to the store." 
8. Follow the above tips and you will have caught most of the common grammatical and formatting errors of our class.

"Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin
We then discussed the short story "Sonny's Blues" and after our discussion we created potential thesis statements for an analysis of the piece. I asked you questions to get you thinking more about the characters' motives and how the setting (Harlem, late 50s early 60s) affect the characters.  I asked you to look at certain terms and phrases the reoccur in the piece and to question the author's motives.  Why does he keep talking about darkness? What is the darkness? You used these questions to form your thesis statements.

Thesis Statements
The best way to start forming a thesis statements is to start by asking yourself very specific questions about the piece.  Try to ask more in-depth questions that go beyond the surface of the piece.  Question the choices the creators made.  Why do you think they chose to make the piece go that way instead of another way?  Ask yourself how different societal factors affect the piece.  Question a character's actions or their motives.  If you see recurring patterns in the piece ask yourself why they are there? And then try to answer them to the best of your ability based on your knowledge of the piece.  You will then have the beginning of a good thesis statement.

Homework

• Come to class with an idea of what you want to do your second project on. (Due Thurs 10/18)
• Write a 1-2 page analysis on Sleep Deprivation Chamber by Adrienne Kennedy (Due Thurs 10/25)

Course Recap for Thursday, October 11, 2012

Carrie Discussion

The we went over the Carrie Response Guide.  We talked about your reactions to the movies and your interpretations of the film.

We then talked about the two critical pieces you read on the movie.  In these two pieces the authors analyzed various aspects of the movie from a specific point of view in order to prove a point.  Both authors equated Carrie's telekinetic power with her burgeoning sexuality.  Both authors believed that Carrie was indeed a monster.  Muir analyzed the film mostly from a technical point of view and talked about how the director used certain techniques like slow motion, split screen, and intense music to track Carrie's transformation into a monster.  Lindsay examined it from a feminist point of view.  She talked about how the gender of the different characters affected how you interpreted their actions.  

You will be doing an analysis of a piece of art for your next project.  The types of questions you asked yourself while watching Carrie are the types of things you want to ask about your piece.  What are the hidden meanings behind the plot of the movie or book?  What do the different colors in the painting say to you about the author's feelings toward his subject? Why did a songwriter use a specific word in their song instead of another one?  We will examine some pieces together as we prepare you to learn how to interpret different pieces.  

Your first assignment will be to analyze Carrie as you try to prove which characters from the movie were the true monsters. 

Homework

• Attend Performance of Sleep Deprivation Chamber at the York Theatre in the Gilmore Theatre Complex-right across from Brown, next to Miller Auditorium (Due Sun 10/14 or Mon 10/15 at 5pm)
• Read "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin (Due Tues 10/16)
• Finish up Carrie Project-You will have 15 minutes in class to prepare your presentations.  Make sure you email me the links to your research. (Due Tues 10/16)

Course Recap Thursday, October 4, 2012

Carrie
We watched the movie, Carrie. For homework you will do a general analysis of the movie where you will answer the following questions:

1. Comment on the various cinematic elements in the movie. What role does lighting, color, camera angles, and sound play in the story? It's okay if you don't know the technical terms. Talk about them to the best of your ability.
2. What are some of the themes present in the film?
3. Carrie is a horror movie that defies the genre because it blurs the lines between the victims and the monsters. Who are the monsters in this film? Why do you think so? Refer to specific scenes in the movie.
4. What are some recurring images or ideas in the film? What do you think these images or ideas symbolize?
5. Choose a character other than Carrie. Examine that character's personality and motives and the purpose they serve to the rest of the plot.
6. What are some criticisms you have of the film?

Homework

• Second Draft of Literacy Narrative (Due Tuesday Oct 9 before you come to class via email- micealaya.moses@gmail.com)
• Read "Cult Movie Review: Carrie (1976)" by John Kenneth Muir (Due Tuesday, Oct. 9)
• Read "Horror, Femininity, and Carrie's Monstrous Puberty" by Shelley Stamp Lindsey (Due Tuesday, Oct. 9)-When you click on the link it will ask you for your Bronco ID and password unless you are using a school computer.
• Answer questions on the Carrie Response Guide-you will be turning these in (Due Tuesday, Oct. 9)
• Final Draft of Literacy Narrative (Due Thursday, Oct 11 via email micealaya.moses@gmail.com)

Course Recap for Tuesday, October 3, 2012

Peer Review
You broke off into groups and read each other's papers aloud.  You then had a discussion about the things you liked in each narrative.  Then you individually read through at least 2 of your classmates papers and made comments and filled out the response guide.  If you checked more than 2 papers you will receive extra credit.

Revisions-Second Drafts
For homework you need to write a new draft based on your classmates comments.  If none of your classmates offered you any suggestions on how to make your paper better (which they should've even if it was just grammatical errors) it is up to you to look through your piece and find things that you could do better.  Maybe you know you rushed the end of the paper and you want to take another stab at it.  Maybe there are some grammatical errors that you know are there even if your classmates missed them. There is no such thing as a perfect paper and there is always something you can improve upon.  If you only had the first two pages of your paper you can work on finishing it.  Your second draft is due Tuesday, October 9 and it should be better than the draft you turned in today. You will email me this draft before class Tuesday at micealaya.moses@gmail.com.

Homework
Second Draft of Literacy Narrative (Due Tuesday, Oct. 9) *This is not your final draft*

Course Recap for Tuesday, September 25, 2012

What Makes A Good Story Part 2

In class today we talked about character, dialogue, and how to write a scene.  We talked about how Engkent was able to give us a good picture of his mother not only by providing us information or her background but also by showing her en scene.  Hearing her dialogue and seeing her reactions to various situations helped to characterize her better than any expository paragraph could. The same thing happened in Sedaris's piece.  We were able to see how obnoxious the teacher is by observing her interactions with students throughout the narrative instead of simply reading a paragraph that says she's obnoxious. When you're writing your literacy narratives, you should have characters and you want to try and find ways to show us how a person is instead of telling us.  

Make sure when you're writing your narrative to not forget about the most important character of all, yourself.  Sedaris's voice and tone help us to realize that he's a funny and sarcastic person.  Try to find ways to use voice and tone to characterize yourself.  Make sure that we leave the piece knowing who you are as person.

I also had you rewrite your Where I'm From Narratives.  Your task is to tell the story of a specific moment and to write a good scene.  Scenes are moments of action in a narrative where the reader is given a chance to see an event exactly as it is occurring or exactly how it occurred.  It's more detailed, often includes dialogue and is basically the slowing down of a moment.  The moment is usually something significant, something extremely important to the story line.  It can be the beginning of something or the end of it.  The moment when something changed or the moment when something could change but instead ended up staying the same.  Your literacy narrative should include scenes.

Homework

• Come to class with a good idea of what you're literacy narrative's going to be about. (Due Thurs. 9/27)
• Finish Part One of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks pgs 1-86 (Due Thurs. 9/27)

Course Recap for Thursday, September 20, 2012

Pop Culture and it's Influence on Language
We started class with everyone coming up with words and phrases that were unique to our favorite TV shows, movies, video games, music artists, books, etc.  We were looking for words and phrases that only fans of the piece would know.  Then we wrote them on the board to see how many of the terms and phrases we all knew.  For example, I wrote Apparate and Inferius (from Harry Potter) and smizing and go-sees (from America's Next Top Model). 

We learned that there are some phrases that are a common part of our everyday discourse that originated from some form of entertainment and we also learn that there are some phrases that can be unique to any community including the fans of specific franchises.

This woman is fist-pumping.  A commonly used phrase that became popular on the reality show, Jersey Shore.

Elaine Richardson "Ill-Literacy Narrative"

We broke up into groups and discussed Richardson's piece.  Our discussions ranged from the definition of sexual consent to the ways that people can be judged simply by whom they associate with.  We examined the different ways that our backgrounds affect the way we interpret different situations. We talked about the different interpretations of the phrase "Hey Baby/Girl/Sexy" and how some men see it as a charming way to approach the opposite sex while a lot of women find it demeaning and uncomfortable.  It suggests the man is more familiar with the woman than he is and there are a lot of sexual connotations to the phrasing.  One one of our classmates talked about how in his hometown Richardson's brother's inability to express his love for his sister in public would have been seen as a weakness where in Richardson's neighborhood it was seen as a strength.

We discussed how small things from your background affect how you interact with others and when your backgrounds differ, miscommunications can occur.  If someone grows up unaccustomed to cleaning up after themselves it can cause miscommunication between someone who hasn't.  That person may believe that they shouldn't have to tell their roommate to clean up because he/she expects everyone to clean up after themselves.  The roommate however may need someone to verbally tell them to clean up, at least until they change their own habits.

As you think of topics for your narratives, try and think of the ways that your backgrounds affect the way you interact with the world. Or you can examine how your interactions with people that are different from you have either improved or hindered your ability to communicate with others.

Homework

• Read "Why My Mother Can't Speak English" by Garry Engkent, pgs 32-39 in the Mercury Reader and "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris, pgs 64-68 in the Mercury Reader (Both due by Tuesday, Sept. 25)
• Read Part One of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, pgs. 1-86. Make sure you read A Few Words About This Book and The Prologue.   (Due Thursday, Sept. 28)

Course Recap for Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Poem
You looked over your classmates poems and pointed out lines that stood out to you and lines that presented a strong image or feeling.  Then you were asked to circle any lines in your poem that centered around a specific event.  You will use these as potential inspiration when you write a narrative about where you're from.


What Makes A Good Story
We compared and contrasted our feelings about the two readings from this weekend, Decoded by Jay-Z and Chapter 2 of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  We talked about the things we liked in each piece and the things we didn't. The thing we liked the most about both readings is the amount of detail each story gave.  A lot of us felt that The Immortal Life was a little too long and appreciated Decoded for being straight-forward and to the point. We also wished that there had been more action in The Immortal Life.  There weren't enough scenes.  The Immortal Life read more like a chapter from a history book and you couldn't relate as easily.  When you sit down to write your narrative for Thursday about where you're from your goal should be to keep it to the point and to write a good scene.

Homework

• Write a narrative about Where You're From using your poem for inspiration.  It should be one-page single-spaced (two pages double spaced) 12point font.  Do not go over this page limit! (Due Thursday, Sept 20)
• Read "My Ill Literacy Narrative: Growing Up Black, Po and a Girl, in the Hood" by Elaine Richardson, pgs 48-60 in The Mercury Reader (Due Thursday, Sept 20) 

Course Recap for Thursday, September 13, 2012

Details, Details, Details
We looked at two poems about the authors' hometowns, "Where I'm From" by George Ella Lyons and "Courageous Dream's Concern" by Jack White (See Class Links).

We examined how each poem used very specific details to paint a picture of the place they are from.

Homework

• Write a one page poem about where you're from. (Due Tuesday, Sept 18)
• Read Decoded by Jay-Z pgs 20-25, see Class Links (Due Tuesday, Sept 18)
• Read Chapter 2: Clover from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, pgs 18-26 (Due Tuesday, Sept 18) *You need to have all of Part One of the novel read by Thursday, Sept 27*
• First Blog Post due Monday Sept 17 (This is your last blog post reminder.  Remember blogs are due every Monday and Friday from this point forward until the end of the semester.)
• Read "My Ill Literacy Narrative: Growing Up Black, Po and a Girl, in the Hood" by Elaine Richardson, pgs 48-60 in The Mercury Reader (Due Thursday, Sept 20)

Possible Blog Post Topics (choose one) 1. Tell me a brief story about where you're from. Use your brainstorms from class Wednesday as a starting point if you don't know what to write about. 2.Have you written in a genre lately that was unfamiliar to you? What was that process like? How did you determine the correct way to complete this genre? Was it hard or easy? Why?

Course Recap for Tuesday, September 11, 2012

What Makes A Good Blog?

Today we examined your favorite blog by examining the different aspects of the rhetorical situation that we talked about in class on Wednesday.  We determined the blog's audience, purpose, context, mood, voice, etc.  Then we used this information to come up with a list of things that make a good.

Most of the blogs we looked at were:

1. Visually appealing (most used pictures)
2. Well organized-(most had titles, captions, and subtitles)
3. Had a fairly consistent audience, purpose, tone, and voice for most of the blog posts.
4. Simple and easy to understand
5. The subjects of the blog were on things that would obviously interest the audience.

You will use these common elements to guide you when writing your own blog posts. (See Blog Assignment Sheet under Class Documents.)

NOTES ABOUT BLOG CONTENT: We had a discussion in class about the use of graphic language and images.  I do not want to censor you, but  I will implore you to use discretion when writing your blog posts.  You have to take into consideration the context of your blogs and the potential audience.  Although, this blog is a personal blog, it is also a class assignment and anything you write will not only reflect on you, it will reflect on the class, me as the instructor, and WMU.  Although your primary audience is me and your classmates, other potential readers include other instructors and students of English 1050 or anybody curious about what Western is teaching in their classrooms.  

Again I do not want to censor you, I just want you to be mindful of the context and the audience of your blog. Profanity for profanity's sake is usually a sign of bad writing anyway. If you are going to use profanity make sure it's doing more than potentially offending readers of your blog.  If you have doubts about whether or not something is appropriate take the safe route and don't post it.  You can always start your own personal blog if you feel compelled to write about things that are NSFW (Not Safe for Work-we'll talk more about Internet lingo in the coming weeks).

Homework

• Start Reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Part One of the book is now due Thursday, Sept. 27th) 
• First Blog Post is due Monday, Sept. 17th

Course Recap for Thursday, September 6, 2012

Rhetorical Situations
We discussed in class rhetorical situations defining it as any moment you attempt to use language to communicate a message.  We discussed the various factors that help us decide how we will act in a given rhetorical situation.  These included:

• genre (kind of writing)
• audience
• purpose
• tone (attitude)
• voice (sound)
• context (outside influences, environment, time, place)
• media (print, electronic, spoken)
• design (look)

Afterwards we analyzed several common forms of writing that we perform in our daily lives such as text messages, Facebook comments, and notes to self.

Blogs
We created your blogs in class. You wrote your first blog posts where you briefly introduced yourselves and then you learned how to add gadgets to your blog pages.  You created a Blog List gadget where you listed the class blog and where you will list the blogs you found for class..

Homework

• Buy books and copy card (Due Tuesday 9/11)
• Think of a title for our class blog (Due Tuesday 9/11)
• Bring in a link to a blog that interests you (Due Tuesday 9/11)
• Add a picture to your Introduction blog post. It can be a picture of yourself or something that represents you. (Due Tuesday 9/11)
• Start reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lack. Part One is due Tuesday 9/25

Welcome to Engish 1050 + Course Recap for Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Welcome to English 1050!
I am Micealaya (Mickey) Moses, your instructor.  Please take time to save this blog into your favorites/bookmarks folder as I will provide weekly updates, course recaps, and all course documents through this site. I am excited to work with all of you this semester! Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions.  My e-mail is m5moses@wmich.edu.  I am also available to meet with you an hour right after every class and by appointment.  In this class you will learn how to think like a writer, a skill you already possess in some capacity.  We will read and discuss various texts and you will hopefully leave this class with the ability to write in both academic and "real world" settings.


Course Syllabus and Course Expectations
We read through the syllabus in class and talked about the things you would have to do to succeed in this course. Please be sure to review the entire syllabus (posted on the right side of the blog) on your own, but here a few of the finer points, the things that are essential to your success in this class:

• Attendance and participation are extremely important. You are expected to be in class on-time on a regular basis and to participate in all class activities and discussions.
• Late work is highly discouraged.  Please get in the habit now of turning things in when they are due.
• I am here to help you but I can't do anything for you if I don't know something is wrong. Please do not hesitate to ask questions if you are confused.  Again I can meet with you during office hours or by appointment to discuss things you may be struggling with.  Also please inform me in a timely matter if you're going to miss class.
• Please be courteous.  Disruptive behavior is distracting and counterproductive to our class.

Writing Sample
After reading over the syllabus you all submitted a writing sample to me.   You wrote about your relationship with writing.  You talked about what you liked and didn't like about writing, what you hoped to learn in the class, and the elements of writing you struggle with.



Homework

• Purchase the books and $5 Copy Card. (Due Tuesday 9/11).