Tips for a Great Final Project

Annotated Bibliography

• Make sure each of your sources are correctly formatted.
• Make sure each of your annotations contain a quote or paraphrased thought and that you correctly cite those quotes or thoughts.  Review how to do in-text citations.  (Please look at the Sample Annotated Bibliography if you haven't)
• I don't want one bibliography from each of your group members.  I want one bibliography per group.  You need to coordinate with your group to get all of your sources into one document, if you haven't already.

Narrative

• Make sure you reach the required page length- 5 to 7 pages- And the required sources- 10 sources.
• Remember to tell a story.  You want to include your research but make sure that you tell a good story.  Create good characters, set the scene well, and make it interesting.
• Make sure you include a Works Cited Page with the sources that you use in your narrative.
• Don't forget your footnotes or your Notes Page. (See Class Documents- Project 4: Footnotes)

Visual

• Make sure it's connected to your narrative somehow.  
• Try and provide us with info that you didn't include in your narrative.
• Be creative. 
• If you're doing a PowerPoint, the less text you use the better.

Course Recap for Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Finding Good Sources for Your Annotated Bibliography
We talked about the types of sources that I will be accepting this project and the types of sources I will not be accepting.  I want you to have at least 1 print source per person in your annotated bibliography.  I don't want any online sources that don't have authors and aren't backed by some major trusted organization.   Try to avoid major overview websites that aren't hosted by an organization. The sort of sites that list a bunch of facts about your historical event or era but doesn't list where any of their information came from.  Even if the information is true, you would be better off citing that information from a much more valid source.

Here are some tips for finding and citing print sources for your Annotated Bibliography.

1. Use Western's Library Website: www.wmich.edu/library  You can find books, newspaper articles, and journal articles and most of them you can access online.
2. If you find a newspaper article online on the Western website, cite it the same way you would a print source.  Those articles are basically the same text that was printed in the actual newspaper that someone has typed online so you have easy access to it.  So check the MLA guide on the Purdue website and use the instructions for citing a newspaper article. (This is only for newspaper articles you find on the library website. I can't vouch for any you find in any other way.)
3. When using a journal article always check the right hand corner to see if there is a PDF version of the article.  You have to be able to list the page numbers when using a journal article and you will only know the page numbers if you can see the journal article as a PDF. Just like with the newspaper articles, cite it as a print source. 
4.  For print sources you must have the page numbers where the information came from when doing in-text citations- when you quote or paraphrase the information in your own writing.

For your annotations (the descriptions of the sources) I want you to summarize the source and it's relevance to your paper. In that summary you must include at least one direct quote or paraphrased thought for each source. This will give you a chance to practice in-text citations again since you will be using footnotes to note your research in your actual narrative.

Course Recap for Monday, November 26, 2012

Tips for a Great Unfamiliar Genre Project

• Take very specific and detailed notes in your journals.  It will make the other parts of the assignment a lot easier.
• Attach your examples or give me detailed information about each example so they will be easy for me to refer to.
• Make sure that you establish the essential elements for your genre before you start creating it.
• I'm not expecting perfection but I want you to create as close to a replica of your genre as you can get.  If your genre requires photos, make sure it has photos.  If it's set up a certain way on the page you need to try and find some way to make that happen. 
• Create your how-to guide as if you're writing it for an alien.  Someone who knows nothing about your genre and its inner workings.  Don't take things for granted.  Don't just say things like come up with an interesting topic.  That could mean anything.  Give examples or provide tips that can help the reader get to an interesting topic.
• Include specific examples for your journals in your how-to guide.  It'll help back up your steps and give your readers more guidance.  You studied several examples of your genre.  Your reader did not.
• If you don't know how to begin the how-to guide simply start by describing your own process.  What did you do first?  What choices did you make and why?

Remember the elements you want to look for in each example

• The audience-How does the piece appeal to that audience?
• The purpose-How does the piece achieve its purpose?
• The tone-what is the mood the piece gives off.  Look for words that describe emotion here.
• The attitude-what is the author's stance.  Is the author simply providing information? Are they being critical? Are they praising the topic?  Offering an opinion.  Is the author or speaker fond of what they're speaking about?
• The design-what does it look like on the page.  This is also a good place to take note of any things you notice about the language of the pieces or how it flows from one subject to the other, how is the plot structured, etc.
• The medium-this is only important for those of you who are allowed to use both print and online sources.  How does the medium change the rules of the genre?
• Make sure you keep track of similarities and note any major differences you see from example to example.

Extra Credit Opportunities
You can gain extra credit by taking your fairytales and transforming them into teen vampire dramas.  Your new piece should contain most of the elements that we came up with in class.  This is due Friday.
If everyone in the class fills out a course evaluation for this course by the last day of class, everyone will receive extra credit.  Please fill these out.  They are very important to me.  I want to know what you liked about the course, what you didn't like, things you think I could've done better, topics you're happy I covered, and things you might've wished I had gone over.  Make sure you fill out the comment sections and not just the multiple choice options.  These help me make the necessary changes to the course to make this class better for future students and helps me improve as an instructor.  I spend a lot of time critiquing your work, here's a chance for you to critique mine.

Introduction to Project 4
You picked your groups for Project 4 and starting brainstorming topics for the piece.  You will be writing a historical narrative.  You will be splitting the research amongst yourselves and then will take everyone's research to create your narrative. We will be revisiting the annotated bibliography and will be learning how to do footnotes. (See Class Documents for Project 4 Assignment Sheet.)

Homework

•  Project 3 Assignment (Due Wed Nov. 28)
• Extra Credit Assignment-Genre Transformation (Due Fri Nov. 30)

Course Recap for Monday, November 12, 2012

Introduction to Project 3
You guys were introduced to Project 3.  You will be researching, analyzing, and observing a genre of writing that is unfamiliar to you and then creating your own example of the genre.  You observations will be recorded in reading/viewing journals.  We will discuss these in more detail in a later class.  (See Class Documents Project 3 Assignment Sheet and Possible Genres.) Everyone picked the genre they wanted to use for the project, and you have to bring in 2 to 3 examples of that genre to class on Wednesday.

Analysis of the Teen Vampire Genre
We went over your notes from last class on the two clips we watched and analyzed different aspects of the teen vampire genre.  We agreed that the audience for both pieces were women, mainly teenagers but some older women too, although we felt that The Vampire Diaries might be targeting teenage boys too because of the violence and the use of very attractive actresses.  Both pieces appeal to their target audience by using teenagers as the main characters, by casting attractive male leads, by making the romance the dominant part of the plot, and by creating a very ideal romance (love at first sight, destined lovers, etc.)  We decided that the purpose of each piece is to entertain the audience by making them fall in love with and root for the main couple and to also thrill and scare the audience a bit with the supernatural angles.  They do this by making the couple an attractive couple with all the odds against them and they scare and thrill us by putting the characters in dangerous and potentially violent situations.  Even the dark lighting and use of fog in both pieces helps put audiences on edge.  We realized that because Twilight is a movie it had a longer time to get the story started, but it also could only focus on a few characters.  The Vampire Diaries is a TV show so it has to achieve the same purpose of Twilight in a shorter amount of time but it also has the chance to develop more characters since they have weekly episodes.  Our Top 10 List of things needed for the Teen Vampire Romance Genre are

1. Attractive male lead
2. A romance
3. A high school setting
4. Someone in the main couple is not a vampire
5. A human competitor (someone who is not a vampire competing for the human character's love)
6. Vegetarian vampires-the vampire involved in the couple usually doesn't drink human blood
7. A villian who is usually a vampire that does drink human blood
8. The human character (almost always a female) has something in their past or background that has forced them to grow up faster than other girls their age. They appear more mature than their friends.
9. Almost always set in a small town.
10. Dramatic storyline.  Nothing is subtle.  Everything is life or death.

The same questions you asked yourself about the two clips we watched are the sorts of questions you are going to ask when you are doing your reading journals.  How does the examples you look at appeal to its audience?  How does it achieve its purpose?  What similarities do you see from one example to the next and why do you think those similarities exist?

Homework

• Final Draft of Project 2 via email-micealaya.moses@gmail.com (Due Tues Nov 13 by 9am)  Please Make Sure You Attach Your Works Cited Page
• Bring in 2 to 3 examples of your genre to class (print examples please) (Due Wed Nov 14)

Course Recap for Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Homework

• For the two clips we watched in class, Twilight and The Vampire Diaries, tell me the audience of each clip and the purpose of it.  Then create a checklist of five things you feel are essential to the teen vampire romance drama based on what you saw.  Then give 3 significant differences you saw between the pieces and think about why those differences occur.  Why did the writers and/or directors choose to go that way. (Due Mon. Nov. 12)
• Final Draft of Project 2, via email- micealaya.moses@gmail.com  (Due Tues Nov. 13 by 9am)

Fairy Tale Assignment

Homework
Write a 1 to 2 page fairytale based on the criteria we came up with in class.
If you can't read the pics, save them to your computer and view them through a photo viewer. This will allow you to zoom in on the picture.

The Text in the first picture reads:

• Audience-Children/Families
• Purpose-Entertainment, Teach Lesson
• Do's-Magic, Happy Ending, Obstacle usually involving evil character, a lesson, evil person usually dies, good characters are usually unlikely heroes and has some sort of personal obstacle to overcome like poverty or a disability or naivete.
• Don'ts-Be realistic, good character never loses, little violence, keep it short, not too wordy

Course Recap for Monday, November 5, 2012

MEMES!

FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS!

FEMINIST RYAN GOSLING

SHAKESPEAREAN RYAN GOSLING

LIKES THE LIBRARY RYAN GOSLING

Course Recap for Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Welcome Back!
After almost a week of conferences, we finally met again as a class to review each others rough drafts of Project 2: Analysis Paper.  You separated into groups and discussed each others papers using a response guide to help your discussion.  For homework you will be doing your own review of your rough draft.  Using your classmates feedback and your own knowledge of your writing, you are going to answer the following questions:

1. What did you accomplish with this first draft?  What do you feel you did well?
2. Where are some places that need improvement?  What things will you focus on when you start your next draft?

Your response should be in paragraph form and should be 1 to 2 pages long.  Here is your chance to defend what you've already written and to start planning the changes you are going to make later.  Everyone has done something well and everyone has something they need to improve upon.  It is important to me that you are conscious of your own writing process and that you are capable (with the help of your peers) of recognizing the strengths and faults in your own paper before receiving my comments.  This response forces you to think about what you've already written and helps you set goals for making your paper better.

Homework

• Response Paper for Project 2 Rough Draft, see above description (Due Monday, Nov. 5)
• Read Hansel and Gretel, Little Snow-White, and The Elves for The Grimm Brother's Fairy Tales, see Class Links (Due Monday, Nov. 5)

Have a Happy Halloween!

(A Little Taste of Monday's Lesson.)

Course Recap for Monday, October 22, 2012

Conferences
The next two classes (Wed, Oct. 24 and Mon, Oct. 29th) we will not be meeting as a class. Instead I will meet with each of you individually in order to prepare you for the rough draft of your analysis paper and to talk about your grade so far in the class. See Conference Schedule for your conference time.

You will bring two things to your conference: an outline of your paper and an annotated bibliography.

Annotated Bibliography
An annotated bibliography is basically a paper where you summarize your research.  The first page of the paper is an introduction where you will basically tell us everything you learned from your research.  Look at it as an overview of all your sources.  After the introduction you will list each of your sources in MLA format and then you will follow it with a paragraph where you give a summary of that source and explain that source's relevance to your topic/thesis.  Please look carefully at the Sample Annotated Bibliography if you are confused (See Class Documents).  For your Annotated Bibliography I want you to have 8 sources.  You only have to quote from 4 sources in your paper, but I want to know that you've looked up as much information on your topic as you possibly could.  Also because most of you are using online sources and are not always good at figuring out good sources from bad sources, it is always good to have back up in case you have to throw some of those sources away.

Outline
See Class Documents for a template of how I want your outline's to be formatted.  Your outline will list the main ideas of your paper and will serve as roadmap for the rest of your project.

My hope is that after doing these assignments and meeting with me one-on-one you will have a better understanding of what's expected of you for this paper and will not have any issues writing a great first draft.   Your first draft will be due the next time we meet as a class which will be next Wednesday Oct. 31st.  The structure is exactly like last time. You have to bring in 2 copies of at least the first 2 pages of your paper for peer review.

Homework

• Annotated Bibliography (Due the date of your conference)
• Outline of Paper (Due the date of your conference)
• Rough Draft of Analysis Paper, first 2 pages, 2 copies please (Due, Wed. Oct. 31)
• If you have not turned in your Peer Response Guides, (These are the sheets where your classmates gave you comments about your literacy narrative), turn them in either at your conference or on Wed. Oct 31st.

Course Recap for Monday, October 15, 2012

Carrie Presentations
You presented your presentations on Carrie, making the argument that one of the 3 main characters was the monster of the piece.  You had a thesis, and you defended it using evidence from the movie and outside research.  I want you to note how you were able to prove your points with research that wasn't directly about the movie itself.  I also want you to note how the research came second to the evidence you presented from the movie. These presentations are  mini-examples of what you will be doing in your second project (see Project 2 Assignment Sheet under Class Documents).

"Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin
We then discussed the short story "Sonny's Blues" and after our discussion we created potential thesis statements for an analysis of the piece.  Those of you who did not do the reading missed out on the points for the thesis statements and 10 extra credit points.

Thesis Statements
The best way to start forming a thesis statements is to start by asking yourself very specific questions about the piece.  Try to ask more in-depth questions that go beyond the surface of the piece.  Question the choices the creators made.  Why do you think they chose to make the piece go that way instead of another way?  Ask yourself how different societal factors affect the piece.  Question a character's actions or their motives.  If you see recurring patterns in the piece ask yourself why they are there? And then try to answer them to the best of your ability based on your knowledge of the piece.  You will then have the beginning of a good thesis statement.

Homework

• Come to class with an idea of what you want to do your second project on. (Due Wed 10/17)
• Write a 1-2 page analysis on Sleep Deprivation Chamber by Adrienne Kennedy (Due Wed 10/24)

Course Recap for Wednesday, October 11, 2012

Quick Tips on Grammar, Formatting, etc.

I returned your rough drafts of your literacy narratives with my comments.  Remember I only carefully checked the first two pages of your draft for grammatical errors so be sure to go through your entire draft carefully and you complete your final revision.

Here were a couple of common errors I saw in most of the papers that we talked about in class and ways you can avoid them.

1. Italicize the titles of books and make sure that you include the author's name.  I need to know whether or not you're talking about Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or Dean Koontz's Frankenstein.
2. A lot of you have a double space between each paragraph.  What you need to do is open your document in Word, highlight the entire document, go to Paragraph on the toolbar and click the option that says "Do not leave a space between each paragraph."  I will take points off if you do not do this.
3. Watch your tenses. If you start your piece in past tense you should stay in past tense.  Do not randomly shift to present tense.  Many of you will write one sentence in present tense and then the next one would be in past and vice versa.  I've even seen two different tenses within one sentence.  Here's an example:  She cried all day long and then she is fine.
4. Run-on sentences! A run-on sentence is a sentence where you string two or more ideas together without proper punctuation you just keep going and going, it doesn't matter that you've already stated 2 very complete thoughts you decide to go ahead and add a few more just for dramatic effect and you end up with a sentence that is over four lines long.  The previous sentence is a run-on.  Here is that sentence corrected: A run-on sentence is a sentence where you string two or more ideas together without proper punctuation.  You just keep going and going.  It doesn't matter that you've already stated two very complete thoughts.  You decide to go ahead and add a few more for dramatic effect, and you end up with a sentence that is over four lines long.
5. Writing passively vs actively. " The first project was passed by most of the class." Doesn't that sound awkward?  Wouldn't it be easier to say "The class passed the first project."
6. Try to reduce your use of "to be" verbs like is, was, am.  I am walking would become I walk. They were fighting in the hall would become they fought in the hall.  It's straight to the point, makes your sentence more active, and will help some of you who had problems with wordy sentences.
7. Avoid the phrase "would have been."
8. Do not start sentences with conjunctions. Because, but, and, or etc are conjunctions
9. Do not start sentences with verbs that start in -ing.  "Walking to the store, they saw a stray dog."  Just say "They saw a stray dog while walking to the store."  
10. Follow the above tips and you will have caught most of the common grammatical and formatting errors of our class.

Carrie Discussion

The we went over the Carrie Response Guide.  We talked about your reactions to the movies and your interpretations of the film.  Here is a summary of your responses.

• The color red represented anger.  It also represented blood.
• The camera often shot Carrie from above which showed how her classmates looked down on her.
• White represented purity and Carrie was often shown in bright white light before the end.
• Religion was represented as a repressive force in the movie.  Religious symbols were often seen in small, dark places.
• Carrie's mom was a major cause of all of Carrie's problems, possibly the main cause.

We then talked about the two critical pieces you read on the movie.  In these two pieces the authors analyzed various aspects of the movie from a specific point of view in order to prove a point.  Both authors equated Carrie's telekinetic power with her burgeoning sexuality.  Both authors believed that Carrie was indeed a monster.  Muir analyzed the film mostly from a technical point of view and talked about how the director used certain techniques like slow motion, split screen, and intense music to track Carrie's transformation into a monster.  Lindsay examined it from a feminist point of view.  She talked about how the gender of the different characters affected how you interpreted their actions.  

You will be doing an analysis of a piece of art for your next project.  The types of questions you asked yourself while watching Carrie are the types of things you want to ask about your piece.  What are the hidden meanings behind the plot of the movie or book?  What do the different colors in the painting say to you about the author's feelings toward his subject? Why did a songwriter use a specific word in their song instead of another one?  We will examine some pieces together as we prepare you to learn how to interpret different pieces.  

Your first assignment will be to analyze Carrie as you try to prove which characters from the movie were the true monsters. 

Homework

• Final Draft of Literacy Narrative (Due Mon 10/15)
• Attend Performance of Sleep Deprivation Chamber at the York Theatre in the Gilmore Theatre Complex-right across from Brown, next to Miller Auditorium (Due Sun 10/14 or Mon 10/15 at 5pm)
• Read "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin (Due Mon 10/15)
• Finish up Carrie Project-You will have 15 minutes in class to prepare your presentations.  Make sure you email me the links to your research. (Due Mon 10/15)

Course Recap for Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Carrie
We watched the movie, Carrie. For homework you will do a general analysis of the movie where you will answer the following questions:

1. Comment on the various cinematic elements in the movie. What role does lighting, color, camera angles, and sound play in the story? It's okay if you don't know the technical terms. Talk about them to the best of your ability.
2. What are some of the themes present in the film?
3. Carrie is a horror movie that defies the genre because it blurs the lines between the victims and the monsters. Who are the monsters in this film? Why do you think so? Refer to specific scenes in the movie.
4. What are some recurring images or ideas in the film? What do you think these images or ideas symbolize?
5. Choose a character other than Carrie. Examine that character's personality and motives and the purpose they serve to the rest of the plot.
6. What are some criticisms you have of the film?

Homework

• Second Draft of Literacy Narrative (Due Monday Oct 8 before you come to class via email- micealaya.moses@gmail.com)
• Read "Cult Movie Review: Carrie (1976)" by John Kenneth Muir (Due Monday, Oct. 8)
• Read "Horror, Femininity, and Carrie's Monstrous Puberty" by Shelley Stamp Lindsey (Due Monday, Oct. 8)-When you click on the link it will ask you for your Bronco ID and password unless you are using a school computer.
• Answer questions on the Carrie Response Guide-you will be turning these in (Due Monday, Oct. 8)
• Final Draft of Literacy Narrative (Due Wednesday, Oct 10 via email micealaya.moses@gmail.com)

Course Recap for Monday, October 2, 2012

Peer Review
You broke off into groups and read each other's papers aloud.  You then had a discussion about the things you liked in each narrative.  Then you individually read through at least 2 of your classmates papers and made comments and filled out the response guide.  If you checked more than 2 papers you will receive extra credit.

Revisions-Second Drafts
For homework you need to write a new draft based on your classmates comments.  If none of your classmates offered you any suggestions on how to make your paper better (which they should've even if it was just grammatical errors) it is up to you to look through your piece and find things that you could do better.  Maybe you know you rushed the end of the paper and you want to take another stab at it.  Maybe there are some grammatical errors that you know are there even if your classmates missed them. There is no such thing as a perfect paper and there is always something you can improve upon.  If you only had the first two pages of your paper you can work on finishing it.  Your second draft is due Monday, October 8 and it should be better than the draft you turned in today. You will email me this draft before class Monday at micealaya.moses@gmail.com.

Homework
Second Draft of Literacy Narrative (Due Monday, Oct. 8) *This is not your final draft*

Course Recap for Monday, September 24, 2012

What Makes A Good Story Part 2

In class today we talked about character, dialogue, and how to write a scene.  We talked about how Engkent was able to give us a good picture of his mother not only by providing us information or her background but also by showing her en scene.  Hearing her dialogue and seeing her reactions to various situations helped to characterize her better than any expository paragraph could. The same thing happened in Sedaris's piece.  We were able to see how obnoxious the teacher is by observing her interactions with students throughout the narrative instead of simply reading a paragraph that says she's obnoxious. When you're writing your literacy narratives, you should have characters and you want to try and find ways to show us how a person is instead of telling us.  

Make sure when you're writing your narrative to not forget about the most important character of all, yourself.  Sedaris's voice and tone help us to realize that he's a funny and sarcastic person.  Try to find ways to use voice and tone to characterize yourself.  Make sure that we leave the piece knowing who you are as person.

I also had you rewrite your Where I'm From Narratives.  Your task is to tell the story of a specific moment and to write a good scene.  Scenes are moments of action in a narrative where the reader is given a chance to see an event exactly as it is occurring or exactly how it occurred.  It's more detailed, often includes dialogue and is basically the slowing down of a moment.  The moment is usually something significant, something extremely important to the story line.  It can be the beginning of something or the end of it.  The moment when something changed or the moment when something could change but instead ended up staying the same.  Your literacy narrative should include scenes.

Homework

• Come to class with a good idea of what your literacy narrative's going to be about. (Due Wed. 9/26)
• Finish Part One of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks pgs 1-86 (Due Wed 9/26)

Course Recap for Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Pop Culture and it's Influence on Language
We started class with everyone coming up with words and phrases that were unique to our favorite TV shows, movies, video games, music artists, books, etc.  We were looking for words and phrases that only fans of the piece would know.  Then we wrote them on the board to see how many of the terms and phrases we all knew.  For example, I wrote Apparate and Inferius (from Harry Potter) and smizing and go-sees (from America's Next Top Model).  The one phrase the entire class knew was Hakuna Matata (from The Lion King)

We learned that there are some phrases that are a common part of our everyday discourse that originated from some form of entertainment and we also learn that there are some phrases that can be unique to any community including the fans of specific franchises.

This woman is fist-pumping.  A commonly used phrase that became popular on the reality show, Jersey Shore.

Elaine Richardson "Ill-Literacy Narrative"

We broke up into groups and discussed Richardson's piece.  Our discussions ranged from the definition of sexual consent to the ways that people can be judged simply by whom they associate with.  We examined the different ways that our backgrounds affect the way we interpret different situations. We talked about the different interpretations of the phrase "Hey Baby/Girl/Sexy" and how some men see it as a charming way to approach the opposite sex while a lot of women find it demeaning and uncomfortable.  It suggests the man is more familiar with the woman than he is and there are a lot of sexual connotations to the phrase.

We gave other examples of when having different backgrounds caused us to have misunderstandings with others.  One of our classmates talked about how he once got in fight with a kid because he asked him "What's good?"  In his neighborhood that phrase is a threat, but in the other kid's neighborhood it's a greeting.  The two of them simply misunderstood each other because they have different backgrounds. 

As you think of topics for your narratives, try and think of the ways that your backgrounds affect the way you interact with the world. Or you can examine how your interactions with people that are different from you have either improved or hindered your ability to communicate with others.

Homework

• Read "Why My Mother Can't Speak English" by Garry Engkent, pgs 32-39 in the Mercury Reader and "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris, pgs 64-68 in the Mercury Reader (Both due by Monday, Sept. 24)
• Read Part One of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, pgs. 1-86. Make sure you read A Few Words About This Book and The Prologue.   (Due Wednesday, Sept. 26)

Course Recap for Monday, September 17, 2012

Poems
You looked over your classmates poems and pointed out lines that stood out to you and lines that presented a strong image or feeling.

Three of you read your poems aloud and at least two of you centered your poems around specific events (Brandon's a snow day in his hometown and CeCe the financial crisis that plagued Saginaw).  You were asked to circle any lines in your poem that centered around a specific event.  You will use these as potential inspiration when you write a narrative about where you're from.

What Makes A Good Story
We compared and contrasted our feelings about the two readings from this weekend, Decoded by Jay-Z and Chapter 2 of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  We talked about the things we liked in each piece and the things we didn't.  The biggest thing we didn't like about the chapter we read from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is that the chapter felt a little bit like a list of events one after the other which made it a little monotonous versus the excerpt from Decoded where we actually had scenes.  From this we can conclude that a good element of storytelling is to show what happened rather than tell.

Homework

• Write a narrative about Where You're From using your poem for inspiration.  It should be one-page single-spaced (two pages double spaced).  Do not go over this page limit. (Due Wednesday, Sept 19)
• Read "My Ill Literacy Narrative: Growing Up Black, Po and a Girl, in the Hood" by Elaine Richardson, pgs 48-60 in The Mercury Reader (Due Wednesday, Sept 19)

Course Recap for Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Details, Details, Details
We looked at two poems about the authors' hometowns, "Where I'm From" by George Ella Lyons and "Courageous Dream's Concern" by Jack White (See Class Links).

We examined how each poem used very specific details to paint a picture of the place they are from.

Homework

• Write a one page poem about where you're from. (Due Monday, Sept 17)
• Read Decoded by Jay-Z pgs 20-25, see Class Links (Due Monday, Sept 17)
• Read Chapter 2: Clover from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, pgs 18-26 (Due Monday, Sept 17) *You need to have all of Part One of the novel read by Wednesday, Sept 26th*
• First Blog Post due Sunday Sept 16th (This is your last blog post reminder.  Remember blogs are due every Sunday and Thursday from this point forward until the end of the semester.)
• Read "My Ill Literacy Narrative: Growing Up Black, Po and a Girl, in the Hood" by Elaine Richardson, pgs 48-60 in The Mercury Reader (Due Wednesday, Sept 19)

Possible Blog Post Topics (choose one) 1. Tell me a brief story about where you're from. Use your brainstorms from class Wednesday as a starting point if you don't know what to write about. 2.Have you written in a genre lately that was unfamiliar to you? What was that process like? How did you determine the correct way to complete this genre? Was it hard or easy? Why?

Course Recap for Monday, September 10, 2012

What Makes A Good Blog?

Today we examined your favorite blog by examining the different aspects of the rhetorical situation that we talked about in class on Wednesday.  We determined the blog's audience, purpose, context, mood, voice, etc.  Then we used this information to come up with a list of things that make a good.

Most of the blogs we looked at were:

1. Visually appealing (most used pictures)
2. Well organized
3. Had a fairly consistent audience, purpose, tone, and voice for most of the blog posts.
4. Simple and easy to understand
5. The subjects of the blog were on things that would obviously interest the audience.

You will use these common elements to guide you when writing your own blog posts. (See Blog Assignment Sheet under Class Documents.)

We created your blogs in class. You wrote your first blog posts where you briefly introduced yourselves and then you learned how to add gadgets to your blog pages.  You created a Blog List gadget where you listed the class blog and the blogs you found over the weekend.

NOTES ABOUT BLOG CONTENT: We had a discussion in class about the use of graphic language and images.  I do not want to censor you, but  I will implore you to use discretion when writing your blog posts.  You have to take into consideration the context of your blogs and the potential audience.  Although, this blog is a personal blog, it is also a class assignment and anything you write will not only reflect on you, it will reflect on the class, me as the instructor, and WMU.  Although your primary audience is me and your classmates, other potential readers include other instructors and students of English 1050 or anybody curious about what Western is teaching in their classrooms.  

Again I do not want to censor you, I just want you to be mindful of the context and the audience of your blog. Profanity for profanity's sake is usually a sign of bad writing anyway. If you are going to use profanity make sure it's doing more than potentially offending readers of your blog.  If you have doubts about whether or not something is appropriate take the safe route and don't post it.  You can always start your own personal blog if you feel compelled to write about things that are NSFW (Not Safe for Work-we'll talk more about Internet lingo in the coming weeks).

Homework

• Add a picture to your Introduction post (Due Wed, 9/12)
• Read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Part One (Due Mon 9/24)

Welcome to English 1050 + Course Recap for Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Welcome to English 1050!
I am Micealaya (Mickey) Moses, your instructor.  Please take time to save this blog into your favorites/bookmarks folder as I will provide weekly updates, course recaps, and all course documents through this site. I am excited to work with all of you this semester! Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions.  My e-mail is m5moses@wmich.edu.  I am also available for to meet with you an hour right after every class and by appointment.  In this class you will learn how to think like a writer, a skill you already possess in some capacity.  We will read and discuss various texts and you will hopefully leave this class with the ability to write in both academic and "real world" settings.


Course Syllabus and Course Expectations
We read through the syllabus in class and talked about the things you would have to do to succeed in this course. Please be sure to review the entire syllabus (posted on the right side of the blog) on your own, but here a few of the finer points, the things that are essential to your success in this class:

• Attendance and participation are extremely important. You are expected to be in class on-time on a regular basis and to participate in all class activities and discussions.
• Late work is highly discouraged.  Please get in the habit now of turning things in when they are due.
• I am here to help you but I can't do anything for you if I don't know something is wrong. Please do not hesitate to ask questions if you are confused.  Again I can meet with you during office hours or by appointment to discuss things you may be struggling with.  Also please inform me in a timely matter if you're going to miss class.
• Please be courteous.  Disruptive behavior is distracting and counterproductive to our class.

Writing Sample
After reading over the syllabus you all submitted a writing sample to me.   You wrote about your relationship with writing.  You talked about what you liked and didn't like about writing, what you hoped to learn in the class, and the last piece of writing you created.


Rhetorical Situations
We discussed in class rhetorical situations defining it as any moment you attempt to use language to communicate a message.  We discussed the various factors that help us decide how we will act in a given rhetorical situation.  These included:

• genre (kind of writing)
• audience
• purpose
• tone (attitude)
• voice (sound)
• context (outside influences, environment, time, place)
• media (print, electronic, spoken)
• design (look)

Afterwards we analyzed several common forms of writing that we perform in our daily lives such as text messages, Facebook comments, and notes to self.


Homework

• Buy books and copy card (Due Monday 9/10)
• Think of a title for our class blog (Due Monday 9/10)
• Bring in a link to a blog that interests you (Due Monday 9/10)
• Start reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lack. Part One is due Monday 9/24