Twitter link post due 10/13

1.   Create a fake Twitter account 2.   Post an in-class summary or blog post 1 using 10 - 15 tweets (1400 – 2000 characters) Or Instagram account and post minimum of 1400 – 2000 characters (max is 2200) 3.   Post the link 4.   Comment on at least 2 classmates’ posts.

This is a pretty unconventional but playful assignment. After you look at the readings for Friday's class, you'll notice that Cullington and others mention textspeak and digital language.  Basically, take a look at your past blog posts and pick one to rewrite in textspeak/digital language in a throwaway Twitter or Instagram account. 

We're having some fun seeing the ways that our language and message content can change when we use social media. I actually encourage even more informal, digital-based language if it serves to convey a message (i.e. use of hash tags, abbreviations, fragments).

Weekly Discussion Post due 10/6

Reviewing the They Say/I Say readings from Graff, Rose, and the Howard Gardner presentation in class, write 3-5 paragraphs identifying at least one kind of non-academic intelligence you possess, describe its characteristics, and how you use it.

Questions for Guest speaker HERE

Tuesday's guest lecturer, Keith Baldwin, is a freelance writer and graduate of The New School's M.F.A. Creative Writing (fiction) program. He's looking forward to having an informal chat about the composition process, your questions about writing and any other questions you may have for him about writing fiction or academic work, pursuing Creative Writing as a degree, advice, etc.

In preparation for his visit, please post 2 questions by Monday 5 P.M:

First, read Chapter 1 of Richard Dawkin's The Selfish Gene and post 1 discussion question you have about the material (whether it's confused, rebutting, or just curious).

Second, please post 1 question you have about the composition process as a whole (about beginning, about being blocked, advice for clearing one's head, etc.).

Weekly Discussion for 9/26

Please post your weekly link to a source that you've found regarding the class theme of the "American Dream" as a part of American culture OR one of the research topics you are exploring.

As always, guidelines are the following:

For participation, we will post a link by every Monday by 5 P.M. to a source (article, movie, blog, etc) relating to either the class theme of the formation of the American Dream or your own individual research topic. Post a short summary of how the source relates to the aforementioned topic (1-2 sentences).

To receive full credit for each response, please comment on at least two of your classmates’ posts.

Research Topics

Our lovely class librarian would like an idea of what research topics you are considering before we meet in the Library on Friday, 9/23. Please make a short comment listing 3 topics that interest you (bullet points are fine).

Weekly Posts for 9/20

For participation, we will post a link by every Monday by 5 P.M. to a source (article, movie, blog, etc) relating to either the class theme of the formation of the American Dream or your own individual research topic. Post a short summary of how the source relates to the aforementioned topic (1-2 sentences).

To receive full credit for each response, please comment on at least two of your classmates’ posts.

Quotations

As stated in class and in group email:  Post 1 quotation (famous, film, book, poem, cliche, idiom, lyric, etc.) that relates to the experience of the American Dream. Write a min. 1 sentence explanation of how or why it strikes you as being related. Please comment on at least 3 of your classmates' posts.

"The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.” - David Foster Wallace

I think this line grasps and comments on a very modern American mentality that has gone from celebrating the individual to hyperfocusing on the individual;  keeping an eye on the bigger picture outside of ourselves means believing in the educated, open-minded mental freedom that allows us to do so.