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Assignments, En101, Spring 05Goleman/101 Assignment 1: Due Tuesday, Feb 1 Read: Introduction to Ways of Reading, pages 1-16, handout
Gloss Please read and gloss the Introduction. Glossing means making notes in the margins of the text that are verbal highlights of a paragraph. Glossing is a good note-taking method for writers since it has you finding your own words for what you are reading right from the start. Colored markers can’t do that.
In these pages, the authors define the kind of reading and writing that they want their book to stimulate. Calling it “strong reading and writing,” the authors describe its defining characteristics and purposes. Read and gloss to understand the purposes of our course.
Double-entry Notes Next, draw a line down the middle of few notebook pages. In the left-hand column, list 12 characteristics of strong reading and writing that the authors discuss. Put page numbers in parentheses. Use the following phrase to set up each point:
Strong readers and writers . . .
In the right-hand column, across from each entry, put the point into your own words; try to say what it means to you. (Like glosses, the right-hand column is the place for your words.)
Note: To receive credit for this assignment, you should come to class prepared to show me your textual glossing and to hand in your double-entry notes. They can be hand-written. I will not give partial credit.
Goleman/Earley 101 Assignment 2: Due Thursday, Feb. 3 1-2 typed pages
Shortly, we will begin to read the first essay in the course: “To See and Not See” by Oliver Sacks. To get ready for reading this as a strong, engaged reader with ideas of your own, we’d like you to spend some time thinking and writing about the question that frames Sacks’ essay:
What would happen when an adult blinded since early childhood has his or her vision restored?
We are not asking you to do research and to come up with the “correct” answer. We are asking you, instead, to speculate, imagine, and hypothesize about the experience of someone who has his/her vision restored after a lifetime of blindness. Using what ever you already know or simply what you guess, write at least 1 page in response to this question. If you enjoy writing fiction, you could even write this in the form of a monologue by someone who has just had his or her sight restored or as a story. What would it be like for this person to have bandages removed and to “see”? Why?
Don’t worry about right answers here. If you do this assignment, you can’t do it wrong. All responses of a page or more that attempt to think about the question will receive credit.
Assignment 3: Due in class, Tuesday, Feb. 8 Read: “To See and Not See,” Oliver Sacks
You now have a copy of “To See and Not See.” Under the article’s title, you will find the question we have been anticipating: What happens when an adult who has been blind from childhood suddenly has his vision restored? The experience of Virgil, a fifty-year-old Oklahoman who regained his sight after forty-five years, raises questions about perception that have haunted philosophers and scientists for centuries.
Here is your assignment, broken down into 4 parts:
1. Read Sacks’ article. Underline or bracket sections that stand out to you as addressing the question: What happens when an adult who has been blind from childhood suddenly has his vision restored? Expect to spend around two hours on this.
2. Reread your speculations about this question, those you brought to class and those you revised after class discussion.
3. Write an essay draft of 2-4 pages in which you discuss what your hunches were and the ways in which they were similar or different from what you have read in Sacks’ article. Be sure to work with the sections you marked in Sacks’ article as well as your own hunches. Tell us what find most interesting or important about Virgil’s experience in relation to your speculations about regaining one’s sight. Expect to spend two to three hours on this draft.
4. Let your draft rest for a day or at least a few hours. Then reread it. Make changes that help you to get closer to what you are trying to say. When you are satisfied, give your essay a unique title that captures your personal take on the issues. Proofread a hard copy of your essay and correct any errors you notice. Bring your revised and proofread essay to class along with your response to Assignment 2.
Goleman/Earley En 101 Assignment 4 due: Tuesday, Feb 15 TRY-IT!
Today we are returning your reflection papers in which you compared your first hunches about what it would be like to regain one’s vision after a lifetime of blindness with Sacks’ article on the subject. They are very interesting and lively. Still there’s opportunities for more depth and precision. We have spent time in class revising sections of sample papers using the author’s own commentary as our starting points.
You will find similar kinds of comments on your own papers—suggestions for strengthening your observations by going back into Sacks’ article for more specific details. Strong writing requires strong reading (and rereading) and we’re asking you to try this for next class.
Here’s the assignment: Choose 2 places where you see words like “Try it” or “Try this” in the margins of your paper. Work on revising the paragraphs involved. Type your revised paragraphs on a separate sheet and bring them to class with the draft we are returning today. We’re asking you to work out your ideas in more detail and with more precise use of Sacks’ article. In most cases this will take a lot more sentences, not just one. If you add quotations, put the page number in parentheses after the quote.
Goleman/Earley En 101 Assignment 5: At First Sight: Class work and Homework , 2/15, 2/17, 2/22
This week, we will be watching the film, At First Sight, an adaptation of Oliver Sacks’ essay, “To See and Not See.” You will need to watch this movie somewhat differently than you are accustomed to watching films. Our purposes are not primarily for entertainment (although we hope you enjoy the movie!) Our purposes are comparative and interpretive. We want you to analyze the way the two versions are similar and different. Then we want you to form your interpretation of these differences. How do the film’s differences from the article affect what you think is important about Virgil and Amy’s experiences? (More on that later.)
To start this process, you will need to keep notes during the movie that you can go back to after each sitting and add further thoughts. Here is what we suggest:
Bring your notebooks to class. You will receive credit for this assignment if the left-hand column is filled in at home after each day’s viewing.
Goleman/Earley En 101 Assignment 6: Due Tuesday, Feb 22
There are two parts to your homework for Tuesday.
1. Please complete the left-side of your double-entry notes on the film, At First Sight.
Please choose one of these approaches to evaluating the film in relation to the essay. (You can combine two if you like.)Choose the one that interests you the most and motivates you to dig into the details of both versions. Using your notes on the film and your copy of Sacks’ essay (which you should reread), begin to make lists that compare the film and essay in relation to one of the approaches listed above. --What exactly happens in the film? What does it look like? What dialogue do you recall? --What does Sacks say about it? What examples, facts or descriptions does he use?
Bring these comparative lists to class on Tuesday. The more detailed they are, the better prepared you will be for writing your papers.
We will work with your lists toward a draft of your paper which will be due Thursday, Feb 24.
Goleman/Earley En 101 Assignment 7: Complete Draft due for Peer Review ( 2-4 pages, typed, proofread) Due: Thursday, Feb. 24
You have now come to the last leg of a long process that began when we asked you say what you thought would happen to someone who gained his sight after a lifetime of blindness. You compared your hunches with each other and revised your thinking. Then you pushed your thinking to an even higher level by reading and writing about “To See and Not See” and comparing it to your hunches as well. The “try-it” paragraph revisions of those papers demonstrate how much stronger your reading and writing can become when you follow up on your ideas with examples, quotations and commentary. Having grappled with Sacks’ essay to achieve an appreciation for what Virgil went through physically and emotionally, we watched At First Sight, the Hollywood film adaptation of Sacks’ essay. Inevitably, we started to compare the two and here we are. Your have come to class today with specific comparisons of the film and essay. Your assignment for Thursday is to write the essay that you feel bubbling up from this work. What is your opinion of the film in comparison to Sacks’ essay in terms of one or two of these specific aspects:
A strong essay will not just take a strong stance for or against the film. For instance, it is not necessary to trash the movie in order to write strongly; you can take a stance on the movie in relation to the article that is mixed. What will give such an essay strength is the way you explain how and why your stance is mixed. In other words, a strong paper will work with specific details from Sacks’ essay and the film to form an open-minded, complex evaluation of the film in relation to the article, not a simple-minded rant like we sometimes hear from TV movie critics.
What’s your opinion of one or two of the above aspects of the film in relation to Sacks’ article and why?
Goleman/Earley Assignment 8: Writer-to-Writer Due: Tuesday, March 8
Today we are collecting your papers comparing the film At First Sight with Sacks’ article, “Too See and Not See.” We’ll return them to you on Tuesday for some further try-it revisions. In this way we’ll keep up our process of strengthening your reading and writing. As we said at the beginning of the course, revision is the chief means we would be using to push your work to a higher level of academic thought and expression.
Revision, you will recall, is one of the features of strong reading and writing that Bartholomae and Petrosky discuss in their Introduction. We’d like you to look back at that Introduction now along with your notes and the class list we distributed. As your last move in this unit on the work of Oliver Sacks, we’d like you to consider this question: Does Oliver Sacks demonstrate the features of a strong reader and writer in “To See and Not See”? Write a 2-3 page letter to Oliver Sacks, making specific reference to his article and the Introduction by Bartholomae and Petrosky to build and support your point of view. Put page number in parentheses after quotations.
To do this assignment, you will need to change your perspective on an article you are now very familiar with. You will now be looking at what Sacks does more than what he says (thought the two are intertwined). You will be looking at his writing as writing, and telling him what you notice. We hope you find this writer-to-writer project interesting, meaningful, and maturing to your own developing sense of yourself as a strong reader and writer.
Peer Review Author’s Name: Reviewer’s Name: Please read the entire essay first.
1. What specific aspect(s) of ”To See and Not See” and At First Sight is the author comparing? Copy the sentence that allows you to answer this question.
2. What’s the author’s opinion of the above aspects of the film in relation to Sacks’ article? Let the author read what you think his/her opinion is. Try to be as accurate as possible.
3. The assignment states, “A strong paper will work with specific details from Sacks’ essay and the film to form an open-minded, complex evaluation of the film in relation to the article.” Point out 2 places where you see the author writing strongly in this way and say why you have chosen them.
4. Now, on the basis of what you find strong, point out 1 or 2 places that you think the author needs to work on further. Explain yourself: make suggestions, ask questions, offer ideas about new materials or quotations that could be used, speak back to the author’s opinion with your own thoughts if you think this is called for—anything to get the author back to work building the paper in a persuasive way.
5. What have you learned about your own essay by reviewing this one?
Goleman/Earley Assignment 9: Revision Try-its Due: Thursday March 10
Today, we are returning your essays on “To See and Not See and At First Sight. There is much to be pleased and proud of in these papers. We have made a point of telling each of you what we think is strong and interesting in your work. We have also pointed out a few places in everyone’s paper where further work would strengthen not only a particular section, but also your understanding of what it takes to push a paper to a higher level of insight and support.
So, here’s the assignment: Choose two places where we have suggested you try to revise (unless we have just suggested one place in your paper). Hand in the revised sections along with your whole, commented paper on Thursday. You will get a new grade for the try-its themselves. Make sure your revisions are proofread carefully.
En 101 Goleman/Earley Assignment 10 due: Thursday, March 24 Read: “Visits” in Brothers and Keepers, pp. 6-54
As you read the first chapter of John Edgar Wideman’s book, Brothers and Keepers, you will notice that John talks about running in terms of both his brother and himself. Why? Robby is the fugitive, not John. Mark sections where you notice John writing about what Robby was running from and what John himself has been running from in his life.
After you have read and marked this chapter, go back and select 3 sections about Robby and 3 sections about John that you marked. In the right-hand column, use quotations and paraphrase to summarize the 6 sections you have chosen. Put the page number next to each entry. In the left-hand column, respond to each passage about running: what do you find important, interesting, troubling about it? Why do you think John has included this part? What more do you want to know? Speak back to the text in any way that pushes along your thinking in the left-hand column.
Bring your double-entry notes to class.
En 101 Goleman/Earley Assignment 11: Due Tuesday, March 29 Read in Brothers and Keepers, pp. 57-84
It all started with Gar dying. (66)
In “Our Time,” the second chapter of Brothers and Keepers, John and Robby develop three ways to begin the story of Robby’s decline into crime and imprisonment. We learn about each of these beginnings from three perspectives: John’s, Robby’s and Mrs. Wideman’s.
When we finish this chapter, we will ask you to develop your perspective on Robby’s decline. The work we will be doing day by day is intended to help you build up a strong point of view that you can support through reference to Wideman’s text.
For Tuesday, please do this: 1. In your book, mark the different voices and perspectives that Wideman uses to write this section. Even though he does not use quotation marks, you will be able to hear most changes in voice. Using a double-entry notebook, select three passages in different voices that stand out to you as important to this section about Garth and Robby. Quote the passage in one column and note the page number. In the other column say why you think it is important to an understanding of Garth’s death for Robby.
2. Write 2 pages about why you think Robby says to John, “It all started with Gar dying.” You should use your notes and the text to help build your response.
Note: To receive credit, you need to complete both parts of this assignment.
En 101 Goleman/Earley Assignment 12: Due Thursday, March 31 Read in Brothers and Keepers, pp. 84-91
I know that had something to do with it. Living in Shadyside.(84)
In “Our Time,” the second chapter of Brothers and Keepers, John and Robby develop three ways to begin the story of Robby’s decline into crime and imprisonment. We learn about these beginnings from three perspectives: John’s, Robby’s and Mrs. Wideman’s.
When we finish this chapter, we will ask you to develop your perspective on Robby’s decline. The work we will be doing day by day is intended to help you build up a strong point of view that you can support through reference to Wideman’s text.
For Thursday, please do this: 1. In your book, mark the different voices and perspectives that Wideman uses to write this section. Using a double-entry notebook, select three passages that stand out to you as important to this section about living in Shadyside. Quote the passage in one column and note the page number. In the other column say why you think it is important to an understanding of the move to Shadyside for Robby.
2. Write 1- 2 pages about why you think Robby says to John, “I know that had something to do with it. Living in Shadyside.” You should use your notes and the text to help build your response.
Note: To receive credit, you need to complete both parts of this assignment.
Goleman/Earley Assignment 13: due Tuesday, April 5 Read: Brothers and Keepers, pp. 91-120
Another place to start could be December 29, 1950—the date of Robby’s birth. (91)
The final way John Wideman thinks he can being the story of Robby’s decline is with the day of Robby’s birth. Read this section carefully as you try to understand what the day of Robby’s birth has to do with Robby’s problems as a young adult.
Please do this: 1. Choose 5 quotations that stand out to you as important to an understanding of why this would be a place to start the story. Put the quotations in one column and your commentary about their importance in the other column. Note the page number and whose perspective the quotation is from.
2. Write 2 pages in which you explain why the date of Robby’s birth might be a place to start the story of his decline into crime and imprisonment. Use quotations selectively and your commentary to build your explanation.
Goleman/Earley En 101 Brothers and Keepers, John Edgar Wideman Assignment 14 complete draft due for peer review: Thursday, April 7 finished draft due for teacher review: Tuesday, April 12
Here is what John Edgar Wideman says about his investigation of Robby’s crime in an earlier section of Brothers and Keepers:
You never know exactly when something begins. The more you delve and backtrack and think, the more clear it becomes that nothing has a discrete, independent history; people and events take shape not in orderly, chronological sequence but in relation to other forces and events, tangled skeins of necessity and interdependence and chance that after all produce only one result: what is. (19)
We have now worked our way through “Our Time” once-- understanding, interpreting and prioritizing the many causes offered for Robby’s problems from three perspectives: John’s, Robby’s and Mrs. Wideman’s. Many of you have already observed in your daily papers that there is not one cause to Robby’s decline. From the above quotation, it is clear that John Edgar Wideman agrees. But even if most of you think the causes are multiple and that the issue is complex, there is no clear agreement on which causes are more important than others and how the causes you think are important relate to each other. This is the work of your final paper.
And so, if you don’t mind the pun, you should think of this paper as “Your Time.” It is your time to put forward your best understanding of the causes of Robby’s decline. To do this, you need to select, arrange, and discuss the details of Robby’s life that you think link together to form the best explanation of Robby’s problems. This is NOT the same thing as a summary of the essay because you need to say which causes and which perspectives you think are most important and why. You need to work with and against the grain of Wideman’s text to form your perspective.
This paper should be around four pages. You should aim for a complex argument based on multiple, linked causes. In other words, I am asking for you to compose a strong reading of “Our Time.” A strong reading will work with the text specifically, using details and quotations to answer this question: Of all the reasons that John, Robby and Mrs. Wideman bring forward to explain Robby’s decline into crime, which set of causes emerge for you as most important and why?
Peer Review Author: Reviewer:
1. “Of all the reasons that John, Robby, and Mrs Wideman bring forward to explain Robby’s decline into crime, which set of causes emerge for you as most important and why?” Which sentences in the author’s introduction best tell you what the author’s position is in regard to this question? Write them here. If you can’t find an answer to this question in the introduction, tell the author.
2. Assuming the author has said which causes emerge as most important, tell the author what you expect to see in the rest of the essay.
3. “A strong reading will work with the text specifically, using details and quotations to answer this question.” Point out two places where you think the author uses details and quotations to build an explanation of what s/he thinks is most important and why.
4. On the basis of what you find effective, point out two places that are not as strong and explain why. Make suggestions for revision.
5. “You need to work with and against the grain of the text to form your perspective.” Where does the author write against the Wideman point of view in order to put forward his/her own? If you cannot find such a place, make suggestions for where the author could usefully distinguish what s/he thinks from what Wideman thinks.
5. Whose perspectives, in particular, has the author cited to build his or her argument about the multiple, linked causes of Robby’s decline? Can you think of a perspective that would strengthen this argument? Explain your thinking to the author.
6. “You need to select, arrange, and discuss the details of Robby’s life that you think link together to form the best explanation of Robby’s problems.” Does the conclusion of the essay offer an explanation of how all the pieces link together? Does the author go beyond what has already been said or just repeat it? Make suggestion for drawing out unsaid ideas that you think would add depth and meaning.
8. What have you learned about our own paper by reviewing this one?
Goleman/Earley En 101 Assignment 15: Planning letter due Thursday, April 14
We are embarking on a project that offers you a chance to add to the work begun by John Edgar Wideman (and Oliver Sacks) in your own area of interest. Imagine that you are asked to contribute a 4 - 5 page essay to a book that also includes writing by Sacks and Wideman. This book is called Complex Portraits/Complex Causality. We’ve looked at how Wideman employs multiple perspectives, examines context, asks difficult questions, provides clear and meaningful stories and reflects on his role as writer.
Now it’s time to think about how to develop an inquiry of your own in a way that is just as meaningful and compelling as the inquiries we’ve been reading.
This paper will go through a couple of revisions and then we will gather all your complex portraits/complex causalities into a class book which everyone will read. We’ll then write essays about the essays in the class book. In other words, your work will be used as the other texts in the course have been used and you will be cited as the author (you can use a pen-name if you like). Please choose a subject that you are willing to see in this context. Also, choose a subject you can stay interested in through a couple of rewrites.
For Thursday, please begin this process by writing us a planning letter in which you address these matters:
Goleman/Earley En 101 Assignment 16 due: Tuesday, April 19
You should by now have a subject for your Wideman-like paper and a plan for how to begin your inquiry. For Tuesday, please begin to develop multiple perspectives on your topic of inquiry. You can do this through reflective writing, interviewing, observation or research. Your particular inquiry will determine which of these ways of gaining perspective you must start with, but the work of acquiring multiple perspectives and examining contexts is central to all.
We want to see the notes, interviews, free writing or research materials you develop by Tuesday. Please attach a one page report of what you have done over the weekend, what has been or not been useful about it and what you plan to do next. Addressing these questions in your reports will make it difficult to get stuck or to fall behind in this project. We are aiming for these papers to be in draft form by Thursday, April 28.
_______________________________________________
Assignment 17 due Thursday, April 20 Read in Brothers and Keepers, “Doing Time,” 181-243
Using a double-entry format, choose 4 quotations where you find John talking about the process of writing the book and figuring out how to end it. In the opposite column, comment on what you see as the results of these reflections in the way Wideman composes the last chapter. Please comment at some length in order to receive credit for this assignment.
You should continue to work on gathering perspectives and contexts for your Wideman-like inquiry.
Goleman/Earley Class work: Thursday, April 14
Here is the list of Wideman-like features that we developed in class on Tuesday. Please use the right-hand column to brainstorm how you might work with these elements yourself to build your complex portrait or complex analysis. A Wideman-like approach involves: How I might use this feature
Asking questions
Doing research: Interviews, statistics, observation, background reading
Using multiple perspectives and voices for new, more complex understanding
Remembering and imagining
Going against the grain of one’s own thinking to think outside the box
Reflecting and being introspective to determine what else one needs to know
Pursuing new stories and storytellers to gain new contexts for understanding
Avoiding happily-ever-after ending or oversimplified conclusions Goleman/Earley Assignment 18 due: Tuesday, April 26 Rough draft of Wideman-like paper, typed
For next Tuesday, we want you to write a rough draft of your complex portrait; if there are pieces you still need to develop, you can note that in your draft. The purpose here is to start telling your stories and piecing the parts together in a way that helps you to explore the question you are asking.
Mark and I will work with you individually, listening to what you are trying to do and giving our advice for the next draft. The more you bring in, the more helpful we can be. Everyone with a substantial, multi-page draft gets a CHECK-PLUS.
To build your inquiry in a complex way, we suggest that you keep in touch with the list of Wideman-like methods. That list can give you ideas of how to keep your inquiry going when you get stuck.
Goleman/Earley Assignment 20: Reading the class book
You now have copies of each other’s complex portraits/complex cause essays. These inquiries are the final reading for the course, joining “To See and Not See” and Brothers and Keepers as texts for analysis and response. Here’s what we’d like you to do for the paper due Tuesday, May 10:
Write an essay in which you discuss three Wideman-like moves from at least two papers that you admire and that you think you could apply to your own essay for a gain in meaning. Analyze each of the three moves you choose, explaining what it does for the paper that you admire and how you think it adds meaning to it. You will need to support your ideas with specific uses the papers themselves. Quotations and details will help you to explain what you think is effective about a move the writer makes and why. We also want to know how you think you could apply the moves you have identified to your own paper. You can do this in a final section or you can do it after the analysis of each move. How might you continue your own inquiry using moves you have seen and admired in classmates’ papers? That’s the question behind this final assignment—a question that invites you to imagine further development of your own paper.
Here’s a day by day breakdown of our process: Due Tuesday, May 3 Read the entire class book. As you read, mark all the places where an author’s use of a Wideman-like method stands out to you as particularly strong and effective. Explain in the margins what you like about the moves you have chosen. Of all the places you have marked, which ones give you ideas for how you might have continued developing your own inquiry? Star those. Bring the entire class book with you to class.
Thursday, May 5 Choose three moves from at least 2 papers that you might want to write about in relation to your own paper. Before applying it to your paper, however, we’d like you to analyze each move closely on its own terms.
Bring your typed responses to class. No late assignments accepted.
Tuesday, May 10 (LAST CLASS!!) PAPERS DUE: Typed, Titled, Proofread No late papers except for emergency or illness
Please bring copies of your papers to class for all the authors you cite. You should remove your name from your paper to maintain anonymity. We think you will find it interesting to see your papers discussed and admired in each other’s essays--a nice way to end the term.
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