Schedule

Abbreviations–(1) WAW: Writing About Writing and (2) TSIS: They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing

Monday, Jan 13

  • In Class:
  • Introduction to course, review of syllabus

Wednesday, Jan 15

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Sign up for a wordpress.com account and create a blog
  • Post response to course discussion post asking for (1) your wordpress.com username, (2) the link to your personal course blog, and (3) your MSU email address
  • Read: “What Is Academic Writing?” (Print, Read, Annotate, Bring to Class)
  • In Class:
  • Working with Blog Design

Friday, Jan 17

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Read: WAW, 1-2; TSIS, 121-128 and 141-144
  • In Class:
  • Discussion of Assignment: Writing Habits Log and 5-Page Research Paper

Monday, Jan 20 (MLK Day): No Class

Wednesday, Jan 22

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Read: TSIS, 1-15

Friday, Jan 24

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Read: WAW, 191-215; TSIS, 42-51 and 145-155

Monday, Jan 27

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Read: WAW, 216-235 and TSIS, 30-41

Wednesday, Jan 29

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Read: WAW, 236-250
  • Blog Post (due before class):
  • Sketch out a view of or map your writing processes. You might choose to use images or words to do this–to use paper and crayons, to use Photoshop, to use MS Word–HOW you create a visual representation of your writing process is up to you 🙂 (1)Please post the visual of your writing process to your blog. (2) Along with the visual, write a short narrative explanation of what the image depicts and (3) write a 6-word story that sums up your writing process. Not sure what a 6-word story is? Read a few here…
  • Example of a process mapping and a 6-word story:

  • Other examples of visual process drawings/mappings (Taken from Paul Prior and Jody Shipka’s chapter “Chronotopic Lamination: Tracing the Contours of Literate Activity.” The chapter appears in an open access edited collection that is available online, so you can click on their chapter and actually read the whole thing…and get some great ideas on how to study writing process and additional images):

Friday, Jan 31

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Read WAW, 292-298; TSIS, 175-192
  • Bring to Class:
  • Bring your writing habits log

Monday, Feb 3

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Class Blog Post
  • Revisit the comment you made on the “Open Exercises, 1/28/14” discussion thread. Comment on my comment in response to your response post, responding to my questions and revision/editing challenge(s) (NOTE, MY COMMENTS WON’T COME THROUGH UNTIL SATURDAY NIGHT)
  • Get In The GROOVE (if you need to)
  • Take a look at the “community” tab. Is all of your information complete (blog link, blog username, email address, 6-word story, process narrative)? Is your process narrative holding up your end of the bargain in this class (Caring about the work that you do for the course, meaning working to find an angle within assignments so that they will be interesting and meaningful for you; Writing with passion, interest, clarity, intentionality, and creativity)? If not, make some additions/revisions and post them to your personal blog.
  • Analyze that writing habits logs…find patterns and themes…formulate questions that you want to know the answers to and that you can answer with the writing habits log…come to class have locate AT LEAST TWO THEMES WITH ACCOMPANYING QUESTIONS

Wednesday, Feb 5: Virtual Class (NO PHYSICAL CLASS MEETING)

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Read: TSIS, 92-101 and Editing: Tips and Tricks (YOU MUST DOWNLOAD AND PRINT THIS DOCUMENT; IT WILL BE OUT LITTLE, BROWN HANDBOOK FOR THE SEMESTER)
  • Blog Post Due By 1:00pm:
  • AS A BLOG POST: Post a first draft of your 5-Page Writing Habits Research Paper to your blog. Use the “Add Media” button to upload as MS Word Doc; title the post: “Writing Habits Research Paper Draft ”
  • Preface your draft by responding to these questions:
    • (1) Who is you audience and What do you want readers to learn from your paper?
    • (2) How is your paper organized and why is it organized this way?
    • (3) What do you like best about your paper?
    • (4) What do you like least about your paper?
    • (5) Post 3-5 questions that you would like your writing group members to respond to (make these meaningful questions!).
  • Response Posts Due By 5:00pm: 
  • Read and respond to your writing group members’ drafts and questions. Post your AT LEAST 250 WORD RESPONSE on their blog page. Be sure to consider the reading from TSIS, has this writer answered the “So What? Who Cares?” question? (be sure to post your responses by 5:00pm).

Friday, Feb 7: Virtual Class (NO PHYSCIAL CLASS MEETING)

  • Read: Sommers, Revision Strategies (as you work on revising your paper, be sure you are using the revision strategies of experienced writers!)
  • Blog Post Due By 2:00pm:
  • Based on Sommers’ research,
    • (1) What is the difference between “revision” and “editing”?
    • (2) How does Sommers characterize the revision processes of experienced writers?
    • (3) How does this description differ from her description of the revision processes of inexperienced writers?
    • (4) How does your thinking on revision compare to how experienced writers approach revision?
    • (5) Based on Sommers’ research and your writing group’s commentary on your draft, what are your revision plans and goals for the Writing Habits Research Paper?

Monday, Feb 10

Tuesday, Feb 11

  • Assignment (Share via personal blogs by 1:00 pm):
  • Create a new page on your personal blog (if you have not already done so) and title it “Writing Habits.”
  • On this page, 
    • (1) Draft a 250 cover letter where you identify TWO REVISION STRATEGIES THAT YOU USED and FOUR EDITING STRATEGIES THAT YOU USED (use editing tips from the PDF file you read for 2/5). Explain what these strategies are, why you chose to use them, and how they worked for your paper. Also, explain what you perceive to be strengths and weaknesses of this draft. (SHOULD BE 250-500 WORDS.)
    • (2) Upload (as “Add Media”) your 5-page (double-spaced) reflection on your writing habits.
    • (3) Post your 2-week writing habits log (as a digi file, as a series of images, as a scanned document).

Wednesday, Feb 12

  • NO CLASS: UNIVERSITY CANCELED FOR BAD WEATHER

Friday, Feb 14

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Read: WAW, 328-352

Monday, Feb 17

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Read: WAW, 362-366 and 353-361
  • Blog Post (due before class): Draft and Post responses to THREE of the below questions
    1. How does Malcolm X define literacy? How does this definition compare to school-based literacy?
    2. Drawing on Deborah Brandt’s definition of literacy sponsor, list as many of Malcolm X’s literacy sponsors as you can find. (Remember that sponsors don’t have to be people, but can also be ideas or institutions, which can withhold literacy as well as provide it.) Which sponsors were most influential? What were their motivations
    3. Malcolm X asserts that his motivation for reading—his desire to understand his own experiences—led him to read far more than any college student. Respond to this claim. Has a particular motivation helped you decide what, or how much, to read?
    4. What was the particular role for writing that Malcolm X describes in his account of his literacy education? How do you think it helped him read? Can you think of ways that writing helped you become a better reader
    5. Compare and contrast Alexie’s and X’s literacy histories with each other and with your own.

Wednesday, Feb 19

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Read: WAW, 395-421

Friday, Feb 21

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Read: WAW, 422-441
  • Assignment Due:
  • Optional Revision of Writing Habits Research Paper

Monday, Feb 24

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Watch: Dylan’s Multimodal Critical Literacy Narrative
  • Bring to Class:
  • Images that represent your literacy history
  • Assignment Due:
  • Revisions of Writing Habits Research Paper (turn in revision -hard copy- and rubric and paper that I commented on)

**FYI: Monday, February 24th is the last day to drop a class with a W grade

Wednesday, Feb 26

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Bring to Class:
  • Work-in-Progress Visual Literacy Narrative

Friday, Feb 28

  • In Class:
  • Visual Literacy Narrative

Monday, March 3

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Read: TSIS, 19-29 and 55-67
  • Assignment Due:
  • Visual Literacy Narrative (you will hand this in)
  • In Class:
  • Small Group Presentations
  • Distribute Midterm Exam

Wednesday, March 5

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Read: TSIS, 68-91
  • Bring printed and annotated article that you are working with for the exam with you to class.

Friday, March 7

  • Assignment Due:
  • Take Home Midterm Exam
  • In Class:
  • Introduce Mini Ethnography Assignment

Monday, March 10: Spring Break, No Class

Wednesday, March 12: Spring Break, No Class

Friday, March 14: Spring Break, No Class

 Monday, March 17

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Read: WAW, 463-480 and assignment page for Mini Ethnography Assignment
  • Blog Post (due before class):
  • After reviewing the assignment, what questions do you have? Are you nervous about anything? What workplace are you thinking you would be interested in and able to study?

Wednesday, March 19: Virtual Class (NO PHYSICAL CLASS MEETING)

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Read: WAW, 538-556
  • Blog Post (due at 2:00pm)
    1. What is the “traditional” view of literacy, according to Mirabelli, and what is the view that New Literacy Studies takes?
    2. What seems to be Mirabelli’s research question and where does he state it?
    3. What kind of data did Mirabelli collect to analyze the diner as a discourse community?
    4. How and where in the arrangement/structure of his chapter does he analyze the data he collected? Provide an example of Mirabelli analyzing his collected data and explain the moves he is making and why.
    5. Mirabelli begins his chapter by including examples from Bitterwaitress.com. Why does he do this–How does he use these examples to justify/make important his study…to lead to his main point?
    6. Mirabelli returns to these opening examples and his summary/analysis of their importance (539-541) throughout his text. Provide three different examples from the text (quoting and citing) where Mirabelli returns to this introductory scene-setting material (either implicitly or explicitly).
    7. Do you now or have you ever participated in a discourse community that is strongly stereotyped in the ways the restaurant work is stereotyped (for example, a football team or sorority)? What are the stereotypes? Using Mirabelli, consider the various “multiliteracies” of this discourse community.
    8. Select a workplace  that you are interest in exploring for the Mini Ethnography Assignment and develop a research question (or several). What do you want to know, for example, about writing in this workplace, how writing is valued in the workplace, what kinds of genres are used, how workers gain membership or demonstrate membership as writers and communicators within this particular workplace (or, Discourse community), etc.?
    9. What are your motivations for selecting this particular workplace?

Friday, March 21: Virtual Class (NO PHYSICAL CLASS MEETING)

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Read: Rose and WAW, 557-571
  • Blog Post (due at 1:00pm); Writing Group Responses (due at 2:00):
    1. What will your research site be? Who do you need to contact?
    2. Draft an email that you will send or draft a script of a phone call that you will make where you explain the course project, ask the person to participate, and set up a date and time for your observation, interview, and document collection.
    3. Who will you interview and why? Draft a list of interview questions (don’t forget, we generated some in class on Monday).
    4. How will you explain the class project and your purpose to those you are observing and interviewing?
    5. What documents will you specifically ask to collect/take pictures of? What questions will you ask in order to know what documents to ask to collect/take pictures of?
    6. How do you plan to analyze your observation, interview, and document collection? How do you plan to draw connections between all three?
    7. The readings from Swales, Rose, and Mirabelli will likely be relevant to your own mini ethnography of writing/literacy in a workplace. Retype some quotes or paraphrase arguments that you think will be useful to you.
    8. At this point, you have had the opportunity to read two studies of workplaces: Mirabelli’s and Branick’s. Based on these studies, what are general organizational/structural expectations of readers? (Ie. How are you planning to organize your own study?)

Monday, March 24

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Read: WAW, 520-537

Wednesday, March 26

Friday, March 28

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Read: Nacirema and Obervations and Fieldnotes (Print, Read, Annotate, Bring to Class)
  • NOTE: Need to have contacted and scheduled Mini Ethnography Observation, Interview, and Document Collection for the week of April 7-11—Needs to be completed by April 14th.

Monday, March 31

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Read: Interviews (Print, Read, Annotate, Bring to Class)
  • Homework (due for class):
  • Interview Questions Due (bring a copy for me and copies for your writing group members, will workshop in class)

Wednesday, April 2

  • Meeting in library, research presentation, Location TBA
  • Homework, (due for class):
  • Read, Googlepedia

Friday, April 4

Monday, April 7

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Read: TSIS, 105-120
  • Note: Make sure to have TSIS and laptops with you in class.

Wednesday, April 9

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Assignment Due:
  • Annotated Bibliography of Secondary Sources (5) for Mini Ethnography
  • Note: Make sure to have TSIS and laptops with you in class.

Friday, April 11: Writing Day

  • Make sure to bring laptop and Mini Ethnography materials with you to class.

Monday, April 14

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Fieldnotes (typed) and Interviews (typed) and documents collected with preliminary results section due

Wednesday, April 16

  • Homework (due for class):
  • Read: Final Portfolio Assignment Page and Yancey_Reflection (Print, Annotate, Read, and Bring to Class)

 

Friday, April 18—NO CLASS

Monday, April 21–NO CLASS, ATTEND YOUR WRITING GROUP CONFERENCE

  • DON’T FORGET, POST YOUR DRAFT TO YOUR BLOG WITH A 250-WORD REFLECTIVE COVER LETTER AND CONTENT-RELATED QUESTIONS FOR YOUR WRITING GROUP TO CONSIDER.
  • No Class–Attend your writing group conference

Wednesday, April 23: Revision Workshop

  • Bring to class:
  • Laptop, TSIS, and be sure to have access to “final” drafts of papers (with comments) that you will be revising for the final portfolio

Friday, April 25: Editing Workshop

  • Assignment (due for class):
  • Mini Ethnography 7-10 Page Research Paper
  • Bring to class:
  • Laptop, TSIS, and be sure to have access to “final” drafts of papers (with comments) that you will be revising for the final portfolio

Monday, April 28: Editing Workshop

  • Bring to class:
  • Laptop, TSIS, and be sure to have access to “final” drafts of papers (with comments) that you will be revising for the final portfolio

Wednesday, April 30: Writing Group Workshop, Portfolios  

  • Bring to class:
  • Working draft of portfolio and cover reflection letter

Final Exam: Monday, May 5th, 12:00-3:00 p.m.

  • You will submit your completed digi portfolio (I will have online access)
  • You will also deliver a 10-15 minute final presentation where you share highlights from your portfolio, what you learned in class and from class assignments this semester, and the kinds of revision strategies you used to revamp papers for portfolio conclusion

May 12: Final Grades Due

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