PAST DAILY ASSIGNMENTS



For Wednesday, August 25:

  • Please be sure you’ve completed the incoming survey before coming to class.

  • There are assigned books for this class, but I’ve asked the bookstore not to post them until we’ve met. They’ll be available for you to purchase next week.

  • See you on Wednesday in Maury Hall 115!


In class on Wednesday, 8/25:


For Friday, 8/27:

  • We will not meet for class on this day. Instead:
    *The items below look more time-consuming than they actually are—you should be able to do all this in about 3 hours.
    >>REMINDER: If you CAN’T finish in 3 hours, feel free to just stop and come as you are!<<
    This is also more piecemeal than assignments will typically be, just to give us some common foundational material to work from.

  • If you haven’t already, please complete this brief incoming survey.

  • Submit to Drive (folder linked here): 

    • Brief memoir 

      • No particular rules—we want to capture your current sense of your self and your story of how you became the “you” of today.

      • Things that might help you:

        • Aim for just about 500-1000 words. 

        • If you want to include more but are “writing away,” try listing things in bullets rather than writing them out long-form.

        • Your audience is primarily just you. You will submit these, and I will read them (they will be available among the class unless you request otherwise), but you’re mostly writing for yourself. 

        • You will revisit these memoir exercises later in the term.

        • Keep in mind that a “memoir” is different than a “biography”—a biography typically starts around your birth and follows the important parts of your life in a linear way; a memoir tells a story about your life, usually focusing on one particular theme and therefore drawing on related threads throughout that story. One person may thus easily write multiple memoirs, though “competing” autobiographies would be odd. So just think about something you’d like to capture about yourself and write about how that thing has surfaced/developed through some key memories.

  • Read (or read through!):

  • Listen to “Who Am I?” from RadioLab

  • Watch "How language shapes the way we think,” Lera Boroditsky

  • Post to the Forum:

    • Key differences between oral and literate thinking, per Ong and Scribner/Cole

    • Key ways in LANGUAGE shapes our minds/perceptions (per Boroditsky)

    • Bringing it together: what overlaps are you seeing in terms of identity, literacy, and cognition so far? What are the 2-3 biggest questions YOU have currently about literacy and cognition?

  • Recommended NOT required:



For Monday, 8/30:

  • Please get started on Proust and the Squid—between now and Monday, you should have read Chapters 1-2, and 7. If you do not yet have your book and need scans, please let me know.

    • As you read, please highlight (or write in a separate notebook, though I’m a big fan of marking up your books) any neurological terms you come across, whether you recognize them or not.

  • Also read these much shorter pieces:

  • Be prepared to discuss in class.

For Wednesday, 9/1:

  • Review the first essay assignment; bring any questions that come up to class.

  • Continue reading Proust and the Squid—we’re racing through Part II for today:

    • BRIEFLY skim Ch. 4 (like, glance over it for 5-10 minutes; just get a feel for what she’s doing broadly there)

    • Read Chs. 5-6 as carefully as you can in a couple of hours (use the headings and diagrams to your advantage here)

    • I’m linking you to the content of those chapters here, as a placeholder until your books arrive (physical or digital). This is the full content, but it’s from an e-reader without static page numbers—you’ll need to cite your actual books in your papers. (That’s partly my way of trying to honor copyright; I wouldn’t normally provide such extensive scans, but I want you to be able to do the reading even though books are delayed.)

    • Be prepared to discuss in class

  • Bring your Play-Doh to class for brain modeling. (Any cheap multi-pack will do; 7-15 colors is usually a good range, but this doesn’t have to be professional. Here’s an example of a multipack that would be good: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Play-Doh-Party-Bag-Includes-15-Colorful-Cans-of-Play-Doh-1-Ounce-Cans/197088150. You can also make your own; there are lots of recipes online like this one: https://www.iheartnaptime.net/play-dough-recipe/. Colors are helpful, but again, just do your best; this is an exercise and hopefully a helpful reference point, not an art piece.)



In-Class on Wednesday, 9/1:


For Friday, 9/3:

  • As you’re reading/exploring for Friday, keep thinking about (a) themes you’re interested in for the first paper and (b) how discrete brain structures and collective brain function “works” in literacy and the development of the self.

  • Read The Midnight Disease (unpaginated material attached here, for those still waiting on their books)

    • SKIM the Introduction

    • SKIM Ch5 (“How We Write: The Cortex”)

      • As you skim, notice overlaps in structures with reading; how much the two activities use the same structures

      • Caveat: Consider that we have many examples of people who lose either the ability to read or write, but not the other; these two activities are distinct. I’m posting material on one such case study under Additional Sources shortly.

    • READ CH6 (“Why We Write: The Limbic System”)

  • Explore these resources to help you start to get more of a feel for the brain:

  • Bring your chosen notebook to class; we’ll complete Notebook Assignment #1 in class together. Physical notebook preferred; digital acceptable. Just keep everything in one place, so I can review your entries at mid-term and again before finals.


Notes from the Board (in class on Wednesday, 9/1):

Components of Reading / Stages of Reading Development

Components of Reading / Stages of Reading Development

What’s In Your Play Doh Brain (and major functions of those structures)

What’s In Your Play Doh Brain (and major functions of those structures)



For Monday, 9/6:

  • Glance through the “Additional Resources” page—I’ve posted a bunch of stuff that you may find helpful, based on the topics I’ve heard you referencing so far. Just see if there’s anything you want to read before you start drafting your early essay material.

  • Watch “After watching this, your brain will not be the same” (~15 minutes)

  • Build your own neuron (or 2!)—see demo pictures below

  • Considering what we discussed in class regarding (a) what academic writing IS, (b) the range available to you in establishing your own academic voice, and (c) your own purposes for writing this particular essay, draft the following:

    • Two different thesis statements

    • Two different introductions

    • Two different outlines for the paper

    • Optional: If you want to keep writing, do the diverging pieces above first, THEN select a direction and keep going. We’ll workshop whatever you have in Monday’s class, and you’ll complete a full rough draft for Wednesday peer review.

    • Upload whatever you’ve drafted to this folder.

  • Optional: If it helps, feel free to reference these two pieces on academic writing:


Neuron Models:

IMG_2176+(1).jpeg
IMG_3399.jpeg


For Wednesday, 9/8:

  • Submit your first draft to this folder.

    • Include 2-3 questions to your peer reviewers at the top of the draft. [Examples: “I’m not sure I’m supporting X point well enough. Do you have any suggestions for more evidence, or how I could make my argument more effective?” / “Is my organization working, or are you getting confused anywhere? Do you have suggestions for better transitions?” / Etc.]

    • I recommend you aim to complete 2/3 to 3/4 of the paper for your draft.

    • Let it be messy. Feel free to use placeholders [i.e., I need to add a section here that does X].

    • Don’t put so much time into drafting that you don’t have any time/energy left to revise before the full draft is due on Friday.

    • Notes/resources on creating your diagram(s):

      • If you can go ahead and include rough drafts of your diagram(s) for Wednesday, you can get helpful peer feedback on them! They’re only required by final drafts on Friday, though.

      • You should sketch your own brain diagram, based on what you’re trying to show. Feel free to trace or base your sketch on the basic (sagittal) models in Wolf’s book, or if you need a horizontal (transverse) cut, you might use the 3D brain to find the orientation/exposure you want and then sketch that. (This source might help with those terms, if you need a very quick lesson.)

      • You don’t need to include a tedious level of detail; just a basic sketch and arrows with labels to show the areas you’re referencing. These should be legible to your readers; they don’t need to look professional.

      • Underneath your diagram(s), include a caption:

        • Figure #. Title of figure. Description of figure. (Source citations as appropriate, to indicate where you retrieved data points, but not to cite the figure itself—you’re the author/copyright holder of your own image).

        • See these examples of figures/citations:

For Friday, 9/10:

  • Finish/clean up your final draft for submission and grading.

  • Add your cover memo to your paper.

    • This memo can be informal.

    • Please add it to the front page of your document, so I see it first.

    • As a reminder, your 250–400 word cover memo should address the following:

      • Who helped you with writing this essay? (Be sure to disclose any friends, family members, tutors, classmates, etc., who helped you, to avoid charges of collusion.)

      • What did you learn about literacy and cognition through this assignment?

      • What did you learn about essay writing through this assignment?

      • What changes did you make during the revision process and why?

      • What do you most want your reader to learn from your paper?

      • Optional: After you’ve answered all of the above, feel free to vent about things you hated about this assignment. :) Also, feel free to give your opinions about the issues involved. It’s often challenging to write an analysis without a chance to express your own ideas about the subject matter.

  • Submit your final draft to this folder.

In-Class on Friday, 9/10:

  1. Respond to this poll

  2. Respond to this question

  3. Complete this survey

For Monday, 9/13:

  • MEET IN CLEMONS 204! Try to arrive a little early if possible for our first read-in of the semester.

    • Clemons is the library near-ish Alderman and Newman, if you haven’t been before. The street address is 164 McCormick Rd. Here’s a map.

    • Turn right after exiting the staircase or elevator on the second floor of Clemons Library. Proceed down the hallway. Room 204 is the first room on the right.

  • Bring your copy of I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced. Do not read in advance.

  • I will provide cookies, fruit, and water; feel free to bring coffee or whatever else you’d like.

  • If you’re still working on your paper, do that. :)

  • Otherwise, relax and rest and enjoy the weekend.

For Wednesday, 9/15:

  • Continue reading I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced. Try to read for pleasure, at a pace that works for you.

    • In your field notebooks, take rough notes—observe yourself and record your reading experience with the memoir. There are no “correct” ways to be reading; we just want to capture what we are doing as much as we’re able. So you might note things like, what do you find yourself thinking as you read? What are you doing? (i.e., getting lost in the reading; getting distracted by other thoughts; looking at your phone, whatever) What are you noticing in the book? What are you feeling as you read? What thoughts and feelings linger after you’ve put the book away?

  • Optional: If you want to, feel free to start looking at the additional sources on memory and memoir.

    • I’ve posted a lot of sources you may find interesting; only 3 are required reading (as indicated by the ***required*** marker).

    • I’ll ask you to finish reading these before Friday’s class, for discussion before you take the post-week survey.

In class on Wednesday, 9/15:

  1. Writing exercises from class are posted here for remote students. Please complete these in your notebooks.

For Friday, 9/17:

  • Finish reading I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced.

  • Continue noting your observations in your field notebooks. Those directions again:

    • Observe yourself and record your reading experience with the memoir. There are no “correct” ways to be reading; we just want to capture what we are doing as much as we’re able. So you might note things like, what do you find yourself thinking as you read? What are you doing? (i.e., getting lost in the reading; getting distracted by other thoughts; looking at your phone, whatever) What are you noticing in the book? What are you feeling as you read? What thoughts and feelings linger after you’ve put the book away?

  • Read the required “Additional” sources on memory and memoir (as indicated in that section by the ***required*** marker).

    • Optional: Read any of the other sources in that section that look interesting to you.

  • Come to class ready to discuss! See you then.

In-Class on Friday, 9/17:

For Monday, 9/20:

  • Take this Week Two Pre-Survey

  • Bring The Vanishing Half with you to class

    • We’ll meet in Clemons 204 again—I’ll bring water and food again (I’m going to attempt cinnamon popovers, but if they fail, I’ll have a backup; fruit will probably be clementines again); we’ll read; it’ll be a good time.

For Wednesday, 9/22:

  • Continue reading The Vanishing Half. We will discuss the book up to page 141 [so, Parts I and II (of IV)], and the rest of the book on Friday.

  • In your field notebooks, take rough notes. I’ve bolded here items that differ from last week: O

    • Observe yourself and record your reading experience with the novel. There are no “correct” ways to be reading; we just want to capture what we are doing as much as we’re able. So you might note things like, what do you find yourself thinking as you read? What are you doing? (i.e., getting lost in the reading; getting distracted by other thoughts; looking at your phone, whatever) What are you noticing in the book? What are you feeling as you read? Which characters are you connecting with? What’s keeping you from connecting with certain characters? What are you not understanding? What thoughts and feelings linger after you’ve put the book away?

In Class on Wednesday, 9/22:

Round 1:

Choose a character from one of our books so far. You can choose anyone from I Am Nujood or The Vanishing Half. You can choose a major character or a minor character; the minor characters are sometimes interesting because you haven’t been given as much detail already. So people like Adele Vignes (the twins’ mother) or Lonnie Goudeau or Sam Winston or Blake Sanders can offer a chance to write more “new” material. But taking on the main characters can give you a chance to explore parts of them you’re not understanding.

Try to make the character fully developed and believable. (I.e., we certainly don’t have to love Sam, but we don’t have to hate him, either—what kinds of things “explain” Sam, make him make sense as a person?

Choose a “time” in the character’s life. You might want to write about them before the book ever begins, or after they’ve left the story, or give us a different perspective on a scene we’ve already read.

Write a journal entry or inner monologue from this character’s perspective. What do you imagine them thinking about? Worrying over? Being afraid of? Wanting? Plotting for? What do you think they might have done the day you’re writing for them?

(Take 15 minutes.)

Round 2:

Make rough notes:

What else would you need to know about your character to keep writing? What biographical or character information, etc.? How would you go about gathering/constructing this information for a fictional character?

(~5 minutes)

Round 3:

Discuss:

  • Who did you choose, what was generative, and where did you find limitations to your own ability to “get in their head”?

  • More generally, how have you been experiencing the “empathy” element of reading so far this week?

  • How does it seem different to experience empathy in reading v. writing?

For Friday, 9/24:

  • Continue noting your observations in your field notebooks. Those directions again:

    • Observe yourself and record your reading experience with the novel. There are no “correct” ways to be reading; we just want to capture what we are doing as much as we’re able. So you might note things like, what do you find yourself thinking as you read? What are you doing? (i.e., getting lost in the reading; getting distracted by other thoughts; looking at your phone, whatever) What are you noticing in the book? What are you feeling as you read? Which characters are you connecting with? What’s keeping you from connecting with certain characters? What are you not understanding? What is unsettling for you? What do you do to make sense of the intense or traumatic material? What thoughts and feelings linger after you’ve put the book away?

Just FYI—You can’t possibly have time to read any more before Friday, but I have posted additional additional articles under “On reading, writing, and empathy.” If this is an area that interests you, you might end up checking out more of those in this unit or the next.

For Monday, 9/27:

  • Meet at Bryan 215!! You’ll pick up a lawn chair and a snack pack to take with you as you read nearby/outside for the class period. Snacks include cranberry orange bread, clementines (surprise!), and water (I have small bottles this time).

  • Bring The Hidden Life of Trees along, and anything else you’d like to have with you outside.

  • Complete BOTH the Week 2 Post- and Week 3 Pre- surveys.

    • Both surveys close on Monday, so be sure you complete them before class time to receive credit.

    • You should have received 2 emails with your individual response links; feel free to email or text me if you can’t find yours.

For Wednesday, 9/29:

  • Continue reading The Hidden Life of Trees.

    • If possible, take your book outside and read for at least an hour among trees.

  • In your field notebooks, take rough notes—observe yourself and record your reading experience with the book. There are no “correct” ways to be reading; we just want to capture what we are doing as much as we’re able. So you might note things like, what do you find yourself thinking as you read? What are you doing? (i.e., getting lost in the reading; getting distracted by other thoughts; looking at your phone, whatever) Are you feeling more attentive, meditative, etc., or more agitated, etc., than when you weren’t reading? What are you noticing in the book? What are you feeling as you read? What thoughts and feelings linger after you’ve put the book away? How do you notice yourself engaging the information in this book (versus the more narrative forms of our earlier books)?

    • Above, I bolded the sentences that are different this week, for quicker reference.

    • Also, if you’re having trouble with any of the concepts (whether factual or the way the author is presenting the information), please let’s talk about those on Wednesday, so I can pull material to help us figure things out.

  • Bring your notebooks to class on Wednesday for writing exercises. Also be prepared; there will be another “outdoor” component on Wednesday, weather permitting.

  • Optional—we’ll have some additional articles to look at for Friday. Feel free to go ahead and look at these two:

In class on Wednesday, 9/29:

Start with a body scan.

  • Take a few deep “belly” breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth.

  • Close your eyes. Now just take a few minutes to pay attention to your body from top to bottom—start with your head, your face, your neck, your shoulders . . . Pause at each location and just sort of check in—where are you relaxed and comfortable? What’s feeling tight? What’s aching? What’s heavy? What’s loose? Don’t try to change anything; just note what’s going on with your body. (2 minutes)

  • When you’re ready, open your eyes. Take a couple of minutes to jot down your observations in your journals.

<<scroll down for next step>>

Writing Exercise 1:

  • Take a few minutes to closely observe the trees (and/or tree system) around you. When you’re ready, write down observations in as much detail as possible. What do you see, touch, smell, hear? Notice as many details as possible—the color and texture of the bark, any knots or interesting growths, the shape and patterns of the branches, the shape and colors and patterns of the leaves. Do you see any moss? Lichen? What else? Just pay attention, and write down what you observe with as much vivid detail as you can. Feel free to write long-form, or make bulleted notes, sketch things, whatever. Set a timer; take about 15-20 minutes to write, and try to really get sucked in to the task.

<<scroll down for next step>>

  1. *Note: If you have another class to attend and need to pick up the other exercises later, just take a few minutes now to repeat the body scan exercise from earlier:

    • Take a few deep “belly” breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth.

    • Close your eyes. Now just take a few minutes to pay attention to your body from top to bottom—start with your head, your face, your neck, your shoulders . . . Pause at each location and just sort of check in—where are you relaxed and comfortable? What’s feeling tight? What’s aching? What’s heavy? What’s loose? Don’t try to change anything; just note what’s going on with your body. (2 minutes)

    • When you’re ready, open your eyes. Take a couple of minutes to jot down your observations in your journals. Has anything changed? What do you make of what has or hasn’t changed, in the context of your location/writing activities in these 2 exercises?

<<<When you’re ready for Writing Exercise #2, scroll down>>


Writing Exercise 2
(should be completed outside or “virtually outside”):

  • Repeat the body scan exercise.

  • Freewrite on anything you want—it can be something academic, but also you might want to write about something personal that’s important to you right now. Whatever you like. Take about 15 minutes.

  • Repeat the body scan exercise, including the journaling part. Has anything changed? What do you make of what has or hasn’t changed, in the context of your location/writing activities in these 2 exercises?

For Friday, 10/1:

  • Finish reading The Hidden Life of Trees.

For Monday, 10/4:

  • We’ll meet in Clemons 204 again—I’ll bring water and food again (probably blueberry muffins and clementines).

  • Bring Joy Harjo’s How We Became Human along, and anything else you’d like to have with you.

  • Complete BOTH the Week 3 Post- and Week 4 Pre- surveys.

    • Both surveys close on Monday, so be sure you complete them before class time to receive credit.

    • You should have received 2 emails with your individual response links; feel free to email or text me if you can’t find yours.

For Wednesday, 10/6:

  • Do come to class on this day. (Let me know if you have a conflict; we can work out an asynchronous option as needed.)

  • Bring your notebooks for writing exercises.

  • Continue reading How We Became Human. Read slowly; reread often; read out loud sometimes.

    • As per usual, in your field notebooks, take rough notes—observe yourself and record your reading experience with the poetry collection. There are no “correct” ways to be reading; we just want to capture what we are doing as much as we’re able. So you might note things like, what do you find yourself thinking as you read? What are you doing? (i.e., getting lost in the reading; getting distracted by other thoughts; looking at your phone, whatever) What are you noticing in the individual poems? In the collection? Do you find yourself analyzing things like structure, form, function (e.g., how is this poem working?)? Do you find yourself focusing more on meaning? What do you notice upon reading a poem the first time through? The second? The third? The fourth . . .? Do you notice any patterns in your own attention or recognition, etc.? What are you feeling as you read? Which lines or images are you connecting with? What’s keeping you from connecting with certain poems or features? What are you not understanding? What thoughts and feelings linger after you’ve put the book away?

      • Above, I bolded the wording that is different this week, for quicker reference.

  • Optional:

    • Read this explanation on “How to Read a Poem” from literary scholar E.D. Hirsch

      • Consider choosing say, 2 things from this essay about “how to read a poem” that you’d like to focus on as you go back and read or re-read a few of the poems. No need to achieve everything he’s saying here, but it could be helpful to expand your reading experience with a couple of these ideas.

    • Watch this interpretive video with Curtia Torbert, an actress reading Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” verse 38, in different modes. (She’s so good.)

      • The point of watching the video is to help you “hear” poetry in different ways, so you can then go back to some of Harjo’s poems and similarly try to sort of turn them around, read them from different angles, see if you can discover more meaning(s) in them.

      • This video is part of a larger project inviting “regular people” to read verses from Whitman’s poem on camera. If you want to read more about the project (and additional videos), see https://whitmanalabama.com/about/.

In-Class on Wednesday, 10/6:

Round One: Choose any ONE of the words below. Freewrite about whatever comes to mind in relation to that word. You can write in any style, but you might have the best luck with a sort of prose-poem (think about the prose passages in Joy Harjo’s collection that interleave with the poems—they still read with a lot of poetics, but they’re prose-y). Think lyrical, but don’t stress too much if that’s not coming together for you. Just get down thoughts in relation to your chosen word.

Shelf

Truck

Rough

Blue

Tropical

Shiver

Beige

Sprint

Grief

Tone

Fir

Kiwi

Cozy

Orbit

Tangible

Round Two: Now go back to the word list. Choose a different word, unrelated to the first. Repeat the writing exercise, but this time if you can, lean more into a poetic form—you can try an actual (short) poem, or still prose but more abstract, implicit meaning, or whatever works for you. 5 minutes.

Round Three: Attempt to create a collage piece. Re-read the two items you've just written. What common thread can you find between them? It might be an emotion, a certain vocabulary word or phrase that you repeated, a color or image, a hint of an idea. You're going to use that to write a third passage, in the genre of your choice, that sort of brings them together and hopefully reveals something new.

See example collage poem here


For Friday, 10/8:

  • We do NOT meet for class on Friday. Instead:

  • Finish reading How We Became Human and documenting your reading experience in your field notebooks.

    • As per usual, in your field notebooks, take rough notes—observe yourself and record your reading experience with the poetry collection. There are no “correct” ways to be reading; we just want to capture what we are doing as much as we’re able. So you might note things like, what do you find yourself thinking as you read? What are you doing? (i.e., getting lost in the reading; getting distracted by other thoughts; looking at your phone, whatever) What are you noticing in the individual poems? In the collection? Do you find yourself analyzing things like structure, form, function (e.g., how is this poem working?)? Do you find yourself focusing more on meaning? What do you notice upon reading a poem the first time through? The second? The third? The fourth . . .? Do you notice any patterns in your own attention or recognition, etc.? What are you feeling as you read? Which lines or images are you connecting with? What’s keeping you from connecting with certain poems or features? What are you not understanding? What thoughts and feelings linger after you’ve put the book away?

Also, just for fun, a Dickinson poem “about” the brain:

Emily Dickinson (1830–86). Complete Poems. 1924.
Part One: Life

CXXVI

THE BRAIN is wider than the sky,
For, put them side by side,
The one the other will include
With ease, and you beside.

The brain is deeper than the sea,
For, hold them, blue to blue,
The one the other will absorb,
As sponges, buckets do.

The brain is just the weight of God,
For, lift them, pound for pound,
And they will differ, if they do,
As syllable from sound.

*Reproduced from https://www.bartleby.com/113/1126.html.

For Wednesday, 10/13:

  • Be sure you’ve completed the Week 4 Post-Survey (link was in your email on Friday).

  • Come to class ready to discuss revisions and new essay planning.

For Friday, 10/15:

  • Read through the comments on your graded drafts (there are comments! make sure you let them load!) and be ready to address them in light of style lessons on Friday and Monday.

  • Read these excerpts from Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace.

    • I’ve attached a PDF with highlights in it, to help you quickly identify main points. Don’t feel like you have to achieve mastery of every technique here, but try choosing one or two to work on in your revision and upcoming paper.

    • I do recommend this full book, although the newest edition is always expensive. As you can see, though, it’s been updated many times (you’re reading from the 12th edition); the older editions are usually very cheap online (as low as $5), and we have a few older copies in our libraries on Grounds. [The new copies DO have some useful updates, enough that I was willing to buy one; you can leaf through the various Introductions for a quick reference list of what changes took place between editions.]

  • Also skim over these two items:

  • Review the Unit 2 essay assignment.

  • Read through the class data from our Unit 2 surveys. Consider these in light of (a) your own notes and (b) the various readings we completed, both the books and the secondary articles, etc.

    • Do some early brainstorming on potential paper topics for Essay 2. What stands out to you? What would you like to try to articulate in this paper? You have a lot of freedom in topic and form; think of what you’d have the most fun writing.

For Monday, 10/18:

  • Review through your first essays for cohesion/coherence issues. Refer to the Style excerpts and class slides, your notes, etc., from Friday. Work through all “green” and “yellow” items on your first papers; bring them back to class on Monday to work through “blue” items.

  • Bring an outline with a full introduction draft, including a thesis, for Essay #2. We’ll take time at the end of class for you to pair up with a classmate and think toward your Wednesday workshop draft.

For Wednesday, 10/20:

For Friday, 10/22:

  • Continue working on your Essay 2 draft; we’ll have time for working and discussion during Friday’s class.

For Monday, 10/25:

  • Meet in Clemons 407!

  • Take this pre-survey to help our librarians out! They do so much for all of us!

    • The official language to preface said survey:
      ”Ahead of our library instruction next week, the librarians we will be working with have a short, 5-minute survey they are asking you to complete. Your survey responses will help the librarians tailor their instruction to your specific questions and needs. It is also part of a research study the librarians are conducting, and you will find more information about that at the survey link. You are not required to take the survey, but our librarians would really appreciate it!”

  • Read the Unit 3 assignment guidelines (and glance through examples!), so you have at least an introductory understanding of what’s coming next. :-D Part of the library instruction will be an exercise to help you generate ideas toward this project; you do NOT need to have one coming in on Monday!

  • Continue working on your Unit 2 papers. They’ll be due when you come in for your conference with me.

    • I’ll post the conference schedule by Monday for you to sign up, and I’ll message you through Collab once the schedule is available.

For Monday, 10/25:

  • Meet in Clemons 407!

  • Take this pre-survey to help our librarians out! They do so much for all of us!

    • The official language to preface said survey:
      ”Ahead of our library instruction next week, the librarians we will be working with have a short, 5-minute survey they are asking you to complete. Your survey responses will help the librarians tailor their instruction to your specific questions and needs. It is also part of a research study the librarians are conducting, and you will find more information about that at the survey link. You are not required to take the survey, but our librarians would really appreciate it!”

  • Read the Unit 3 assignment guidelines (and glance through examples!), so you have at least an introductory understanding of what’s coming next. :-D Part of the library instruction will be an exercise to help you generate ideas toward this project; you do NOT need to have one coming in on Monday!

  • Continue working on your Unit 2 papers. They’ll be due when you come in for your conference with me.

    • I’ll post the conference schedule by Monday for you to sign up, and I’ll message you through Collab once the schedule is available.

For the rest of this week:

  • Work on your project proposal using this template.

  • Come to a conference with me to discuss your ideas! Sign up here.

    • Submit your second paper here on your conference day (by 5 p.m).

    • Bring your revised first paper along, too, for a regrade session. Please re-send me the file link just before our meeting, so I can access it quickly for such short meetings!

  • Tip: If your workload is too much and you need an extension, please work in this order of priorities: (1) start on the Unit 3 project; (2) finish Essay 1 revisions; (3) submit the Unit 2 essay.

    • In other words, DO bring your project proposal and revisions to your conference; request an extension for Essay 2 if you need to.

For Monday, 11/1:

  • Be refining your proposals and/or begin working on your projects; come ready to discuss work in progress with your group members (and ready to report out to the whole class on what you’re doing, project-wise).

  • Finish and submit your Unit 2 papers, if you haven’t already.

    • I’ve gotten a lot of questions about how to cite our course surveys. There are several reputable ways to do this, and you can use the MLA Container model to figure out what works for you. Remember that the point of citations is to give your reader a clear path back to your original source. That said, here are some starter things you can use:

      • In pre- and post- surveys during the Fall 2021 semester, ENWR 2520 students at UVA reported on their experiences with poetry . . . (“Week 4 Pre- and Post- Surveys”).

        • Works Cited entry for this version would be:

          • “Week 4 Pre- and Post- Surveys.” ENWR 2520-001, Prof. Heidi Nobles, Fall 2021, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA.

For Wednesday, 11/3:

  • Please vote on our final exam location. I’ll let you know the results on Wednesday, so you can be planning your winter travel.

  • Be working on your Unit 3 projects and bring continued work to class. We’ll take some time for paired discussions, and then we’ll have open working time in class.

  • Sign up for a workshop date. I always recommend going sooner than later! Remember that workshop drafts can be partial—the goal is to submit enough material so that your peers can give you meaningful feedback. Roughly, aim for 2/3 of a complete, drafty draft.

For Friday, 11/5:

  • Continue gathering your material and planning/drafting your Unit 3 project. I highly recommend getting together with peers to write—feel free to use the classroom!

    • We will NOT meet in person tomorrow, as I seem to have come down with a bug. I tested negative for Covid, but no sense in spreading discomfort when this is an easy day to cancel.

    • We won’t have other opportunities to cancel this semester, so enjoy this surprise flex day!

  • Heads up: Our final exam WILL be on Zoom.

  • Reid, you’re on deck for submitting a working draft on Monday. :)

    • I may submit something too, so you can practice workshop on me before starting on each other’s work. My work will be out of sync with yours in terms of content/approach, though, so I’ll only submit if it seems useful to you all. TBD.

  • Everyone watch this web page on Friday for Monday’s assignments—there will be reading and responding due BEFORE you arrive for Monday’s class time.

For Monday, 11/8:

  • Keep working on your Unit 3 project. We’ll still mostly be working together in class on Monday; last time before we launch fully into workshop.

  • Reid, please submit to this folder your workshop draft before class on Monday.

    • Sarah and Jacob, you’re on deck; your drafts are due on Wednesday.

For Wednesday, 11/10:

  • Keep working on your Unit 3 project, and pay attention to your submission dates on the workshop schedule, linked above.

  • Sarah and Jacob, submit your workshop drafts to the Drive folder (linked above) before class on Wednesday. Be sure your file names are labeled with your names, so your peers can find your drafts easily.

    • Ellie and Allison, your drafts will be due on Friday.

  • Everyone:

    1. Read Reid’s draft for workshop<—focus on his paper over mine!

    2. Read my draft for workshop. (It’s really only the first 11 pages; don’t let the total page count scare you.)

    3. Note for clarification: You can always skip commenting on your own projects. So Reid, you don’t need to comment on your paper or fill out a form for your paper. And so on for everyone throughout this unit.

For Friday, 11/12:

  • Keep working on your Unit 3 project, and pay attention to your submission dates on the workshop schedule, linked above.

  • Ellie L. and Allison, submit your workshop drafts to the Drive folder (linked above) before class on Wednesday. Be sure your file names are labeled with your names, so your peers can find your drafts easily.

    • Maria and Bex, your drafts will be due on Monday.

  • Everyone:

    1. Read Sarah’s draft for workshop

    2. Read Jacob’s draft for workshop.

For Monday, 11/15:

  • Keep working on your Unit 3 project, and pay attention to your submission dates on the workshop schedule, linked above.

  • Maria and Bex, submit your workshop drafts to the Drive folder (linked above) before class on Monday. Be sure your file names are labeled with your names, so your peers can find your drafts easily.

    • Lauren and Kathleen, your drafts will be due on Wednesday.

  • Everyone:

    1. Read Ellie’s draft for workshop

    2. Read Allison’s draft for workshop.

For Wednesday, 11/17:

  • Watch this TED talk on creativity and flow. It’s fun. I hope it helps you think about getting yourself into places where you can “get in the zone” during your academic work.

  • Keep working on your Unit 3 project, and pay attention to your submission dates on the workshop schedule, linked above.

  • Lauren and Kathleen, submit your workshop drafts to the Drive folder (linked above) before class on Wednesday. Be sure your file names are labeled with your names, so your peers can find your drafts easily.

    • Ellie M. and Brianna, your drafts will be due on Friday.

  • Everyone:

    1. Read Maria’s draft for workshop

    2. Read Bex’s draft for workshop.

For Friday, 11/19:

  • Keep working on your Unit 3 project, and pay attention to your submission dates on the workshop schedule, linked above.

  • Ellie M. and Brianna, submit your workshop drafts to the Drive folder (linked above) before class on Wednesday. Be sure your file names are labeled with your names, so your peers can find your drafts easily.

    • Zac and Ny, your drafts will be due on Monday.

  • Everyone:

    1. Read Lauren’s draft for workshop

    2. Read Kathleen’s draft for workshop.

For Monday, 11/22:

  • Keep working on your Unit 3 project, and pay attention to your submission dates on the workshop schedule, linked above.

  • Zac and Ny, submit your workshop drafts to the Drive folder (linked above) before class on Monday. Be sure your file names are labeled with your names, so your peers can find your drafts easily.

    • Arfa and Veer, your drafts will be due on Monday, 11/29.

  • Everyone:

    1. Read Ellie M.’s draft for workshop

    2. Read Brianna’s draft for workshop.

For Monday, 11/29:

  • Keep working on your Unit 3 project—you’ll want to try to have your revised, near-final draft completed by Wednesday, 12/1 (Friday, 12/3 for Ginger), so we can start copy editing and production stuff in class as soon as workshops end.

  • Watch for your graded Unit 2 essays over the break. I’ll set up a regrade day or two for the week we get back, so we can knock out any necessary revisions.

  • Arfa, submit your workshop draft to the Drive folder (linked above) before class on Monday. Be sure your file name is labeled with your name, so your peers can find your draft easily.

    • Ginger and Veer, your draft will be due on Wednesday, 12/1.

  • Everyone:

    1. Read Zac’s draft for workshop

    2. Read Ny’s draft for workshop.

For Wednesday, 12/1:

  • Heads up: I was wrong! I can’t miss Friday’s class—we’re workshopping! We WILL meet for class on Friday (and then I will run). :-D See you on Wednesday and Friday!

  • Review your graded second essays here.

    • I’ll make the numeric grades visible on Collab later on Monday. I have added 5 percentage points to everyone’s grades (i.e., if the paper got a 78, you’ll see an 83 in Collab), partly because I’m returning these so late, and partly because you’ll have the chance to apply the comments in revising your final projects, in terms of learning the actual writing skills.

    • I would love to see any/all revise these; for nearly everyone, 1-2 hours would likely raise the grade by 5-10 percentage points.

  • Set up optional regrade meetings with me if you want to. I’ve opened up 12 spots on Thursday; if you want a meeting but none of those work for you, see me for other possible options.

    • You are also welcome to use these meetings to discuss your final projects!

  • Did I agree to do your final regrade via email? Are you still waiting for that regrade? :-D Please let me know here.

  • Ginger and Veer, submit your workshop drafts to the Drive folder (linked above) before class on Wednesday. Be sure your file names are labeled with your names, so your peers can find your drafts easily.

  • Everyone:

    1. Read Arfa’s draft for workshop

In-Class on Wednesday, 12/1:

Please take time to complete the following TWO course evaluations in response to our class. I use these

  1. University Course Evaluation: https://in.virginia.edu/CourseXperience
    *The link above takes you to a list of ALL your courses. Select our course from your list.

  1. Dept.-equivalent Evaluation: https://virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9KpmSbAWe1QSxro

For Thursday, 12/2:

For Friday, 12/3:

  • Drop a complete, as-polished-as-possible draft of your project to this folder by class time.

    • I’ll be assigning you to groups to do asynchronous substantive and copy edit work before Monday’s class.

    • Monday’s class will be last-minute trouble-shooting day.

  • I’ll post a sign-up sheet for Monday meetings, in case you want to meet with me before submitting your final projects.

  • Everyone:

    1. Read Ginger’s draft for workshop

    2. Read Veer’s draft for workshop

      1. Review both files; add 2 comments to the Google doc.

      2. Fill out this Google form.

For Monday, 12/6:

  • Heads up: I’m extending the due date on these projects until midnight on Tuesday, to allow more time for these last editing/revision passes.

  • We’ll focus on sub-edits this weekend, and then we’ll do some revisions and copy editing together on Monday.

  • We’ll also have some final administrative wrap-up stuff.

  • Instructions for Sub-Edits:

    1. Access your peers’ papers in this folder.

    2. Each person should review TWO other papers; likewise, each person should receive feedback from TWO other people. I’ve left a sign-up sheet in the linked folder, so you can indicate whose papers you’ve reviewed/see who still need review.

    3. This weekend, I want you to focus mostly on substantive (big picture) edits, with some very light attention to copy edits (NOT proofreading).

    • Round One: Sub Edits—spend 20-30 minutes reading EACH paper (so plan for about an hour total) and use the color-coded highlighting + comments model. So:

      • If you see gaps or places that still need development, highlight in green.
        *Green would also be appropriate if you notice the voice slipping or changing, or if a joke isn’t landing, or you just want more details, etc.

      • If you see places where the organization seems off or needing transitions, highlight in yellow.

      • If you really love an idea or a passage’s writing style, highlight in purple.

      • Avoid using blue for now; we’ll get to that in the next round.

      • Go back through and add comments on a few items that most need attention (green first, then yellow). Add at least one note on why you used purple.

    • Round Two: Light/limited copy edits—do NOT copy edit the full paper. Take about 5-10 minutes for each paper (10-20 minutes total). Choose 2 paragraphs—1 that seems clean and easy to read; and 1 that seems messier. Then:

      • Highlight issues you see in blue. Issues are likely to include:

        • Nonspecific pronouns (casual writing shouldn’t mean confusing writing—you still want to be using specific nouns/phrases in these projects)

        • Passive voice (esp. matters with unclear actors)

        • Wordy constructions (if the sentences are sort of running away for no reason, and esp. if they’re getting tangled)

        • Punctuation issues (you can mark stuff if you’re just not sure, for the author to look up later—for quick reference on these, I like The Punctuation Guide, https://www.thepunctuationguide.com/index.html, and Grammar Girl, https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-girl).