challenges-F2011

Challenges ENGL 3220, Fall 2011

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 * For most days this semester,** you will asked to complete some ungraded (and informal) research and/or writing challenges. Like the day-to-day readings, these challenges are an expected part of your preparation for each class period (and will generally be tied to the rest of your daily preparations). Moreover, the Final Exam will be structured around your responses to and your reflections upon them.

Generally, technology challenges will fall on Mondays, professional writing skills challenges will fall on Wednesdays, and writing style challenges will fall on Fridays (though this will vary as we need it to). Though I will assign each challenge in class (generally the week before), I will do my best to make sure that this page gives you at least a week's notice as well.

=Mon - TECHNOLOGY= (usually on Mondays)

(note: there is also a skill challenge for this date)
 * W Aug 31**


 * NON-TECH TECH:** We saw in class on Monday, August 29, how we can broaden our understanding of writing and communication technologies to include not only expensive electronic equipment or sophisticated software applications, but more humble forms as well that stretch back millennia and may, in their time, have generated even more profound shifts in communication and/or social organization than the iPhone or Twitter. I'd like you to use this challenge to think of how such seemingly non-technological technologies -- a stick in the sand, a Post-It on a monitor -- can still have their uses in our current communications ecosystem.

CHALLENGE: Bring to Wednesday's class -- and actually, physically, bring it -- one example of a technology for scholarly or professional writing/communication that people might not normally think of as technological. Have something to say about what is technological about it (i.e., what does it allow its users to do that they couldn't do otherwise?) and what kind of technological sophistication it assumes (i.e., what techniques does it require to be used successfully?).


 * M Sep 19**

In doing the reading for Monday from the anthology edited by John Brockman, ed., //Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think?// (pages xxv-24), your challenge is to see what you can do to identify which of Gopnik's "camps" each of these first few writers would fit as concerns where they stand on what is signified by the way communication and information are changing in our current technological age. Which ones would you say are the "Never-Betters," the "Better-Nevers," and the "Ever-Wasers"? Come to class prepared to draw our attention to specific passages that would lead you to that assessment from each writer's piece.


 * M Sep 26**

As your calendar notes, for this Monday you are being asked to choose five pieces that we haven't already read from John Brockman, ed., //Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think?// You can choose any five you'd like and choose them any way you'd like: perhaps because you recognize the name from somewhere else, because they are mentioned in Adam Gopnik's overview of thinking about the internet, or you just like the title or the first line of a piece. (You might think ahead a bit -- at the end of the semester, I'll have you report on a book written by one of these type of tech critics: this could be a chance to start shopping around.)

Your challenge is to find out what kind of internet presence each of these five writers has. Do they tweet or blog? Are they on Facebook (and can you friend them) or otherwise have a web page devoted to their work? Can you find footage of them talking or being interviewed through YouTube? Etc. etc. etc. Come to class prepared to share what you found, and to discuss whether their internet presence matches (or complicates) their ideas about the internet.


 * M Oct 3**

When you read Matt Richtel's “Attached to Technology and Paying a Price,” from the //New York Times//, June 6, 2010 (link available on "Links" page of the course D2L site), be sure to explore the multimedia and interactive features of this page (such as the widget that allows you to test your powers of focus). Come prepared to talk about what the article had to say, but also how the multimedia features helped it to say it.


 * M Oct 17**

After reading the first chapter ("It Takes a Village to Find a Phone") from Clay Shirky's //Here Comes Everybody// (one of the course texts from the bookstore), I'd like you to trace one of his footnotes to its source, and come to class with something to say about what you found.

M Oct 24
While reading the chapters 5 & 6 of Clay Shirky's //Here Comes Everybody// (one of the course texts from the bookstore), pull out one or two interesting bits from the book that show something about how Shirky is developing his central argument through his analysis of a particular example or aspect. (In other words, what does his argument gain by going beyond what he did in the first chapter?)

M Oct 31
In the piece you'll be reading by Malcolm Gladwell (see the link under the "Links" section of the course D2L page), he critiques what he considers Clay Shirky's techno-utopianism: the notion that greater technologies of access make for more, and more democratic, social access. In reading, consider the following questions:
 * How does Gladwell counter Shirky's model for group organization, and what alternative model does he propose as a better explanation of how groups organize for action?
 * Based on your reading of Shirky, is Gladwell's critique a fair critique?
 * Gladwell wrote this article before the events of the "Arab Spring" earlier this year: in the way these events played out, do they confirm or complicate Gladwell's argument?

M Nov 7
In reading Anya Kamenetz's //DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education// (ch. 1, “History,” and either ch. 2 or ch. 3), consider how higher education has changed in your lifetime, both in terms of the goals of education and as a potential professional workplace. Come in with two things:
 * 1) Some example of something happening at Marquette that seems to you relevant to Kamenetz's observations or arguments
 * 2) A passage or observation from Kamenetz's text that is relevant to your own professional future, either because part of that future may be spent in higher education (as a grad student, grad assistant, faculty member, staff, etc.) or because the trends she describes will have an impact beyond their immediate impact in higher education.

M Nov 14
Today's challenge will be very much like last week's, though rather than simply find a passage or example from Kamenetz's text, I'd like you to find a link to something that you could show us in class to illustrate your idea. This may be a resource she herself mentions; it may also be something you've learned about independently. Post the link on the page, starting directly below this line of text.

Molly Milota 1. Voluntary Simplicity Discussion Course/Study Group: []

Sheila Stormont: 1) A social learning community: http://www.sophia.org/?cid=brand 2) How I taught myself to play guitar by reading tablature online (example: [])

Emily Shackleton: 1) TEDx (x=independently organized TED events) [] 2) How I taught myself to bake - and what to do for ingredient substitutes (example: [])

Morgan Rice: 1. Lulu.com (Self-publishing book website) http://www.lulu.com/publish/books/?cid=us_home_nav_bk 2. Sharing recipes online: http://foodgawker.com/

In reading Anya Kamenetz's //DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education// (ch. 7, “Resource Guide for a Do-It-Yourself Eduction,” and either ch. 4, ch. 5, or ch. 6), consider how higher education has changed in your lifetime, both in terms of the goals of education and as a potential professional workplace. Come in with two things:
 * 1) Some example of something happening at Marquette that seems to you relevant to Kamenetz's observations or arguments (find a link that you could show us)
 * 2) An observation from Kamenetz's text that is relevant to your own professional future, either because part of that future may be spent in higher education (as a grad student, grad assistant, faculty member, staff, etc.) or because the trends she describes will have an impact beyond their immediate impact in higher education.

=Wed - SKILLS= (usually on Wednesdays)

(note: there is also a tech challenge for this date)
 * W Aug 31**


 * USING COURSE READINGS:** We don't always think about reading for a class as an active skill rather than a relatively passive act of consumption. But as you read today's reading -- a somewhat lengthy, but mind-bendingly entertaining, introduction to the //History of Reading// from a New Zealand scholar of named Steven Roger Fischer -- I want you to focus on exactly what skills you've developed to do just this kind of work. (NOTE: The reading is accessible as a PDF through [|ARES], our Library's online reserve system. Accessing it involves logging in and, if you're using ARES for the first time, finding and adding our class to your system. The class is ENGL 3220: Writing for the Professions, and the password is "professions".) Please download, print, and bring this reading to Wednesday's class so that we'll be able to discuss and refer to specific page numbers and passages. And as you read, respond to the following challenge.


 * CHALLENGE:** As you read, take notes not only on what you read, but how you read: what do you do to process, synthesize, respond to, or otherwise engage the material as you read it? What technologies and practices do you use to maximize what you get out of text for immediate understanding or for anticipated future use? One specific thing I'll ask you to do is to identify what seem to you to be particularly key passages for thinking about the interesections of writing and technology, today as well as in the past, and to be able to point these out and start a discussion of them in Wednesday's class. Here, pay attention, also, to how you select these passages and how you prepare them for the discussion you anticipate.

WRITE: Based on your notes from above, write a paragraph to turn in (can be handwritten or typed) describing and briefly reflecting on how you read for class.


 * W Sep 7**

As noted on the calendar, for today I'm having you look at (and bring in) one of our required course textbooks, Sandra E. Lamb's, //How to Write It: A Complete Guide to Everything You’ll Ever Write//. This is a **reference work** offering guidelines and models for a very wide range of professional (and personal) correspondence types: not something we'll read -- or that anyone would read -- from cover to cover, but something you'll consult as you go: for the assignments we do in this class, and then for any correspondence you may do as a professional.


 * For Wednesday, September 7,** skim her introductory "Principles" section, and then flip through the whole book to get a sense of what it has to offer. Then, bring in a paragraph to class (can be handwritten or typed) with some suggestions for how you and other members of the class can get the most out of this book. For example, what features or sections do you think might prove particularly useful? What have you discovered about how to get around within the book that others might find helpful? What limitations to her work do you think we should keep in mind? etc.


 * NOTE on the new edition of Lamb:** The page numbers I've given you for this book on the printed schedule will not match the pages in the book you actually have. The schedule was created before her new edition of the book was available, and the changes have been substantial, though the sections and titles are largely the same. (One change that will affect us today: Lamb has eliminated the "Introduction" that appeared in her last edition -- it's too bad; it was a nicely written guide to using the book.) I'll create an updated guideline to the actual pages; but for now, use the titles I give as your guide to what you are supposed to look at and prepare.


 * W Sep 14**


 * Letter of Introduction**


 * Before Wednesday, September 14,** I'd like each of you to try your hand at writing an e-mail introducing yourself to one of your professors this semester (other than me). We talked about this in class on Wednesday, September 7, and we looked at the model that Sandra E. Lamb provided in //How to Write It// for the similar e-mail message I sent to you before the semester started. This, or other, models in Lamb should be useful for their structure, though you will need to tweak the details for your particular audience/purpose.

Bring in a copy of the e-mail you wrote and -- if you have it -- a copy of the reply you received.


 * W Oct 5**


 * How to Be Useful**

In addition to the (very short) readings I'm asking you to do from eHow (links available on the "Links" page of the course D2L site), I would like you to test out your ability to write up a set of instructions.

Specifically, using no more than a half-page of text, explain to a First-Year Marquette University student beginning a research project how to locate and read one article of the peer-reviewed research referred to in the Matt Richtel "Attached to Technology" article we read for Monday (i.e., something published by one or more of the scientists implied by the claim about what "Scientists say" that starts the 7th paragraph). Assume that the student has a specific article and/or scientist in mind, and show them how they can find, read, and download the full-text article (including graphics) for use in their own research.

W Oct 26
In addition to the Spangler article you'll be reading (link to from the D2L links page), I'd like you to look up and compare two other things directly related to the research you'll be doing for your report:

>
 * 1) Find and read your relevant career entry from the Bureau of Labor Statistics's //Occupational Outlook Handbook// at []
 * 1) See what comes up when you use Google (or any other search engine) to ask "How do I become a _?" (filling in the blank with your intended profession)

Come prepared to talk about your results.

W Nov 2
As you browse through David Noble's //Gallery// of resumes, pick out 3 to 5 of them that might offer you something useful in creating or refining your own. Jot down some notes about what each offers you.

W Nov 9
In preparation for our second Library instruction session in Raynor (meet there), I would like you to prepare two things:
 * Bring any materials you will need to do your research from a library computer station -- the session will be set up as a working lab with the librarian and I circulating to consult with you about your work.
 * Do either the MLA or APA version (or both) of the online citation tutorials that have been developed as Marquette "learning objects." You can find these at [] or []

=Fri - STYLE= (usually on Fridays)


 * F Sep 2**


 * On most Fridays,** you'll be challenged to work through some of the exercises in that week's chapter of Joseph M. Williams's and Gregory G. Colomb's, //Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace// (10th edition; Longman, 2010), and then to post your work to the class wiki through the page I'll set up at http://engl3220.wikispaces.com/class-members.


 * For today,** since neither of the first two chapters you are reading have exercises -- “Understanding Style” and “Correctness” -- there is no such challenge. Instead, your job is just to read these chapters and to wrap your head around the distinction that Williams and Colomb make between //style// and //correctness//.


 * One note of warning:** Be sure that you have the correct edition of this book: the 10th edition, with the word //Lessons// in the subtitle. I've notice that the class next to mine on the bookstore shelves is using an earlier edition (the 4th) and with a slightly different subtitle (//The Basics of Clarity and Grace//). The distinction is important since our edition has exercises and the earlier edition does not.


 * F Sep 9**


 * As on most Fridays,** today's challenge asks you to work through some of the exercises in this week's chapter of Joseph M. Williams's and Gregory G. Colomb's, //Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace// (10th edition; Longman, 2010), and then to post your work to the class wiki through the page I've set up at http://engl3220.wikispaces.com/class-members.


 * Go to that page** and **find your name** on a list of class members. **Click on your name** to go to your page (you can then bookmark your individual page to go there immediately in future weeks). **Click on edit,** when you are ready, to open up the page to **enter text** based on the exercises listed below. When you are done, **hit the save button** in the pop-up menu that appears when you open up the page for editing.

For Friday, September 9, do the following exercises from Lesson 3, "Actions":


 * Exercise 3.3 (write three pairs of sentences; six sentences total)
 * EITHER exercise 3.5 (three sentences) OR exercise 3.6 (three sentences)
 * Exercise 3.7 (all five sentences)


 * F Sep 16**


 * Today's challenge** asks you to work through some of the exercises from this week's chapter of Joseph M. Williams's and Gregory G. Colomb's, //Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace// (10th edition; Longman, 2010) -- and then to post your work to the class wiki through the page I've set up at http://engl3220.wikispaces.com/class-members. (See the challenge above this one from F Sep 9 if you need a quick refresher on how to post to the wiki.)

For Friday, September 16, do the following exercises from Lesson 4, "Characters":


 * Exercise 4.1 (all five sentences)
 * Two sentences from EITHER exercise 4.2 OR 4.3 OR 4.4
 * Exercise 4.5 (whole thing)


 * F Sep 30**


 * Today's challenge** asks you to work through some of the exercises from this week's chapter of Joseph M. Williams's and Gregory G. Colomb's, //Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace// (10th edition; Longman, 2010) -- and then to post your work to the class wiki through the page I've set up at http://engl3220.wikispaces.com/class-members. (See the challenge above this from F Sep 9 if you need a quick refresher on how to post to the wiki.)

For Friday, September 30, do the following exercises from Lesson 5, "Cohesion and Coherence" (in which we move from clarity at the level of the sentence to that at the level of the paragraph):


 * Exercise 5.1 (both passages)
 * EITHER (Three passages of your choice from exercises 5.2 and 5.3) OR (All three versions of the James Baldwin passage suggested in 5.4)


 * F Oct 7**


 * Today's challenge** asks you to do two things:

1) To work through some of the exercises from this week's chapter of Joseph M. Williams's and Gregory G. Colomb's, //Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace// (10th edition; Longman, 2010) -- and then to post your work to the class wiki through the page I've set up at http://engl3220.wikispaces.com/class-members. (See the challenge above this from F Sep 9 if you need a quick refresher on how to post to the wiki.) Specifically, the following:


 * Exercise 6.1 (three passages)
 * Exercise 6.2 (one passage)

2) To find an example of unclear prose from any of the reading you may be doing for any other class this week: writing in which the action feels buried, the characters seem unrecognizable, passages which feel incoherent or not cohesive from sentence to sentence, passages in which the emphasis feels misplaced. (To find such prose, take note when it seems to be taking you a particularly long time to read something, or when you find yourself having to read over something several times to catch its meaning.)


 * **Post to your page a paragraph** from this reading that seems especially unclear, and we'll use class to work on making it clearer.


 * F Oct 14 - MIDTERM**

The Midterm Exam will come in two parts:


 * PART I:** STYLE EXERCISES: In this section, you will be presented and then asked to revise various sentences and passages with stylistic problems: buried actions, unrecognizable characters, incoherent or inconsistent topics, misplaced emphasis. In some cases, you will also be asked to provide explanatory notes for your choices.

The concepts (including the particular terminology) will come from Williams and Colomb's Style, lessons 3-6. The sentences for revision will come from the assigned exercises listed above on this challenge page for the dates September 9, 16, 30, and October 7; and from the paragraphs that your classmates harvested from readings for other classes for October 7 (see the class members pages for Bri Basta, Lydia Eichner, Molly Milota, Sara Patek, and Sheila Stormont). .
 * PART II:** ESSAY: In this section, I will present you with a passage from one of the selections listed below, chosen by your classmates as particularly valuable answers to the question posed by the Edge.org's 2011 anthology, //Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think?// I will then ask you to write a 3 to 5 paragraph essay in which you find a way, somehow, to relate what the passage is saying to recent findings in the cognitive sciences about how communication technology is "rewiring our brains," as reported in the 2010 //New York Times// series, "Your Brain on Computers." In other words, you will be asked to connect an Edge writer's personal, anecdotal evidence ("how //you// think") to scholarly researchers' attempts to provide empirical, generalizable evidence (the implied "how //we// think" of the //Times// series). Here is the list of selections:
 * Terrence Sejnowski, "This Is Your Brain on Internet" (88-89)
 * Thomas Metzinger, "Public Dreaming" (97-99)
 * George Dyson, "Kayaks Versus Canoes" (119)
 * Sam Harris, "The Upload Has Begun" (120-121)
 * Nigel Goldenfeld, "Thinking Like the Internet, Thinking Like Biology" (175-177)
 * Alan Alda, "Speed Plus Mobs" (291-292)
 * Marina Abramovic, "My Perception of Time" (370)

F Oct 28
In preparation for our Library Instruction session today (227 Raynor), you'll be reading just a little bit from //Style//. There are no exercises to do, but I would like you to come to our session prepared to ask our instruction librarian some questions about doing the secondary research for our report project. (It will help to have at least started poking around and doing some preliminary research -- for example, the research guide prepared by our librarians at [] .)

F Nov 4
We will NOT be reading the originally scheduled chapter from //Style// this week. Instead, come to class with your David Noble //Gallery of Best Resumes//, having read and thought about the 5 sample resumes you and your classmates nominated for discussion.
 * #57 (p. 117) - Jeremy Cloud, new graduate (i.e., student) seeking high school science teacher position
 * #138 (p. 285) - Shawna Peterson, legal assistant
 * #148 (p. 307) - Collins Mackey, office manager
 * #168 (p. 343) - Jason Peters, media manager
 * #170 (p. 346) - Sloane T. Hillier, assistant media planner

In readings these, focus on a) how each fits its particular situations (job opening, kind of profession, applicant's background), b) what you can learn from each, either positively (what you might be able to use) or negatively (what, given your different situation, you'd want to avoid), and c) issues of writing style.

F Nov 11
In the reading you did for last Monday, November 7, in Anya Kamenetz's //DIY U//, find two examples of paragraphs in which she has successfully, skillfully constructed a problem of the sort that Williams and Colomb describe in the "Motivating Coherence" chapter of //Style//. Find 1) a paragraph in which she constructs a practical problem, and 2) another paragraph in which she constructs a conceptual problem. (Williams and Colomb clarify the difference between the two types of problem in //Style//, lesson 10, p. 168.)

On your own wiki page, re-type both paragraphs, but break each down into the following elements of a good problem, as identified by Williams and Colomb: 1) prelude (if any), 2) shared context, 3) problematic condition / small question, 4) cost of the condition (its "intolerable consequences") / larger question 5) propsed solution / point of research. Then //italicize//, __underline__, highlight or otherwise indicate those words that signal the rhetorical function of each element: for example, " It's commonly known that... " for the shared context, or " however " or " a closer look reveals that... " for the problematic condition.