Will Hochman
English 200
Sp 2007
Jan-Feb Plans
Dear Students, the following will outline our work in the first month of this term. These monthly plans are based on your abilities and needs and may change according to your input, interests, and progress. All questions are welcome. Please review these plans carefully and continue to question them as we enact them.
Week 1
1/22
Introductions http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2005/04/04/hochman , inventories, exploring our class via syllabus, plans and cyberspace.
HW: Purchase On Writing Well. Also purchase two disks and a loose leaf binder for your class work collection and back-up. For our next class, please review the syllabus and plans carefully and write a two page (or longer) letter due Wednesday to Will that discusses: 1) your critique of the syllabus and plans, 2) your personal desires and goals for the course, 3) your writing strengths and weaknesses, 4) your reading interests, and 5) a specific description of your attitudes and experiences with computers and cyberspace.
1/24
Collect letters and discuss class concerns. Paired Fiction Writing
HW: Read “A Convergence of Learning Literacies” http://www.southernct.edu/~hochman/Convergingliteracies
Write comments about how you experience (or don’t) a convergence of learning literacies online. Also write out at least two questions, and at least two favorite quotes from each of the reading. (This is an ongoing assignment for EVERY reading assignment because it will prepare you for good, in-class reading responses and help you write your essays using class resources. You are also expected to annotate and research readings aggressively in the best, scholarly fashion. Begin to think about writing your first essay about any of your concerns with your computer literacy. This is your first draft of thinking about how you might present and write yourself into cyberspace. Your work should show concentration, care, and imagination.
Week 2
1/29
Return letters. Discuss class and plans so that students feel clear and are able to suggest changes and corrections.
HW: Read “Cyberspace” by Benjamin Woolley. Prepare for class discussion with 2 written questions about the essay that you want answered or at least want to talk more about in class, as well as any and all annotations and insights you can gather in your reading processes. Prepare your ideas for some of our essay assignment guidelines; perhaps we can reconfigure some of our writing challenges to better address your interests and goals as writers and explorers of cyberspace? Begin to compose an idea structure for your first essay.
1/31
Discussion of “Cyberspace” by Woolley and more specific establishment of our class cyberspace (web, list, in class computer use, language, etc.). Discussion about our class essay topics. Self-googling and google instruction.
HW Finish Idea Structuring
Week 3
2/5
Idea Stucturing workshop
HW Read Intoduction to Life on the Screen and “Identity Crisis” by Sherry Turkel (handouts).
2/7
Discussion of ideas from Sherry Turkel about identity in cyberspace. In class reading and discussion of Calling All Luddites and Doug Hesse’s Email Research links. HW: Read “From Pencils to Pixels” by Dennis Baron (handout),
Week 4
2/12
Discussion about “From Pencils to Pixels” and how Baron makes us see our own literacy narratives in different ways.
2/14
Complete draft of your first essay due. In class workshop. Bring 3 copies and a computer file of your essay to class.
Week 5
2/19-2/21 Online researching, Small group workshopping of essays, mini conferences with Will, and Writing
Week 6
2/26 Final Draft of Essay #1 due.
Topic: Computer Literacy Narrative
We will write our essays using the standard format described in our syllabus. Your computer literacy narrative essay should be at least 5 pages in length (not including the Works Cited pages). You are encouraged to develop your own individual approach to solving the challenge of this researched essay writing assignment. How you integrate your own story of learning to use and understand computers, and how you select important insights and points for research and more analysis is up to you. The key is being able to blend good story telling with good academic writing that lets your voice “talk” with sources as a peer in cyberspace. In other words, use the authority of your own experience to discuss key issues with other sources to make the essay go beyond your own story. Some folks may want to discuss the frustration, costs, and corporate take-over of cyberspace, some folks may want to discuss how cyberspace connects (or disconnects) them from others, some folks may want to discuss how learning to use computers and live in cyberspace changes the ways we write and think about ourselves with others, and all folks will want to discuss how their individual identities may be changing in cyberspace.
5 Goals for Writers of Essay #1
Write an essay about how you first used computers, and about how you increasingly learned your way around cyberspace. Try to write about your experiences so the reader believes your insights about cyberspace are intelligent, researched, creative, and true.
Do writing and research that helps you pursue and understand key ideas about computer literacy and cyberspace that are interesting to your readers and you.
Generate writing from an your perspective and the perspectives of others so that key insights and points are supported and developed beyond your own, individual experience.
Practice and customize individual composing, research and revision processes.
Practice using mechanical elements of academic discourses such as vocabulary, spelling, grammar, punctuation, MLA style of documentation, and neat presentation of writing.
We all have individual ways of learning about computers and cyberspace so there is no easy formula to writing this essay. Instead, think about your own experiences and the best ideas you know about computer use to develop a narrowed and interesting thesis about computer literacy. How you tell your story, how you research the details and insights, and how you present your work as both story and researched essay are creative opportunities that require imagination, planning, and research.
We will use idea structuring (hopefully a skill you practiced in English 101) to establish our plans for our first essay. Go to : the idea structuring link on our class homepage and begin to think about a possible thesis, conclusion, outline, and sources for your literacy narrative.
Any and all attempts at composing a working thesis and detailed outline will help you make good thinking progress toward your writing. Also, while sharpening and organizing your writing ideas, you should be doing some quick research in the assigned readings, in the library, in your own worlds, and online. The purpose of this step is to understand how writers learn to encounter and change thinking through planning, research and writing to improve their ideas.
Step 3: Drafting, More Researching, Revising, Finishing
We will use peer response, writing center and professorial resources, online research, library research, and our class discussions to understand and enhance our writing experiences.
Required Sources: At least 7 in text citations from any combination of readings by Benjamin Woolley, Sherry Turkel, Denis Baron, and any of the class links listed under “Computer Origins.” You don’t need to simply match their ideas to yours—you can analyze their points and make them work for you even if you are using them to set up your disagreement! Outside sources may be useful to find factual support for your points. You are required to use at least 2 outside sources. You are strongly encouraged to use more than the minimum number of sources and to use more than one idea from sources.
Special Provisions: If you are feeling blocked or confused and you are not certain about how to begin or how to proceed through any of the assignment steps, you are strongly urged to stop into my office during office hours (or by appointment) for help. You are also strongly encouraged to try working with a tutor in the Writing Center. You do not need to be a weak writer to reap the benefits of extra help. If you are unable to visit for face-to-face help, use the phone or email. No one expects you to write a perfect essay or know all about the writing steps we are practicing. We will learn about writing by doing it. Your best attempts will help you progress, so remember that the goal is to simply work as hard and well on assignments as possible. Feel free to raise questions and express concerns.
You may have written about your experiences with computer literacy previously. If you want to continue your previous work, attach a copy of the writing you want to advance to your idea structure and explain why the essay needs to go beyond what you have already done.
Time Management:
Idea Structuring due 2/5
Complete Draft of #1 2/14
Final Draft of #1 due 2/26