Class #3 Post-Game and Reminders for Monday 10/4

Thanks to everyone for another vigorous discussion. I usually come home after this class and can't communicate besides nodding and grunting until at least Tuesday afternoon.  

Blog Post (by Thursday night 9/23)
-Identify one research source for "family," "friend," "enemy," "one night stand," "stranger," and "help wanted," and explain why they fit in these categories. (Post in comment reply below.)

Literature Review with Expanded Annotated Bibliography (by Wednesday night 9/29):
-Start with your 390 "background statement," or whatever that was called. Revise to indicate the most relevant literature from the different fields your project encompasses, and how those sources relate to your thesis. (See page 3 of course syllabus for a further description; you may not be able to hit the page target yet but do the best you can.) For the annotated bibliography part, try to make 10 new friends and dismiss 10 strangers malingering from last semester. (Submit by Google Docs, or if that doesn't work, email attachment.) If you are still working on your first draft Introduction/I.D.R., that needs to come first.  

We will have our next class meeting on Monday 10/4, and continue to discuss sources, what their function is in your essay, standards of proof in the disciplines, and hopefully quotation technique. 

Revised Introduction w/ I.D.R. Lit. Review w/ E.A.B. (10/10-10/20; deadline may be determined on an individual basis depending on when your conference is scheduled

Class #2 Post-Game and reminders for next Monday

I hope the latest class was helpful... I was completely exhausted by the end, so we must have been accomplishing something.

-If you were absent/late and missed the presentation about the Writing Center, be sure to check out their website.
-Turn in the first draft of your Introduction with Interdisciplinary Rationale if you haven't already done so. Google Docs is preferred, but email attachment is OK too. I'll start sending comments on Thursday unless you specifically instruct me to wait.
-Turn in your Mentor Meeting sheet if you haven't already done so. You can drop it to my office door in Enterprise 314 (note: the door says Linda Hemm because we're sharing). Or you can scan & email it.
-Read the Boix Mansilla / Duraising essay if you haven't already done so, and be prepared to discuss it. Click here for the PDF.
-Review Booth chapters 6-11

For upcoming assignments, please consult the updated schedule on the right side of the blog.

I feel like I'm forgetting something, though. Anyone care to straighten me out?

A Brief Thought

I've been commenting on your 390 project descriptions and how to turn them into 490 introductions, and I find myself writing one particular idea to all of you. It seems that both the audience and the purpose for this first section need to change. Formerly the audience was your faculty advisor and BIS teacher, and your purpose was to convince them that the project was viable and you had your act together. Now the audience is whoever you imagine to be reading your project when it's finished, which could be academics, professionals, or various stakeholders affected directly or indirectly by your intervention. That is quite, quite different. You basically have to imagine that the research has already been completed and that you are introducing it; formerly you said "this project will do XYZ" as a way to talk about your future. But now you are saying "this project will do XYZ" as a way to talk about the future of a reader, and that future is to continue reading through the rest of the project essay.

Now obviously it's hard to speak of a project that you just recently proposed as being already completed, but that's why this is a first draft. The truth is that in real academic and professional writing, the introduction is almost always the last part that you finish writing, even though it comes first for the reader. It is the most difficult and the most important. For now it's something of a placeholder and a way for you to conceptualize everything else that follows as best as you presently can. So there is a bit of fakery on your part in talking as if everything is completed and all there for the reader to proceed, but that's what you need to do for now. You might even convince yourself... so don't look down.