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.