I hope this weekend’s been kind, everyone. If you have questions about last Thursday’s class, then visit the entries on audio PSAs and example e-portfolios. Those should cover your bases in the usual detail.

And before I continue with what’s in store for the rest of the quarter, as well as some extra participation credit opportunities, I want to remind you that I’ve uploaded some example Major Papers 2 from last quarter. Check them out. Read them. Use them. I also suggest “Democratic Media Activism through the Lens of Social Movement Theory” by William K. Carroll and Robert A. Hackett (from Media, Culture & Society). While we won’t be chatting about this article in class, it’s a pretty solid intertext for your sequence two projects (as are the example MP2s).

Ok, then. This week:

Tuesday the 26th:

• Podcasts 2 and 3 are due by the end of the day (and, to address Juhi’s smart question: “Your ‘incident’ needn’t be negative”).
• Sequence Two Group Meetings to Plan for 2.2
• Conference 2 Sign-Up (for Wednesday the 5th, Thursday the 6th, and Friday the 7th)
• Panel on “Academic Inquiry & Public Work”

Thursday the 28th:

• Final look at the Keyword Collaboratory
• Final review of the e-portfolio (with a check-list!)
• Prepping for Your Group Presentation and Major Paper 2
• Final questions about Sequence Two

Next Week:

Tuesday the 4th:

• No class!
• 2.1 is due — although I suggest finishing it by February the 28th

Thursday the 6th:

Group Presentations (of Response Paper 2.2) in Allen Auditorium

And the Next Week:

Tuesday the 11th:

• Major Paper 2 due
• Class potluck!
• Course Evals
• Class conversations about 121

Thursday the 13th

• No class!
• Final Conferences (on Friday, too)

And, on Thursday the 20th, your final e-portfolios are due. Cool?  Start giving them a gander now.  Review the instructions and the examples I provided and let me know what questions you have.

If you haven’t, then get on the service-learning, people. It’s 15% of your grade and the core of your sequence two work. Onward!

Finally, a number of you have asked me about opportunities for extra participation credit. While I suggest focusing on your e-portfolio first and foremost (after all, it’s 70% of your grade), I’m happy to give you extra credit for bonus blog entries. That said, here’s a brief prompt:

Attend any of the following events or spaces and write a brief blog entry that connects it with the course material. (Shouldn’t be too difficult, given most of the events or spaces below attend to sonic culture and media.) Please categorize your blog entry under “Extra Credit” and post it by March 12th. Fair enough?

• The EMP/SFM (and focus on a particular exhibit or activity, if you don’t mind)
• “Simultaneity: Entanglement” installation at 911 Media Arts
• Rossum’s Universal Robots at Theater Schmeater
• Richard Powers’s March 5th Talk/Reading at Benaroya (ask me about a discount — $10 tix)
• The film, Be Kind, Rewind

Be in touch with questions. And to those of you who rolled with me to the EMP on Thursday, I’ve marked you down for credit. No need to blog.

Take care, everyone. It’s been a pleasure thus far, and I look forward to the balance.

Yrs,

Jentery

Here are some example major papers from last year’s second sequence. As I mentioned in class, these students did not have the opportunity of having examples. Accordingly, consider these launching pads into your own work.

Please also note that these papers emerge from varying degrees of revision. Read for potential lines of inquiry and expandable ideas. Indeed, read for how they approached the prompt and how their approach might be augmented.

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

Example 4

Let me know what questions you have!

Well, let’s start with a few examples.

 

 Example 1: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Example 2: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Example 3: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Ok, now that we have some examples, what appears common amongst all three? What “components” are required? What are the announcements doing? How are they doing it? And how do their rhetorical approaches differ?

With the answers to the above questions in mind, let’s group up and begin thinking about Response Paper 2.2, which is slated for two weeks from now in the Allen Auditorium.

In your groups, post a single entry, which should be categorized under “Audio PSAs,” that articulates the following:

• How are you going to record this thing? Who in your group will do the recording?
• What social issue related to your local Boys and Girls Club might you target? Who in your group might research this issue a bit more? (You need evidence, right?)
• Why does your issue warrant more public attention? Why does it matter? Who cares?
• What might be your target audience?
• Imagine how your PSA might be “public.” Where would you play it? When?
• Since your PSA is sound only, how will it engage your target audience? Who in your group might be responsible for the “creative construction” or “sound-scripting” of your PSA?

If you have time remaining, then you might also include some preliminary ideas. What’s your plan? How is this thing going to sound? What’s it going to do? When and how will you compose it?

As you do so, ask me questions!

Let us do this, people!

To prep for your final portfolios, please get into your sequence two groups.Once you have done so, then you will be assigned a portfolio from one of my previous courses to constructively review, grade, and blog. Here are the assignments:

Group 1: Sarah Wang’s 131 Portfolio with a “tags” theme (passcode is “sarah”)

Group 2: Zachary Brown’s 131 Portfolio with a robot theme

Group 3: Gareth Snow’s 131 Portfolio with an “algorithm” and “atlas” theme

Group 4: Jessica Vu’s 131 Portfolio with a “movement” theme

Group 5: Kendell Tylee’s 131 Portfolio with a diversity theme

For this collaborative workshop, each group should work its way through the portfolio, emphasizing the “meta-text” and “meta-arguments” in the portfolio itself (with less emphasis on the attached papers and evidence).

Once you have reviewed the entire portfolio, then you should compose a single blog entry for your entire group (categorized under “e-portfolio”) and that entry should answer the following questions:

(1) How does the portfolio address the course outcomes and emerge from the course? Be specific. Are the outcomes in the students own words? Are they explicitly mentioned? Are they creatively integrated? Are they shown, or are they just told?

(2) What type of evidence does the portfolio provide? To what effects?

(3) What three rhetorical strategies (e.g., how the student says what she says) are most effective or persuasive about the portfolio? Strategies might include theme, writing style, ways of addressing the audience, and site design.

(4) Name three things that could be more effective or more persuasive and explain how they could be revised accordingly.

(5) As a group of 100-level English students, what from this portfolio might you use in the service of your own portfolios? That is, what did you learn about the portfolio process from your example portfolio?

(6) Based upon what you read, what grade would you give this portfolio on the 4.0 scale? (And don’t ask me what grade I gave it. You know that I cannot release student grades.)

Two things to keep in mind: (1) The audience for this entry includes the balance of your 121 classmates, and (2) as you write, you must include at least five transitions from the class website.

Also, please note that the course outcomes may have changed since these portfolios were composed. In fact, they did.

I’ll give you about forty-five minutes to read the portfolios and complete your blog entry. And when you are finished, you’ll report back out to the class.

Let me know what questions you have!

Good to see each of you today. I’m looking forward to giving the class over to you during this second sequence, watching you collaborate, and responding to your inquiries. As we’ll probably observe, community-based learning is quite a different practice from academic learning. That said (and as always), I encourage you to be active, creative, and downright brilliant. This sequence is your chance to (at the least) imagine something you think should happen and (what’s more) produce that something and implement it. I welcome all forms of composition.

To start us off, Podcast 2 is due on Thursday, ok? And put a lid on Major Paper 1 this week. Let us move forward. (And at the bottom of this entry are your Sequence Two groups.)

After Thursday’s class, we’ll head to the EMP at 2 p.m. If you are interested, then meet me in my office (Art 347) then, ok?

I’ve read your evaluations of the course. Thank you. I appreciate your honesty, your kind words, your questions, and your suggestions. To address your concerns, here are my comments in response:

• Re: the portfolio, we’ll be discussing it on Thursday and workshopping examples next Thursday. I won’t leave you in the dark! I promise! Still, be in touch with questions, ok? I’m here to help with revisions, writing, and the like. Just ask!
• When I say, “stakes,” I mean, “Why does your argument matter? How is it changing things and for what purposes? Who should care about it?” Cool? Let me know if you need more of an explanation.
• If you EVER have questions about a prompt (e.g., paper length, expectations, or purposes), then please don’t hesitate to ask. Call me on it in class. After all, prompts are subject to revision, too. I won’t hesitate to make changes if you think they are necessary. Honestly.
• We’ll start blogging in class more, starting Thursday, actually. No worries!
• We haven’t discussed music — directly — in a class about sound because, in all honesty, we don’t have time. Alas, the tyranny of the quarter system. What’s more, if 121 were not a composition course, then music would certainly be a part of the curriculum. Feel free, tho, to use music in the service of your writing and class conversations! There’s the audio PSA and your podcasts, too!
• I’ll watch my potty mouth in class. Sorry! I don’t mean to offend and apologies if I have.
• While I cannot — per the English department — give you a grade right now, the mid-quarter evaluation should give you a pretty solid idea of where you are in the class. If you want, tho, then ask me. I’ll tell you, with some suggestions for revision, too.
• I incorporate technology into this class for five primary reasons: (1) It enhances collaboration and multi-modal learning. (2) It does not privilege the classroom as a space for knowledge-making. (3) Students tend to — but, admittedly, not always — enjoy working with digital media and information technologies. (4) It forces students and instructors to re-think how we understand “composition” in the academy and how we “compose” for an academic audience. (5) My doctoral research and dissertation focus on technology, culture, embodiment, and the production of art.
• If you are having difficulty with the readings, then the problem isn’t you! I assure you. As you read, let me know what questions you have.
• Reminder: You can earn extra participation credit in this course (e.g., EMP, (virtual) office hours, sonic versions of your work, and extra podcasts/blogs). See me with questions.
• My rib is doing better. Thanks! I only cracked it; it wasn’t a clean break.
• Do you have suggestions for an in-class workshop (or even one for extra credit after class)? Let me know! I’d love to hear your ideas! We still have time!
• If you feel that the writing is quite similar for each paper, then tell me. I encourage creative approaches to writing, and by no means do I imagine the prompts as requiring a universal approach/response.
• If you ever think you are “writing to fill space,” then quit writing and e-mail/see me. I’d rather read a short, thoughtful piece than a longer, less engaging one. Less is more! I’m always glad to give you suggestions, wherever you are in the writing process.
• My favorite records right now are: All Hour Cymbals by Yeasayer and Untrue by Burial.
• For those of you who are actually interested, I’m teaching English 111 in the spring. The course is called “1919/2019: Writing with the Past, for the Future.” We’ll be studying media and literature from the year 1919, creating a collaborative, “mock-1919 document,” and then arguing for a medium of the future –something we might see in 2019. Then I’ll be doing the Summer Institute on “Media and the Senses,” with –in 2008-09 — 200/300-level courses in English/Comparative History of Ideas that stress digital media and/or 20th century U.S. literature. These 200/300-level courses will NOT be composition courses. Be in touch if you want more details. And thanks for inquiring. I’d love to work with all of you again!

I hope these comments are productive for you — at whatever level, hahaha….

And now for the Sequence Two Groups:

Group 1 (Rotary)

• Ryan
• Colleen
• Kenyon
• Casey
• Miriam

Group 2 (Wallingford)

• Ainsley
• Ashley
• Seth
• Jillian

Group 3 (Wallingford)

• Aitza
• Summer
• Krysta

Group 4 (Wallingford)

• Nathan
• Francis
• Sam
• Scott

Group 5 (Wallingford)

• Sohroosh
• Aly
• Juhi
• Jenna

Looking forward to Thursday, everyone! Thanks again for a great class today!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who presented their sound-scripts today. Each one of them was smart, sophisticated, and engaging. What’s more, I want to thank Casey, Aitza, and Ashley for their patience and willingness to present next Thursday. Much obliged.

Classes like today make me so stoked to be an instructor. You no doubt demonstrated that students should contribute a great deal to course content at the University. Rather than simply consuming and repeating information, you produced knowledge. To boot, I learned quite a bit from each of you today and during the entire sound-script process.  After today, I’m all the more excited to read your major papers.

Now, if you don’t mind, let’s talk future.

Tuesday the 19th:

• Major Paper 1 is due (if you need more time, then e-mail me)
• Don’t forget to use the mock paper and MLA in the service of your argument
• Before class (e.g., over the weekend), feel free to e-mail me with your questions
• In class, we’ll chat in depth about sequence two, and I’ll distribute the three prompts for that sequence

Thursday the 21st:

• Podcast 2 is due
• We’ll complete Blog #5 in class and be the audience for Aitza, Ashley, and Casey’s sound-scripts (thanks again for your patience here!)
• In class, we’ll also workshop your sequence two ideas, which will stress your service-learning, how to represent your community sites and partners, and how to write about public work
• At 1:30, we’ll take a trip down to the Experience Music Project (get your voucher, if you have not already)

That’s enough of time and space for now. Enjoy your weekend, people.

Write sound, think ahead, and be well.

Best,

Jentery

Afternoon, all. Good to see you today.

During today’s class, aside from reviewing Major Paper 1 and MLA, we considered how we might think of composition in terms of developing a set of tools for knowledge-making, rather than as information in and of itself, isolated and only applicable to analyzing For Whom the Bells Tolls and the like. To that end, we:

• Developed slogans for 2008 presidential candidates.
• Used approaches relevant to the first major paper to argue for why the slogans matter.
• Unpacked the target audiences for those slogans.
• Attended to how those audiences intersect with particular social issues.

And as Ryan noted, these slogans are not written on a whim. They are rhetorically strategic, politically purposeful, and usually — as with yours — quite clever. That said, we might have some tools in our belts to work through not just why we vote or even how we vote, but also how we — as subjects — come to the decision on how to vote.

On to a different form of representation… Your sound-scripts.

Before Wednesday at 9 p.m.:

• Please upload your sound file to the course drop box or e-mail it to me at english3000@gmail.com
• If you are using YouTube, then please include the URL for your clip as a comment in the drop box or in your e-mail to me. Thanks!
• I’ll upload your sound-scripts to the blog on Wednesday evening.

For Thursday’s class:

• Please come prepared to class, on time, ready to introduce and implicate your sound-script. You should also come ready to ask questions of the sound-scripts.
• We will show your visual (on mute) and play your sound-script over it.
• If you are using a DVD, then please put a sticky note (or the like) on it that denotes which chapter of the film you’ll be playing. Ok?

As you prepare your sound-scripts, let me know what questions you have.

All the best,

Jentery

Before I begin, My Drum Buddy is just plain awesome:

That said, shown, and heard, I enjoyed meeting with you last week. The major paper and sound-script ideas are looking stellar, and I’m looking and hearing forward.

And, per last Thursday’s class, our mock paper on Roger & Me is on the blog. Use it for your major papers!

Now, here’s what’s in store this week:

Tuesday’s class:

• Nothing is “due”
• Workshop: “The Presidential Primaries: Mobilizing 121 Tools Elsewhere”
• Review of MLA
• Prepping Your Sound-Scripts for Thursday
• Last minute questions/concerns about your Major Paper 1

Thursday’s class:

• Your sound-scripts are due for in-class presentation

Looking ahead:

• Tuesday, February 19th: Major Paper 1 is due
• Thursday, February 21st: Podcast 2 is due
• Tuesday, February 26th: Podcast 3 is due

Let me know what questions you have!

Best,

Jentery

Today Jentery exclaimed, “You’re all claim and no support!” Sounds like my last breakup.

Here it is! Enjoy! Go, the future!

Mock Paper (.docx)

UPDATE:

Indeed, how we make knowledge is the first question. For you sans Word 2007, below is the mock paper in two other formats:

Mock Paper (.doc)

Mock Paper (.rtf)

How can information be free when it’s formatted?