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Contents 1 In-Class Activities: (Day 9, Oct 2) 2 Homework due 4 Oct 3 In-Class Activities: (Day 10, Oct 4) 4 Homework due 11 Oct

In-Class Activities: (Day 9, Oct 2)

• Feedback ad nauseum

By which I mean to imply that you probably have more bolded grammar issues and italicized commentary from me than you would wish to receive! :-o

You have no feedback if your biographer has not created and posted your prelude sentence on the homepage with a link to their Userpage.

• Who read and thought about the suggestions stemming from our discussion of Fan Shen's The Classroom and the Wider Culture: Identity as a Key to Learning English Composition?
• On the CourseWiki, put the link to Steph's feedback about your introduction onto your own UserPage (so that you can click directly to it). Print the entire commentary and edited text (the italicized statement and the entire text with bolded and italicized inserts) for inclusion in your Unit 1 portfolio.
• Go to your own weblog and write about your immediate reactions and thoughts concerning the feedback. Publish this post with the category learning: ENG112

If you choose to do a rewrite, you will need to include both the original and revised versions in your portfolio, and replace the Introduction on your subject's UserPage.

If you choose not do a rewrite, you still need to have all your work accessible from the central location of your own UserPage. You may give the link any title you want, as long as your words include some indication of the type of document/page/text.

• In trios, compare your analyses of the rhetorical situation in The Clamor of Justification. Be prepared to report these out to the class.

Homework due 4 Oct

• Print Steph's feedback on your Unit 1 Introduction - the entire commentary and edited text (the italicized statement and the entire text with bolded and italicized inserts) - for inclusion in your Unit 1 portfolio.
• Topic selection, Unit 3. Read decision-making: research
• Select "comment" and freewrite (yes, in response to Steph's post) about a specific topic or area that you might like to spend 4-6 weeks learning about deeply.

Actually, do the writing in your wordprocessing program, save it, and copy and paste it into the "comment box." Be sure to PUBLISH it!

1. Brainstorm what topics/areas/issues are of interest to you?
2. Why?
3. Do you want an academic/professional or entertainment/hobby-related topic?
4. Which "side" or aspect of yourself, your personality/character, do you want to develop through the process of intensive research and writing on one narrowly-defined subject?
5. If you had to decide right now, which would it be and what aspects will you need to consider?
6. How many sides of the story can you imagine?
7. How much (really) do you already know?

• Extra Credit: Post the selected excerpt from your Reflection Letter to the "First Reflections" page (newly linked from the Course Homepage).

In-Class Activities: (Day 10, Oct 4)

• Share comparisons of the rhetorical situation in The Clamor of Justification. (From groupwork on Tuesday.)
• Visit the topics selected for research already: decision-making: research
• Preparing for research. (If you did not post yet, do that now.) If you did post, prepare to work with one other person to brainstorm

How many sides of the story can you imagine?

Where are you going to look for source?

How much (really) do you already know? How much of this "knowledge" can you document?

Homework due 11 Oct

• Be sure to read "Introduction to 'Adding to a Conversation'" p. 372-373 in the TextWrestler. How does this help you imagine what you need to include in your research?

Remember there is no class (for us) on Tuesday, Oct 9th because UMass has decreed we follow a Monday schedule! This homework is for Thursday, Oct 11.

The "big paper" is a serious attempt at civic writing: you are going to "join a conversation" about a problem that needs a solution.

Huh? What conversation? You decide. For now, you need to write the very best research paper you can on your chosen topic. Five pages or more, double-spaced. (The more you write, the better your eventual end product will be - even if you have to cut many of your original precious words.) Include sources! At least five traditional (through the library) and (eventually) only the best three from the Internet.

The form of your actual "paper" will be as a letter directed to a specific individual (or group) that is in a position to do something about a social problem that is of concern to you. In other words, you are to select an issue, problem, or cause that you care about, identify a specific place or incident needing action, research who is the proper person or group to address, and write that person a detailed, carefully researched "letter" that demonstrates your knowledge of all sides of the issue and offers a solution, including specific reasons why your proposed solution is necessary. You will need to include a brief (but accurate and well-rounded) history of the problem, quotes illustrating the various viewpoints on the problem, an analysis of the dilemma(s) represented by the different viewpoints, and a clear rationale for action.

Some examples are available for your reading pleasure. Topics covered by previous students include

• recovery efforts since Hurricane Katrina
• the (il)legality of downloading music
• cigarette disposal on campus
• increasing convenience for vegetarians at Hampshire Dining Hall
• reducing food waste on campus
• challenging media conglomeration
• eliminating standardized test scores in college admissions
• reducing penalties for underage drinking.

Additional students' work:

• full length Samples from Fall 2006
• excerpts included in the Class Magazine, Fall 2006
• Responsibility by Mike Martel
• full length samples from Spring 2006