This is Water: What's the Value of Your College Education?

For our final course reading and writing response:
(post response by due Monday at 6pm)

   Here's a link to the David Foster Wallace commencement speech at Kenyon College in 2005.  The speech is also posted as a pdf on ctools in our resources where it might be easier to read.

Please take some TIME -- at this crazy busy time of the year -- to carefully read through his talk and thoughtfully consider it.

I'm interested to hear some of your honest reaction -- as college students, many of you graduating college students -- but you are all students at university confronting and wondering about the value of your education here and what it will mean to you and your future.  It's important as you read it, I think, to try to consider DFW's words beyond his later suicide.  It might be very hard to do, but I'm interested in hearing your response to his message here in this speech -- in light of your experiences and your current understanding of your college education and your concerns -- especially as you enter the summer, the world, and those thrilling unknowns.  

Here are a few links to check out David Foster Wallace's voice if you want to hear and see him in other venues to get a sense of him:

A clip from the Charlie Rose Show here.

Talking briefly about language in Italy.

And a longer radio show about him
On Endnotes:  a BBC documentary on D.F.W.

His NYTimes obituary:

To Write:
Please add 100 - 300+ words in comments here in which you might react to this commencement speech, reflect on your sense of the value of your college education, -- or reflect/consider any points he raises to which you wish to respond.
(You may post one or several shorter comments to get your 100 - 300 words in...  and you might also reply to others comments...).

Please read and post your comment(s) by Monday, April 16th at 6pm. 

For Tuesday -- April 10

              Writing is a process of dealing with not knowing, a forcing of what and how.  --Donald Barthelme


                            You repeat yourself.  A lot.   -- an old friend 
____________

Keep plugging away on your profile drafts.  Keep asking questions.  Keep learning and exploring your topic.   What story are you telling?  And to who?


I am asking everyone to bring their most current paper drafts as works-in-progress -- seven pages worth due for this Tuesday.  Bring your 7+ pages to class.


We will also be work-shopping essay drafts this week.  I will post these drafts on ctools with instructions -- after I get them from our volunteers on Sunday.    Let me know if you have questions.

finding the shapes...

The SpitBall Room

               Welcome to The SpitBall Room:                                       (okay,okay -- super very pretty corny, but fluxus. Let's just go with it...)

A place to post your topics and ideas, 
                      to ask questions of your peers
             and
                             to share your possible topics or angles on them
                                         to see what sticks --
and get FEEDBACK

(or where you might just share where you are -- for those who are still sorting through their possible topics)

Please post as comments or replies-to comments

 to this post

For This week -- April 3

Here's the To Do recap for Tuesday 


Start your Essay 4 Working Proposal -- some things to include
Subject:
The Idea:
Your Angle -- or Point of View:
Kinds of Evidence you might use:
What you need to find out:
Audience:
Questions you are asking:
Some genuine questions driving the profile:


(You may not know all of these, or not yet -- or you may have other things you want to include on your working proposal.   Continue to think on your topic.  Start research and learning as much as you can.  You will ask better questions as you learn more.  We need to become mini-experts.


Put together  and bring your working proposal to class on Tuesday. Keep making decisions.
             (ps--  see the The Spitball Room, er next post)

To Read:

      --   "Don't Look" by Victoria Morrow on ctools.

         --  "The Restless Life of Margaret Wise Brown, author of Goodnight Moon" by Katie Roiphe on ctools

       --   "Meet the Shaggs" by Susan Orlean in Writing True text

next:  "Port Authority" Colson Whitehead -- in Writing True

(please notice the variety of ways all these profiles approach profile -- these are examples that I hope you will draw from as you consider you own topics and approach to your profile.  None of them are reports.  We are writing creative non-fiction -- which also relies on some narrative -- and CONFLICT.  Interesting Trouble.  Where is the conflict in these examples?  What is the interesting trouble or conflict in the subject of your profile and how can you use it?)

      Also check out:
these short readings on profiles -- on ctools--
"10 Ways -- On finding good topics..."
"Profiles"

in our text:
----  Chapter 9 --The Role of Research.  Learning as much as you can about your topic and some ways to go about it.

Let me know if you have questions.

Bring your Writing True text to class Thursday and...

For class Thursday,
                        bring your Writing True book.
    You should read the opening to Chapter 13 on Portrait -- (and even  consider the essays the text includes there and why they are considered portraits.)  You should also read the essay "My Fake Job" which is in our resources in ctools.  It is an example of a kind of profile, perhaps, (or a kind of event, a fluxus) but as profile, as you read, consider what you think Rothman profiles?   What is shown and captured? What remains?

We are also going to look more closely at "Kingpin" -- so please give it another look, bring your copy in to class, -- and read it if you have not.  It is an essay I will return to as we work on these profiles -- partly because because because-- I think we can pull some useful strategies from the way it is built and structured--and for some ways of talking about movement (flow... fluxus. Ok. I'm pushing it.)

I am reading more imitation essays tonight and following the fluxus thread -- awash in the essential questions.

Fluxus Dooce

Here's the Fluxus Manifesto:  a manifesto!

from wikipedia

Here's more info on Fluxus to consider-- (you curious types).

wikipedia link, ummm, even reveals...

Early Fluxus

The origins of Fluxus lie in many of the concepts explored by composer John Cage in his experimental music of the 1950s. Cage explored notions of indeterminacy in art, through works such as 4' 33", which influenced Lithuanian-born artist George Maciunas.^[1] Maciunas (1931–1978) organized the first Fluxus event in 1961 at the AG Gallery in New York and the first Fluxus festivals in Europe in 1962.^[1]

While Fluxus was named and organized by Maciunas, the Fluxus community began in a small but global network of artists and composers who were already at work when Maciunas met them through minimalist composer La Monte Young and poet Jackson Mac Low in the early 1960s. John Cage's 1957 to 1959 Experimental Composition classes at the New School for Social Research in New York City were attended by Mac Low, Al Hansen, George Brecht, and Dick Higgins, many of whom were working in other media with little or no background in music. Another cluster of artists was connected to each other throughRutgers University. Many other artists were invited by Cage to attend his classes unofficially at the New School. Marcel Duchamp and Allan Kaprow (who is credited as the creator of the first "happenings") were also influential to Fluxus. In its early days Fluxus artists were active in Europe (especially in Germany), and Japan, as well as in the United States.

And this helps to connect it to other movements.  Does it fit with or help contextualize what you saw and experienced?

Artistic philosophies
Fluxus is similar in spirit to the earlier art movement of Dada, emphasizing the concept of anti-art and taking jabs at the seriousness of modern art.[1] Fluxus artists used their minimal performances to highlight their perceived connections between everyday objects and art, similarly to Duchamp in pieces such asFountain.[1] Fluxus art was often presented in "events", which Fluxus member George Brecht defined as "the smallest unit of a situation".[1][14] The events consisted of a minimal instruction, opening the events to accidents and other unintended effects.[15] Also contributing to the randomness of events was the integration of audience members into the performances, realizing Duchamp's notion of the viewer completing the art work.[15]The Fluxus artistic philosophy has been defined as a synthesis of four key factors that define the majority of Fluxus work:
Fluxus is an attitude. It is not a movement or a style.
Fluxus is intermedia.[17] Fluxus creators like to see what happens when different media intersect. They use found and everyday objects, sounds, images, and texts to create new combinations of objects, sounds, images, and texts.
Fluxus works are simple. The art is small, the texts are short, and the performances are brief.
Fluxus is fun. Humour has always been an important element in Fluxus.

why Thank you wikipedia.  


Maybe you will go and find more on Fluxus to share.  


Hope you will contribute or react or even describe some of what you experienced today during our own Fluxus event.  

Fluxus on Fluxus

let's hear you GO Fluxus on Fluxus in as many posts with as many words as you want -- (added as comments to this post on class blog).  share, notice, ask, think, observe, gesture, provoke, sigh or start a trend

or

questions, thoughts observations, gestures, provocations, photos, and/or your original fluxus productions as well as any other way you want to join in/express yourself.  Comment as many times as you want in as many words in each comment.  yes.

We're going to Fluxus...

... for a visit.

Here's the link to the UMMA website on the Fluxus and the Essential Questions of Life exhibition.

Check it.

Cites -- and our Reading for tomorrow's class

Hi All--
 A few questions are coming in about citing in your cultural critiques, and while it may break some of the flow --  in-text citations and a works cited page do add credibility and authority -- so you should include them where they are needed --even if they break some flow or rhythm.  So cite what you know needs to be cited--give credit where it is due.  Leaning on facts, data, experts, etc. ---will only help.

I do want to remind everyone about the reading for Tuesday's class --"Kingpin" -- about the bowler Pete Weber and on our ctools site.
As you read, please pay special attention to the essay's structure and use of TIME.  What do you notice about its shape and how it builds and moves?  What does it tell us about how the essay was written.  We will also talk about VOICE -- and other VOICES -- and how the writer uses them here.  Please be sure to READ this essay closely  Print and bring a copy to class with your notes and comments.

Let me know if you have questions.

Thanks everyone...

Great job in class today and thank you to all the volunteers.  We had six really good examples of cultural critique -- and I hope a good deal for you to draw on and strategies to consider as you revise and revise and make this your best writing of the term. (Well, until your next essay.)

You may have noticed how critical VOICE can be in this short essay and so reading aloud and hearing your VOICE (and tone and emphasis) will only help you make decisions as you go.

Keep your eyes and ears open for more evidence, too.  You never know what will happen, what you'll find or encounter that could boost and help shape your essay.   Now that your cultural critique has a focus you may even notice more that seems relevant, current, -- even funny.  Stay open and aware.


 And enjoy...

It's Spring!

Groups for Thursday's peer group work on your CC's

Hi All--
Please post your most-recent, revised, 900 word essay on your blog by 10am Thursday.   (Be sure your comment feature allows comments.)

Group members should read and review each essay and then post substantive critical feedback for the writer. Let them know what is working and why?  What needs work and why?  Discuss Tone, Voice, Audience.  Is the topic clear?  Ask questions.  What might the writer continue to do or consider as they revise .
(200 plus words for these two comments.)

Groups:
1.  Kristin, Bryan, Julian
2.  Randy, Eugene, Jenny
3.  Allison, Nathan, Scott
4.  Ariel, Spencer, Mimi
5.  David, Elly, Justin
6.  Michelle, Andy, Resha, Michael  (for the group of four, comment on two others --but try to make sure everyone gets two sets of feedback.)

Try to post your comments within 24 hours by Friday.

Let me know if you have questions or concerns.
No class on Thursday: reminder

Commenting

I changed a setting -- so anyone using other blogs can comment on here.  Please do!

It's a kind of tea...

Trees and light

Light til 7:38pm!

Ann Arbor.  2012.  Photo by T. Hetzel.

Post examples of Cultural Critiques...

Here's a kind of cultural critique by comedian Louis CK, a bit dated, but still funny.  Check it out.

Note:  How does he makes it relatable?  How does he create sides, and positions us.  What makes it funny?  What makes it a cultural critique?

Post  an example of a cultural critique you want to share here as a comment or on your own blog.

The work for Tuesday's class

Just to clarify our work for Tuesday's class:

-- Read "Against Love" by Laura Kipnis on ctools.  (Note how she positions herself in her writing -- and how she creates the "other side" to argue against).

-- Take any of Kipnis' contentions about love -- and post a RIFF on it on your BLOG.  You can agree, disagree, or go your own way.  200 or more words.  Have fun, consider your language, audience, and voice.  Please post these riffs on your blog by Monday at 6pm.  Venture into cultural critique.

-- Come to class with 3 possible topics for your cultural critique.  We will share and discuss these in class on Tuesday.  As you consider your topics, be aware of evidence and the kinds of support your see these cultural critiques drawing on.

--  Let me know if you have questions as you go...

For Tuesday March 6

Hi Y'All--

Welcome back!

I posted about the work due on your own blog in my previous post.  It should be posted soon.

For this Tuesday's class, we agreed to bring in our most revised versions of BOTH our imitation essays.   Please bring a paper copy of each imitation so that we can share our work in peer review.   The Final Essay 2 is due on Thursday.

We will also talk about and write on the third part of this paper -- the reflective analysis of your efforts.  (See your blog responses as well....)

Let me know if you have questions.

Post on Your Two Author Choices

In an effort to share methods and strategies, as well as some of your observations and analysis of the writer's voice you are imitating, please post a short piece on each of your imitations.  Include the author, your topic, and then some of your key points of analysis of the writer's voice.  What are you noticing and using in your imitation?  Consider their tone, style, sentences, use of punctuation, themes, meta-discourse, point of view -- any and all the things that are helping you with your imitation.

Finally add any strategies you use that you find effective?  Have you found audio to listen to?  Have you typed up the author's works?  Have you read other of their writings?  Share what you are doing and what is working (or not working for you) that others might find useful.

Let's try to get these up and posted sooner rather than later!

Hope you have a safe, happy break!

For Thursday

Here's the To Do list for Thursday's class:

Read "The Writer's Voice" on Ctools Resources in the On Writing folder.  It will give you more ways to consider and analyze voices as you read and prepare for the next paper.

--Read Zadie Smith's  "Scenes from a Smith Family Christmas"

--Read Raymond Carver's "My Father's Life" -- both can be found in our readings on Ctools.

Finally, list out 4 or 5 writers you are considering for your two imitations.  You might peruse the textbook or explore some of the readings I have posted on Ctools for more possibilities.  Please let me know if you have questions.

Bring your textbook to class

Please bring your Writing True text to class this week.

Readings for Tuesday 2/14

Hi All--
Here are the readings for this coming Tuesday.   From Writing True  -- read 4 short essays:
    
    1. "The Winged Seed" -- Li-Young Lee
    2.  "Dinner at Uncle Boris'"  -- Charles Simic
    3.  "The Miss Dennis School of Writing"  -- Alice Steinbach
    4.  "Going to the Movies"  -- Susan Toth


Remember, we are paying attention to voice and style -- so take note of distinctions in these writers' prose and voice and style as you read. 


Also, please read from our Resources on Ctools  "Chapter 10 -- Make Your Voice Heard."  You might read it before the short readings to help as you consider these writers' choices.   Let me know if you have any questions.  More to follow on the class blog.

For Tuesday

Three Things for Tuesday:

1.  Revise Rewrite Revise Rewrite.  Bring 1 copy of your most recent and complete draft to class.  Include your citations and Works Cited page.

2.  Read from Writing True -- Chapter 7 -- On the Craft of Revision.  You may find parts of this chapter especially useful at this stage of rewriting your essays. Try some new approaches to this work and push yourself in your revising efforts.

3.  Read on Ctools -- "Vary Your Sentences" (and "Vary Your Sentences again"  --included within the pdf.)  You will find some very practical and useful strategies for thinking about your prose.   It's not heavy reading, but again, some smart tactics you can apply as you are revising.  Worth the bit of time, I think.

Let me know if you have questions or concerns.

Essay 1 is Due on Thursday --with rough draft and working proposals attached.

last bit I read

         Here's the quote I read from Peter Elbow's Writing Without Teachers at the end of class today.  I hope it gives you some balm and calm and perspective as you work through your essays, and in fact, allows you to embrace (enjoy seems too strong) the work you are doing as a productive part of writing.  So whether you run on it or shovel the pond  or mop the floor (that's mine) give yourself the space you need when you are writing.  
        Elbow says:   "The turning part in the whole process of growing is the emergence of a focus or theme.  It is also the most mysterious and difficult kind of cognitive event to analyze.  It is the moment when what was chaos is now seen as having a center of gravity.  There is a shape where a moment ago there was none." 
      He goes on, in the very next paragraph to add:  "If you are having difficulty getting a center of gravity to emerge, the cure is to force yourself to make lots of summings up even if they do not fit your material or seem to be right."  
       This continuous "forcing" seems to be part of the writing process -- that we have to get it out to begin to work with it, to really see it, and to better shape it.
        Hopefully, as you work you will see what is working for you -- trying different approaches and strategies -- but staying open as well-- to what helps you along the way in producing your best work.  Cheers!

SHOVEL the POND

RUN ON IT

which way?

hmmmmm...

Happy Sledding!

Hope you all are warm and struggling appropriately with your essay drafts for Tuesday.

Drafting is an exploration -- so try to let yourself go, try to turn off the internal editor and just write -- and see what you find.  Peter Elbow, in his 1973 book Writing Without Teachers, in which he stresses the power of freewriting, says:

"The habit of compulsive, premature editing doesn't just make writing hard.  It also makes it dead.  Your voice is damped out by all the interruptions, changes, and hesitations between the consciousness and the page.  In your natural way of producing words there is a sound, a texture,  a rhythm -- a voice -- which is the main source of power in your writing."

You don't have to make it right this first time through-- just write and write.

Bring 5-6 (or more) printed pages of your first draft to class on Tuesday.

Daylight til 5:41pm !

I just feel like it is something to note now and then...

Blogs vs Term Papers

Just thought some of you might like to see this Jan 20th NYTimes article on Blogs vs Term Papers in college writing -- one of the things we discussed in class today -- and wanted to pass on the link.

Wonder what you think?

on Gladwell

Here's a link to an interview with Malcolm Gladwell that you might find interesting in which he talks about how he works.  What do you think?

(from Time. ) 

Fail. Fail. Fail Again.

Interesting and timely story on failing and failure -- STRUGGLING -- and its role in success.

(Yes, CNN.)  The Success of Failure: Pulitizer's winner suprising...

on writer Jennifer Egan -- whose A Visit from the Good Squad won last year's Pulitzer.

Wow or Whoa or Woe

A compelling story about the effects of big-time sports on universities in this weekend's NYTimes.  Worth a look...    "How Big-Time Sports Ate College Life"

I wonder what you think since you are here and in the midst of these things and are likely to know better than anybody else.  As a student, how true is the piece?  What parts ring most true?    What seems off -- or just plain inaccurate to your experience?  What seems most out of whack?  Any tales to add to the article's list of things students have been known to do for sports?   A  possible blog topic  - or topic for Essay 1.

Or just something to check out and let us know what you think as a comment here.

Jan 24 and 26 -- To Do

Just to clarify--  
For Tuesday:

1.  Working Proposal due -- Topic, Questions, and Works Consulted with some annotation/notes.  These three basics are part of the WP -- but as you go you may start outlining, mapping or whatever you do as writer to make this "working" proposal useful to you and how you develop your essay.

2.  Read from our text Writing True through to page 46 --which includes first three chapters 1) Why Creative Nonfiction; 2) The Power of the Notebook; and 3) Ten Ways To Draft.  As you can see from these titles, you may find useful information and strategies you can try out and put in action -- in your Working Proposal, for instance, or as you delve into your research and writing.  Pay attention to what works for you and try some things out.

3.  Write your first --  or second/third  Blog post.

Here's the topic again--
Share some keys to your writing process; What works for you -- and why?  And what hasn't -- and why?  What wisdom can you share with others about your experiences?  What has been some of the wisdom passed on to you by teacher / books / other writers that continues to influence you?

It's pretty wide open -- so take it and run.  It's a blog post.  Have some fun.
Try to include a link and/ or an image.  Video?  Or....

(And consider Audience.)


Let me know if you have questions or concerns.  Have a great weekend, too.

Preserves Preserve Us

Here's a good read and possible topic for those interested (or ghoulish) -- in today's Washington Post on the science, history, and practice of embalming national figures in "Exclusive Club Gets New Member" .  

I wonder what you think of the tone and voice of this piece and if it suits the topic.

And, of course, here's a picture of Lincoln:

To Do for next week (Jan 17 and 19)

Hi All--

I'm asking everyone to set up a blog on blogger or wordpress.com and email your blog's URL.  We will soon be posting these responses and other writing on our blogs.

For next week we will be reading and discussing in this order:

"Most Likely To Succeed" by Malcolm Gladwell

"The Bittersweet Science" by Austin Bunn

"A Perfectly Baked Cookie" by David Caldwell

This group of readings may help you think of ways to consider and approach your first paper.  As you read, I'm especially interested in what you observe about how these writers make use of "evidence" in their essays.  We talked about how Gawande stays patient in thoroughly explaining the Harvard research on team learning.

For your written work for Tuesday, please write no more than a page--single spacing is fine -- and discuss 1).  How Gladwell uses evidence and research in this essay.  What are his sources and how does he "use" them to make his case?  2). Describe Gladwell's voice?  Where is the writer in this essay and where does he most assert himself?  (And what is the essay arguing exactly?)

 You might want to read through "The Bittersweet Science" before you write this response -- and also consider Gawande's approach.  That is, reflecting on different approaches may help you better distinguish and specify with more insight what Malcolm Gladwell is doing in his essay.

Please print and turn in these one pagers.

Finally, finally -- start to brainstorm on your possible paper topics.  What are you curious about?  What do you want to learn more about?   "A Perfectly Baked Cookie" a student essay from last year -- may help you think about this paper as well.  We will share some topics in class Tuesday.  Come with potential topics -- and questions.

Have a great weekend! 

--Louis