Thu, 08 Oct 2026 20:27:11 -0700WeeblyThu, 22 Mar 2018 00:25:19 GMThttps://www.leetorda.com/engl389-occasional-blog/make-up-post-for-21-march-2018-missed-classHello 389—

Here are the directions for our missed class today. I don’t know how things went where you are at, but there has not been so much as a flake of snow here in Boston. But, anyway. I know this reaches you much later than I said: I have union bargaining tomorrow in Worcester, and I started to prep for that and it took over the day.

PLEASE NOTE: You have until Sunday at 5:00 to get all of this done. This means you have nearly four days to do this work. Presumably, you have your research notes done already or at least close to done, so you’ve got that in the bag.

1. The syllabus identified a listening assignment for today: “24 Hours at the Golden Apple” from This American Life. You can, as it indicates on the syllabus as well, listen to it here. 
   
   
2. The syllabus indicates that research notes were due to day. Please email me those notes at your earliest convenience, thank you to those of you who’ve already sent them. Yes, I got them. 
   
   
3. To make up for our in-class time, please post 250 words on our class blog, available herein response to this prompt: "Identify one or two pieces of research that you’ve found that is related to your site. Tell us a little bit about what you discovered. Tell us a little bit about what you discovered, and be sure to tell us what you think it contributes to your essay—what does knowing this information help you to understand about your culture/site? You don’t have to be absolutely sure, you just need to try." 
   
   
4. Come to class with a copy of your draft of your third paper, "sources" on Monday. 

My thinking is that if you take what we did on Monday and this exercise, you will have a start of a draft that you can work on and bring to class this coming Monday (because these are the two elements of the upcoming draft).

You do not need to respond to each other on the blog. You are certainly welcome to. If you know something that might be helpful to your classmates, certainly chime in.

Don’t blow this off. As I said in class on Monday, all of these things are a chance to help boost your grade. If you post to the blog, I’ll add one more “acceptable” to your count. It will mean one less revision to do or one less set of research notes.

I think this covers everything. See you all Monday.
]]>Mon, 12 Mar 2018 16:37:48 GMThttps://www.leetorda.com/engl389-occasional-blog/the-role-of-researchBecause our class is not meeting face-to-face this coming Wednesday, 14 March 2018 (beware the Ides of March and all that), please post the content of your research notes in this space. Because you are posting online, you need only post 300 words (which is a little less than 1/2 of what you'd typically write for a set of research notes. 

Also different from regular research notes: I'm asking a very specific question about the listening (if you haven't yet listened, you can Listen here.). Identify three pieces of information that you learn about over the course of the 2 hours of show that is NOT DIRECTLY FROM INTERVIEWS OR DESCRIPTION OF THE SCHOOL. In other words, I'm looking for you to identify three bits of research--about gun violence, or high schools or urban schools, or retention rates, etc--that is related information that comes from other sources, not from the school and it's people. 

Once you've identified that information, write about how that shaped/changed/affected how you understood the specific story of this particular school. 

FINALLY: give us a few sentences about what kinds of research you think you might do/are doing for your own site. Got a fun fact? Throw it in there. 

AFTER EVERYONE HAS POSTED: Respond to TWO people with helpful suggestions about what they might research. Just crazy ideas. No pressure. 

DEADLINE FOR POSTING IS Friday, 16 March 2018 by NOON.
DEADLINE FOR RESPONDING IS Sunday, 18 March 2018 by 11:00 PM.

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