Assignments

Anthony Wheeler

Week 15: Full Circle

(For this final week, while you work on your portfolio reflections) Remember about halfway through the semester when you each critically analyzed a bad idea about writing? Well, ROUND 2: Pick one (1) reading from the section “Bad Ideas About Genres” OR “Bad Ideas About Writing and Digital Technology” from Bad Ideas About Writing. DO NOT READ THE ENTIRE SECTION(S), just pick ONE piece (for example: Texting Ruins Students’ Grammar Skills by Scott Warnock). Then answer all of the following questions in roughly 350-400 words and reply to at least 1 of your classmates’ posts in 100-words:

  1. What is the bad idea?
  2. Why does the author(s) say it’s a bad idea?
  3. Why did you choose this piece, and do you have an example of a good idea to counter this bad idea?

Week 14: Collaborative Skills

For this week, while you work on your finalized Unit 3 Multimodal Projects, read “In-Class Peer Review” by Daniel Richards & “Critique” on the Writing Commons. Then, for your blog assignment, take a 2-page excerpt from your Unit 3 assignment and post it as a blog to the class site by Friday night, and reply to at least 2 of your peers’ excerpts in 100-words each by the end of the weekend.

Some things to consider when choosing a section of your assignment to share:

  • Does the section you chose to share cover the major idea(s) or experiences you documented?
  • Does the section you chose make sense on its own? Make sure to include any necessary details.
  • Are there any pieces of media from your chosen alternate mode that you can share in addition to the excerpt? (Such as adding a photo to the blog post, as we did with our introductory posts at the start of the semester)

*Final revisions for the Unit 3 assignment will be due by the end of the weekend.

Week 13: Wikipedia Controversy

For this week, while you work on your Unit 3 Multimodal Projects, read “Wikipedia Is Good for You!?” by James P. Purdy. Then, answer the following questions in 350-words by Friday night, and reply to at least 1 of your classmates’ posts in 75-100 words by Sunday night:

  1. What were you told about Wikipedia in your early schooling? How has that changed after reading Purdy?
  2. What are some ways that Purday explains Wikipedia can be a useful tool to you as a student and scholar? Describe at least two.
  3. After reading about how Wikipedia works, would you consider it a community platform? For what reasons? Were you aware of the conversations taking place over every article edit?

*Have your partial draft submitted to me by Wednesday evening if you want to get feedback by the end of the weekend*

Week 12: Knowledge at Our Fingertips

For this week, read Nicholas Carr’s Is Google Making Us Stupid? and Clay Shirkey’s Does the Internet Make You Smarter?. Then, answer the following questions in about 450-550 words (by Friday night) and reply to at least 2 of your classmates’ posts in 100-words (by Sunday night), and be sure to use specific examples from the articles:

  1. Carr argues that having such advanced technology in our pants pockets is affecting the way we learn and read. What does Carr mean when he says having access to infinite knowledge is making us stupid?
  2. Do you think there are problems with having immediate access? What are we losing by doing this? (For example, have you ever had to go to the library and find a physical book to conduct research?)
  3. Shirkey argues that by constantly having access to the internet, we are able to experiment with new areas of knowledge in a much easier/accessible way. What are the pros/cons of this?
  4. What do YOU think? Is the internet giving us new knowledge, or is it melting our brains in a way? Or both?

Week 11: Machines & Learning

For this week, read Nicholas Carr’s All Can Be Lost: The Risk of Putting Our Knowledge in the Hands of Machines. Then, answer the following questions in about 400-450 words (by Friday night) and reply to at least 2 of your classmates’ posts in 100-words (by Sunday night), and be sure to use specific examples from the article:

  1. Carr addressing how as time progresses, our reliance on technology becomes stronger and stronger. For example, the tragic incidents of the plane crashes mentioned in the article. Do you agree? What could have changed the outcome of these incidents/How can we fix this?
  2. Do you think it’s a matter of improving technology or improving the skills of the workers? Why?
  3. Do you think this relates to the concern of technology taking jobs? What is your stance on this controversy?
  4. Can you brainstorm an alternative approach?

Bonus: How reliant are YOU on technology? Think about your daily routine and how many times you interact with technology.

Week 10: The Digital Reader

Welcome back! For this week, please read “The Reader and Technology,” by Toby Litt. Then, answer the following questions in 400-words by Friday night, and reply to at least 2 of your classmates’ posts in 50-100 words by Sunday night:

  1. How does Litt describe the relationship between literature, writing, and technology?
  2. Litt discusses how many classical tales were driven by distance, or lack of connectivity, rendering these plotlines obsolete in the digital age. Has technology affected your perceptions of more classical literature? What do types of issues are the stories of today driven by?
  3. How might you see technology disrupting/change the stories of today or the future? (Consider how might tropes might change as technology advances, or how it has already) 
  4. What is your opinion? How does reading on a screen or through these various interfaces affect you/your learning/reading comprehension?

Writing/Brainstorming Tip: Feel free to describe multiple forms of written media, such as music, games, novels, film, etc. They all are forms of writing/storytelling in their own writs.

Week 9: Community-Based Discourse

For this week, read these brief New York Times articles:

Answer the following prompts in 400-words by Friday night (be sure to quote examples from each piece), and reply to at least 2 of your classmates’ posts in 50-100 words by Sunday night:

  1. Both authors are having conversations surrounding the community during a time of crisis, but each is approaching it from a different angle. What are their dispositions (or attitudes) towards their communities? How do they talk about them? Assess how Whitehead and Lewis spoke similarly/differently by the end of each piece.
  2.  What were the overlapping themes between these pieces? What did you take away as their “messages”?
  3. What about you? Which piece did you find yourself identifying closer with, and why? Does one’s sense of community speak to you more? Feel free to elaborate however you’d like.

*Reading Tip: It may be helpful to consider that these articles were published 19-years apart!

Week 8: Education Discourse

For this week, while you work on your Unit #2 essay draft, read through James Baldwin’s A Talk to Teachers, then answer the following questions in 400-words by Friday night, and reply to at least 1 of your classmates’ posts in 50-100 words by Sunday night:

  1. What are your thoughts about the following quote? What do you think Baldwin meant? How does this connect/disconnect with your own experiences in school?: “One of the paradoxes of education was that precisely at the point when you begin to develop a conscience, you must find yourself at war with your society. It is your responsibility to change society if you think of yourself as an educated person.” (Baldwin 1)
  2. Baldwin writes very specifically about the experience of Black Americans. How do you think the experiences of other marginalized people or groups resonate with Baldwin’s sentiment?
  3. Baldwin appeals to many different rhetorical situations through ethos, logos, and pathos. Can you find two examples from the text? Please be sure to reference the paragraph/page number for your peers.
  4. As Baldwin articulated, teachers can have an incredibly powerful impact on students, so, how about you? What educators have had a significant impact on you thus far? This can be positive or negative, but if it is negative, try to think about how the teacher could have handled the situation better.

Week 7: Eliminating Preconceived Notions on Writing

Pick one (1) reading from the section “Bad Ideas About What Good Writing Is” OR “Bad Ideas About Who Good Writers Are” from Bad Ideas About Writing. DO NOT READ THE ENTIRE SECTION(S), just pick ONE piece (for example: First-Year Composition Should be Skipped by Paul G. Cook). Then answer all of the following questions in roughly 300-words and reply to at least 2 of your classmates’ posts in 75-100 words:

  1. What is the bad idea?
  2. Why does the author(s) say it’s a bad idea?
  3. Why did you choose this piece, and do you have an example of a good idea to counter this bad idea?

Look at the Unit 2 Essay Assignment Sheet. Then, in 100-words, explain your topic choice! Is this a continuation of your topic from Unit 1? Did you decide to switch topics, and if so, why? Why do you feel the designated problem in your discourse community is important?

Week 6: Genre

For this week, read/annotate* Dirk’s “Navigating Genre.” Then, pick one of the following articles to read (whichever interests you the most):

*Annotate the text: what stands out to you– what do you like/ dislike about this writer’s style?  What are you confused by? What do you want to know more about? Pay special attention to how this author uses research (outside facts, statistics, history, news, interviews), etc. in their writing.

WRITE: Write a blog post (at least 400-words) in which you respond to your article– just basically tell us what you thought of it.  What made you choose this article in the first place?  Did it live up to your expectations? Please reply to at least 2 of your classmates in roughly 75-words each.

What did you learn from reading this article? How did this author use research? How do they use personal experience? Lastly, make a connection to Dirk- did you gravitate towards this piece because of its genre? What genre does it fall under and why does it interest you?

Week 5: Reflection and Revision

For this week, while you work on your first unit assignment revisions, read through Giles’ Reflective Writing and Lamott’s Shitty First Drafts,  then answer the following questions in 350-words by Friday night, and reply to at least 1 of your classmates’ posts in 50-100 words by Sunday night:

  1. What is reflective or metacognitive writing?
  2. What is your experience with reflective writing? Do you feel it has or has not helped you?
  3. Describe your writing process and how it has influenced your current major essay assignment.

Week 4: Intro to Discourse Communities

This week’s blog post is much more simple, since you will primarily be working on your first essay draft this week. I want you to read Dan Melzer’s “Understanding Discourse Communities,” then, re-read the Unit 1 essay assignment that I sent out last week. I want you to blog one paragraph (at least 4-sentences) about what discourse community you are writing about for the Unit 1 essay. This is your opportunity to share your word or phrase that you’ll be analyzing as well. You are not required to comment on your classmates’ posts this week, but you are still encouraged to interact!

Week 3: Identity and Writing

For this week, watch these videos (don’t worry, they’re very engaging and entertaining):

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story” Ted Talk

​Mohamed Hassan‘s “(un)Learning my Name”​

In about 350-words, answer the following prompts, and be sure to use specific examples from the videos. Then, respond to 1 of your classmates’ posts in at least 50-words:

  1. In your own words, what is a single story? What is it a metaphor for?
  2. What type of stories did you have to read growing up? What were the characters/plots/tropes like? Were they guilty of portraying a single-story such as Adichie describes?
  3. Do you think modern technology somehow contributes to these single-stories? If so, how?
  4. Are these two pieces speaking about overlapping issues of identity, or separate issues?

Bonus: What is the significance, or stories, surrounding your own name?

Week 2: Reading & Writing Essentials

For this week, please read “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources,” by Karen Rosenberg and “How to Read Like a Writer,” by Mike Bunn. Once done, please blog a response to the following prompts. Your blogs should be approximately 300-words, and be sure to check off the “Class Discussions” category before publishing your post (so that they all appear on the same page). Then, respond to 1 of your classmates’ posts in at least 50-words:

  1. Outline at least 3 unique takeaways/tips from either reading (at least 1 from each though) that you feel will help improve your own practices as we move forward with the course.
  2. Rosenberg writes in several places about reading academic texts as entering a conversation. What does this mean to you? How can you have a conversation with a text?
  3. According to Bunn, what are some of the different ways that you can learn about the context of a text before you begin reading?

Bonus: How did you feel about each writer’s voice? Did it feel formal or informal? What did you like or dislike about this?

Week 1: Introductions

Create a brief post outlining who you are and what you’re majoring in or interested in, accompanied by an image of yourself (if you’re comfortable with that). I posted my own profile under the “Get to Know the Class” tab on our course website as an example. Please be sure to include any names you go by as well as your pronouns.

Before posting: be sure to check off the “Get to Know the Class” category so that all of our profiles are on the same page. This will help to humanize the online classroom experience and start us towards developing a community.

Need help posting? Click here: How do I create a Post? – Help Center

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