LA-190 Essay Two Syllabus Installment

Week 6 (Sept. 30-Oct. 2)

M Essay Two discussion. Ethos. Pathos. Logos. Art Blog Links.  Remember the Writing Center is there to help you prepare these next essays. Homework: Go through some art blogs/venues for reviews, discussions about art and begin to assemble ideas for your next essay. Come to class on Wednesday with an idea for your essay. (This counts as an assignment, so you must come prepared.) Be sure to look at the Purdue site for some ideas and warnings about how to approach academic essays. Consider the problems with many of the responses to Miranda July.

W Continued discussion and group brainstorming towards essay two.

 Week 7 (Oct. 8-10) 

M 3 Copies of draft of Essay Two due. Peer review. Sign-up for individual conferences. You must show up on time. There is no extra time in the schedule to make these up or run over other students. Come in ready with highlights, questions, concerns.

W  Conferences with me.

Week 8 (Oct. 14-16) (Midterm grades due--Natasha Tretheway visit!)

M  Essay Two due, beginning of class, No late essays accepted. Period. 

Introduction Essay 3 and preparation for Thrall reading and Trethewey visit.

W Discussion of Thrall.

Tonight, Trethewey reading. Sign a roll sheet on the table inside the auditorium. 

Put a Bird on It; noticing pattern in art; 

Art Blogs

Here is a link for some art blogs.
Another link  and another.

LA 190 We'll discuss these pieces tomorrow

  (They were on your  homework on the syllabus, so they're  not a new assignment, just a reminder.) Also, the pieces you wrote in response to Miranda July. Be ready with all of them for Wed.

Homework: Selected reading: This reading, this  and this, plus other readings TBA. 

Discussion of Essay Two ideas. In-class writing.

LA-190

Assignment: watch Miranda July's Stand-up Comedy piece and respond in any genre in 250 words or more.
 You can review it. Write a letter about it. Rant.http://www.poemoftheweek.org/eliot_khalil_wilson_id574.html (the Wedding Vows poem is a kind of poetic rant against a marital role)

For Z:  This poem about a bird tattoo.

424-01 ADV CW

Where We Are Going, Where we Have Been. (with apologies to Joyce Carol Oates and a shout-out to Jonathan for reminding me of this one.)

Week Four:

T 09/17 Discussion. In-Class Writing

Distribution of workshop piece (Emily R.)

H 09/19 First workshop. Distribution of second workshop story (Eric R.). Discussion and writing assignment.

Week Five

T 09/24  Assignment of Workshop Groups. Workshop of Eric’s story.

Distribution of third workshop stories today and Thursday. (By Thursday, all of you must have been workshopped or scheduled to be by Tuesday at least once.)

H 09/26 Workshop

Distribution of final workshop pieces for first workshops

DON’T FORGET the MIX SYMPOSIUM: 09/27-28

Week Six

T 10/01  Workshop.

Homework: 

Read: http://www.katebraverman.com/talltalesfromthemekongdelta.html

http://www.katebraverman.com/pagannight.html

H 10/03  Discussion Braverman

Homework: Homework: In 500 words minimum write a story or scene that employs some of Braverman’s style. Bring the typed piece to class for group discussion and be ready to discuss what you cribbed from Kate.

Week Seven

T 10/08 Discussion Braverman pieces.

Homework: Read Thrall. Consider how narrative/story is revealed in this genre. Write an imitation poem or series, plan to have it/them ready for workshop next Thursday 10/17

H10/10  Thrall discussion

Read Thrall (entire)

Week Eight

T 10/15 Discussion of Thrall

W 10/16 WEDNESDAY: 6:30 Canzani Auditorium. Natasha Trethewey visit. MANDATORY.     

H 10/17   Thrall Imitation Pieces Discussion.

Group One distributes stories for workshop

Week Ten

T 10/23   Workshop and Group Two Story distribution.

H 10/25  Group Two Workshop.

Homework: TBA

Week Eleven

T TBA

H TBA

Homework: Read:  http://www.all-story.com/issues.cgi?action=show_story&story_id=292 (Miranda July’s story: The Shared Patio)  The July piece as read by Sedaris discussed here and found on I-Tunes to be downloaded for free and heard.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/11/fiction-podcast-david-sedaris-reads-miranda-july.html

Week Twelve

T  Movie and/or July story discussion

H TBA

Homework: Imitate some aspect of July’s work in 500+ words. Have pieces typed and ready for discussion on Tuesday.  PLAN TO ATTEND HER READING ON MONDAY.

Week Thirteen

MONDAY 11/18 6:30 p.m. MIRANDA JULY YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS, I PROMISE!!

T 11/19  Miranda July imitation pieces due.

H 11/ 21 In-class writing towards giant workshop

Both Contemporary Literature Classes

Here is the link to the Modernist movement that I discussed in class. Many of you have already seen it on the site, but I wanted to make it easier to locate for everyone.

496-01 T-H Contemporary Lit.

Week Four:

T 09/17

The following poems:

The Wasteland and Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.  They will likely feel a bit difficult, we'll discuss them in class, of course, but I will want you to read them first.

H 09/19 Readings discussed.

Homework:  Your first assignment will involve an imitation piece  or series (500 word minimum) of the Modernists. The work can be in a variety of forms (essay, poetry, formal, etc.) as long as it meets the word count.   One way to tackle this might be to write a poem by the light of one of these pieces and then to write a short letter or essay piece that describes your process: how you worked from the imitation and how you worked away from or against it.   It will be due a week from today (09/20)

Read Wallace Stevens, bio. and all poems.  He might be very helpful for your imitations so read him early.

Week Five

T 09/24 Wallace Stevens.

H 09/26 Discussion and turn in of your Modernist pieces.

Homework: Readings: Homework: Readings: Frost, Hughes, Bishop, Moore.

 Look over these forms:  sestina, sonnet, and villanelle, and begin to decide which you will imitate (and discuss in a 300 word minimum formal letter to your readers).  We will look over some examples for both components of this assignment: due 10/

DON’T FORGET the MIX SYMPOSIUM: 09/27-28

Week Six

T 09/31  Formal verse discussion

H 10/02    “  “  “ continued.

Homework: Formal Poetry:  Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Elizabeth Bishop, Marianne Moore, Robert Hayden

Read:  Everyday Use by Alice Walker. Cathedral by Raymond Carver. (Walker to be discussed Thurs. and Carver Tues.

Week Seven

T 10/06  Discussion Carver

H10/08  Discussion Walker

Week Eight

T 10/08  Discussion

Homework:  Read William Harrison’s Present Tense Africa from your Touchstone Anthology p.220

H10/11  Discussion Harrison. Formal poems due today.

Week  Nine

T 10/15 Discussion of Thrall

WEDNESDAY: 6:30 Canzani Auditorium. Natasha Trethewey visit. MANDATORY.     

H 10/18   

Week Ten

T 10/23  NY School Readings. 

H 10/25  Discussion

Homework: Charles Bukowski readings

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/charles-bukowski

At your leisure:

http://bukowski.net/poems/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsc3ItAKSLc

Week Eleven

T NY School discussion, Bukowski.

Homework:  Eula Bliss The Pain Scale (p. 2, Touchstone)

H Discussion: The Lyric Essay through Bliss’ essay.

Homework:  Selected readings: Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell.

Week Twelve

T  The Confessionalists

H Discussion continued

Homework:  Reading: Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin, Michael Cunningham’s White Angel,

Poetry Comics article,

**Your ekphrastic pieces and process papers (500 words minimum) are due on Tuesday 11/20. 

The short version of this assignment is that you will be responding or imitating a piece of literature through visual art. Examples abound: W.H. Auden’s Musee de Beaux Art or WCW’s Icarus (myth-painting-poem).  Or Charles Simic’s poems that respond to Joseph Cornell’s boxes (for the reverse).  Consider the poetry poem:  http://www.tcj.com/a-bianca-stone-interview/

Week Thirteen

MONDAY 11/18 6:30 p.m. MIRANDA JULY YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS, I PROMISE!!

T 11/19  TBA.

H 11/ 21 TBA

Creative Writing Assignment for Tuesday

Come to class, after roll is taken, go outside and find three images to sketch or describe.

Sketch or describe the images.

Name one ailment or disorder.

One very specific thing that might inspire joy in you or someone that you know.
(ex: the smell of library books, the old gas station pumps, the way that young robins have a kind of freckled pattern to their breast, crazy quilts, the color of fox fur, ukeleles, old carousels, etc.)

Place some version of these on your index card. (be as artsy as you'd like)

Pass the card to a classmate.

Emily will give you the rest of the assignment.

All Classes: A General Note

Please keep up with the blog posts. I label them for your classes and update them with class changes and shifts as we go along as a COURTESY to you.

In my college classes and graduate school, the syllabus was given early and we generally had a hard copy of it. If there was a day that got switched or shifted (say a good percentage of a class did not bring in an assignment for group work and we had to do something else that day, or a discussion ran long or included additional texts) we had to note those changes or anything that the professor said during class to change an assignment due date. We were responsible to follow the class in any way that we could. The professor was not responsible for explaining that yes, assignment x was due on Wed. but I moved it and it's due on Friday, if a student was not in class when the announcement was made.

Before we get into our due dates and grading, I want to be sure that you understand that I am teaching you writing or literature, (depending on the class you are in) but I consider my larger responsibility to help you hone your critical thinking. It is what you do in a job, in relationships, in any interaction where information shifts, expands, morphs and requires logical, reasonable response.

I love teaching all of you. I try to approach it with a light touch, allow you to enjoy the subject matter, have a sense of humor about myself, and allow us to play a little as you learn. But I am dead-serious about attendance and your responsibility to find out what you missed and ARRIVE BACK IN CLASS CAUGHT UP. The one missed day is not an excuse not to be prepared for the next class. That's really two absences and not acceptable. Similarly, blaming the blog's format or Go Studio or what have you for your missing something will lead me to believe that you are looking for reasons to resist responsibility. Subscribe to the blog or make a habit of checking it daily. In either case: follow it closely. If your class fell behind on an assignment and we are picking it up again on Monday (190-Beginnings) and I am now reposting that REMINDER, please do not come to me and say that you didn't see the reminder to do what you were supposed to have done already.

I am saying this now BEFORE any of this becomes an issue so that I can help you understand how to be a college student and how that might have differed from your responsibility as a high school student or a student in other types of classes in college.

(LA 190) READ CAREFULLY THIS HAS BEEN UPDATED AND REVISED.

Week 2 (Sept. 2-4)

M  LABOR DAY HOLIDAY  NO CLASS

W Class analysis of texts; Introduce Essay 1

The notion of person in the personal narrative.

Look to Wednesday's homework and prepare for a week from Wednesday.

Week 3 (Sept. 9-11)

M Discussion of beginnings and what makes a good beginning. (please note: I will be checking to see who brought their beginnings in and that will be a building block grade.  This will be the case as well, with your substitute on Wednesday and Monday.   We will also be establishing our groups for group work.

Homework: Bring in three types of endings  and be prepared to discuss their quality, the "moves" that they make,  strengths and weaknesses. Refer to the seven moves reading for some of the ideas you'll consider.

W  Endings. Groups present and discuss their endings amongst themselves and why these were selected (your group's assessment of why this ending was so effective. )

Homework:  Select your topic and write the first paragraph or two of your personal essay (250 words min.)   Plan to bring it in, typed and ready for discussion. Remember, you have this assignment to do, as well as your group's

Your essay's first 250 words are due on Monday.  Please note: the entire essay (1000 word min.)  will be due on Wednesday 09/18 upon my return, so you should have a good first draft mostly written by Monday.

Week 4 (Sept.16-18)

M   Groups discuss the first 250 words of essays. (Pass the essays around your group and write comments for the author to assist him/her in editing the essay and having the first draft ready for Wednesday.) From here on: please make sure to consider the seven moves  from your early reading in analyzing any of our reading assignments. 

W  Discussion of essays: varieties of essays and your next assignment. Remember that ESSAY ONE is due on Monday.

The terms: ethos, pathos, logos. etc. Read this and watch.

Week 5 (Sept. 23-25)

M: Essays are due. Typed. Proofread. Edited. Beginning of class. No exceptions. We have to move quickly to get on track with Essay Two, so be on time, prepared and ready to proceed.  

Discussion. 

Homework: Selected reading: This reading, this  and this, plus other readings TBA. 

W: Discussion of Essay Two ideas. In-class writing.