The purpose of this post is to reflect on your writing experience this semester and to expand the audience of your blog.
1. Format this blog as a letter to students taking English 110 next semester.
2. Spend time reflecting on your own experience as a writer, and look to your First Day Essay to remember your thoughts about writing and the course theme the beginning of the quarter.
3. As you write the letter, think carefully about the audience of new English 110 students and consider the following questions if you need guidelines
• What do they need to know to be successful in these assignments?
• What did you do that worked well and what would you do differently?
• What specific examples or stories from your experience this quarter might help illuminate your process as a writer?
DUE DATE: 12 March
Monday, March 8, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Blog Prompt #4
This week, we are beginning to explore public writing, and to understand how it differs from academic writing. Consequently, it seems like an appropriate time to experiment with a different way of communicating with the public! :)
Blog writers often communicate their readers through more than simple text. They make videos, record audio commentaries, create graphics, draw cartoons, and alter images, amongst other techniques. Blogs are ultimately multimedia artifacts, and, in this prompt, you will be required to explore this aspect of them by creating a blog post that includes more than text.
Create a blog post in which you use a multimedia technique in order to explore your own relationship with or feelings about technology. For instance, you can create a collage of pictures; you can alter a photograph with text as on Post Secret; you can draw a masterpiece on paper or stick figures in Paint; you can use a webcam to record a video in which you tell a story! Be as creative and original as you can! If you need any help with the technical side of things, talk to me or to the people in the Digital Media Project.
Here are some questions to get you started . . . Do you love it? Do you hate it? Do you consider it benign or dangerous? Do you think it's had a positive effect on society or a negative one? What's your favorite piece of technology?
As always, you'll be expected to comment on three other blogs as well.
DUE DATE: FRIDAY, 19 FEBRUARY
Blog writers often communicate their readers through more than simple text. They make videos, record audio commentaries, create graphics, draw cartoons, and alter images, amongst other techniques. Blogs are ultimately multimedia artifacts, and, in this prompt, you will be required to explore this aspect of them by creating a blog post that includes more than text.
Create a blog post in which you use a multimedia technique in order to explore your own relationship with or feelings about technology. For instance, you can create a collage of pictures; you can alter a photograph with text as on Post Secret; you can draw a masterpiece on paper or stick figures in Paint; you can use a webcam to record a video in which you tell a story! Be as creative and original as you can! If you need any help with the technical side of things, talk to me or to the people in the Digital Media Project.
Here are some questions to get you started . . . Do you love it? Do you hate it? Do you consider it benign or dangerous? Do you think it's had a positive effect on society or a negative one? What's your favorite piece of technology?
As always, you'll be expected to comment on three other blogs as well.
DUE DATE: FRIDAY, 19 FEBRUARY
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Blog Prompt #3
1) Pick an advertisement which you find interesting, strange or revealing. (If you're stuck for ideas, Nike commercials are generally a good place to start!) For the purposes of this assignment, it should be one which is archived on YouTube, so that you can watch it multiple times and share it with your readers.
2) Embed the video in your blog at the top of your entry. (Here are Blogger's instructions for how to do so.)
3) Write a brief analysis (200-250 words) of the commercial in which you discuss its use of logos, pathos and ethos. In other words, your analysis should answer the question of how the advertisement is appealing to logic, emotion, and its audience's perception of the speakers'/actors' credibility.
Due Date: Friday, 22 January
2) Embed the video in your blog at the top of your entry. (Here are Blogger's instructions for how to do so.)
3) Write a brief analysis (200-250 words) of the commercial in which you discuss its use of logos, pathos and ethos. In other words, your analysis should answer the question of how the advertisement is appealing to logic, emotion, and its audience's perception of the speakers'/actors' credibility.
Due Date: Friday, 22 January
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Blog Prompt #2
This blog post is designed to get you thinking about your choice of source for your primary source analysis.
COMPLETING THE ASSIGNMENT
1) Find two possible primary sources for your PSA, and post them to your blog.
Directions for how to embed pictures or videos are included in the blog set-up instructions on Carmen, but, if you have any problems, drop me a line and I will walk you through it.
If you cannot embed your source for whatever reason, simply link to it.
2) Write a short paragraph (5-6 sentences) about each source that describes what you find strange, interesting or revealing about it, and why you are thinking about using it for your PSA. Since you have two sources, you will obviously be writing two paragraphs in total.
Due Date: 15 January (so that I have time to respond to them)
COMMENTING ON THE ASSIGNMENT
For this prompt, you will be required to comment on specific blogs, so that everyone has the same amount of feedback. If you look at the list of blogs to the right, you are required to comment on the three people below you. If you are at the bottom of the list and do not have three people below you, you will simply wrap around to the top. For example, Yin will comment on Yuxi, Amanda and Cancan's blogs.
In commenting on these blogs, you will evaluate the two primary sources in light of the criteria which we went over in Wednesday's class (i.e. Is each source manageable in scope? Does it have a clear rhetorical agenda? Do you agree that it is strange, interesting, revealing? etc.). If you wish, you may suggest which source you feel will be better, although the person is obviously not obligated to take those suggestions into account.
Due Date: 17 January (so that people have time to use your feedback)
COMPLETING THE ASSIGNMENT
1) Find two possible primary sources for your PSA, and post them to your blog.
Directions for how to embed pictures or videos are included in the blog set-up instructions on Carmen, but, if you have any problems, drop me a line and I will walk you through it.
If you cannot embed your source for whatever reason, simply link to it.
2) Write a short paragraph (5-6 sentences) about each source that describes what you find strange, interesting or revealing about it, and why you are thinking about using it for your PSA. Since you have two sources, you will obviously be writing two paragraphs in total.
Due Date: 15 January (so that I have time to respond to them)
COMMENTING ON THE ASSIGNMENT
For this prompt, you will be required to comment on specific blogs, so that everyone has the same amount of feedback. If you look at the list of blogs to the right, you are required to comment on the three people below you. If you are at the bottom of the list and do not have three people below you, you will simply wrap around to the top. For example, Yin will comment on Yuxi, Amanda and Cancan's blogs.
In commenting on these blogs, you will evaluate the two primary sources in light of the criteria which we went over in Wednesday's class (i.e. Is each source manageable in scope? Does it have a clear rhetorical agenda? Do you agree that it is strange, interesting, revealing? etc.). If you wish, you may suggest which source you feel will be better, although the person is obviously not obligated to take those suggestions into account.
Due Date: 17 January (so that people have time to use your feedback)
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Class Blogs to Your Right!
I have linked all of the class blogs into this hub. You can find them in your menu bar to the right. When the first posts begin to appear on Friday, please feel free to check them out and learn a little more about classmates.
Remember that you need to comment on at least three people's posts. I, of course, will be commenting on all of them, as I feel that, if you're taking the time and trouble to write for me, I should write back to you.
I'll also be updating this blog with some fun and interesting stuff over the quarter, so I hope you'll find it entertaining as well as useful.
Remember that you need to comment on at least three people's posts. I, of course, will be commenting on all of them, as I feel that, if you're taking the time and trouble to write for me, I should write back to you.
I'll also be updating this blog with some fun and interesting stuff over the quarter, so I hope you'll find it entertaining as well as useful.