Portfolio Information and Class Meetings Next Week

Next week we will meet in computer classrooms all week long. On Monday in our general location and on Tuesday in SC 283 and on Thursday in SC 277.

Here is our portfolio description:

English Composition 106 Portfolio Assignment:

Your portfolio assignment is a way for you to reflect on what you have learned this semester. Your draft is due on Thursday, December 11. Your final draft is due on Saturday, December 13 at midnight. I will return work electronically. Everyone will receive their graded assignments within a week of turning them in, but not all at the same time. I will return them as I grade them and I will grade them in the order that they reach my inbox at: hidalgoatpudue@gmail.com.

Your portfolio must contain the following:

• At least two of the projects you worked on this semester. Your group project is not eligible for the portfolio but all other projects are.

• Your portfolio reflective letter. In your reflective letter you will do the following:

1. Describe two of the concepts we have discussed in class this semester: ethos, pathos, a well supported, clear thesis, audience awareness, language, use of valid sources, integration of quotations, MLA citation.

2. For each of the two concepts selected, you will explain how you have applied them in your essays, which if needed, will be revised to make those concepts work better. When you are referring to the concepts you will cite them as you would any other source, by giving the title of the source as well as the page number, or slide number if you’re referring to a Powerpoint. For websites, use the web address of that particular page as well as the paragraph number.

3. You will select a color for each of the two concepts and highlight or change the font color it in the title of that portion of your reflective essay (please do not use yellow). You will then highlight or change the font color of the portions of the projects you are referring to. You need a minimum of three examples per concept.

Homework for this week

For tomorrow, please read "Studios are Pushing Big Oscar Winners as Oscar Contenders."

For our conferences, please come prepared to discuss your reflective essay for Project 4.

For Thursday, bring three copies of project 4 for our peer workshop.

Homework for Tuesday, Nov. 11 and this week's conferences

For tomorrow please read "Making the Case for Teaching our Boys to ... 'Bring Me Home a Black Girl'" which I handed out in class today. If you were not there, please email me and I will send it to you as an attachment.

For this week's conferences please bring your thesis and your sources for Project 4.

Homework for Thursday, November 6

We were so caught up with poverty, the election and where we're meeting for the W;t events that I forgot to tell you what your homework was. And yes, I am sorry to say that I just remembered!

The homework is to read the samples in our textbook for Writing to Solve Problems. The pages are 316-323.

Homework for Tuesday, November 4

Read pages 309-315 from our textbook and the scenario sheet for Project 4.

Instructions for Margaret Edson's W;t Presentations Next Week

There will be no conferences next week. You will instead attend one of these events (you are of course welcome to attend both!)

November 5

7 pm. Showing of the movie, W;t, starring Emma Thompson, at the Long Center
in Downtown Lafayette. Buses will be shuttling students to the Long Center
from the west door of Stewart Hall starting at 6 pm. You can also take the trolley downtown. The buses will return you after the movie. Refreshments will be served. The movie, refreshments, and transportation are free.

November 6

7:30 pm. Scenes from W;t, staged by the Purdue Theater Department, with
lecture and commentary from Margaret Edson. Fowler Hall, Stewart Center. There will be a book signing with Margaret Edson, so bring your copies of the play if you want them autographed! (This is also free).

Homework for conferences this week and for Thursday

For our conferences, come prepared to discuss how you plan to answer some of the questions about Project 3 for your reflective essay.

Here are the questions:

1. Why did you select the particular scenario you chose to work on?

2. Why did you choose to do the project in a certain genre (paper, presentation, video, website, etc.)?

3. How did you take into consideration the needs of your audience (our class)?

4. What did you do in order to strengthen your ethos in this project?

5. Did you try to address pathos? If so, how?

6. What difficulties did you encounter while working on the project?

7. What aspects of the project do you think worked particularly well?

8. If you could change the project in any way, what would you propose?

For Thursday, come ready to do the peer workshop on your draft for Project 3. Bring three paper copies of your printable projects, if working on a digital project that cannot be printed, please bring a computer in which you can show the project to others.

Here are the questions for workshop discussion:

1. What is the thesis?

2. Is the thesis proved/argued/explored (depending on the purpose of the project) during the course of the paper?

3. Are the sources introduced and properly cited?

4. Are there any parts of the project that you found confusing?

5. What was done particularly well in this project?

6. How could the project be improved?

Tuesday October 21 Class Meeting and Conferences This Week

Please note that as we discussed in class we'll be meeting in Bearing B275 tomorrow so we can finish watching everyone's ad parodies. The B before 275 stands for basement! As soon as you enter Bearing, go down the steps and then look for the room. Don't go to the second floor! (I did that the first time I went to Bearing and it's very frustrating).

For your Wednesday and Friday conferences I am expecting your three sources for project 3, as well as your thesis statement. If you're using a book, bring the book, if you're using websites, bring the actual website address written down and be ready to tell me why you think it is trustworthy. If you're interviewing people, bring a list of those you're hoping to speak to or have already spoken to.

For the thesis, write down the statement you're thinking will guide your project throughout, such us "The dorms at Purdue meet the students' needs and are superior to the national dorm standards" or something of that sort.

I am pasting the handout I gave you guys today below, as well as our extra credit sheet in case you lose it. Remember, you cannot give me the extra credit assignment any later than December 9.

Creating Your Own Website Information Handout

Websites that have open design templates:

• oswd.org (go to browse all designs)

•openwebdesign.org (go to browse designs)

Every page you save for your website must end with .html and must be in the same folder in your H Drive or your computer at home. If you place it in your www folder in your H Drive, it will go on the web. I do not ask that your work be on the web for my class, thus I recommend that you save it in another folder in your H Drive or your home computer. If you want to put your site on the web, however, you can do so after the class is over.

To understand the code used to create your website, go to:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60

You will need to download the new toolbar and restart Firefox. Once you’ve done so, a new toolbar will appear. It is called the Web Developer Toolbar. The third option across is CSS (the language that controls the design, as opposed to the content of your website). You will click on CSS and click on “View Style Information.” Once you are under that mode, anything over which you drag your cursor will be surrounded by a red square/rectangle. Then the code that controls that particular part of the website will appear on the top of the page, under the toolbars. You can then find that code in Dreamweaver and change it if you wish.

Class Extra Credit

As we have discussed in class, the written medium is not the only way in which we can make an argument. We try to convince others of our opinion in a plethora of ways, and one of the most innovative and powerful of these is the documentary film. You have the chance to earn two points of extra credit by watching two of the documentaries below. You will receive one point each for any of the films you watch (two is the limit). In order to receive the credit, you need to write a short statement in which you tell me what the director’s thesis was, if they convinced you (Why? Why not?) and what sort of evidence they provided to support their point. Your response should be about a page. The extra credit is due Tuesday, December 9^th at the latest. You can email them to me at hidalgoatpurdue@gmail.com any time before then.

Here are your choices for documentaries. You can borrow them for free at your public library (you’ll have to go into their database and order them online. The librarian can show you how to do it) or through Netflix or video stores like Blockbuster. Some of them are also available for free on the web. Purdue may have some of them at our library as well. Feel free to watch them together and discuss them, but make sure to present your opinion individually. The thesis will be the same, but the evidence you discuss and your reaction to the film should be different.

Born into Brothels directed by Ross Kauffman. Main topic: children and photography.

Bowling for Columbine directed by Michael Moore. Main topic: gun control.

Fahrenheit 911 directed by Michael Moore. Main topic: 9/11.

An Inconvenient Truth directed by Davis Guggenheim. Main topic: global warming.

Jesus Camp directed by Rachel Grady. Main topic: children and Christianity.

Mad Hot Ballroom directed by Marilyn Agrelo. Main topic: children and dancing.

The Party’s Over directed by Donovan Leitch. Main topic: 2000 elections.

The Rape of Europa directed by Richard Berge and Bonni Cohen. Main topic: Art stolen during WWII.

Roger and Me directed by Michael Moore. Main topic: job outsourcing in America.

Sicko directed by Michael Moore. Main topic: health care system.

Spellbound directed by Jeffrey Blitz. Main topic: spelling bee competitions.

Super Size Me directed by Morgan Spurlock. Main topic: obesity.

V-Day: Until the Violence Stops directed by Abby Epstein. Main topic: women’s rights.

Enjoy!

Thursday Class Reminder

Please come prepared to present your video and your analysis tomorrow. Three groups will go tomorrow and three on Tuesday (Bridget's group will go Tuesday because she has a sore throat and Mike will also go Tuesday because he started the project later than everyone else). The rest of you need to be ready to present.

Remember that class will take place at SC 277, the same room where we met last week and that you all have about ten minutes to present and about five minutes for questions.

October 15 and 17 Conferences and Thursday's Class

For our Wednesday and Friday conferences, you'll come ready to tell me what scenario you want to do and in what medium you want to do it (paper, website, Powerpoint, etc). Also, how you plan to go about it. If you choose a facility, what facility you plan to evaluate, if you choose the election, what aspects you'll be covering, and so on. I have pasted the scenarios below.

For Thursday we'll have three groups present. Remember, the first group spokesperson will introduce the issue and the research you did on the latter, then you'll show us the video, and the second spokesperson will analyze how your video addresses the issue previously mentioned.

To avoid the problems we had in class during our workshop, and to make it easier for me to grade, I would like for you guys to post your video on youtube. There is a way to post it so that only those whom you choose will be able to see it. It is under upload videos, then broadcast options. You can hit private and then choose me as one of the people (or the only person, it's up to you) able to view this video. My youtube account is twofortheroad, or you can give them our class address hidalgoatpurdue@gmail.com. Please upload your videos so that they're ready for display on Thursday. We will watch three videos on Thursday and two the following Tuesday. Each group will have 16 minutes for their presentation and for questions.

Instructions for Project 3 Writing to Evaluate

Choose one of the following scenarios for your first project:

Scenario 1: Evaluating a University Facility

Which facilities at Purdue work well or need improvement? You can choose the cafeteria, parking, the dorms, the bookstore, the recreation center or other facilities you may have in mind.

Writing Assignment: Select a facility at Purdue that you are either acquainted with or would like to learn more about. You should look at the physical adequacy of the facility. Does its architectural design suit its purpose? Could it be improved? You should also evaluate the staff and the way in which they interact with the students, as well as any other aspects of the facility you feel the need to address.

Scenario 2: Evaluate Political Debate

Are you satisfied with our campus opportunities for political debate? How are the Boilermaker Network, WBAA Purdue and/or WCCR Purdue portraying the election?

Writing Assignment: Examine the way that the election is being portrayed on campus. Is it fair or biased? Is one candidate being privileged over the other? If yes, why do you think that is? Are there any other events or discussions you would like to see that are not currently taking place?

Scenario 3: Evaluating Your Education

Are you satisfied with the education you have received so far at Purdue? Do you find the facilities to fit your needs? Are you satisfied with the number of students in your courses, the class choices available to you, the homework load and testing/evaluating methods? Do you feel that the knowledge you are gaining will be useful to you in your profession and personal life?

Writing Assignment: Examine your education at Purdue so far. You can either select one aspect of it or you can look at it generally.

Scenario 4: Evaluating Your Own Expectations

Based on your college experience up to now, do you feel that your expectations about what your education would be like were realistic? Were they fair? Have they changed in any way? How were your college expectations shaped? Were they inspired by your parents, friends, guidance counselors, films, TV, music? Was that a reliable way to fashion your expectations? Should you have done so differently?

Writing Assignment: Construct an evaluative piece reflecting about your own expectations about your education at Purdue as well as their origin and whether they have changed, been satisfied or were realistic in the first place.

Scenario 5: Evaluating

In W;t, the main character Vivian, who is a professor, regrets having too sternly graded her former student Jason. In your own life, is there a time where you feel you have judged others or a situation too harshly as Vivian did?

Writing Assignment: Drawing parallels to W;t, construct an evaluative piece reflecting on what led to your overly harsh judgment. How and when did you realize that you had misjudged? Did you do anything to remedy the situation? Why or why not? If not, what would you do now if you could?

This Week's Conferences and Thursday's class

For our conferences this week, you should come with your group. You can ask any questions you still have about the ad parody. If you want to bring the video with you and show it to me, that would be great. If not, we could look at your analysis or anything else you want to discuss.

You also want to bring a draft for your individual reflective essay, by which I mean that you need to know which questions you want to address and how you plan to go about it. Remember that while you only need one analysis, you each need to write your own reflective essay. If you no longer have your reflective essay handout, see the questions at the end of this post.

Here's the itap remote access webpage for those of you working on websites for one of your projects:

https://goremote.ics.purdue.edu/Citrix/AccessPlatform/auth/login.aspx

This Thursday we're meeting at SC 277. You need to have your video as well as your written analysis with you. Please bring earphones so you can listen to each other's parodies.

REFLECTIVE ESSAY DIRECTIONS

When you turn in your project, it should be accompanied by a Reflective Essay. Your essay should be between one and two pages long and double-spaced.

In this essay you’re going to answer at least four of the following questions:

1. Why did you select the particular scenario you chose to work on?

2. Why did you choose to do the project in a certain genre (paper, presentation, video, website, etc.)?

3. How did you take into consideration the needs of your audience (our class)?

4. What did you do in order to strengthen your ethos in this project?

5. Did you try to address pathos? If so, how?

6. What difficulties did you encounter while working on the project?

7. What aspects of the project do you think worked particularly well?

8. If you could change the project in any way, what would you propose?

Do not number the questions, but write your response in essay form.

Homework for Tuesday, October 6

Please read pages 164 - 170 in our textbook.

Remember that our Thursday class will take place in SC 277 and that you will need to have your ad parodies and a draft of your analyses of the latter ready by then.

Homework for Thursday, October 2 and this week's conferences

For Thursday, please read Chapter 18 ""Communicating with Design and Visuals."

For our conferences, try to come with your group and bring your three sources as well as your storyboard (which can be rudimentary, of course).

Homework for Monday and Tuesday

For Tuesday please read W;t. On Monday we're going to be looking at ads and parodies in the computer room at ENAD 130. Since there is no specific homework for that, please take this weekend to work on your video projects.

Guide for Ad Parody Group Work

Selecting and investigating the theme of your ad parody video

Think about the following questions:

1. What issue would you like to target and what do you want to say about it? You must have a statement you want to make about the issue you select.

2. How is it—if at all—represented in advertising?

3. How could you exaggerate/turn around/play with those representations to make your point? If it’s not already represented in advertising, why don’t you think it has been dealt with? How do you think the advertising agencies would present it to the public if they were to do so?

As you discuss these answers, take notes. They will help you later when you’re writing your analysis.

Research

You will need to research the issue you are parodying. As usual you will use three sources or more (at least one from print and one from the internet) and you will tell me what they are and how they influenced your parody in your 2-4 page analysis of it.

Planning

Consider creating a storyboard for your video. Here are a couple useful websites to look at:

http://www.exposure.co.uk/eejit/storybd/

http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/reporting/starttofinish/storyboarding/

http://www.storycenter.org/memvoice/pages/tutorial_3.html

You will also need to think about what you can and can’t do. What are your technical and physical limitations? I am not expecting these videos to look professional, but I do want the ideas expressed by both your parody and your analysis to show that you have done thorough research and thought deeply about the topic.

Work Distribution

Use everyone’s particular skills. If one of you is better at research and another has previous video-making experience, use those skills in your favor. Everyone needs to put in the same amount of work, but you don’t all need to do the same things. Have each person do what they do best. Have fun with this!

IMPORTANT: If someone is not doing their allotted work, the other group members must let me know as soon as possible and that person will be removed from the group and complete the assignment on their own. Do not let your group mates take advantage of you or the project will not be enjoyable or successful.

Homework for Conferences this week and for Thursday, September 25

For our conferences, please come ready to discuss what scenario you want to use, if in a group, who your group members will be and how you plan to distribute the work, as well as the topic you plan to explore. Begin thinking about sources as well.

For Thursday you need to read James B Twitchell's "But First a Word from Our Sponsor."

Homework for Tuesday, September 23

For tomorrow, please read pages 161-162 from our textbook as well as our Scenarios for Project 2, which are the following:

Instructions for Project #2 Writing to Analyze:

Choose one of the following Scenarios for your first project:

Scenario #1: Analyzing Representations of Purdue

While thinking about which college to attend, you probably noticed advertisements and recruiting tools universities use to grab the attention of high school students, their families, and even the surrounding community. For example, Purdue’s presence in West Lafayette and Lafayette is strong; this is evident through local businesses’ uses of Purdue’s colors, the mascot, the school’s logo, etc.

Writing Assignment: For this writing project, analyze at least one but no more than five of Purdue’s images or advertisements. This can be any Purdue-related image or advertisement. Keep in mind that you are not meant to evaluate these images or advertisements; instead, analyze its various aspects (color, text, size, shading, placement of visual elements, etc.) to understand how the image or advertisement works. Thinking of these questions may help you: What do these representations say about Purdue and the Purdue community? Why do you think Purdue made the choices they did for your particular image or advertisement? Who is their intended audience? What is the image or advertisement’s purpose?

Scenario #2: Considering Rubbish @ Purdue

Check out the website for Found Magazine at http://www.foundmagazine.com/. Their motto is this: “We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework, to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles - anything that gives a glimpse into someone
else's life. Anything goes...” Look at the current and past examples of items that people have posted. Each of these Found items inspire certain questions: Who created this? What motivated this person (or persons) to create it? What were the circumstances around the creation? What can we infer about the cultural environment in which something like this was created? What tools or techniques of creation were used to create this? How can you tell? Where and when did you find this item? What about its found time and location indicate anything about its nature as a written or created item?

Writing Assignment: Find one or more objects that have been discarded on Purdue campus that also accord to the “Found” criteria above. Using some of the question prompts above (or others), construct an analytic piece in which you examine your Found item or items, comparing them if you have more than one. Regardless of the genre you choose to present this analysis, you should include the original item (or a clear enough scan or photo).

Scenario #3: Analyzing Purdue by the Numbers

Purdue’s student body consists of more than 40,000 people. In 2005-2006 there were 2,511,097 volumes in the library. In the same year, the PMU recreation center hosted more than 10,400 hours of billiards played. The Purdue University Data Digest (http://www.purdue.edu/datadigest/) abounds with facts and figures about life at Purdue. What do these numbers mean? What conclusions can be drawn from these numbers? Is there any correlation between the number of hours of billiards played and the number of parking tickets issued?

Writing Assignment: Choose a set of data about Purdue and analyze it. The set of data must have some common point: for example, you could compare the same statistic over the course of several years, or you could analyze data from the same year that might illustrate cause and effect. Your analysis must also come to a conclusion about what the figures mean. The data does not have to come from the data digest, but it’s a good place to start.

Scenario #4: Analyzing Discourse in W;t

In Margaret Edson’s play W;t, there are many characters surrounding Dr. Vivian Bearing while she receives chemotherapy. Dr. Bearing engages in many conversations with the characters and even herself at times. She uses dialogue as a way to work through her chemotherapy and ultimately come to terms with herself and her diagnosis. This scenario asks you to analyze her and others’ words.

Writing Assignment: Analyze a part of the play where two or more characters are engaging in dialogue. Think of these questions as you analyze: How do the characters’ roles inform their dialogue? How does the characters’ dialogue inform their roles? How does it influence the characters’ relationship with the other characters and/or with themselves? Also think about what the dialogue says about cancer treatment and the medical profession in general. What bigger statement are we meant to take away from Edson’s play as readers?

Scenario #5: Ad Parody

Check out the ad parodies at http://parody.organique.com/index.html and http://www.adbusters.org/gallery/spoofads

Writing Assignment: Compose a parody of an advertisement not found on those websites. Include a copy of the original advertisement you are parodying. Include a commentary component analyzing both the original ad and your parody.

Projects are due Monday

Project 1 is due on Monday by 2pm. You will email it to hidalgoatpurdue@gmail.com and you hopefully won't forget to attach the attachment. There should be two attachments per project, your actual project and your reflective essay.

Those of you who are doing presentations this time around will be presenting Monday.

Remember to bring three copies of your work tomorrow for our workshop. Also, there was some confusion as to how many of the questions on the handout you're supposed to answer for your Reflective Essay. It's four or more. You're also welcome to comment on anything else you may be thinking of or want me to take into account as I'm reading/watching your project.

Workshop Questions

During our peer review workshop, please address the following questions for each project you evaluate:

1. What is the thesis?

2. Is the thesis proved/argued/explored (depending on the purpose of the project) during the course of the paper?

3. Are the sources introduced and properly cited?

4. Are there any parts of the project that you found confusing?

5. What was done particularly well in this project?

6. How could the project be improved?

Remember that while your project is being discussed you will be silent and listen to your classmates, taking notes of what they’re saying. At the end of the discussion you can ask them questions. Don’t try to defend yourself, just listen and later decide wether the criticism was valid or not. Please take notes of everything or you’ll find that you often won’t remember what was said and will miss out on some very good ideas for improving your project.

Homework for Wednesday and Friday Conferences

Come prepared to ask any questions you have about Project 1. Also bring a basic draft for your Reflective Essay. Here are the Reflective Essay instructions:

Project 1 Reflective Essay

When you turn in your project, it should be accompanied by a Reflective Essay. Your essay should be between one and two pages long and double-spaced.

In this essay you’re going to answer at least four of the following questions:

1. Why did you select the particular scenario you chose to work on?

2. Why did you choose to do the project in a certain genre (paper, presentation, video, website, etc.)?

3. How did you take into consideration the needs of your audience (our class)?

4. What did you do in order to strengthen your ethos in this project?

5. Did you try to address pathos? If so, how?

6. What difficulties did you encounter while working on the project?

7. What aspects of the project do you think worked particularly well?

8. If you could change the project in any way, what would you propose?

Do not number the questions, but write your response in essay form.

Homework for Tuesday, September 15

Read "Sex and Scandal at Duke."

Continue working on your projects. Here's Project 1's Assignment Description, which I gave you during our conferences:

Project 1 Assignment

Select one of the four scenarios provided to you for Project 1, as well as the medium that best suits the project.

Keep in mind the concepts of ethos, pathos and having a clear thesis that we have discussed in class, as well as audience awareness and language. Remember to take into account what your audience knows about this topic and what their already established opinions are.

Your name must be on the assignment and you need to give it a title. Your first draft is due on Thursday, September 18. If you are working on a paper or a brochure, please bring three copies of each. If you’re working on a Powerpoint presentation, website or video, bring your laptop to class so you can share your project with your classmates. If you don’t have a laptop, please let me know so we can figure something out. Your final draft is due on Monday, September 22. I will return work electronically. Everyone will receive their graded assignments within a week of turning them in, but not all at the same time. I will return them as I grade them and I will grade them in the order that they reach my inbox at: hidalgoatpudue@gmail.com.

A “C” project should:
• Meet all requirements of the assignment.
• Provide appropriate description so that an audience can understand the situations and issues
involved.
• Have a thesis that follows logically from the body of the paper.
• Control surface errors.
• Use the MLA citation system to document all your sources.

A “B” project should do everything a “C” paper does but should also:
• Show evidence that possible audience objections have been anticipated and responded to.
• Incorporate sources smoothly.
• Include an analysis that interrogates the experiences, observations and sources critically.

An “A” project should do everything a “B” paper does but should also:
• Arrive at a thesis that is original, insightful and sensible.
• Show a flair with language and/or visual rhetoric.
• Have a clear organizational strategy based on audience needs

Thursday at the Library and Next Week

During our conferences this morning Keegan and others pointed out that the mural by which we are meeting is actually inside of Stewart, not outside, so I went there after class and sure enough, the mural is inside. If you go in through the entrance directly across from where the job fair is taking place, you'll see the mural as you come in. If you go in through the other entrances, just follow the signs for the HSSE Library and you'll end up at the mural as well.

Now, about next week. On Monday we are having Hans Aagard from the DLC visit our class to teach us about Moviemaker. This will be the only time we have this opportunity, so if you're absent, I'm afraid you'll miss out on something very useful and important, and hopefully also fun.

Tuesday we're discussing our Duke article.

Thursday our first drafts are due. In the sheet that I gave to those who came to conferences today, it says that the first draft is due Friday, September 19, but as Bri very astutely pointed out, Friday is a conference day, not a class day! So there you go, another proof of my knack for messing up numbers. The draft is due Thursday, September 18, not Friday. When the Friday conference students come in two days, I will give you more details about the draft, as I did with the Wednesday students today.

Thursday, September 11

For our Thursday class we will be getting a tour of the Humanities, Social Science and Education Library, as well as a tutorial on how to use their databases. This is an invaluable experience and I expect all of you to be there unless an emergency prevents it. This would be an unwise class to miss for one of your free absences.

We are going to meet at our regular 10:30 class time under the mural at the West end of Stewart Center, just outside Loeb Theater. Please do not be late as we will not be able to get in touch with you once the tour begins.

Bring note-taking materials. The homework is to continue work on Project 1. By Monday you will need to have your print source with you.

Our Duke article will be discussed next Tuesday.

PS: This is not the same as the underground undergraduate library, but they work under the same system and they will give us maps to all 12 libraries at Purdue on Thursday, so this will still be extremely useful to you.

TRIP TO THE LIBRARY ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11

We will be going to the library on Thursday. I am still discussing with the librarian exactly where we're meeting. I will send an email and also post the information on this site as soon as I know, but for now note that on Thursday, we'll be meeting at the library, which means that we'll be discussing our Duke article next Tuesday.

Homework for Wednesday and Friday Conferences

We will be having the two-people conference format. Please bring two of your sources to our conference, as well as a written statement/outline about how you plan to go about relaying the information for your project.

Homework for Tuesday, September 9

Read chapter 17 on the McGraw-Hill Guide.

Read the "Finding and Evaluating Library-Based Sources" handout. Start on point 25 h "How do I evaluate sources?"

Remember that professor Shirley K. Rose will be observing our class.

Homework for Monday, September 8

Continue to work on project 1.

Please remember that we're meeting at ENAD 130, not our regular classroom.

Semester-Long Class-Planning Handout

Requirements	Project 1	Project 2	Project 3	Project 4
Paper #1
Paper #2
Visual Component
Presentation (Powerpoint, website or brochure)
Video and/or Website
Group Work

Research: You will need at least three sources per project. One source must be print-based and a second must come from the internet. Interviews with experts on the field are welcome but count as neither print nor web-based sources (they do count, they just don’t fulfill either requirement) and no matter how many people you interview, they count only as one source (in terms of fulfilling your three-source requirement. You will, of course, cite them separately). For the non-paper assignments, you will still need to provide me with a Works Cited page following MLA format.

Papers:
Papers must be 3-4 pages long and use MLA citation (refer to OWL for details on the latter). You are welcome to add illustrations to your papers, but the text total must still be 3-4 pages (meaning you can’t give me one page of writing and three of illustrations).

Visual Component:
The visual component should basically take care of itself. Your presentation and your video and/or website will all fulfill that requirement, but you’re welcome to keep the power of images in mind and if inclined, add visual elements to all or most of your projects.

Presentation:
You will need to present one of your projects to the class at one point during the semester. You can either create a Powerpoint presentation or a brochure or present your website to the class. Your presentation should be 5-8 minutes long.

Video and/or Website:
We will receive instruction on how to make videos and create websites. You will need to do either for one of your projects. You can also do both, in which case you would substitute it for the brochure or Powerpoint and would have to do your presentation on your website. The video should be between 4-12 minutes long.

Group Work:
One of your projects needs to be done working as a team with one or two other classmates. Videos, websites and presentations tend to lend themselves to group work more naturally, but you are very welcome to write a group paper. In that case the paper should be between 8-12 pages long. The presentation should be 10-12 minutes long and the video 6-15 minutes long. All times mentioned here are approximate, of course.

NOTE: If you want to write a play or a short story or have some other kind of “creative” approach to a project, please discuss it with me and we’ll find a way to fit it into these requirement guidelines if it is within reason.

Turning-in Work: You will email your work to hidalgoatpurdue@gmail.com. I will only use this email for receiving work, so if you need to reach me, you should still write to me at ahidalgo@purdue.edu.

Homework for Thursday, September 4

Read pages 84-101 in The Concise McGraw-Hill Guide.

IMPORTANT NOTE

Please remember that our conferences this week are two-student conferences and will last ten minutes instead of five. If you normally come at a time that ends in zero, you'll end up leaving five minutes later than you usually do. If you normally come at a time that ends in five, you'll need to come five minutes earlier but will leave at the same time you always do.

Remember to bring a written draft to complement the ideas you've worked out in your head.

Homework for Wednesday and Friday Conferences, Week 2

Draft a written plan for Project 1. Here are the possible scenarios you can choose from:

Instruction for Project #1" Writing to Explore

Choose one of the following Scenarios for your first project:

Scenario 1: Exploring a Major or Career

Imagine you are taking a "Career and Life Planning" class—a class devoted to helping college students decide what discipline they might like to major in. This class gives you the opportunity to explore different career paths, to learn what the educational requirements are for various majors, and to find out what job opportunities will be available in various careers and what salaries and other forms of compensation different jobs might offer.

Writing Assignment: Select one college major or career that you may be interested in pursuing and construct an exploratory piece—a conventional essay or some other genre-- in which you consider the various aspects of that major or career from many angles, including the preparation you would need for it and the rewards and pitfalls you might encounter if you decide to pursue it. Asking and answering questions about the major or career you are considering will form the heart of your exploratory paper.

Scenario #2: Exploring Purdue Student Groups

What student clubs or organizations exist at Purdue that you might be interested in joining? What do you know about how they function? What do you know about their activities? Do you know any of their members? Select one student club or organization at Purdue about which you would like to learn more.

Writing Assignment: Investigate the club or organization you have chosen. Explore what its purpose is, what its main activities are, and who its members are. Then construct an essay or some other genre in which you explain your exploration of the club or organization.

Scenario #3: Exploring Purdue Programs

What departments or offices at Purdue are you interested in learning more about? Examples might be the Financial Aid Office or the Office of the Dean of Students or the International Programs Office. What do you already know about their purpose and how they function? Have you had contact with anyone who works in these offices? Select one of the departments or offices about which you’d like to learn more. You may want to narrow even further to a program within a department—for example you might investigate the Writing Lab, which is part of the English Department.

Writing Assignment: Investigate the department or office you have chosen. Explore its mission, its services, and the people who work there. Then construct essay or other genre in which you explain your exploration of the department or office.

Scenario #4:

In Margaret Edson’s play "W;t," the main character, college professor Dr. Vivian Bearing, explores various cancer treatment options by reading as much as she can about them. As she actually undergoes one particular treatment, chemotherapy, she explores it more fully—not just by simply experiencing it but by taking note of, analyzing, and talking to herself about her physical, emotional, and intellectual responses and reactions to the treatment.

Writing Assignment: Think about a situation you were involved in or a time in your life when you used some form of talking to yourself as a way to explore a new experience you were going through. Then write an essay or other genre in which you explain the ways that talking to yourself allowed you to understand this new experience.

Homework for Tuesday, September 2

"Self-Portraits" are due.

Homework for Thursday, August 28

Read George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language."

Complete "Why I Write" Assignment:

English 106

Writing Your Way @ Purdue

Writing Sample Part 1:

“Why I Write” Essay

Choose a piece of writing you’ve done at some time in the past. It could be a writing assignment in school, a note to a friend, something you wrote at work, a diary entry, a letter, an article for a student newspaper or community newsletter, a petition, a flyer, or a leaflet for an organization you belong to. Whatever the writing happens to be, write a page or two in which you explain why and how you chose to write.

Describe the situation that made you feel a need to respond in writing

Why did you decide to respond in writing instead of taking some other action or not responding at all?

How did you construct your writing task? Describe your purpose, the relationship you wanted to establish with your readers, and the tone of voice you decided to use in your writing. How did you make these decisions? What knowledge of the social context did you draw on to make those decisions? What type or genre of writing did you use to communicate your purpose?