Unit Two
Writing across Grounds

Unit Overview:

How has writing changed on Grounds? Where and how is it happening today? In this unit, we’ll do field work to answer those questions. We’ll search online forums and existing publications (formal and avant-garde), conduct surveys, and interview faculty and students, all to identify current examples of UVA writing. This unit will cap off our consideration of the question, “What IS the culture of writing at UVA?”

By the unit’s end, you should be able to:

• Have some initial experience with using Qualtrics to conduct surveys, and with interpreting/using survey data.

• Initiate and conduct interviews for research purposes.

• Recognize and present current texts as exhibit pieces for historic preservation.

• Incorporate newly generated primary material as subject and evidence for an essay, practicing light ethnography alongside critical reading and synthesis/interpretation in light of the course theme.
  
  

Major Assignment (2-5 exhibit pieces/labels + 3-5 page essay)

Part 1. Exhibit pieces/labels

• Submit a PDF contact sheet (including a smaller version of the image+label)

  • Please title your file:
    ContactSheet_YourLastName_CES21

  • Here is an example.

    • I haven’t conducted my interview yet, so my contact sheet only includes static images. If you include interview footage (audio or video), just include a video still or the audio player image on the contact sheet.

    • Feel free to include multiple pages, as works for the # of exhibit pieces you’ve chose to include.

    • Just a note on Production—I set my contact sheet up using InDesign, but most of you will have the easiest time with either Microsoft Word, Pages, or Google docs. Feel free to ask me questions about page set-up if you get thwarted.

• Submit the high-res image file and a text version of your labels to this Drive folder.

  • Create a new sub-folder. Please title the folder:
    FirstName LastName_CEfilesS21

  • Drop your files to that sub-folder.

  • You can see how I’ve set mine up as an example; I’ve already dropped those to a sub-folder for myself, in the link above.

Part II. Essay

Short version:

• Write a brief-but-developed/polished essay that argues for a specific description of today’s “writing culture at UVA,” using your exhibit pieces as evidence. 1000-1500 words (about 3-5 pages).

• Include your cover memo.

• Other details on the main assignment sheet, linked here and above.

Grading Rubric

Exhibit Resources (I.e., things for you to use in selecting Exhibit materials and in writing your paper next week)

• Final data for our university-wide survey.

• Here’s the folder holding writing samples donated through our Peer Survey. Please do not share outside of this class.

• Obviously, you are also welcome to draw from writing samples that your friends have sent you privately and your interviews.

• You’re ALSO welcome to look at something that’s already publicly available. Options include but are not limited to the following. (I’ll add more if I come across them. Feel free to notify me if you see something missing!)

  • Art installations on Grounds that feature text (current or past—you could look through old issues of Cav Daily or news.virginia.edu to see what precedes you)

  • Publications (you could choose specific articles on a theme; or review Tables of Contents to see what the groups are covering; or choose one particular article that stands out to you)

    • Cavalier Daily

    • The Oculus

    • Virginia Journal of International Affairs

    • Q*: Anthology of Queer Culture

    • The Declaration

    • Yellow Journal

    • Voices

  • Digitized material:

    • “Unite the Right” Rally and Community response, digital materials submitted via online portal: https://archives.lib.virginia.edu/repositories/uva-sc/archival_objects/stories_and_audiovisual_materials_submitted_via_on

      
      

  • Heads up—not digitized/stuff you might want to look at when you can get into the physical collections:

    • Hot Feet (IMP Society)—this box actually has some stuff from early 1900s, but most of it is from 2011-2019: https://archives.lib.virginia.edu/repositories/uva-sc/accessions/hot_feet_imp_society_-_addition

    • Jefferson Society—again, some stuff dating back to 1843, but most of it is 2007-2018: https://archives.lib.virginia.edu/repositories/uva-sc/accessions/jefferson_societyaddition

    • Records of Women of Color (WOC), 2002-2018: https://archives.lib.virginia.edu/repositories/uva-law/resources/records_of_women_of_color_woc <—this one is in the LAW SCHOOL Special Collections; they’re separate, and the students wouldn’t be undergrads; still might interest someone

    • Queer Student Union records: https://archives.lib.virginia.edu/repositories/uva-sc/resources/queer_student_union_records

    • Additional Unite the Right Rally and Community Response collection: https://archives.lib.virginia.edu/search?q[]=%22unite+the+right%22&op[]=&field[]=keyword&from_year[]=&to_year[]=&page=1

    • Material created in response to the Rolling Stone article and aftermath: https://search.lib.virginia.edu/sources/uva_library/items/u6428916

  • Related, not yet available to the public
    *It takes a while for the library to process newer material, especially to work through legal issues regarding permissions, etc. Once the collection item is “complete,” there’s a placeholder entry, and you can see the location is “In Process.” But I thought you’d want to know these exist:

    • Documents related to the Office for Civil Rights Investigation of the University of Virginia: https://search.lib.virginia.edu/sources/uva_library/items/u6695607

    • There will be a repository of Covid writing, but I don’t think we can access that material yet. You could ask friends if they’ve kept journals or done any other Covid-specific writing. (No entry yet; collection not yet complete.)