assignments ENGL226 Writing About Writing: READER'S NOTES
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LEE TORDA 310 Tillinghast Hall Bridgewater State University 508.531.2436 ltorda@bridgew.edu www.leetorda.com |
FALL 2013 Office Hours
Monday & Wednesday: 3:30 to 4:30 Tuesday: 2:00 to 3:00 and by appointment. |
Overview. Reader's Notes serve two purposes in all of my classes. First, they are a measure of accountability. I'm sure it seems to you that I'm asking you to prove to me that you did the reading. And, certainly, that is part of it. But it is not that exclusively. The flip side of accountability is that it is an opportunity for me to give you credit for doing all this reading. I've witnessed too many classes--as a student and a teacher--where good students who do all the work and all of the reading get no particular bump from either. And that seems inherently unfair to me.
The bigger, better reason for Reader's Notes is that they serve as a way to make sense of the content of the course. It is a place to start. I like to say that Reader's Notes are live documents in the class. By that I mean that I will collect and read them, sure. But you will also use them in class--you'll share with your classmates and invite them to turn the monologue that Reader's Notes could be into a dialogue, into a conversation, that will help the class understand the ideas and themes of the course.
For this class, the particular use of Reader's Notes is to help you, and thus the entire class, develop our idea of genre, of reading genres and of writing genres, of thinking about texts on the spectrum from efferent to aesthetic. This is probably a first time to explore, in a serious way, kinds of writing besides the writing you do in a classroom--so writing other than an undergraduate academic research paper. This is a first way to think about the kind of path you want your time in the writing concentration to follow.
Details. For nearly every reading in class, you are responsible for Reader's Notes. This is informal writing. It doesn't need to be a well-crafted argument. It can be a loose collection of thoughts that you have about the writing. Check the syllabus for specifics; if it says reader's notes are due, they are due at the start of class.
Reader's Notes should be two pages, typed, double-spaced, in a reasonable font (10 or 12). Your Notes can be longer if you have something you really need to say, but I don't need you to show me what a good student you are by writing Notes that are super long. On the other hand, they should not be too much shorter than the two pages.
You should cover two things in a good set of Notes: 1) I'd like a summary of the goal of the piece of writing we are going to read and discuss--so what is its purpose for existing? how will other readers use it? You can indicate how successful you think it is in reaching its goal. And you should talk about specific elements of the text as effective (or not so effective) vehicles for the goal/point of the text (language, organization, tone, visuals, design elements, usability). 2) I'd like for you to take a guess at what the distinguishing characteristics of the genre we are reading are. I know that you might not be entirely accurate in your assessment since most genres will be new, and I know that you might not have the room to be totally comprehensive in your assessment, but I'm asking you to begin this work in these notes. We will continue the work in class (that's what class is for).
Comments on Reader's Notes are conversational not evaluative. That means I'm writing only to respond to what you have to say not to correct anything. You should not worry if there is a lot of writing on your Notes; you should worry if there are no comments--evidence that I'm bored with what you are saying. Unless I write something like "these notes do not indicate to me that you are really doing the reading" you should feel like you are in good standing with this assignment.
The bigger, better reason for Reader's Notes is that they serve as a way to make sense of the content of the course. It is a place to start. I like to say that Reader's Notes are live documents in the class. By that I mean that I will collect and read them, sure. But you will also use them in class--you'll share with your classmates and invite them to turn the monologue that Reader's Notes could be into a dialogue, into a conversation, that will help the class understand the ideas and themes of the course.
For this class, the particular use of Reader's Notes is to help you, and thus the entire class, develop our idea of genre, of reading genres and of writing genres, of thinking about texts on the spectrum from efferent to aesthetic. This is probably a first time to explore, in a serious way, kinds of writing besides the writing you do in a classroom--so writing other than an undergraduate academic research paper. This is a first way to think about the kind of path you want your time in the writing concentration to follow.
Details. For nearly every reading in class, you are responsible for Reader's Notes. This is informal writing. It doesn't need to be a well-crafted argument. It can be a loose collection of thoughts that you have about the writing. Check the syllabus for specifics; if it says reader's notes are due, they are due at the start of class.
Reader's Notes should be two pages, typed, double-spaced, in a reasonable font (10 or 12). Your Notes can be longer if you have something you really need to say, but I don't need you to show me what a good student you are by writing Notes that are super long. On the other hand, they should not be too much shorter than the two pages.
You should cover two things in a good set of Notes: 1) I'd like a summary of the goal of the piece of writing we are going to read and discuss--so what is its purpose for existing? how will other readers use it? You can indicate how successful you think it is in reaching its goal. And you should talk about specific elements of the text as effective (or not so effective) vehicles for the goal/point of the text (language, organization, tone, visuals, design elements, usability). 2) I'd like for you to take a guess at what the distinguishing characteristics of the genre we are reading are. I know that you might not be entirely accurate in your assessment since most genres will be new, and I know that you might not have the room to be totally comprehensive in your assessment, but I'm asking you to begin this work in these notes. We will continue the work in class (that's what class is for).
Comments on Reader's Notes are conversational not evaluative. That means I'm writing only to respond to what you have to say not to correct anything. You should not worry if there is a lot of writing on your Notes; you should worry if there are no comments--evidence that I'm bored with what you are saying. Unless I write something like "these notes do not indicate to me that you are really doing the reading" you should feel like you are in good standing with this assignment.
