Thanks to the COM352 students for contributing a bunch of new pages! I'll be moving these pages into the main area of the wiki soon.

From UMassWiki

Students explain why the teacher picked the following quote to open the course wiki: quiz results.

James W. Carey disagrees with a common conception of

the nature of thought. In [U.S. American] predominately individualistic tradition, we are accustomed to think of thought as essentially private, an activity that occurs in the head - graphically represented by Rodin's "The Thinker." I wish to suggest, in contradistinction, that thought is predominantly public and social. It occurs primarily on blackboards, in dances, and recited poems. The capacity of private thought is a derived, and secondary talent, one that appears biographically later in the person and historically later in the species. [Footnote 15] Thought is public because it depends on a publicly available stock of symbols. It is public in a second and stronger sense. Thinking consists of building maps of environments. Thought involves constructing a model of an environment and then running the model faster than the environment to see if nature can be coerced to perform as the model does. (page 15)

Chapter One: A Cultural Approach to Communication in

Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society

Routledge, New York, N.Y., 1989.

Syllabus and Grading Policy

The general requirements and syllabus for all sections of English 112, including this one (#71) are available from the English Department's webpage. The required course texts are listed, along with an introduction, goals, and philosophy of this course.

The specific grading schema for Section 71 is two tiered. Half the credit revolves around points you lose for not doing the basic assignments and other commonly accepted elements of being a committed learner. The other half of credit involves the actual quality of your writing, with a particular emphasis on improvement.

The Instructor

Find out more about the teacher from her UMassWiki user page.

Lesson Plans and Homework

8 Febuary 2007
6 Febuary 2007
1 Febuary 2007
30 January 2007

A Forum for Feedback

Brainchild of last semester's stellar wiki-team of Martel, Chalek, and Kinzler:

Announcements

Purchasing Textbooks

I learned just tonight that you can purchase the texts for this course at the Amherst Bookstore for a few bucks less than it costs at the Textbook Annex. steph (COM) 22:33, 2 February 2007 (EST)

Writing Center

A message from Director, Pat Zukowski:

Please inform your students about the Writing Center and share its hours and locations with them. The Learning Commons Writing Center will open on February 12, 2006. Hours are from 10:00 am - 10:00 pm, Monday - Wednesday; 10:00 am - 7:00 pm, Thursdays, and 2:00 pm - 7:00 pm on Sundays. The Learning Commons Writing Center is located on the Main floor of the DuBois Library near the Calipari Room.

All graduate and undergraduate students are welcome to bring any type of writing they are working on to share with our trained instructors. We also assist students with a wide variety of application letters and personal statements. Visitors to the center should bring both a paper copy AND an electronic version on diskette or CD.

Note: the link to The Learning Center includes additional helpful information about the library's array of resources and support services. steph (COM) 11:43, 5 February 2007 (EST)

Chance to be Published

The last day to submit essays for next year's Anthology of Student Writing is March 15. The English Department will only accept the essays along with the signed permission slip from your instructor. steph (COM) 13:44, 6 February 2007 (EST)

Play

I wrote about you being too cool for school. (Actually, I am already impressed with your potential as writers. This is good.) :-) steph (COM) 09:13, 7 February 2007 (EST)

Course Quotes

Day 1: James Carey
Day 4: Text-Wrestling

Identity Narrative (Unit 1)

The English Department has, over the years, refined five different formal assignment criteria for this particular personal essay. It is an essay in that there should be some "point"; it is a narrative in the sense that your life needs to provide the support for that point.

ive formal choices for your identity narrative/essay:

“The Contexts that Make Me” or

“The Self as Writer” or

“The Self in Contradiction” or

“Blowing Things Into Proportion” or

“My Self in Words”