Revisit the Directions for Informal Writing

Wow.  I just did my first major look through on the class blogs.  I am still missing a few.  And some of you really used your blog to show off who you are.  Great!  I would like to review the assignment for a few of you.  You need to include (1) a summary of the articles read, (2) a synthesis of the conversation the article(s) are engaging, (3) answers to the assigned questions, and (4) then your thoughts on the reading.  I also asked you to do one of the pre reading activities on page 9 of Greene, which you have the option of bringing to class.

Please refer to Quinn's blog as a way to format your response to make sure you include all of the components.  If you do not have all of the components for the response, I suggest that you update your blog to include them.  We will talk about how the responses are working for you in class tomorrow.

Also, you may want to "follow" the class blog so that you know when it is updated.

ARRRRR Blogs

I realize that setting up this blog can be an interesting and frustrating process.  Please stick with it.  I am new to Blogger also.  We can figure it out together.  My frustration has to do with getting all of your blog sites posted in a place where you can access them.

And remember that depending on your privacy setting, you may need to add your class members and myself to your reader list.  If you need to do this, please contact me for a list of email addresses.

Informal Writing

As part of our day-to-day work, I will ask you to do numerous informal papers. As I have mentioned briefly in the syllabus, what I want from you in all these pieces is to show that you are doing your best to consider, think-through (with or against) the ideas that we are considering, whether the ideas presented in readings or the skills, principles, and concepts that we are attempting to understand and apply in group or individual in-class writing. Ideas aren’t really understood until you can explain them for (and to) yourself, so these papers are very important; they also give you opportunities to practice reading and writing skills in a “low stakes” situation (I won’t be grading your writing skills, just your efforts to think about and discuss the ideas, which will only be graded credit/no credit). I will give you feedback on the specific writing skills that we are practicing, but that will have no bearing on whether you get credit (unless it looks like you aren’t putting in the thought or effort). These informal writing assignments have no length requirements, but you will find that you will have difficulty showing that you are thinking through ideas unless you write enough to do so. You can be pithy and cram a great deal of thought and meaning into a brief paper, but doing so usually requires a lot of skill. It is very clear when a brief response contains a lot of thought and when it doesn’t, so explaining your thinking thoroughly with examples and anecdotes from your own experiences, which should make your writing as long as it needs to be, will benefit you.

In-class group and individual writing will be assigned during class, but reading responses will follow a regular pattern.

Reading Response

Part of learning how writing works involves learning to read like writers. Writing is always a remix of other writings that the writer has read, analyzed, and broken down to use for her or his own purposes, which means good writers are good readers, analysts, summarizers, and remixers who can read something, understand its overall point, purpose, and underlying reasoning, and then explain and use it in writing. In an attempt to become good writers, we will learn about writing by reading writing scholarship, which will give us plenty of practice with reading and writing skills. (I hope you leave this class as practiced and critical readers who can understand and breakdown the reasoning behind everything you read.) To help us practice these skills, I will ask each of you to write up written responses to each class’s reading that includes each of these elements:

• A summary of each reading that explains what the authors are trying to do (purpose), who they are trying to do it to or through (audience), what their overall point is (argument), and the underlying reasoning they use to try and prove that point (reasons). The objective here is to make this summary as brief, yet complete, as possible. To help you, you could use the following paradigm: “In his/her/their article ____(’Title’)_______, _____(Author(s))______ attempt(s) to ______(purpose & audience)___. He/She/They argue(s)________(Overall Point)______ because _______(reasons)________." Writing such summaries will allow you to practice breaking down a reading in order to understand not just what it says, but how what it says leads to what it is attempting to do. Texts (written, visual, audio, etc.) attempt to do things to readers, and reading analytically involves not just being able to list down everything the text says, but to be able to explain what it tries to do. Good summary does not list (first it says x then y) what a document says but instead explains what it tries to do.
• After the brief as possible summary for each reading, I will ask you to put the reading in conversation with other readings we have read during the semester. Which readings is this one similar to? Which readings does it differ significantly with about major ideas? This work should help you improve your ability to synthesize (put together into an overview summary) the conversation among different texts. This work requires you to begin to map or sort texts into groups of similar ideas and to articulate how the various groups or regions differ from each other generally and not just at the level of individual texts.
• After your summary and synthesis work, 1) Type up the results of any pre-reading exercises Writing about Writing asks you to do, 2) Type thorough and thoughtful responses to the specified questions from Writing about Writing or about readings from Readings on Writing as indicated on the schedule.
• Finally, add a paragraph on your own thoughts about the reading: Was it interesting? Why? Do you think it will be helpful to you? Why? How do the ideas compare to your own experiences? Do you agree or disagree? Why? Etc.


To get credit for responses, your response needs to include each of these elements and show that you made a thoughtful effort to complete each part. All responses must be posted to your blog, unless otherwise indicated.  Also, all reading responses need to be posted by 9 p.m. the day before the reading is assigned.  Doing so will give your classmates a chance to respond to your blog and engage in the conversation.  One more thing:  you should take the time to look at the comments your classmates have posted about your reading response and respond to them.

Blog

You need to post your reading response on the Blogger blog that you have created for this class.  After you create the blog, send your blog web address to me, your instructor, at yb240212@ohio.edu so that I can add your blog to the blog roll.  Have fun creating your blog.  It will be a representation of yourself to your classmates.  Also, I have not made the class blog open to the public.  If you choose to make your blog open to the public, that is your choice, but you should be aware that the whole world can see it if you do.

Responding to Reading Responses

For every reading response you submit on Blogger, you need to respond to a reading response belonging to one of your classmates.  Over the course of the semester, you should respond at least one time to each of your classmates.  I will hand out (and post) a list of who you should be responding to when. I will also be responding to your blogs.  You should also feel free to respond to my comments, especially if they seem confusing.